Frederick Douglass: ‘A War Upon the Immortal Spirit’

Frederick Douglass: ‘A War Upon the Immortal Spirit’

Frederick Douglass, the famed orator and abolitionist, saw his life change in one afternoon in 1833. Learn about his incredible battle with an overseer--a struggle that changed a slave into a man, he said. Click on the link below, and you can watch our second "History...

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Henry ‘Box’ Brown on CBS

Henry ‘Box’ Brown on CBS

Happy Henry Day! This week marks the 166th anniversary of Henry Brown's amazing escape from slavery. On March 23, 1849, Henry Brown was sealed inside a wooden box, 3 feet by 2 feet by 2-1/2 feet in size. Then he was shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia--a...

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Meet the Vanishing Woman Highlights

Meet the Vanishing Woman Highlights

Ellen's teeth chattered, and she pulled the thin blanket around her shoulders. She was cold, and she was terrified. In the dim glow of a single candle, she sat on a stool and watched her husband William emerge from the darkness with a pair of scissors in his right...

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Sojourner Truth & Talking to Ashes

Sojourner Truth & Talking to Ashes

Sojourner Truth was once told that if she dared to preach, the building where she spoke would be burned. The famous abolitionist responded, "Then I will speak to the ashes." You gotta love it. This past weekend, actress Jennifer Goran and I encountered Sojourner Truth...

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Disappearing Man Optioned for Film!

Disappearing Man Optioned for Film!

I am thrilled to announce that a New York film and television company has purchased the screenplay of The Disappearing Man, with the goal of bringing Henry "Box" Brown's story to the screen. Many people have told me that my novels read like movies, so it is only...

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Where Book Covers Come From–Part 1

Where Book Covers Come From–Part 1

When I did a presentation at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati last fall, one of the people at the museum said jokingly, "The women here were wondering if the man on the cover of my novel, The Disappearing Man, was going to come along...

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A New Book Trailer for The Vanishing Woman

A New Book Trailer for The Vanishing Woman

Bay Forest Books released a new book trailer for The Vanishing Woman, produced by Stan Severance. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uai2yECAxCc The opening lines of the trailer say, "Eliza called her father 'Papa'. Her half-sister, Ellen, called him...

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Ellen’s Disguise

Ellen’s Disguise

Jennifer Goran, a Champaign actress, did her first presentation this past week as Ellen Craft, the slave who escaped in 1848 by posing as a white man. Jennifer did a marvelous job bringing Ellen and her story to life for seventh and eighth grade students in Champaign,...

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The Strange Worlds of Ellen and Eliza

The Strange Worlds of Ellen and Eliza

Take a good look at the two women pictured here. They were half-sisters, but they lived in two entirely different worlds. One was the other's slave. Ellen and Eliza had the same father, Major James P. Smith of Clinton, Georgia, but they had different mothers, and this...

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History by the Slice