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Special Event: The Jefferson Paradox

Race, Slavery and the Promise of America

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, joined by Eddie Glaude, discusses her book "Jefferson on Race," examining his ideals of equality and his contradictory life as a slaveholder.

In her new book "Jefferson on Race," Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed invites readers to confront one of the most enduring contradictions in American history.

Among the nation’s founders, Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most deeply and personally entangled with the issue of race and slavery. The author of the United States Declaration of Independence, who famously wrote that “all men are created equal,” enslaved more than 600 people over the course of his life while also condemning slavery in his writings. How can we understand this profound contradiction?

Drawing from Jefferson’s letters, public writings, plantation records, and accounts from those who lived at Monticello, including his son Madison Hemings, Gordon-Reed invites readers to examine Jefferson’s own words about African Americans, slavery, and Native Americans. The result is a revealing portrait of a founding figure grappling with the realities of a multiracial slave society while professing ideals of liberty and equality.

As the nation approaches the United States Semiquincentennial, this timely conversation offers an opportunity to reconsider Jefferson’s legacy and the enduring questions about race, freedom, and democracy that continue to shape the American story.

"Jefferson on Race" is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Jefferson’s conflicted attitudes—and the impact of race and slavery on American history.

About the Editor:

Annette Gordon-Reed is a New York Times–bestselling historian and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Her books include "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family," which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy," and (with Peter S. Onuf) "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination."

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About the Moderator:

Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is an educator, author, political commentator and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including "Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul," "In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America," The New York Times bestseller, "Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own," take an exhaustive look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges we face as a democracy. His latest book, "We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For,"  was released in May 2024. Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in African American Studies at Princeton University. He is also on the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. He frequently appears in the media as an MSNBC contributor on programs including "Morning Joe" and "Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace." Glaude is a native of Moss Point, Mississippi.

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Presenting Partners: Princeton Public Library, Princeton University Press, Nassau Presbyterian Church and Labyrinth Books.

Campus and Community Partners: Princeton University Humanities Council, Princeton Theological Seminary, Historical Society of Princeton, Morven Museum & Garden, Paul Robeson House of Princeton, Department of African American Studies and GradFUTURES Professional Development Program.

Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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