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An evening with William G. Thomas III
February 8, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, FEB. 8: The story of the Black families in D.C. and Prince Georges County who challenged slavery in the 1790s—and won! William G. Thomas III, the author of the prize-winning A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War (Yale 2020), Professor of History at the University of Nebraska and Episcopal layman, will join us to tell the story of the five generations of enslaved families who sued to secure their freedom, filing hundreds of lawsuits against slaveholders in PG County, including the Jesuits. That story is also the author’s own story, as he learned in the course of his research that his grandmother’s family owned plantations in PG County. His is the story of expanding an understanding of family, telling a more complete truth, and reckoning with repentance and the possibility of reconciliation.