Foundational American Documents: What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July (Antwain K. Hunter)

Foundations of American Democracy
A Critical Documents Reader
by Edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kathleen DuVal, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Sophia Howells, and Miguel La Serna
214 pp., 21 images, notes, questions and further readings
ISBN 978-1-4696-8923-4 $18.00 paper
Publication date: August 1, 2025
Distributed for the UNC at Chapel Hill Department of History
For more information: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469689234/foundations-of-american-democracy/

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In 2025, Carolina’s History Department created a textbook that assembles 21 essential documents that relate to key moments in U.S. history, each introduced by a faculty member. This semester in our Humanities in Action lecture series, we’ve invited some of the contributors to that book, The Foundations of American Democracy, to tell the story of the US through key documents. Using speeches, letters, laws, and declarations, these presentations will investigate the aspirations and calls for change that shaped a nation.

Join us on select Wednesdays to learn more about contemporary issues that are too often reduced to sound bites. Series pass available!