Book Talk: "Flee North"

Description

Homewood Museum hosts journalist and author Scott Shane to discuss his new nonfiction book about a very local story of both tragedy and triumph. Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland unearths the lost story of Thomas Smallwood, born into slavery in Maryland, who bought his freedom, educated himself, and became a shoemaker in Southwest Washington a short walk from the U.S. Capitol.

Smallwood began to organize mass escapes from slavery with the help of a young white partner, Charles Torrey—and wrote about the escapes in satirical dispatches for an abolitionist newspaper. It was Smallwood, Shane discovered, who gave the underground railroad its name. But Smallwood's daring operation took place against the very dark background of the domestic slave trade, which thrived on Washington's mall and at Baltimore's Inner Harbor and is still too little understood, even in Baltimore, where it prospered for half a century—and became an engine driving the underground railroad.

Please note that there is limited accessibility to reach the Wine Cellar, where the program will be hosted. If you require more information, please email museums@jhu.edu.