SIO516: How a Botched 1840 Census "Proved" Freedom Made Black Americans Disabled, with Sari Altschuler

Serious Inquiries Only

Thomas Smith

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The history of disability rights is often treated as a modern story, but what if that framing misses centuries of earlier, more complicated history? This week, Thomas is joined by Professor Sari Altschuler, Associate Professor of English at Northeastern University, to explore her new book Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship.

In the book, Professor Altschuler traces how disability and citizenship have been intertwined since the founding of the United States, and what that reveals about who America decided belonged and who didn't. In the early Republic, many physical and mental differences were accommodated within the framework of citizenship; by the antebellum era, however, those same differences had been weaponized as tools of racial exclusion, and eventually as justification for eugenics.

Thomas and Professor Altschuler dig into the intersections of race, disability, and civic belonging, and what early American history can teach us about the fights happening today.

Be sure to buy Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship (release date: 6/16/2026)!
Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We Read

Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here!

Please support the show on Patreon! You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/seriouspod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to serious and queries only. This is episode 516. I'm Thomas Smith,
0:17.2	and today I've got a really fascinating interview for you. So Lydia and I keep an eye on
0:22.4	what books are coming out that we might want to check out and maybe interview the authors,
0:26.4	and one came across our, I don't know, internet, that just was perfectly up our alley here.
0:32.3	It's called Before Disability, A History of American Citizenship by Professor Sari Altschuler.
0:38.7	And it tells the fascinating history that I'm sure 99% of us are not familiar with because
0:45.9	I really don't think this is taught much.
0:47.9	I was reflecting on it when we were talking.
0:50.2	And I was thinking back to now I know as a kid with ADHD, it's often unreliable to be like,
0:55.3	wow, they never taught me this in school because it's entirely possible they did.
0:58.8	And I don't remember.
1:00.5	But I'm pretty confident on this one that with the exception of maybe the, you know,
1:04.3	Americans with Disabilities Act and some of that history, like the main sort of legislative
1:09.6	history that we might have learned about,
1:11.9	there isn't a whole lot taught on disability going back to the very first decades of the founding
1:17.9	and in the 1800s. And it turns out there's really interesting, obviously the history would
1:22.3	be interesting, but also, as you notice in the title, A History of American Citizenship, that intersection just seems so fascinating to us. And it seems like it touches on so many things we care about on the show. So we're going to talk to Siri about her new book and about her and about the research and really fascinating stories involved in this book. We're going to learn a lot, a lot of things that it's like, how have I never heard this before? It's going to be a lot of fun. So we'll take our usual first break, which you can avoid at patreon.com slash serious pod, and that's where you can support conversations like these, trying to bring you important things that just don't get enough, I guess press or whatever, for lack of a better word. So if that's something you care about, please support it or tell someone about the show. Share the show.
2:11.9	Professor Seri Alt-Schuler, thank you so much for joining us today.
2:15.2	Thank you so much for having me.
2:16.3	I'm really interested in your book before disability.
2:19.8	It's just right up our alley here.
2:21.5	It's got so many things we talk about all the time.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Thomas Smith, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Thomas Smith and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.