Slavery and the Constitutional Convention

National Archives Museum
Online

Why did the framers of the U.S. Constitution include several protections for slavery in one of our cherished founding documents? Using clips from the four-part documentary series Confounding Father: A Contrarian View of the U.S. Constitution, scholars will discuss the 1787 debates, compromises that led to the protections, and present-day controversies over how we teach this subject. Part one of a two-part series. Moderated by Richard Hall, director and co-producer of Confounding Father, panelists include Paul Finkelman, chancellor of Gratz College; and Gloria Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).