The landmark 1735 trial of New York printer John Peter Zenger, which acquitted him for seditious libel in publishing articles critical of New York’s colonial governor, established the power of a jury to function as a check on government power and inspired the movement for freedom of the press later enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Its importance today is as great as it was in the eighteenth century.
On Thursday, January 22, 6pm, in-person at the Hudson Area Library, the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library, hosts a lecture on the Zenger free speed case by Albert M. Rosenblatt. This is the first of four planned Leisler Institute lectures.
Judge Rosenblatt served on New York’s high court after having served on other New York Courts. A graduate of UPenn, and of Harvard Law School, Rosenblatt has written widely on New York law and culture, with his wife Julia, including Historic Courthouses of the State of New York (2006) and Opening Statements: Law, Jurisprudence, and the Legacy of Dutch New York (2013) and also The Eight: The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for Freedom (2023). He now teaches law at NYU Law School.
The Jacob Leisler Library Lectures are made partially possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Foundation, HRBT Foundation, and Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation.
The Hudson Area Library History Room houses a collection that pertains to the history of the City of Hudson, Greenport and Stockport; as well as Columbia County. The History Room also hosts a local history speaker series at the library, offering free monthly talks on diverse topics related to local history. The History Room is open Saturdays, 10am-1pm and Wednesdays 6 – 8pm and by appointment. Online research requests for information on local history are available here. The Hudson Area Library is located at 51 North 5th Street in Hudson, NY.
The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is an independent, not-for-profit study and research center devoted to collecting, preserving, and disseminating information relating to colonial New York under English rule. In the years spanning 1664 to 1773, New York province’s diverse European settlements and Native American and African populations fused into a cosmopolitan colonial territory with ties throughout the Atlantic World.
The Institute contains a collection of original, digital, and/or paper copies of primary source manuscripts, books, maps, and illustrative materials, as well as a library of secondary resources that provide scholarly context to the primary sources. The Jacob Leisler Institute is an open resource for both scholars and the interested public.
Read more about the John Peter Zenger trial.
Illustration: Andrew Hamilton defending John Peter Zenger in court, 1734-5 (Library of Congress).
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