This is a free excerpt of The History of American Slavery, our inaugural Slate Academy. To listen to Episode 3 in its entirety, visit the show page. To access all features of this Slate Academy, and to learn more about enrolling, visit Slate.com/Academy. In episode 3 of The History of American Slavery, a Slate Academy, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of slavery during America’s Revolutionary War. *** Episode 3 guests: Douglas R. Egerton, professor of history at Le Moyne College and currently the Merrill Family Visiting Professor of History at Cornell University. Read an excerpt of Egerton’s book, Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Emily Blanck, associate professor of history at Rowan University. Read an excerpt of Blanck’s book, Tyrannicide: Forging and American Law of Slavery in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts. *** In Episode 3, Jamelle and Rebecca discuss how the enlightenment ideas that helped found our government both inhibited and encouraged the spread of American slavery.  They also talk about the divergent ways the early Northern and Southern states handled slavery in their courts. And they begin their conversation by remembering the life of Elizabeth Freeman (1742?-1829), an enslaved servant whose victory in one of the first “freedom suits” helped lead to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. *** Next time, on Episode 4 of The History of American Slavery, Jamelle and Rebecca remember the life of Joseph Fossett (1780-1858). They’ll talk to Heather Andrea Williams and Annette Gordon-Reed about slavery in the early republic. Your homework, should you choose to accept it: Read an excerpt from Williams’ book, Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery.  Email us at historyacademy@slate.com