Uncovered Papers Shine New Light on Personal Life and Political Life of New York Governor William Seward

William H. Seward is an important figure in the history of New York State. Seward was Governor of New York, and served as Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State during the Civil War. Thomas P. Slaughter is professor emeritus of history at the University of Rochester, and for over 12 years he and his students digitized and archived 25,000 pages of Seward’s papers recently discovered in baskets and trunks. The result of that project in part is a new book about Seward told through the lens of his family life at home in Auburn, New York. Slaughter discusses what he uncovered in The Sewards of New York: A Biography of a Leading American Political Family .