Clinton, N.Y. – As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States, Hamilton College is offering a discussion on Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m., in the college’s chapel addressing the meaning of the Declaration of Independence. This event is free and open to the public. For those unable to attend the event, it will be livestreamed here hamilton.edu/april22commonground.
David Blight, the Sterling Professor of History and Black Studies at Yale University, and Lucas Morel, the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University, will discuss the meaning of the Declaration throughout history and today. They will address questions including: What did the Founding Fathers intend in the words included in The Declaration? How has the interpretation of the Declaration of Independence changed over time? What amendments have reshaped the nation?
As chair of the Yale and Slavery Working Group, Blight, with his colleagues, authored Yale and Slavery: A History, a narrative study of Yale’s historic involvement and associations with slavery and its aftermaths, published by Yale University Press in 2024. He is the immediate past president of the 
Organization of American Historians. Blight previously taught at Harvard University and Amherst College. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom; American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. He has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He writes frequently for the popular press, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other journals. In 2020 David Blight was elected to the American Philosophical Society and awarded the Gold Medal for History by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Morel’s publications include Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln and the American Founding; Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages; and Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government. He is a former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute; a consultant on exhibits at the National Archives, National Park Service, and Library of Congress; and member of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is planning the 2026 national celebration of the birth of the United States.
Nina M. Moore, the Dr. William L. Boyle, Jr. ’55 Endowed Chair in Political Science and Professor of Political Science at Colgate University will moderate. The event will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person.
Free parking is available in lots along College Hill Rd.
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