Feudal metaphors were common in antebellum America. White liberals like Jefferson celebrated the egalitarian promise—every white person could potentially own land and succeed!—America over feudal Europe. Alexander Stephens agreed.

Liberals have celebrated the insights of the Founding Fathers ever since, and we have insisted that their support for slavery has no bearing on liberalism properly understood. Keidrick Roy reminds us that there were black liberals at the time who argued for real freedom.