Dr. Jessica Roney, Associate Professor of History, presents:

Bones of our Bones: The Problem of Self-Determination and Citizenship in the Era of the American Revolution

The most significant innovation of the US Constitution was to vest power not in the states but directly in citizens. However, juxtaposed with this fundamental, even radical, tenet of republican government, the Constitution contained an odd silence: it said almost nothing about how new states would be admitted to the union. The tension between local self-determination and the need for a cohesive, stable, and unified nation played out in the war and its immediate aftermath in ways that belied the Constitution’s radical promise. That sacrifice, set up a union that endured, but with a price we continue to pay.