Nicholas Guyatt is Professor of North American History at the University of Cambridge. His main research interest is US History between the American Revolution and the Civil War. He has previously taught at the universities of Princeton, Vancouver and York. His most recent publications are The Oxford Illustrated History of the United States (Oxford University Press, 2026) and (with Christa Dierksheide) Jefferson's Wolf: A Founding Father's Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery (Harvard University Press, 2026)
In this talk, Nick Guyatt will investigate how Thomas Jefferson could write “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence while enslaving more than six hundred Black people during his lifetime and examine the fascinating and troubling history of this “paradox of liberty” across Thomas Jefferson’s long and eventful life.