that young man sat in the class of an abolitionist at harvard in the early 1830s. he heard the argument, not just an abolitionist argument but anti racist arguments, trying to argue that the mountain of myths that were being used to defend american slavery were nothing more than that, just myths and if one looks at history -- >> host: approach this in a scholarly way. >> guest: largely used history, and went back to the ancient egyptian stance made the argument we were often making on the street corners in the 1990s. does sound very modern, very contemporary. this is a young man who fought to liberalize germany and chased out of europe, arrested for political activism, chased out of europe, comes to the united states, he has sort of some what threat to experience of running into the marquis they lafayette in 1825-1826 when he is brought back for the 50th anniversary, the french general who fought with the americans and on the fifth anniversary of the declaration of independence congress invites him back to the americas to celebrate. he runs into him in philadelphia

i was going explain how black abolitionists got their education. give the fact they were excluded by race from american colleges and universities. i was going tell the story of where they went. some went to europe. some went to new england and studied privately. some studied privately in the atlantic and became ministers, teachers, and doctors. but in fact, actually, one of the things i got more interested in, i started that project was why they were excluded from the colleges and universities. that these, colleges, in fact had a long history write black people. on campus. and enslaved people but not as students. but they had a long history with native americans. and that's a very -- at black students were excluded. native american students were on campus for 200 years. >> host: doing what? as students? >> guest: students for almost 200 years. >> host: how were they able to be on campuses. you write about that. >> guest: that's the beginning of the book. if you think about it, you know, the first attempt to build a college for native american stude

in some small sense, it could be said that the davis family saved me and countless other abolitionists, human rights

that man sat in the class of the abolitionists. he took the course he heard him make the argument the anti-racist argument trying to argue the mountain of this used to defend slavery was nothing more than that. event if one looked at history. >> host: to approach this in a scholarly way. >> guest: he chose examples from history you went back to ancient egyptians to make the argument that we make on the street corner in the 1990's. it does sound very modern and contemporary. this is a young band to fought to liberalize germany and was arrested for his political activism. he has the gratuitous experience of 1825 web mafia it -- when lafayette thought on the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence congress invites him back to the americas to celebrate he contacts his biographer at harvard and he arranges for the appointment he goes back to political activism teaching the young students at harvard about history but also the contemporary issues of society and there is no greater issue fan human slavery in the americas the fu

he said, "i'm going to die, i'm going to die because i'm an abolitionist, and i'm proud of it." so he became, like, almost a mythic figure in that time. tavis: i think you've already answered this question, but let me ask it anyway because you may want to go in a different direction. so what makes all of that juicy enough for you to want to turn it into a novel? >> well, i want people to -- when i was a kid, i thought jesse james was the coolest cat in the world. only when i was an adult did i realize he was a slave-owner and he killed innocent people and he shot an 11-year-old when he was robbing a bank. if he was living now, the dea and the atf and the xyz, they'd all be coming after him. so i would like young people and americans to know what kind of man john brown was, because i think if you understand what he was, you'd feel a lot prouder to be an american. i wanted to put it in a form that people could accept, that it wasn't like a depressing kind of book. tavis: you did that, because the book is a lot more -- i'll come back to the story in a second. an overarching comment

in the eyes of abolitionist such as the influential gold editor, magnanimity with the means to achieve a purpose namely the ascent of the south to emancipation. reporters saw magnanimity as an emblem of their moral authority. superb disc really put the civilization based on three labors of a higher and more humane type are not based on slavery. really continued, i want as many rebels is possible to live to see the south rejuvenated and transferred by the influence of free labor. but fitter fate for the likes of leap into bear witness to the unfolding social revolution. this is how greeley saw things here at ms since coming northerners who embrace grants term set to the south, we don't want to inflict punishment. we want you to change in confederates responded to demands for change with a form of punishment. this contest over the surrenders meany did not simply pick this up again the north or even the confederacy against the union. instead, it pitted those who have a thorough transformation of the south against those who rejected such transformation. here we have the theme of divisions

, and besides being a very good poet, he was a wonderful man in many ways, and was a long-time abolitionist, which mean he was even more than antislavery. he didn't want any gradual ending. so i was interested in these literary figures and they're role in history. >> i think it's interesting, brenda and i kind of come from history -- come to history from a similar literary place. my graduate degree is in american literature, and i live on nantucket, largely because i really like moby dick. >> he does. it's great. >> i wrote a little book about that. >> i'm a fan. >> and -- likewise, but continuing the -- i was actually named for nathaniel hawthorne. >> really? >> yeah. it said that his biography of franklin pearce was the biggest book of text he had written. >> it was, and he dedicatessed -- when he dedicated a book to franklin pearce, ralph waldo emerson cut the dedication out. so it was very interesting. so we have that similar background. nathaniel's books on the essex, the whaling ship. >> and whittier, to continue with that, he wrote a poem called, the exiles, which describe otherwise

surely the woman we celebrate this evening, angelina grimke, was not only an abolitionist, but also anarly feminist. i would also like to suggest to that the founder of simmons college, john simmons, a true ally of women of his age, was also a feminist. at the very time in 1838 that angelina grimke was speaking to the massachusetts state legislature against slavery and for a woman's right to vote, only a mile away in the north end, john simmons was actively growing his tailoring business, employing many women here in boston and in the countryside around the city. having observed that most of his customers fell into standard sizes, he departed from custom tailoring and innovated the retail industry by creating the man's off-the-rack suit. at the end of the civil war, john simmons had become the largest clothing manufacturer in the united states. at the time of his death in 1870, his will records his intention for his great wealth. to found and endow an institution to be called simmons female college for the purpose of teaching branches of art, science, and industry, best calculated to e

it is hard to elect abolitionists from the northeast as president. you have to have northern men who appear to be moderate and they are going to leave slavery alone but they are from the north. they are comfortable voting for the man slaveholders are comfortable and the dread scott decision is treated as a decision about slavery which was in essence the primary cause. what i wanted to in the chapter was show first of all, the panic of 1857 is a direct result of the scott decision. what happens is all the railroads that are being built across nebraska, kansas, in the territory, are being built under the notion of popular sovereignty which went into the nebraska act, people will choose whether it is free or slave. dread scott totally undermine that, completely overthrows the missouri compromise. what businessmen sa is we will get bloody kansas, we will get john browns running around killing slave owners, pro slave guys burning down freetown's. is going to be chaos, bloodshed, that is not good for business. i talk about building a new business in downto

in the eyes of abolitionists such as the influential editor, magnanimity was the means to achieve is a good purpose, namely the ascent of the south to emancipation. northerners are grants magnanimity and an emblem of their moral authority proving that a civilization based upon free labor is a of a higher and more humane type and that based upon slavery. really continued, one as many rebels as possible to live to see the south rejuvenated and transformed by the insolence of free labor. what fitter fate and to bear witness to the unfolding social revolution. this is how some things. in essence, northerners to embrace his terms said to the south, we don't want to inflict further punishment. when you to change. the confederates responded to the demand for change as a form of punishment. this contest of this renders meaning did not simply put this out against the north or even a confederacy against the union. instead, it pitted those who favored a thoroughgoing social as ration of the south against those who reject -- rejected such a transformation. we have the scene of divisions within t

it is an incredible time to celebrate the legacy of courageous women in the abolitionist movement.heir efforts grew into five for suffrage and equal rights. this anniversary is also our minder of the powerful impact we can have when we make our voices heard and we stand up for what we believe in. i never plan to get into politics. i spent pretty much my whole career as a teacher, and is a lot professor, i taught bankruptcy and did research on the economic squeeze on middle class families. and then i got a call from a congressman who asked me to help advise a federal commission that was being set up. at first i told him no. i do not like outtakes that i did not want to get involved. but he had a hook. that i wouldme have a chance to fight for working families. so i made my first trip to washington. for me, this first effort to try to help shape the laws that affect the lives of summoning people ended up being about deep faith. faith that if we work hard and work together, we can make a difference that really matters. might lead to another. bringing some account ability to the bank b

it will be hard to elect abolitionist. to have northern red space are moderate. said they are comfortable to vote for them. but the dread scott decision it was the primary cause. first of all, i want to show a the panic of 1857 is a direct result of lee scott decision. all out of the territories is billed under the notion of popular sovereignty going to the nebraska act. the dread scott totally undermines that. and what businessmen saw was talk about the slave holders it will be chaos the end

asked kerry french on an animal abolitionist lawyer and professor of records university he was the first person to ever teach an animal rights theory class that has been changing the conversation about sentient creatures ever since gary joined me earlier and i first asked him to explain to me what animal abolition as. animal evolution is the theory that we ought not to be focusing on the treatment of animals that the fundamental moral question is can we justify using animals at all however humanely we treat them i mean i think that we have to confront the fact that because animals are chattel property and they have no inherent or intrinsic value the able in the extrinsic an xterm value the stand.

animals deserve all the legal rights that humans do as does my next guest area franchise and animal abolitionist lawyer and professor rocker's university he was the first person to ever teach an animal rights theory class that has been changing the conversation about sentient creatures ever since gary joined me earlier and i first asked him to explain to me what animal abolition of. animal evolution is the theory that we ought not to be focusing on the treatment of animals that the fundamental moral question is can we justify using animals at all however humanely we treat them i mean i think that we have to confront the fact that because animals are chattel property and they have no inherent or intrinsic value they want the extrinsic an xterm value the standard of animal welfare is actually very low so even if you if you take the most humane places in terms of the way animals are treated it's still really horrible and so basically the the i'm trying to change the conversation away from treatment and over to use search yes the fundamental question why are we eating wearing or using animals at all

that was a bridge too far for even some of the former abolitionists. and it was the corporate wing of the party, the capitals wing this is okay, the real reason that we objected to the democratic control of the south was that they got in the way of the industrial revolution. and so one of the reasons for the corruption that john cited that did happen, i'll digress briefly to say the big scandals of the gilded age which are often blamed that grants it had nothing to do with grant. ms. kemp about the construction of the transcontinental rental -- railroad come that was all before grant. and the tweet us kind of that a bunch of local politics to do a few scandals but nothing extraordinary. the problem is the republicans now can't figure out who they are what they are supposed to be. grant is this figure who tries to straddle the divide. on the one hand, it's fair to say in his support for the african-american former slaves, he is the last lincoln republican but, of course, lincoln himself had that other site. lincoln was a corporate lawyer. so lincoln was

here's what happened when the speaker at the event tried to engage terry by talking about the abolitionist >> when douglas escaped from savory, he writes a letter to his former slave master and said i forgive you for all the things you did to me. >> for giving him food and shuttler all those jeers? >> you plucked your is educational background from the daily show. don yeltsin. here's why. >> the law is going to kick the democrats in the butt. if it hurts a bunch of college kids that's too lazy to get off and get a photo id, so be it. >> right, right. >> if it hurts the whites, so be it. if it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks, so be it. >> and it just so happens that a lot of those people vote democrat. >> gee. >> the third nominee, congressman louie gohmert who warned the obama administration was under the influence of members of the muslim brotherhood. >> thank god for the moderates that don't approve of what's being done. but this administration has so many muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for america. >> then there's congressman steve

schackleford who in the novel "the good lord bird" becomes one of the rag-tag followers of the abolitionist john brown and survives to tell of the raid on harper's ferry. this is the third novel by james mcbride. he's also author of the bestselling memoir, "the color of water: a black man's tribute to his white mother." first, congratulations to you. >> thank you very much. >> so the story has been written and written about in nonfiction and fiction. you, what, felt you had something more to tell? >> well, i wanted to tell it in a funny way and i wanted people to, you know, know about them. and i wanted-- i tried to come up with a way to tell his story that was compelling and funny, i suppose. >> you use that word funny this say very funny book. about a very serious subject. i mean why did you want to put human near it,. >> well, slavery is such a drol subject. and it's depressing. i didn't want to write a book that was depression. i don't want to read a book that's depressing. so i just thought that shall did -- and john browne was so funny. i mean he wasn't funny, he actually had no sense

in some small sense, it could be said that the davis family saved me and countless other abolitionists, human rights advocates and close friends who learned critical life lessons from them. now, in turn, it is our collective tooth to make sure troy's death was -- duty to make sure troy's death was not in vain. we must continue this fight to abolish the death penalty state by state and execution by execution. nobody is better placed than them to say why this is so critical, so i am humbled, proud and honored to introduce troy's middle sister, kimberly davis, and his youngest sister, ebony, and her daughter, kirsten, whom you'll hear from later this evening. please join me in welcoming kim. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> good evening. i want to thank y'all for coming out on this great event, because as you know on tomorrow will mark the two-year anniversary of my brother's execution. it has been a long battle, a long struggle, but you all have stood by us. i want to thank larry cox with amnesty international -- [applause] laura murray with amnesty international, shi rell brown,

the theory now is that arose because the hardings were abolitionists. they worked on the underground railroad. when you did that, people started rumors about you. the rumors would be that the hardings were part black. these rumors were floating around. one of the reasons he doesn't trust her judgment in men after the first marriage. also, he believes harding is part black. he is pretty vociferous about it. i will not print his language. he goes around town saying what he thinks harding is. finally he gets used to harding, but the stories do not go away. there is a fellow named chancellor who is a distinguished professor, went to all sorts of colleges, historian and author, but a thorough racist. he is at the 1916 democratic convention. it becomes obvious that harding is going to be the nominee, he becomes obsessed with harding's ancestry, collecting stories. and basically my theory is -- they go around the country. the right quarter million copies of the handbill alleging he is black. how do they get there? it is not the lone crackpot. i believe it was

i was going to explain how black abolitionist and were excluded by race from american colleges. some of them went up to new england and studied privately. and they became ministers and teachers and doctors. but in fact one of the things that got more interested in was why they were excluded. these colleges in fact had a long history with black people on campus as enslaved people but not his students. they also had a long history with native americans and at the very time the black students were excluded, native americans had been on campus for 200 years. >> host: native american students at band camp is doing what? how is it that they were able to be on campus is quiet >> guest: that's the beginning of the book. the first attempt to build the college from native american students is about 200 tenures for the first attempt to build the black college. the first native american graduate graduates almost 200 years or for the black graduate. the first native minister, 100 years before the first black minister. that sounds like native americans are privileged. in fact part of the stor

and then over the course of the next century you have abolitionists, pacifists, also using anonymity or pseudo anonymity in order to speak out against the power that be. and then fast forwarding all the way up to the 1958, we've got a couple of court cases that were important. ncaap vs. alabama. alabama decides that it wants the membership list of the ncaap. the ncaap says, hell no. if you get this list, all of our members are going to have burning crosses on their lawns tomorrow morning. and the court favored the ncaap. in 1960, this was an antipamphlet hearing that said you can't distribute them unless there's a name on them and that was overturned here. then skipping away ahead to 1994, you start to see this in the digital realm. really the first anti- scientology movement that we've seen blown up with anonymous 15 years later. and then a finnish anonymous remailer. these were guys that had their doors kicked in by the f.b.i., hard drives seized, things like that, which really was kind of the trigger for the hackers being really activists, was kind of born here, where they were fi

the abolitionist improvement inspired thorough who inspired gandhi who inspired mandela.es full circle in the life of mandela and how he relates to barack obama. >> joshua, what if anything do we know about nelson mandela's faith? was he a spiritual man? >> he was a spiritual man. he was a christian. and that was sort of a motivating part of his life. and there's been a fair amount written on that, especially over the last few days. but i think he really saw his faith as a motivating force for his work in the public square, not just as something he keeps inside his own soul but something that he felt compelled to act for justice in the world. >> joshua, jelani, thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> you'll now know who i am. i am a yankee! >> yankees fans, you've got another one. much more on the life of nelson mandela, the man who of course became a movement. we're going to look back at his lasting legacy on music, on movies, on sports and more. >>> also ahead, what city is going to become the next detroit? motown officially filed for bankruptcy this week and changed

it's going to be very hard to elect abolitionists from the northeast. so you have to northern men who appear to be moderate and they're going to leave slavery alone but they are from the north. so northerners are comfortable voting for them and slaveholders are comfortable. the dred scott decision is treated as a decision about slavery, which it was and that's its primary cause. what i wanted to do in the chapter was to show that first of all, it was the panic of 1857 is a direct result of the scott decision. what happens is that all the railroads that are being built across nebraska, kansas, all out in the territories, are being built under the notion of popular sovereignty which went into the kansas-nebraska act. that is, people will choose whether it's free or slave. dred scott totally undermines that, those are completely -- complete overthrows the missouri compromise. what businessmen saw was we're going to get kansas. we're going to get john brown's running around killing slave owners, pro-slave guys burning down free towns but it's going to be ch

and then over the course of the next century you have abolitionists, pacifists, also using anonymity or pseudo anonymity in order to speak out against the power that be. and then fast forwarding all the way up to the 1958, we've got a couple of court cases that were important. ncaap vs. alabama. alabama decides that it wants the membership list of the ncaap. the ncaap says, hell no. if you get this list, all of our members are going to have burning crosses on their lawns tomorrow morning. and the court favored the ncaap. in 1960, this was an antipamphlet hearing that said you can't distribute them unless there's a name on them and that was overturned here. then skipping away ahead to 1994, you start to see this in the digital realm. really the first anti- scientology movement that we've seen blown up with unanimous 15 years later. and then a finnish unanimous remailer. these were guys that had their doors kicked in by the f.b.i., hard drives seized, things like that, which really was kind of the trigger for the hackers being really activists, was kind of born here, where they were fi