The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence

Name: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
Start: 2026-05-07T17:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-05-07T20:00:00-04:00
Location: 45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, VT, United States, Vermont 05301

Schedule

Thu May 07 2026 at 05:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, VT, United States, Vermont 05301 | Brattleboro, VT

Leading historians discuss the origins, meaning, and legacy of America's founding document. Christopher Brown, Ken Burns, Maya Jasanoff, and Jane Kamensky comprise a panel moderated by Jill Lepore.
The night begins at 5pm on May 7th with live music in the Farmhouse Square by local country band The Rear Defrosters, followed by the panel discussion at 6pm.
About the moderator:
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. A prize-winning professor, she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, humanistic inquiry, and American history.
About the panelists:
Christopher Brown is a professor at Columbia University and a historian of Britain and the British empire, principally in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with special emphasis on the comparative history of slavery and abolition, and with secondary interests in the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Age of Revolutions.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made.
Maya Jasanoff is a professor at Harvard University and the author of three prize-winning books. Her teaching and research extend from the history of the British Empire to global history.
Dr. Jane Kamensky is President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. A leading historian of early America and the United States, she worked for three decades as a professor and higher education leader, most recently as Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University.
Food by RVQ Smokehouse, Anon's Thai, and Vernon Creamie.
This event is a part of America at 250, a series of community conversations hosted by Jill Lepore and co-presented by Retreat Farm, Vermont Public, and Vermont Community Foundation. It is supported in part by Vermont Community Foundation and the generous donors to Retreat Farm.