Slavery’s Abolition And History’s Truth

Memories shape us powerfully. For all of us there are defining events, the memories of which stay with us and determine how we view the world. Not only individuals, but communities and nations have landmark memories. The Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln is one such.

I remember one of my birthdays above all the others. Ten years ago, on my forty-fifth birthday, I had the pleasure, together with my teenage son David, of attending a Melbourne Writers Festival head-to-head debate between Keith Windschuttle and Robert Manne about their respective recent books on the fabrication of Australian history.

The spirited debate was conducted in front of a sell-out crowd sympathetic to Robert Manne. I still remember the evening because of a single moment—no more than a few seconds—in question time when Windschuttle declared that of course in colonial nineteenth-century Australia most government officials believed human beings were created equal. This was, he said, because they were…