A limited number of complimentary copies of "A Question of Freedom" ar e available at PGCMLS branch libraries (while supplies last). The book is also available for borrowing through the Library and for purchase through M ahogany Books.
\nSchedule of Book Discussions\n
Prince George's County Reads book disc ussion events will be held monthly on the first Tuesday of the month at 7p m ET through June 2022. The November and December 2021 events will be virt ual. 2022 event locations and formats will be announced in December.
\nBorrow the print book | Borrow the eBook | Purchase a copy from Mahogany Books
\nAbout "A Question of Freedom"
\nFor over seventy years and five generations\, the enslaved families of Prince George&rsquo\;s County\ , Maryland\, filed hundreds of suits for their freedom against a powerful circle of slaveholders\, taking their cause all the way to the Supreme Cou rt. Between 1787 and 1861\, these lawsuits challenged the legitimacy of sl avery in American law and put slavery on trial in the nation&rsquo\;s capi tal.
\nPiecing together evidence once dismissed in court and buried in the archives\, William Thomas tells an intricate and intensely human st ory of the enslaved families (the Butlers\, Queens\, Mahoneys\, and others )\, their lawyers (among them a young Francis Scott Key)\, and the slaveho lders who fought to defend slavery\, beginning with the Jesuit priests who held some of the largest plantations in the nation and founded a college at Georgetown. \;A Question of Freedom \;asks us to reckon with th e moral problem of slavery and its legacies in the present day.
\nWilliam G. Thomas III \;is the John and Catherine Angle
Chair in the Humanities and Professor of History at the University of Neb
raska. He is co-founder and was director of the Virginia Center for Digita
l History at the University of Virginia.
Prince George's C ounty Reads 2022 is part of Freedom Stories
\nF reedom \;Stories \;will \;discover the histories\, stories \, names\, and places where freedom from enslavement \;and oppression began in Prince George&rsquo\;s County. \;Through dialogue facilitated by programs\, \;Freedom \;Stories \;will strive to connect le gacy to present day \;Prince George&rsquo\;s \;families \;and& nbsp\;provide insight into the determination and resilience of Blacks livi ng in Prince George&rsquo\;s County \;in \;the 1700&rsquo\;s. We e xplore history to create a more just and equitable present experience.&nbs p\; \;
\nPrograms produced in partnership between:
\nPrinc
e George&rsquo\;s County Memorial Library System
Prince George's Coun
ty Office of Human Rights
Joe&rsquo\;s Movement Emporium
Prince
George&rsquo\;s Community College Center for Performing Arts
Prince G
eorge&rsquo\;s County Historical Society
&ldquo\;Many Americans se e enslaved people in history as a faceless and nameless\, victims of a lon g-ago system that has now disappeared. \; The nation needs to experien ce&hellip\;: a confrontation\, a reckoning\, with real people\, with real histories\, with real families whose descendants live among us. \; Unt il such encounters happen more widely\, Americans will continue to live in separate historical spheres of understanding&rdquo\;. \; &ndash\; Wil liam G. Thomas III\, "A Question of Freedom" \;
\nWat ch William G. Thomas III's discussion of "A Question of Freedom" with PGCM LS from December 2020
\n\nhttps://pgcmls.libnet.info/event/5 728896 URL;VALUE=URI:https://pgcmls.libnet.info/event/5728896 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR