Champlain College’s Black History Talk Features Untold Story on Feb. 19, 2010

-Burlington, Vt. – Champlain College will host renowned author and journalist Catherine Manegold for an hour of public reflection and conversation about the history of slavery in the North. Manegold, a former journalist for The New York Times, Newsweek and the Philadelphia Inquirer, will speak at Champlain College on Friday, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m. in Champlain College’s Alumni Auditorium. The talk, in honor of Black History Month, is free and open to the public.

In Manegold’s recently published, “Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North,” she explores the early history of black slavery in North America, revealing the interlaced stories of three families of slave-owners who lived on a New England farm first settled by John Winthrop. This riveting history unfolds over 150 years as these families lived with slaves and profited from the slave trade in the North, the West Indies, and the American South. Isaac Royall, heir to a huge fortune made through slavery and the slave trade in Antigua, granted Harvard College funds to create a professorship of law. From that seed grew Harvard Law School.

Manegold is a passionate writer and teacher and served as the James M. Cox, Jr. Professor of Journalism at Emory University in Atlanta from 2001-2006. She is currently at Mt. Holyoke College, where she teaches long-form narrative, journalism ethics, and a course called “story trackers” which explores the translation of serious works of literary non-fiction into film. She is also the author of “In Glory’s Shadow: The Citadel, Shannon Faulkner and a Changing America,” published by Knopf in 2000 and recognized by the Los Angeles Times on its list of “best non-fiction” for that year. More information is available at http://www.tenhillsfarm.com.

-Vermont Daily News report and Champlain College press release