“Pierce Butler and the Revolution in the American South”

Please note that the series package includes all 7 lectures taking place every Monday from January 26 to March 9, 2026. Tickets for single lectures will be available beginning December 1, 2025

Pierce Butler was a British military officer who dramatically switched his allegiance to America prior to the Revolution. His military and political leadership in the cause of American liberty helped to launch the United States as an enduring republic. Yet, in an age defined by American freedom, Butler invested his wealth in plantation slavery, a decision that would lead to scandals that bedeviled his family across subsequent generations. Butler’s family story illustrates the ways in which the American Revolution turned slavery into a moral problem that the Revolutionaries themselves struggled to resolve.

Dr. Jeffrey Young teaches history at Georgia State University, where he offers classes on early American history and Georgia history. His research has focused on slavery in America and on the intersections between American political culture and American family life. His book, Domesticating Slavery: The Master Class in Georgia and South Carolina, was published by the University of North Carolina Press and his articles have appeared in the Journal of Southern History and the Georgia Historical Quarterly.