BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:Jonathan Schroeder: "The United States Governed by Six Hundred
  Thousand Despots"
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260606T200650Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_48844548552216
DTSTART:20250507T230000Z
DTEND:20250508T000000Z
DESCRIPTION:For one hundred and sixty-nine years\, a first-person slave nar
 rative written by John Swanson Jacobs—brother of Harriet Jacobs—was bu
 ried in a pile of newspapers in Australia. Jacobs’s long-lost narrative\
 , The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots\, is a startl
 ing and revolutionary discovery. A document like this—written by an ex-s
 lave and ex-American\, in language charged with all that can be said about
  America outside America\, untampered with and unedited by white abolition
 ists—has never been seen before. A radical abolitionist\, sailor\, and m
 iner\, John Jacobs has a life story that is as global as it is American. B
 orn into slavery\, by 1855\, he had fled both the South and the United Sta
 tes altogether\, becoming a stateless citizen of the world and its waters.
  That year\, he published his life story in an Australian newspaper\, far 
 from American power and its threats. Unsentimental and unapologetic\, Jaco
 bs radically denounced slavery and the state\, calling out politicians and
  slaveowners by their names\, critiquing America’s founding documents\, 
 and indicting all citizens who maintained the racist and intolerable statu
 s quo.\n\n\nReproduced in full\, this narrative—which entwines with that
  of his sister and with the life of their friend Frederick Douglass—here
  opens new horizons for how we understand slavery\, race\, and migration\,
  and all that they entailed in nineteenth-century America and the world at
  large. The second half of the book contains a full-length\, nine-generati
 on biography of Jacobs and his family by literary historian Jonathan Schro
 eder. This new guide to the world of John Jacobs will transform our sense 
 of it—and of the forces and prejudices built into the American project. 
 To truly reckon with the lives of John Jacobs is to see with new clarity t
 hat in 1776\, America embarked on two experiments at once: one in democrac
 y\, the other in tyranny.\n\n \n\nAbout the Editor: \n\nJonathan D. S. Sch
 roeder is a historian\, literary critic\, and lecturer at the Rhode Island
  School of Design. His edition of John Swanson Jacobs’s long lost The Un
 ited States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slav
 ery\, brings this incredible autobiography back to America after 169 years
 \, represents the most important rediscovery of a slave narrative to date\
 , and has been profiled in the New York Times\, All Things Considered\, an
 d elsewhere. The recipient of long-term fellowships from the National Endo
 wment for the Humanities\, John Carter Brown Library\, and American Antiqu
 arian Society\, Schroeder is currently writing two books and building a 42
 -acre forest wildlife rehabilitation center in the woods of Rhode Island.\
 n\n \n\nAbout the Program:\n\nTo attend in person please register here. Do
 ors will open to registered attendees at 6 pm. A local bookseller will be 
 on-site and have books available for purchase.Free parking vouchers are av
 ailable to program attendees who park at the Franklin Street Garage (15 W.
  Franklin Street) after 4pm.  Ask Pratt event staff for your parking vouch
 er prior to or after the program. This free event will be presented in-per
 son and virtually.
GEO:39.294601;-76.617302
LOCATION:Central Library\, Wheeler Auditorium 
SUMMARY:Jonathan Schroeder: "The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thou
 sand Despots"
URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/jonathan-schroeder-th
 e-united-states-governed-by-six-hundred-thousand-despots
CATEGORIES:Book Discussions
CATEGORIES:Writers LIVE!
CATEGORIES:Virtual Event
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR