**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE P LACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email. Due to limited space\, if you know you cannot attend live\, do not register with Zoom but please fill out the form below to receive the v ideo link.** \; \;
\nWe are pleased to continue to partner with the Ashland Public Library for this 9 week series to celebrat e the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence!
\nWe're thrilled to welcome author and historican Gregory E. O'Mall ey who will be discussing his book\, The Escapes of David George: An O dyssey of Slavery\, Freedom\, and the American Revolution which revea ls a remarkable\, untold experience of the American revolutionary period&m dash\;a Black man&rsquo\;s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders\ , but denied him and other enslaved people. We hope you can join us for th is fascinating conversation! \; \;
\nDue to limited space\, if you know you cannot attend live\, please do not register with Z oom but please fill out \;THIS FORM \;to receive the video link.
\nRECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrant s will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.&nbs p\;
\nPlease register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them\, the email will be coming from Zoom.
\n\nA bout the book:
\nWhen most Americans think of slavery\, the
y do not picture the colonial or revolutionary eras. Yet\, in fact\, one o
f six inhabitants of the thirteen original colonies was enslaved. \;
In 1762\, at the age of 19\, David George escaped from a plan tation in Virginia. Running southwest by night\, fording rivers and crossi ng borders\, he embarked on a decades-long journey in and out of captivity that spanned multiple colonies and thousands of miles. George lived among White\, Black\, Creek\, and Natchez settlements\, fled to the British Arm y for the promise of liberty\, founded what might have been the first Blac k Baptist church\, helped to hack a settlement for refugees out of the Nov a Scotia wilderness\, and died as a leader of an experimental anti-slavery community in Sierra Leone.
\nPiecing together archival records and David George&rsquo\;s own brief account of his life&mdash\;the earliest wr itten testimony by a fugitive enslaved person in North America&mdash\;Greg ory O&rsquo\;Malley presents a thrilling narrative and a unique perspectiv e on our nation&rsquo\;s origins\, principles\, and contradictions..
\nAbout Gregory:
\nGreg O&rsquo\;Malley is a histo rian of slavery\, the slave trade\, and early America. He is professor and department chair in the History Department at the University of Californi a\, Santa Cruz.
\nHis first book\, \;Final Passages: The Int ercolonial Slave Trade of British America\, 1619-1807\, received four awards: The America Historical Association&rsquo\;s Forkosch Prize for Br itish history\; the AHA&rsquo\;s Rawley Prize for Atlantic history\; The O wsley Award from the Southern Historical Association\; and the Goveia Priz e from the Association of Caribbean Historians. The book examines a brutal network for distributing enslaved Africans throughout North America and t he Caribbean after their survival of the Atlantic crossing.
\nO&rsqu o\;Malley is also co-creator (with Alex Borucki) of the Intra-American Sla ve Trade Database\, a free online research tool that documents more than 3 5\,000 human trafficking voyages from one port in the Americas to another.
\nHis second book\, \;The Escapes of David George: An Odyss ey of Slavery\, Freedom\, and the American Revolution\, was published in February by St. Martin&rsquo\;s Press. It offers a life history of a m an born enslaved in colonial Virginia\, whose attempts to escape bondage r esulted in wide-ranging travels\, captivities\, and re-enslavements\, illu minating both enslaved people&rsquo\;s resistance and the powerful barrier s to their escape. David George finally found emancipation by fleeing the emerging United States and running to the British Army during the Revoluti onary War.
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