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A story of slavery & freedom in Md. and DC in "Flee North"

Midday
Midday
Episode • Feb 16, 2024 • 48m

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Scott Shane joins Midday.  He retired from the New York Times in 2019, and dove into a very different kind of project: a book that tells the story of the extraordinary Thomas Smallwood. Born into slavery, Smallwood purchased his freedom and helped hundreds of other enslaved people escape their bondage in the Baltimore-Washington area. Along the way, Smallwood coined the term “underground railroad.”

Shane details the life of Smallwood in his book, Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland.

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