Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York
1-17-23
David Gellman, author of Liberty’s Chain, forges a new path for thinking about slavery and the nation’s founding. John Jay, diplomat, Supreme Court justice, and Federalist, embodies the contradictions of the revolutionary age. A slaveholder whose personal dealings with the enslaved ranged from caring to callousness, he also served as the inaugural president of a pioneering antislavery society. His descendants, especially his...