slavery

By Phil Drew

Affixed to the exterior of a building on State Street in downtown 
Troy, within sight of the YWCA building on First Street, is a simple 
bronze plaque paying tribute to an event in local history that, this 
being Black History Month, deserves to be better recognized.

A big dose of exposure comes this week with a pair of public events 
marking publication of a new book, and the opening of an exhibition of 
paintings, chronicling the rescue 150 years ago of Charles Nalle by a 
riotous mob preventing the forcible return of a fugitive slave on the 
eve of the Civil War.

"There is a lot of history under our feet here in Troy," says Scott 
Christianson, historian, author and Sand Lake resident. "This is a 
part of history in Troy and Watervliet that really bears notice. . It 
was an act of civil disobedience to stand up and act in violation of 
the law, although I do believe in this instance it was the law that 
was illegal."

Join the Sanctuary in welcoming author Scott Christianson for a multimedia presentation and spirited public discussion on the life and amazing rescue of captured fugitive slave, Charles Nalle. In an almost unimaginable act - and the most dramatic slave rescue in American history - Nalle was forcibly liberated by Harriet Tubman and hundreds of protesters on April 27, 1860 in our own Troy, New York.

(Update: Artist Mark Priest will no longer be able to attend this event. Sorry for the last-minute change!)

In his book, Christianson follows Nalle from his enslavement in Virginia through his escape via the Underground Railroad to his experiences in the North on the eve of the Civil War. Christianson also presents a richly detailed look at slavery culture in antebellum Virginia, and probes the deepest political and psychological aspects of this epic tale. His account underscores fundamental questions about racial inequality, the rule of law, civil disobedience, and violent resistance to slavery in the antebellum North and South.

Join us at Christ Church United Methodist in Troy where we're co-sponsoring a talk and book signing by Doug Blackmon, New York Times bestselling author of "Slavery By Another Name" at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 9!

Filled with archival photographs, "Slavery by Another Name" is the true account of the re-enslavement of African Americans from the end of the Civil War until World War II.

Contrary to public understanding, emancipation did not end slavery for hundreds of thousands of people in the southern U.S. African Americans were arrested for minor offenses, often for no offense at all, and sentenced to hard labor in coal mines, lumber camps, farms, and mills across the South. Most were never released from deplorable working and living conditions.