Scholars participated in a panel discussion on the crisis of slavery leading up to and during President Lincoln’s administration and its impact on his presidency. Sean Wilentz spoke on “Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy,” Manisha Sinha on “Allies for Emancipation: Lincoln and Black Abolitionists,” and James Oakes on "National Rights, Citizenship Rights, States' Rights, and Blacks' Rights: Lincoln and Race.] Christopher Brown then delivered a speech on Lincoln’s belief in compensated emancipation. Slave owners would be compensated for surrendering their slaves, thus providing a gradual solution that would avoid a military action or executive decree. Following their remarks, panelists responded to audience members' questions.

“Lincoln and the Crisis of Slavery” was a panel of “Lincoln in His Time and Ours: A Public Symposium” held by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the American Studies Program and History Department of Columbia University to observe the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in 1809 and to mark the publication of Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, edited by Eric Foner (W.W. Norton & Company). The program was held in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library on the Columbia University Morningside Heights campus.