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David W. Blight, author of "A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to
Freedom," will discuss his compelling biography during the evening.
Free reservations may be made by calling 217-558-8934. Copies of his
book will be available for purchase in the museum's bookstore.
Slave narratives, some of the most powerful records of our past, are
extremely rare, with only 55 post-Civil War narratives surviving. A
mere handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and
freed themselves. Two newly uncovered narratives and biographies of
the men who wrote them are the basis of "A Slave No More." Filled
with the two men's humor, faith and joy, the book offers a rich, new
answer to the question of how 4 million people moved from slavery to
freedom, and tells the previously untold stories of two men who can
now take their rightful place in American history.
Blight is the director of Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center
for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, and is also a
professor of American history. His books have won the Frederick
Douglass Prize, the Lincoln Prize, four awards from the Organization
of American Historians and the Bancroft Prize. He writes for The
Washington Post and lectures around the country on slavery and the
Civil War.
[Text from
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum news release
received from the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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