One of the longest running disputes in US History is whether the Constitution was a pro-slavery or an antislavery document. What can the debates surrounding the drafting and ratification of this founding document tell us, and when did the theory of antislavery constitutionalism fully emerge? Join us for this discussion with Dr. James Oakes, Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Moderated by ACWM President and CEO, Dr. Rob Havers.

James Oakes is Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He previously taught at Princeton and Northwestern. He received his Ph.D. from Berkeley. Oakes is the author of several books and articles on the subjects of slavery, antislavery, and emancipation, including The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (2007) and Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the UnitedStates (2012), both of which won the Lincoln Prize. His most recent book is The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution.