The Department of History and CWRU History Associates will welcome Manisha Sinha, the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, for the biannual Ubbelohde Lecture Thursday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom C.
Sinha, a leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition and the Civil War and Reconstruction, will present “The Abolitionist Roots of the Reconstruction Constitution.”
The Civil War remade the United States Constitution, leading many historians to call it the Second American Revolution or the Second Founding. However, few Americans are aware that this process of constitutional change began with the abolitionist debate over the nature of the Constitution and its relationship to slavery. This talk will recapitulate that debate and trace the roots of the transformation of the Constitution during Reconstruction.
Sinha was born in India and received her PhD from Columbia University, where her dissertation was nominated for the Bancroft prize. She is the author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina, which was named one of the 10 best books on slavery by Politico and recently featured in The New York Times’ 1619 Project. Her multiple award-winning second monograph The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition was long-listed for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction.
Sinha’s lecture is free and open to all members of the Case Western Reserve University community. Registration is preferred, but not required.