Throughout his life, the marquis de Lafayette fought vehemently for personal freedoms. He advocated for women’s rights in America and civil rights for Protestants in France, and promoted respect for the identity and sovereignty of American Indians. His most extensive efforts in support of human liberty were his work to end slavery and the African slave trade. While Lafayette respectfully nudged his slave-owning friends to embrace emancipation, he became increasingly disturbed by the contradiction of the American republic, a beacon of liberty for the world, continuing to endorse the practice of enslaving other human beings.
To offer insight on what influenced Lafayette’s efforts, John Oldfield, Ph.D., emeritus professor of slavery and emancipation at the University of Hull (UK), examines the anti-slavery debates of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the Atlantic World. Professor Oldfield challenges traditional perceptions of early anti-slavery activity as an entirely parochial British, European, or American affair, and reframes the abolition movement as a broad international network of activists across a range of metropolitan centers and remote outposts. The virtual talk also explores the dynamics of transatlantic abolitionism and highlights the delicate balance that existed between national and international interests in an age of massive political upheaval throughout the Atlantic World.
This virtual lecture accompanies our current exhibition, Fete Lafayette: A French Hero’s Tour of the American Republic, on view through December 31, 2024.
About the Speaker
John Oldfield is emeritus professor of history and emancipation and the former director of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at the University of Hull. His research interests include the American South, maritime history and racialized relations in the United States. He has written extensively on slavery and abolition in the Atlantic World and published numerous articles and books in this area. Prior to his career at the University of Hull, he was a professor of modern history at the University of Southampton and director of the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies from 2008-2010.
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