Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Scott Shane joins Midday. He worked for 36 years with the New York Times and, before that, with the Baltimore Sun. Shane is the author of an award-winning book, Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President and the Rise of the Drone.
He retired from the Times in 2019, and dove into a very different kind of project: a book that tells the story of the extraordinary Thomas Smallwood. Born into slavery, Smallwood purchased his freedom and helped hundreds of other enslaved people escape their bondage in the Baltimore-Washington area. He capped off these successful escapes by taunting slave holders in print. Along the way, Smallwood coined the term “underground railroad.”
Scott Shane has written a compelling, assiduously researched and eye-popping book that I hope will catapult Thomas Smallwood out of obscurity, and into the light of recognition he richly deserves. It’s called Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland.
Upcoming book events
September 19, 2023
Book launch at 7 p.m. at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, 400 Cathedral Street. I’ll be in conversation with the great Michael Fletcher, veteran journalist and author. Books available for signing and purchase courtesy of the Urban Reads bookshop.
September 20, 2023
Book talk at 6:30 pm at Carroll County Public Library,
50 East Main Street, Westminster, MD 21157
September 23, 2023
Talk at 1 p.m. at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture,
830 East Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
