Event name
LV Book Club
When
Fri 05 / 17 / 2024
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Where
Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church - Chapel Bldg, Counseling room
49 Knox Drive
Lafayette CA 94549
49 Knox Drive
Lafayette CA 94549
Who can attend
Members and Volunteers
Price
FREE
The meeting will be a hybrid meeting. You are welcome to come in-person or join via Zoom.
Our next book is Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo. Thank you for the recommendation and leading our discussion Jean.
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.
Next meeting: May 17, 2024 2pm.
We’ll keep the hybrid zoom for now and see how long we’ll need it.
Enjoy this beautiful Spring.