How America Talks (Differently) About Slavery
Since colonial times, religious and political divides have existed over how we talk about American slavery. From the New York Times’s 1619 Project to the Trump administration’s 1776 Report, competing visions of race and slavery embody long-standing tensions between critiquing and celebrating America’s history.
In this talk, explore the ongoing debates about the history of slavery. Hear about the modern tensions in education, politics, religion, and culture that reach beyond the classroom into the public domain, revealing how struggles over historical memory remain central to America’s fractured civic life and national identity.
Speaker Bio
R. Charles Weller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of History (Career), Washington State University, and Senior Research Fellow, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. His work focuses on religious-cultural identity and relations in Western-Asian and world history. Among numerous publications in both English and Kazakh, he is currently working on a multi-volume study of how canons of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sacred law have shaped American legal heritage.
Charles lives in Redmond.
This talk is presented in partnership with The Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service, which educates citizens across the state about democratic institutions and public affairs, and is based at Washington State University. For more information, visit The Foley Institute’s website.