Carroll 250 Speaker Series: Thunder in the Pulpit presented by Kate Fanning

Thunder in the Pulpit: The Struggle of Liberty and Slavery from the Founding Fathers to the Civil War

At the founding of the United States, both personal liberty and human slavery were enshrined side by side in American law and society. Some of the Founding Fathers rued this inherent contradiction in the new republic; among them were future Presidents John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, both fierce defenders of the American Union and enemies of American slavery. Fanning will explore how the political philosophy of some founders like the Adamses directly influenced the words and deeds of later leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, and Frederick Douglass who struggled to preserve the Union and end slavery through the American Civil War. This ideological connection, between giants of the two great American Revolutions, represents an essential political heritage in early American history.

Kate Fanning, Associate Professor of History at Carroll Community College, has taught history at the collegiate level for more than 20 years including at Elizabethtown College, Harrisburg Area Community College, and the York Institute of Art. Kate’s scholarly work centers on social and political history of the American Civil War.