Please join us for a talk by author and historian Kidada Williams on her on her new book, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction, a heart-wrenching reexamination of the struggle for survival in the Reconstruction-era South. The story of Reconstruction is often told from the perspective of the politicians, generals and journalists whose accounts claim an outsized place in collective memory. But this pivotal era looked very different to African Americans in the South transitioning from bondage to freedom after 1865. Williams offers a breakthrough account of this much-debated period, transporting readers into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives. Drawing on overlooked sources and bold new readings of the archives, Williams offers a revelatory and, in some cases, minute-by-minute record of nighttime raids and Ku Klux Klan strikes. And she deploys cutting-edge scholarship on trauma to consider how the effects of these attacks would linger for generations to come. A book signing will follow the talk.
The Carole Weinstein Author Series supports the literary arts by bringing both new and well-known authors to the Library of Virginia through online or in-person events. Free and open to the public, the series focuses on Virginia authors and Virginia subjects across all genres. This book will be available at the Virginia Shop. For more information, contact Catherine Fitzgerald Wyatt at 804.692.3999 or catherine.fitzgeraldwyatt@lva.virginia.gov.
This is a free event. Registration is required. Seating in the Lecture Hall is available on a first come, first served basis. Limited free parking is available in the deck underneath the Library building.