Thursday, June 20 -- Morris County
7:14 p.m. North Jersey Civil War Round Table
The North Jersey Civil War Round Table will present its 2019 Book Award to Columbia University Prof. Andrew Delbanco for The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War.
Prof. Delbanco will receive his award, be part of the presentation of his book to * the libraries and schools, and give his talk
For decades after its founding, America was really two nations--one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights at all. By awakening northerners to the true nature of slavery, and by enraging southerners who demanded the return of their human "property," fugitive slaves forced the nation to confront the truth about itself.
The fugitive slave story illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.
Andrew Delbanco is the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University. Author of many notable books, including College, Melville, The Death of Satan, Required Reading, The Real American Dream, and The Puritan Ordeal, he was recently appointed president of the Teagle Foundation. Winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2001, Andrew Delbanco was named by Time as “America’s Best Social Critic.”
*As part of its mission, because of the importance of this book, the NJCWRT has limited funding to present a copy to a representative of a library or school who will attend the meeting to receive the copy. In order for adequate copies to be available, pre-notice must be sent to NJCWRT@aol.com.
Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission $5 Students and educators– free
