SWEET TASTE OF LIBERTY: Slavery and Restitution in America
W. Caleb McDaniel, PhD
Join Lifetime Learning for its June luncheon presentation by Rice University historian, W. Caleb McDaniel. His book Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America (Oxford University Press, 2019) won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2020. The Pulitzer committee called it “a masterfully researched meditation on reparations...”
Dr. McDaniel was the first Rice University professor to win the illustrious prize. His research centers on slavery, abolitionism, restitution, and the notorious system of convict leasing. Sweet Taste of Liberty tells the story of Henrietta Wood who was born into slavery in Kentucky. She was taken to Ohio where she attained her freedom. Later kidnapped, she was re-enslaved in Kentucky, then bought by a cotton planter who took her to Texas. After the Civil War ended, she returned to Ohio and sought justice for her illegal re-enslavement. She sued her captor and won reparations in 1878 in the amount of $2,500 (about $78,000 today).
Henrietta Wood’s remarkable sense of agency and self-worth permeates McDaniel’s telling of her story and demonstrates how African-Americans have fought to be free and made whole since the beginning of their tragic enslavement in the United States.
PRESENTER W. Caleb McDaniel was born and raised in San Antonio. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Texas A&M, and his PhD at John Hopkins University in 2006. He is currently the Mary Gibbs Jones, Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University.
His first book The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery was published by LSU Press in 2013. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Atlantic, and Time magazine.
Friday, June 21, 2024 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
The Cannery 314 East Alamo Brenham TX $25 per person
BUY TICKETS ONLINE: Registration deadline: Wednesday, June 19th
OR... MAIL A CHECK TO: Lifetime Learning P. O. Box 513 Brenham, TX 77834