Sarah Gronningsater is delighted to join Carolyn Zola for a conversation about Sarah’s new book, The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom (Penn Press, 2024). The Rising Generation tells a new story about the long history of emancipation in the United States as it follows the cradle-to-grave experiences of a remarkable generation of black New Yorkers who were born into quasi-freedom after the American Revolution and reached adulthood on the eve the Civil War.  Gronningsater examines the role this generation played in advocating for equality before the law, excellent public education, and the end of slavery nationwide. In a broad sense, this generation helped shape important changes to the U.S. Constitution as well as groundbreaking federal civil rights legislation.

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