With the bold flourish of a quill, four million desperate souls became “freed men” on Jan. 1, 1863. Were they really free, or did the battle for their independence and economic survival just begin? What can we today learn about the attempts to overthrow the imperial policies of Great Britain and their supporters in North America after the Civil War? And – are the lessons from then applicable to today?

Magdalena Therrien tackles these questions and much more in her lecture ‘Reconstruction: Struggles to Right a Nation from Turmoil.’