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Priscilla Joyner was born into the world of slavery in 1858 North Carolina and came of age at the dawn of emancipation. Raised by a white slaveholding woman, Joyner never knew the truth about her parentage. She grew up isolated and unsure of who she was and where she belonged—feelings that no emancipation proclamation could assuage. Her life story—candidly recounted in an oral history for the Federal Writers’ Project—captures the intimate nature of freedom. Using Joyner’s interview and the interviews of other formerly enslaved people, historian Carole Emberton uncovers the deeply personal, emotional journeys of freedom’s charter generation—the people born into slavery who walked into a new world of freedom during the Civil War.

Carole Emberton is professor of history at the University at Buffalo. An NEH public scholar, she is the author of the prize-winning Beyond Redemption. She has written for the New York Times and Washington Post.

Our idea of the Founders’ America and its values is not true. We are not the heirs of the Founders, but we can be the heirs of Reconstruction and its vision for equality.

There’s a common story we tell about America: that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution. But, with the country increasingly divided, this story isn’t working for us anymore—what’s more, it’s not even true. As Kermit Roosevelt argues in this eye-opening reinterpretation of the American story, our fundamental values, particularly equality, are not part of the vision of the Founders. Instead, they were stated in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and were the hope of Reconstruction, when it was possible to envision the emergence of the nation committed to liberty and equality.

We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were. Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order. This alternate understanding of American identity opens the door to a new understanding of ourselves and our story, and ultimately to a better America.

America today is not the Founders’ America, but it can be Lincoln’s America. Roosevelt offers a powerful and inspirational rethinking of our country’s history and uncovers a shared past that we can be proud to claim and use as a foundation to work toward a country that fully embodies equality for all.

Kermit Roosevelt III is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice David Souter, he is the author of The Myth of Judicial Activism, as well as two novels, Allegiance and In the Shadow of the Law.

This event is part of our Dine and Dialogue series. The lecture is at 6 PM at the Filson. There is a dinner following the lecture at Buck's Restaurant for those that purchase that ticket option.

This program is associated with the Filson’s People, Passage, Place exhibit. This exhibit will be open for viewing for 1 hour prior to the start of the lecture.

In 1952, after nearly a decade of epic adventures together, Harlan and Anna Hubbard returned to Kentucky in search of a new home. They purchased land at a beloved former campsite, along the Ohio River in Trimble County, and set about creating a handcrafted, bespoke homestead that would be their pride and joy—and the fascination of thousands of others—for the next four decades. Their life at Payne Hollow inspired Harlan Hubbard’s second published work, Payne Hollow: Life on the Fringe of Society, which details the creative, beautiful, and sustainable lifestyle they followed there. A new non-profit organization, Payne Hollow on the Ohio, Inc., has recently purchased the historic Hubbard homestead. The organization’s mission is to sustainably protect and preserve the land and structures at Payne Hollow as a means to promote the legacy of Harlan and Anna Hubbard. David Wicks, chairman of the board of directors, will provide a brief overview of the organization’s formation and make-up, and Jessica Whitehead, a founding board member, will give a history of Payne Hollow, of the Hubbard lifestyle, and of the vital work Payne Hollow on the Ohio will be doing over the next few years to honor the Hubbard legacy.

David Wicks is the chairman for Payne Hollow on the Ohio, Inc, as well as chairman for River City Paddle Sports and vice-chairman of the Ohio River Way. He is a co-founder of the Ohio River Recreation Trail steering committee and leads the Nature-Based Recreation Working Group on the plan for The Ohio River Basin 2020-2025.

Jessica Whitehead is a founding board member, secretary, and archivist for Payne Hollow on the Ohio, Inc. She is Curator of Collections for the Kentucky Derby Museum as well as an independent writer, artist, and curator, specializing in themes related to Ohio River Valley history, the natural world, and the arts. Her new biography of Harlan Hubbard, Driftwood: Harlan Hubbard in the American Grain, is under contract with University Press of Kentucky, to appear in 2024.

As a public institution for the treatment of tuberculosis from 1910 to 1961, Waverly Hills Sanatorium inspired both hope and dread. Patients from Louisville and beyond filled long waiting lists to gain admission to the sanatorium. Once there, they were usually desperate to get out. This talk explores the stories of patients, staff, and supporters of the different facilities at Waverly Hills, uncovering a history shaped by far-reaching medical developments and hard-fought struggles to salvage health. 

Lynn Pohl has a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University, Bloomington, and is Collections Cataloger at the Filson Historical Society. Her book Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A History was published by The History Press in 2022.