Thomas Smallwood has been a “lost” hero of the U.S. abolition movement for over 100 years. Born into slavery in 1801, Smallwood bought his freedom, educated himself and became a shoemaker living near the Navy Yard. Then in 1842, Smallwood along with a young white partner began organizing escapes from slavery for wagonloads of people. Adding insult to the financial loss inflicted on slave owners by the escapes, Smallwood wrote extraordinary satirical dispatches about the escapes for an Albany, NY, abolitionist newspaper.

The story of this remarkable man and the perilous times in which both free and enslaved black people lived will be related by Scott Shane, author of the recently published Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland, at the Overbeck Capitol Hill History lecture on Monday, May 13. Shane, a reporter for 15 years for the New York Times where he was a member of two teams that won Pulitzer prizes, was also a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and is author of two other books and numerous articles.

The May 13 lecture by Shane at Old Naval Hospital at Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, will begin at 7:30 pm. Admission is free but a reservation is required due to limited capacity.  Available seats will be released to others beginning at 7:15 pm. If you are unable to attend, please notify Hill Center (202-549-4172) so that another person can attend.