Authors and Oysters: Norman E. Donoghue III at Imperial Hotel’s KItchen and Pub

The Bookplate is taking their Authors & Oysters event series on the road this week! On Wednesday, July 26th at 6pm, all are invited to The Kitchen and Pub at The Imperial Hotel to welcome author Ned Donoghue as he discusses his book, Prisoners of Congress.

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men—seventeen of whom were Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year.

Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nation’s first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition.

Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation’s founding.

“Norman Donoghue’s Prisoners of Congress brings to life one of the most important and compelling events of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. It is an untold story of national significance.”

—Patrick Spero, author of Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765–1776

Norman E. Donoghue II is an independent scholar and historian whose research focuses on pacifism in the mid-Atlantic during the American Revolution. A practicing probate and trust lawyer for more than thirty-four years, twenty-five of them as a partner at Dechert LLP, he served as chair in 2002 of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He was also elected to membership in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. On the civic side, he served as a founding board member and officer of Fund for Philadelphia and We The People 200, Inc., Philadelphia’s national celebration of the Bicentennial of the United State Constitution in 1987. He co-founded Philadelphia Volunteers Lawyers for the Arts and served as a board member and officer for more than 40 years of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining emerging talent in theater, dance, and film in the United States in tribute to Princess Grace of Monaco (1927-1982). He also was recruited to serve as a development officer of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association during its Endowment Campaign 2004-08. Ned rejoiced in dedicating the book to his wife of 34 years, Peggy O’Donnell, who proudly accompanies him and has helped him encourage the sale of 500 books in the first month.

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. This event is free and open to the public and reservations are not required. The next author event is scheduled for 8/23 with author Cynthia Miller-Idriss. The event with Ned Donoghue on 7/26 will be held in the back room of The Kitchen at the Imperial Hotel, located at 208 High Street in Chestertown, Maryland.