William G. Thomas III, professor of history and the John and Catherine Angle Chair in Humanities, will be presenting the Chancellor’s Distinguished Nebraska Lecture titled “A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged American Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War.”

Piecing together evidence long ago dismissed in court and buried in the archives, historian William G. Thomas tells an intricate and intensely human story of the enslaved families (the Butlers, Queens, Mahoneys and others), their lawyers (among them a young Francis Scott Key), and the slaveholders who fought to defend slavery. A Question of Freedom asks us to reckon with the moral problem of slavery and its legacies in the present day.

A reception will follow the lecture.

The Chancellor’s Distinguished Nebraska Lecture is sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office and the Office of Research and Economic Development. This lecture is part of the 2020 Homecoming festivities.