In the first of a series of events focusing on human trafficking, Washington College will welcome lawyer and author James H. Johnston to campus Tuesday, Sept. 24 to discuss his recent book, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the history of an African American Family. He will speak at 5:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center.
From Slave Ship to Harvard (Fordham University Press, 2012) chronicles the fascinating journey of Yarrow Mamout, an educated Muslim from Guinea, and how he and his family rose from the shackles of American slavery to the prosperity of the American Dream. Combining paintings, photographs, diaries, court records, books, legal documents and oral history, Johnson reconstructs all six generations of the family’s colorful history from the colonial period to the modern day. This family’s journey of more than 175 years offers a broader history of black struggle and achievement in Maryland and the United States.
Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Department of History, the talk is free and open to the public.
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