We’re joined by award-winning author, Charles (Charlie)
Slack, to discuss his book,
Liberty’s First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson and the Misfits Who Saved
Free Speech.
Slack focuses on the infamous
Sedition Act of 1798, which sparked the first major
controversy over freedom of speech in America.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro (including note about Charlie Kirk)
03:59 Book origins
12:05 What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?
16:00 Prosecutions under the Act and their free speech
implications
25:35 Free speech during the Revolutionary era
28:14 Adams’ perspective on the Sedition Act
46:02 Was Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase a
partisan hack?
53:57 Sedition Act fallout
01:01:02 Outro
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