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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Ep. 252: America’s first free speech crisis — the Sedition Act of 1798