Gilder-Jordan Lecture by Thavolia Glymph

“Making ‘Actual Freedom’: The Civil War and Enslaved People’s Legal Consciousness”

Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern Cultural History presented by Thavolia Glymph 

A now large and robust body of literature has enriched our understanding of the flight of enslaved people to Union lines during the Civil War. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to the role enslaved people’s understanding of the law played in the decision to flee in pursuit of freedom. In this year’s Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern Cultural History, Thavolia Glymph explores enslaved people’s legal consciousness—their knowledge and understanding of US and Confederate law—and how it guided the decision to flee and the arguments they made in defense of this decision.

Thavolia Glymph holds the Peabody Family Distinguished Professorship in History, is a Faculty Research Scholar and professor of history and law at the Duke Population Research Institute, and is president of the American Historical Association.