Join us for a two-day program hosted by the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies and organized by Professors Linda Colley of Princeton University and Eliga Gould of University of New Hampshire.
Registration is required and free. Lunches and coffee services included in registration.
Featuring a distinguished gathering of international scholars, the "After 1776" conference at Monticello will provide an in-depth conversation on the "age of revolutions in favor of liberty" - a phrase coined by Thomas Lee Shippen in a 1789 letter to Thomas Jefferson.
This was a turbulent age of revolutions, violence and reassessments, with major global upheavals occurring in the Americas, Britain, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific World. Many of these convulsions, however, had important features in common - among the most striking and contested in certain regions was the naively optimistic belief that these "revolutions for liberty" were changing the course of history for the better.
With an emphasis on the years between the Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution, conference presenters will examine the hopes, fears, arguments and de-stabilizations of the time. Presenters will address the political, constitutional, cultural, and scientific innovations that marked the period, and will investigate the era's shocks, violence and flaws. Challenges included the continued survival of chattel slavery, intensification of indigenous dispossession, continued marginalization of women, and the mounting costs of global warfare.
Join us on Monticello's iconic West Lawn for a vibrant conversation between New York Times opinion columnist and public historian Jamelle Bouie and Princeton scholar Dame Linda Colley, moderated by Monticello's president Dr. Jane Kamensky.
As the 250th anniversary of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence approaches, and in the midst of a charged presidential election, Americans are thinking deeply about the relationships between our founding documents and our peoplehood. This conversation asks how - and whether - declarations and constitutions make nations.
Bouie, Colley, and Kamensky will explore volatile moments, both past and present, in the political lives of Americans and Britons. Both are polities in process. How can attention to our historical and constitutional foundations inform our present and guide our future?
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Happy hour with food and beverages available for purchase
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm: Panel discussion and Q&A session
The conference will take place at the Repose conference center on Montalto, overlooking Monticello. Use GPS address Montalto Loop Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Parking available onsite
Space for this event is limited and expected to sell out. For cancellations, please call Monticello Reservations at (434)984-9800 as soon as possible so others may enjoy the event.
ADDRESS:
931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Charlottesville, VA 22902
GENERAL INFORMATION:
(434) 984-9800