What if the most famous line in American political thought wasn't new—and wasn't even Jefferson's? This talk, led by Dr. Bernardo Piciché, associate professor in the Department of English, argues that "All men are created equal" belongs to a much older and broader intellectual tradition than most Americans assume. 

Piciché calls for a sound relativism that resists American exceptionalism and the mythology of manifest destiny, situating the nation's founding within a much broader cultural and intellectual history. Central to his argument is Filippo (Philip) Mazzei, an Italian philosopher and close ally of Jefferson, whose own political and financial entanglements placed him at the heart of the transformation from a loose confederacy into the United States. Particular attention will be given to Mazzei's ideological rejection of enslavement, revealing how the era's most defining ideas took shape through influences far beyond the thirteen colonies.

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