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Online Library of Liberty The OLL is a curated collection of scholarly works that engage with vital questions of liberty.

Spanning the centuries from Hammurabi to Hume, and collecting material on topics from art and economics to law and political theory, the OLL provides you with a rich variety of texts to explore and consider.

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Best of the OLL BOLL 40: Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence” (1776)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. A thematic list with links to HTML versions of the texts is available here. The Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was originally penned by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776 when he was part of committee which was created to draw up a draft for the Second ...

Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Hans Eicholz, "Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence" (July 2021)

Welcome to the July 2021 edition of Liberty Matters. This month we convene a panel of distinguished scholars to ask, "Who was Thomas Jefferson, and how did his views--particularly those on race, slavery, and freedom--inform his writings, including the Declaration of Independence?" Lead essayist Hans Eicholz, an historian and Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, kicks things off in our lead essay by s...

Explore the OLL Collection: Images of Liberty and Power The First Colored Senator and Representatives

Created circa 1872 by the Currier & Ives Lithography Company, “The First Colored Senator and Representatives” is a combined portrait of the African-Americans that were elected to serve in Congress following the Civil War. They represented the southern states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina. During the early part of the Reconstruction Era, there were 17 African-Amer...

Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Its limited scope, freeing slaves only in those states “in rebellion against the United States,” did not satisfy abolitionists but did infuriate many in the North who were pro-Union but not anti-slavery.

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