Lincoln, Slavery, and the Jeffersonian Dilemma
October 26, 2026
David McKay, Senior Lecturer, History
Despite their separate eras, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were linked by a series of concerns that added up to a problem. Both men shared an entanglement with slavery. Both men shared a deep and overwhelming passion for the American Union. And both men shared a religious sensibility shaped by the Moderate Enlightenment. These three things combined in Thomas Jefferson to produce a dilemma, one that he could not solve and could not see how to avoid. Abraham Lincoln, however, realized that there was no solution to this dilemma other than to plow through it and absorb the consequences that Jefferson feared would follow. How this played out on the ground would determine the course of American history from that point forward.
Lectures will be held on Mondays at 3 p.m. in the Olm Fellowship Hall of Fairhaven Senior Services, 435 West Starin Road, Whitewater. They are open to the public and registration is not required. Lectures may be recorded and posted to our Fairhaven Lecture website and YouTube channel. Videos of lectures in this series and in past series can be accessed for free any time after they are posted online.
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