Dred Scott: The Louisiana (French) Connection

Dr. Paul Finkelman

On Tuesday, March 25, the Society joined The French American Chamber of Commerce and Louisiana State Museum in sponsoring “Dred Scott: The Louisiana (French) Connection” by Dr. Paul Finkelman, at the Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans. A reception was held at 6 p.m., followed by a lecture at 7 p.m. for which one hour of CLE credit was offered by the Law Library of Louisiana.

Dr. Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy and Senior Fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. He is the Justice Pike Hall Jr. Visiting Professor of Law in the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. He has written extensively on the legal history of slavery, segregation and race relations, the development of freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the origins of the Second Amendment, baseball and law. He has published op-ed pieces in newspapers including The New York Times and USA Today and has appeared on PBS, The History Channel and C-Span. Finkelman has lectured throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Two of Finkelman’s books were available for purchase: Dred Scott v. Sandford, A Brief History with Documents (Bedford, 1997) and Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson (M.E. Sharpe, Publishers). Proceeds from the sale benefitted the Colonial Documents Fund through the Louisiana Museum Foundation.