Imagine you were at the American Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You were among the delegates who shaped the founding document of a new nation. You were also among the few who knew the harsh reality of slavery, the system that provided free labor for many of the wealthy planters and merchants in attendance. You saw the contradiction between the ideals of liberty and equality and the practice of owning human beings as property. You heard the voices of the enslaved people who lived in small, dark, windowless slave houses, who were sold on auction blocks, who were whipped and branded and separated from their families. You felt their pain and their longing for freedom.
Would you have had the courage and the principle to speak up for them? Would you have challenged your fellow delegates to end the injustice of slavery and to include all people in the vision of We the People? Would you have risked your reputation, your fortune, and your life for the sake of humanity?
Revolutionary Voices from the Slave Houses explores this hypothetical scenario through historical research and fictional narratives. It gives voice to the enslaved people who were silenced and erased from the official history of the United States of America. It invites you to listen to their stories and to imagine what could have been different if someone had spoken for them at the Convention.
