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VIRTUAL: America's 250th: The Escapes of David George

with author Gregory E. O'Malley

The Escapes of David George reveals the untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email. Due to limited space, if you know you cannot attend live, do not register with Zoom but please fill out the form below to receive the video link.**  

We are pleased to continue to partner with the Ashland Public Library for this 9 week series to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence!

We're thrilled to welcome author and historican Gregory E. O'Malley who will be discussing his book, The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution which reveals a remarkable, untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people. We hope you can join us for this fascinating conversation!  

Due to limited space, if you know you cannot attend live, please do not register with Zoom but please fill out THIS FORM to receive the video link.

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program. 

Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them, the email will be coming from Zoom.

About the book:

When most Americans think of slavery, they do not picture the colonial or revolutionary eras. Yet, in fact, one of six inhabitants of the thirteen original colonies was enslaved. The Escapes of David George: an Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution reveals a remarkable, untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people.

In 1762, at the age of 19, David George escaped from a plantation in Virginia. Running southwest by night, fording rivers and crossing borders, he embarked on a decades-long journey in and out of captivity that spanned multiple colonies and thousands of miles. George lived among White, Black, Creek, and Natchez settlements, fled to the British Army for the promise of liberty, founded what might have been the first Black Baptist church, helped to hack a settlement for refugees out of the Nova Scotia wilderness, and died as a leader of an experimental anti-slavery community in Sierra Leone.

Piecing together archival records and David George’s own brief account of his life—the earliest written testimony by a fugitive enslaved person in North America—Gregory O’Malley presents a thrilling narrative and a unique perspective on our nation’s origins, principles, and contradictions..

About Gregory:

Greg O’Malley is a historian of slavery, the slave trade, and early America. He is professor and department chair in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

His first book, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807, received four awards: The America Historical Association’s Forkosch Prize for British history; the AHA’s Rawley Prize for Atlantic history; The Owsley Award from the Southern Historical Association; and the Goveia Prize from the Association of Caribbean Historians. The book examines a brutal network for distributing enslaved Africans throughout North America and the Caribbean after their survival of the Atlantic crossing.

O’Malley is also co-creator (with Alex Borucki) of the Intra-American Slave Trade Database, a free online research tool that documents more than 35,000 human trafficking voyages from one port in the Americas to another.

His second book, The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution, was published in February by St. Martin’s Press. It offers a life history of a man born enslaved in colonial Virginia, whose attempts to escape bondage resulted in wide-ranging travels, captivities, and re-enslavements, illuminating both enslaved people’s resistance and the powerful barriers to their escape. David George finally found emancipation by fleeing the emerging United States and running to the British Army during the Revolutionary War.

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