The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
-- and the Mid-Hudson
Antislavery History Project --
will present an author talk
and book signing with
Michael E. Groth author of
SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
IN THE MID-HUDSON VALLEY
Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum -- and the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project -- will present an author talk and book signing with
Michael E. Groth author of SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN THE MID-HUDSON VALLEY
on Sunday, November 5, 2017. The program will begin at 2:00 p.m. in Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home. Following the presentation, Groth will be available to sign copies of his book.
This is a free public event but registration is required. Visit www.fdrlibrary.org or CLICK HERE to register.
SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN THE MID-HUDSON VALLEY
focuses on the largely forgotten history of slavery in New York and the African American freedom struggle in the central Hudson Valley prior to the Civil War. Slaves were central actors in the drama that unfolded in the region during the Revolution, and they waged a long and bitter battle for freedom during the decades that followed. Slavery in the countryside was more oppressive than slavery in urban environments, and the agonizingly slow pace of abolition, constraints of rural poverty, and persistent racial hostility in the rural communities also presented formidable challenges to free black life in the central Hudson Valley.
Michael E. Groth
, Professor of History at Wells College, explores how Dutchess County's black residents overcame such obstacles to establish independent community institutions, engage in political activism, and fashion a vibrant racial consciousness in antebellum New York. By drawing attention to the African American experience in the rural Mid-Hudson Valley, this book provides new perspectives on slavery and emancipation in New York, black community formation, and the nature of black identity in the Early Republic.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
The Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project (MHAHP) is a non-profit group created in 2006 to bring together researchers, educators, community leaders, and members of the public to: conduct and synthesize research on the history of antislavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley, with special emphasis on the Underground Railroad; interpret this history and share these interpretations with a wide array of residents and visitors in our area, with particular attention to students and youth; and place this local history in the broader contexts of racial slavery in the New World, the African-American experience, and antislavery legacies today, including the impact of this historic grassroots movement on subsequent struggles for racial and social justice. For information visit
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
