Tom Twomey Lecture: Sarah Gronningsater's book talk The Rising Generation

Tom Twomey Speaker Dr. Sarah Gronningsater presents her new book, The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom, as our first Tom Twomey Lecture of 2024. The Rising Generation tells a new story about the long history of emancipation in the United States. It follows the cradle-to-grave experiences of a remarkable generation of Black New Yorkers who were born into quasi-freedom after the American Revolution and reached adulthood on the eve the Civil War.  Gronningsater examines the role this generation played in advocating for equality before the law, excellent public education, and the end of slavery nationwide. In a broad sense, this generation helped shape important changes to the U.S. Constitution as well as groundbreaking federal civil rights legislation. 

Sarah Gronningsater, an assistant professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, is a scholar of the 18th and 19th century United States. She teaches courses on the history of American law, the American Revolution, the history of US baseball, and American democracy. She has particular research interests in the abolition of slavery in the North and in local histories of New York State.

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