Inventing Equality: Reconstructing the Constitution in the Aftermath of the Civil War
Channel: US National Archives
Date: 2021-01-21

In Inventing Equality, professor and historian Michael Bellesiles traces the evolution of the battle for true equality―the stories of those fighting forward, to expand the working definition of what it means to be an American citizen―from the Revolution through the late nineteenth century. He identifies the flaws in the Constitution, and explores through the role of the Supreme Court and three Constitutional amendments―the 13th, 14th, and 15th―the ways in which equality and inequality waxed and waned over the decades.


For live-only captions: http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=DCInventingEquality15618