Who Owns Patriotism? Race and Americanness from the Revolution to Reconstruction

Prof. Keidrick Roy of Dartmouth University will explore the idea of American patriotism through the lens of the “patriot culture” that held sway from the Revolutionary Era to the Civil War and beyond. In particular, he will consider how African American writers and activists related to this culture, and either rejected or reinterpreted it. He will focus on Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany--two powerful anti-slavery voices who took very different approaches--and ask what lessons we can draw from their disagreement.