Historian Ely To Speak About New Book At Moton Museum

On Thursday, October 28, at 7:00 p.m., historian Melvin Patrick Ely will give a talk and sign copies of his new book, Israel on the Appomattox, at the Robert R. Moton Museum. Ely, Professor of History and Black Studies at the College of William and Mary, has written a fascinating study of the free black community, Israel Hill, which existed in Prince Edward County from the 1790s to the Civil War. In addition to teaching and writing, Ely has lectured extensively on race and reconciliation as a Fulbright Scholar in the Middle East.

One historian has this to say of Israel on the Appomattox: "In an astonishing act of historical research and imagination, Melvin Ely has recreated an entire world in a forgotten corner of the slave South. The people of his remarkable story-black and white, free and enslaved-emerge from a dark past to stand before us in sharp relief. By understanding their lives we understand the American South in a new and more profound way."

Copies of Ely's book are available now at the Longwood University Bookstore and will be available at the museum-located at Griffin Blvd. and S. Main St.-on the night of the reading. For more information call the museum at (434) 315-8775.