Introduce the state speakers. Cell phones or any other devices that go bang should be turned off. Tonight there is one event. If i could just head everybody fold up their chairs at the end of the event. Last thing is for the q a session after the presentation if i could ask you to step to the side we have a microphone we do record this. For posterity if we could just get that all on recording that would be wonderful. Thank you. I would like to introduce tonights author. The amazing story and escape from slavery to union here. It is a second major work with the secret rescue. Nominated for the 2014 at gore award of her best and number one wall street best seller the heroic journey in the life of robert small. In 1862 seats at confederate steamer. Freed himself in his family as all of you will soon see and learn he have a mission that did not end there. And enjoy the illustrious career of a state and national legislator. They declared that reading these like recovering a national heirloom that was lost, stolen or buried over decades. Kate library has made it clear as a staff writer and editor as well as the Smithsonian Magazine she resides in Raleigh North Carolina and in conversation today misaligned barry is there. The great greatgrandson of mister smalls. Mister moore is an accomplished businessman. Please join me in welcoming kate library. We decided before that im going to ask the first question it feels awkward. Supporting her so i just want to do my part to welcome you all here. Its great. We have a chance to do this once before and this looks like a great crowd and i hear it is a friendly one. We are just Getting Started doing a little bit of a q a. His life. In some other stuff. I think im going to start youve written before you could have written about. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here. Many of them that were ever here. Nothing personal i was looking for my second book and its its often a difficult task. You are bringing something new to the table. Given how many books are out there. But my youngest brother actually sent me this. I have done through my work at National Geographic and smithsonian in writing for the New York Times i was amazed to find that he would not be a betterknown figure. I want to know more. I wanted to know what compelled him taking his family with him and risking everything after having a life and been told that he was equal. It looks like there was room in the marketplace. The most obvious question to ask you. What influences they have. From a metaphysical level has been profound in the sense is again person you grew up in will numeral and secured. I have the benefit of growing up in the 70s while boston massachusetts has a branding of braiding of a progressive liberal kind of place i can assure you that around issues of race in the 70s it was not. He and i deployed to a prep school in new england back in those days. Thank you for coming. So a couple of levels. As a child at first it just kind of was. Lived with rubber up until the teen years. She have the benefit of living a long life. So my mother grew up with firsthand stories about she was maybe three or four years old or something. She did not remember much about that night. And then obviously would be the secretary of washington and everything. It has sustained me and it filled me or supported my sense of selfesteem. With my ethnicity and race. They have really balanced a lot of that. And president of a museum in charleston. And so is the gift that keeps on giving. I think for me my challenge how i do i continue that gift to my children. One of his name is robert. I just feel an obligation. I am expressing the obligation in some degree. But most important around passing along. And hopefully someday at my grandchildren. Its been wonderful. When you were thinking about that story. It is not a new story. Why that could be relevant today. Certainly people know Robert Smalls name. And as a town in South Carolina where he was born and raised until he was 12. There is definitely a market need decision when you are picking a topic you want to make sure that you are bringing stuff to the table. But there was also i think in order to really appeal to modernday readers. They have semi choices. You cant pick up a newspaper or turn on a tv without seeing some issue regarding race in our country. If you combine it with the plight of african africanamericans during the civil war it illustrates so much. Telling the story during the civil war which is the focus of the book and then also telling the story to understand history you have to understand some the issues the africanamericans are facing. And some issues that our country was dealing with at the time i learned so much in the recent parse process of this book. An idea how much of a decision it was whether or not to free the slaves for so long so when Robert Smalls actually sailed to freedom he was considered contraband. Mostly they did not see themselves that way. Technically the government in the United States have not decided what they were going to do. To get some of the racial issues that we are dealing with we have to fully understand the full story. And Robert Smalls story he was in the center of everything. When that others took it over. Who had no food and did not know how to care for themselves. The government had to figure out how to help them. The first efforts as a reconstruction happened there. He made the charleston South Carolina. It was a place where the state of South Carolina signed the ordinance. It was the spiritual capital of the confederacy. He was really in the middle of it all. Its deftly an important aspect of the story. I think in the 70s at the tabernacle church. Can you explain what the relevance is at the tabernacle church. I had been blessed to have an opportunity to talk about Robert Smalls many time over the times over the course of my life. Hundreds of times. But the first time that i spoke publicly about Robert Smalls was april 1976 and i thing i think i was 13 or 14 years old. The eighth grade trip that everybody does to dc. I was Robert Smalls a day in South Carolina that day. There was a big parade. I get a chance to ride in a float with the lieutenant governor. And then afterwards at that Tabernacle Baptist Church where he is buried i have an opportunity to unveil the bus that is of him there. I remember being quite terrified they washed over me as im sitting on the stage. And took it exciting away and never really felt anxious about speaking in public whether that was robert moving his hand over me. It was a great opportunity. Our family has a traveling exhibit. They traveled around the country whenever that opens someplace that person happens to be connected to you all the better. That person happens to be connected to you all the better. The exhibit is in buford right now. Tell me about the Research Process what is the Research Process like for Something Like this. I was trained by the very best. Kind of picking below the hanging fruit. In that typically from there you will find other angles of places that you want to research. I know that Robert Smalls attention filed when the National Archives and that was something that once he sailed the ship to freedom the union and end up hiring him as a civilian boat pilot. He couldve been enlisted that the other men that were on board the ship were. But sanyo the part it was the admiral that took the ship from smalls needed him as a pilot and the only level that Robert Smalls could be enlisted at would be the very lowest and not a very wellrespected position and he never would have been allowed to be a boat pilot. He was very impressed with his navigational skills and Everything Else he have done. For many years smalls head to fight for a pension. In every way. But technically he was not. I knew that there was pension files were there. It was very amazing to see some of the writing and handwriting in these notes that are still at the archives. The haggling museum in delaware they have because of the connection to the story. They have a lot of the papers that were delivered. They have the order book that was on the planner. For me there is nothing like seeing Something Like that in person. It just makes the story so we real. Some of the museums and archives also have items and then one of the most upsetting documents that i came across was a bill of sale for a small future white. They have not met yet. And seen that on the piece of paper just brought the history to life. As a white person doing the story. It hit home in a way that you hadnt realized. I never in the wildest dreams wanted to find family members. I thought it was a little bit easier. That made it a lot easier also. We see the impact i can see it through the family. The impacts the education had have in your life. It seems like something that your mom has her phd. Smalls was illiterate until he was in his 20s. An education became very important to him. He saw that as a way to freedom. He passed along to his children. I think that was really instilled in the family it seems like something you all about you very much. I try to turn everything that i can. And you never know where thats can be. I was determined to find out henry mckees reaction. He was a smalls owner. And i wanted to find out his reaction to seizing the planter. And there was not a lot of information out there in a family diary that was published it was a small mention that he was working at a confederate hospital. And had just lost two children from illness. And quickly just mentioned that he knew about it. It wasnt that they have gotten everything that i hoped they would get. But it was important for me to know what kind of reaction he have you never know when thats can a come up. The fact that 70 so many of them had been digitized. That really helps. A lot. Hours and hours of time. So part of the reason why the story is not better known is for certain parts of the country there was a strategic effort to mute the story in 2012 we have a commemoration in charleston commemorating smalls taking the boat to freedom. Someone can up to me afterwards. Very emotional and upset. Im angry with you. Because Robert Smalls my history traced. Im not quite sure what response he expected of me and i wanted to be sure not to disrespect him personally i just wonder if you were doing a book about abe lincoln there would be an addition to original research it would be all kinds of other authors who would uncover things and with Robert Smalls it probably wasnt a whole lot of that and then there was the whole influence of muting again. I just wonder how that played if at all in your research. As one of the challenges that i think people are doing nonfiction. We can only write what we validate. I certainly did. It is definitely an issue in the fact that he was illiterate until he was in his 20s there was not a lot of writing to go back on. It was definitely something i have to sing think long and hard about. And that is why its so important to find as many sources as you possibly can i met one of the defendants who was the captain on board he had decided that he and his fellow officers would go into town which was against confederate orders. Thus leaving the area open for smalls to do what he did. This allowed it to happen. We met the descendent. And he told me when we interviewed. They was really the first generation to not be embarrassed by the story. Hes very open to his role and came to our reading in austin. I think that speaks volumes to the legacy of the south in that division in the country in some way. My question back to you is what it was like and who did you meet and what it was like to meet them has been really surreal to meet these descendents of other people. I met this gentleman i met a descendent of the family that owned the planter i met a great grandson. Up in philadelphia in a museum event. And i sort of think of it abstractly to some degree. On her for two years ago all of those peoples lives were intersecting. And then they broke apart the arc of those lives kind of came back together it is interesting. It is odd how that happens but i would love to get as many of those descendents together around a table and just talk about what did you hear. What did you grow up hearing. The disc dupont descendents didnt know much about it at all. I think being with them you probably have lots of other things to think about. It has been interesting and fascinating. Picked up Little Things here and there. Again Robert Smalls is sort of an under told story were there things as you did your research and you are beginning writing that really sort of surprised you what surprised you the most about the story. I think what surprised me the most was how i knew a lot about what have happened during that time beyond Robert Smalls about africanamerican relationships to their owners et cetera, et cetera. The brutality was certainly there. I think that how much the lives of the people were intertwined that robert was a unique position. At the age of nine years old they were taken to that house in town. Ripped from her mother. But she spoke gola which was the language spoken by a lot of the west african slaves who have their own languages but were pushed together. He have the benefit privy to a lot of information because he was working as a house slave. I did not realize the extent of the difference between that. Certainly no one would ever wish anybody to be an enslaved person working at home but compared to life on a plantation it was a far better life. There was regular food, and close and you were aware of a lot that was going on. I think that was a most shocking things. The extent to which the south try to reinstate slavery. I kind of know it but knew it but i did not know to the extent. When they were implemented it was quite shocking. That was a history that i was talking about that we all need to understand more to fully grasp the history. I would ask you is there anything in reading the books that surprise you. I think it was a Childrens Book back in the 60s. I love books. I think for me it was an incremental kind of experience. You read about something that you didnt know. It almost feels like you are opening a door to an information. Information that was there but for some reason you have not accessed at or something. For me it was just broadly a lot of details and it also to a certain degree because i feel linked to him its odd we are just getting to know each other and here she is telling me something about who i am. Ive had to get used to it. In thinking about writing the book and fashioning the story you made a strategic decision to stop in a certain place can you talk about that point in my you decided that. Im referring to the fact. After the war. He served as a congressman for five terms. They certainly have Death Threats during reconstruction. But for me i felt that the civil war was what made him the person that he was. His childhood as well as the civil war and it launched launched him into this political career. Personally i wasnt as interested in getting into the details about certain legislation. I really wanted to tell the story of him as a person. As much as you can without having access to diaries and things like that. The seizing of the planner is sexy and exciting. And everybody wants to know more about it. But understanding and ripping off the without anyone being his guardian really. He was expected and hired out for work. He was expected to turn over most of that paycheck. Each month. That was important to me. And thats what i felt like made him the man that he became. I was able to talk about his life after the civil war but i really wanted to focus on what made him the person that he became. I will ask you one more question and then we will move to some questions from the audience. I used the term enslaved person throughout the book in addition to slave whenever it felt right to me. That was a decision that my editor and i made. Who really enlightened me about the issue. I wondered if you could talk a little bit because i know it through facebook and other means as a preferred tone for you as well. There has been a long journey from those days when they were around for africanamericans to kind of sees the narrative of our lives and our existence. In our identity. I think it goes into the stream of evolution more personally it has been passed down the lid that validity set him. That robert you may be enslaved but you are not a slave i think the distinction that she was trying to offer. He does not define who you are. This is a difference between an adjective and a noun. And so the combination of this. In the last decade or so people have been starting to make that distinction in the fact that i have some personal connection to that thinking i think that resonates with me. They had been the history in this country is like this much. In the span of time i dont think that defines those people who suffered through that. That was the role that they were forced to play. It reminded me of their humanity in some ways. Countless articles about the suffering that was happening. But when you start you start grouping people together and the slaves they need this. And then they Start Talking to vigil people men, women and children becomes much and becomes much more powerful to people as well. Distant talk really for a minute about this museum that we are building. One of the galleries that we are building is called atlantic connections. It seeks to uncover that. The fact is that the people that came here it wasnt this group of people it was people from hundreds of different cities i think that understanding adds to the sense of humanity that you just talk to you. I think its important. With that does any of anybody had any questions that they could ask. Thank you very much for your words. Im finding the book to be truly meaningful. For me one of the most meat moving aspects. Was learning about how robert small ultimately purchase the house and beaumont. In which he and his mother have been enslaved. My question is what happened to the house. As the house Still Standing today. The house remained in our family for about a hundred years and in the 1950s or so just about everybody have left beaufort. It had fallen on hard economic times. Throughout north and South Carolina. The decision was made. As the historic sites. But it is private residence. Its on my mind so im going to ask anyway. I have not read the book yet but i cannot wait. I just finished reading douglas andertons book about the massachusetts 54th and 50 fit register mints. I saw a reference. Ive got to read a book. And then your book came out. Im really happy to see it. Im impressed with you. You appear to be a fearless kind of person who would take on a new subject and not worry about it. Im somewhat curious about the racial aspect of this in the sense of you being i dont like white and black. You being you writing about an africanAmerican Hero. What your thoughts were before you took that on. And how things transpired as you got into it. If it was important or not. It was incredibly important. I think i would be very naive as a writer to go into any topic without thinking about every angle that you possibly can. Certainly with the a topic that deals with the race. You have to be ready to make sure that all your facts are correct. To the issue. That involved having a professor who is a specialist in africanamerican history. The manuscript once it was done. I consulted with him throughout the process certainly having the family of Robert Smalls whether he was white, black or agent dash mike asian was very important to me. It was sent by anyone down. My goal is to get the accurate story i wanted to elevate someone that i thought was a hero. It was very important to listen to anything that came up. When eccles mother mentions that we were going to use the term slave on the title of his journey from slavery. He was opposed to that. I completely understand why now. And we made that argument with the editor. He was very gracious about it and understood. The last thing i wanted to do was insult people that it was really trying to help. It was kind of a daunting thing. I dont know if i fully realize how daunting it was. I was really just overwhelmed by his story and i think he is an American Hero that we should all be looking to the onto being africanamerican and obviously that was important aspect of his story. That is what really made me decide to do it. Hopefully i would be as sensitive as possible. I have many people read it. And alerted me to anything that they felt was insensitive towards the confederates as well. Something you have to do. I personally got interested in the civil war when i was younger when i learned that i have relatives that fought on both sides of the war. Both were injured. The confederates went to a couple of pow camps. I thought that that was something that made me a good candidate to write the story because i think i live in Raleigh North Carolina now. Im very longwinded answer to your question. It was something that was very much on my mind. I hope i covered everything i could. But i was willing to take the chance to get the story. I know your focus is on the civil war. But i have read about how Robert Smalls was one of the last africanamerican leaders to remain in power as the segregation is pushed out. And yet control over his constituents. In beaufort. Can you comment on why that happens. I think it was really invited them to buford and invited them to an extraordinary act of forgiveness and the family refused to eat with him at the same table and he continued to have them stay and served separately. His success was determined, despite efforts to knock him down. I have a couple questions. Smalls regarding his pension, there was some struggle regarding his pension. He served under dupont. I think it was hunter, who was the army commander. As i understand he was promoted to the rank of captain or pilot which should have allowed him to receive his pension. I dont understand why he didnt call on Samuel Dupont or hunter to assist him in verifying that he could get his pension. He later received his pension but im confused why there was a struggle to receive the pension. He was promoted to captain but not in military capacity. He was captain of a ship and that happened shortly after he was piloting votes during the charleston campaign, got close to some fire in the white captain of the ship panicked and hid in the bunker and smalls jumped in and because he was so heroic and saved many lives they said lets make this guy a captain but he was not a military captain. He was captain of that boat. Hunter died, dupont died during the war soon after he lost his position because of what happened in charleston and i dont remember when hunter died but for many years a smalls fought to get a pension for hunters wife after he died. This was the kind of man he was, these were people who helped him. It all comes down to the idea that he was a civilian boat pilot, never an enlisted man. He pretty much did it but had he not been enlisted he wouldnt have been allowed to be a pilot so what choice does he have . The other side of the coin is as an africanamerican he faced certain obstacles that he wouldnt otherwise. For example there was a law on the books that when property was delivered to unions, a certain formula was delivered in terms of the reward and smalls never got that, congress couldnt see fit to give a black man that much money. Did he have a relationship with Frederick Douglass . He absolutely did. He and Frederick Douglass met with secretary of war stanton, and sat with president lincoln around trying to lobby to get formally enslaved men to be included in the union. By the way, there are a number of letters between the two men some of which are in the exhibit we have. The writing process question, i was in tim wendels class when you talked about the secret refuge and i was curious how you feel your voice changed or your approach to organizing this book changed from your first major piece to this one. Great question but i got my masters degree from johns hopkins, john wendel was my thesis advisor so i spoke to your class and it is an excellent question. First time you try to write a book you have no idea what you are doing and your editor wants you to have it done by a certain deadline and they are not holding your hand. My experience as a researcher at National Geographic compels me to make sure i got every detail right for both books but what i learned in the process of writing the secret recipe is you have to humanize the characters more. I was afraid of attributing something that didnt really happen, but was probably gun shy about that. With experience you gain so much, you understand the process and the feedback you get from your editor, a learning process, getting your legs on the first book is to be expected unless there are better writers than i am. Let me thank you for doing this, many of us have the doctor billingsly book on smalls. And reading that and coming to hear him, it is more of a personal story about smalls himself and you had done that. I ask both of you when the massacre occurred and what do you think of the impact from that on your work as well as your work at the museum . I had gone around what my agent expected of the publisher and we had a publisher interested and acquired the book. When this horrific event happened, it reiterated the ideas that it was such a relevant story today. Reverend pinckney who was one of the unfortunate victims of the shooting was in a position smalls observed and admired Robert Smalls. He was professor at harvard who would interview him and specifically mentioned Robert Smalls. It was poignant to be. I was invested in the story, working on it and doing the best i could but it was a shocking reminder how far we have to go in this country. I visited on one of my trips to charleston and there were a lot of flowers still out. It was months and months but it was a pretty moving moment. Just a tragedy. In trying to build a museum that seeks to tell these Untold Stories like Robert Smalls and so many others there are a lot of challenges, former mayor riley 40 years. He actually first talked about the museum in his state of the city address in the year 2000 so it has been out there percolating for a long time. At first the mayor has to build a political case to explain why we needed this museum and believe it or not, i will say this humbly and with respect, a lot of people then as there are some now in charleston who dont understand why we need this museum. Charleston is this really beautiful city and mayor riley has done an amazing job building it. But there is an element, a romantic antebellum, old south kind of element that drives a lot of major industry, which is tourism, that is an easy uneasy about africanamerican history and the role it played in building charleston and this nation. To your question, when the massacre at mother emmanuel occurred it immediately caused people it was shocking to everyone and caused people to rethink these relationships everyone thought these issues everyone thought would be managed and were okay. For for me now, a couple years later, it is really a very powerful influence on things. If i was standing in the front door, Mother Emmanuel Church would be closer than that front door. It is right across the street. You mention the flowers, every day i see people go and pay respects and leave flowers and other sorts of things. It remains of course with the trials, the Legal Process continues to progress on that and it is hanging there. Charleston evolves to grow and figure out, i think the museum hopes to be a part of contributing to those conversations. A great tour at the museum, average citizens and support, end what you are doing and the one thing i would like to see, i am a frequent visitor to charleston and have done my first communion the year after in terms of the first sunday, to tell the truth, tell the truth because it has been so hidden and kept secret and despite the romanticism because charleston is a beautiful city is my friend cindy who is a charlestonian. I wish i had that pedigree. It is of great distinction. The people from charleston. You did a lot to search and a bit of a research, i have a lot of respect for that, but this is an untold story to the nation within the state of South Carolina. Certainly within the Africanamerican Community we grew up with this story so there is an oral history that is strong throughout the state and so much stronger in buford and charleston, my question is do you have any oral history you tapped into to get the perspective of the people because every other person i know of, veronica claims to be descended from Robert Smalls because of the power of his persona. Did you get any oral history to contribute to your understanding of what happened . Did i get any oral history to contribute to the telling of the story . Absolutely. Not only going to places where your story takes place to get a feel of the place, you have to talk to people who have opinions which oftentimes things are wrong and get passed down but other times they are right. I was fortunate in a doctor more, michaels mother grew up as her grandmother, 4 years old on the plantar. When helen tells me something, i believe helen and most of her material i was able to verify was absolutely true. As a researcher, you want to get that oral history and evaluate based on sources because it was important to me not just to reiterate stories that dont have any basis in truth, oral history is a great beginning and an important part to get a full story. Question about race being in issue for you as another, extremely important to recognize this man as an American Hero, not as an africanAmerican Hero. Had he been white and delivered that ship it would have been a great act. The fact that it was hidden and not spoken about more generally with the help of texas board of education made sure it is not in any of the history books. It was very much part of the lure and the prize of the people of South Carolina. Your point is excellent which i thought about over and over again. An american story and who Robert Smalls father was is unknown and was likely white. This is a blackandwhite story. We dont have to put labels on it, hes an American Hero every child should know about in school. One thing i want to bring up about the museum, i dont know if you know but is on the site of gadsden board. You want to talk about why that is important . Thank you for your question. Thank you for the props. We have the wonderful lesson to be able to create a museum on the site, almost half of the enslaved africans who came to america took their first steps. It is really sacred ground. There is an amazing africanamerican History Museum in this city and i hope you all had a chance to be there. Its leader, lonnie bunche, told us one time, there are very few sacred sites of africanamerican history in the entire continent, hemisphere, but this museum is one of them. We have an enormous opportunity. I like to position it as an opportunity but most of the time i think of it as a responsibility. It is an obligation. I sort of the north star for me in this project, i have two. What is the end the series. We have to create this in a way that makes them proud and the other is my children. We have got to build this in a way that delivers that legacy and those stories to them and help them have a Firm Understanding of who they are. It is really important work and i am blessed. Time for one more quick question. Thank you for both of you being here. I havent had the pleasure of reading the book yet but what stood out is your constant mentioning of mister smalls being taken to charleston at age 12. As someone who has kin in charleston and there quite often if you go to the Avery Institute and see the badges african descendents had to wear just to get a few steps around town, you understand the town has survived plagues and epidemics, matters of science, medicine, art, all have contribution from african descended people that are very physically present. It is very marking what you described earlier about a voiding race, i used a lot tonight but can you say more about especially a man being brought, that city, strictly ordered, the holy city was strictly ordered, how do you fit into that kind of history and extension of it . Thank you. I charleston was a really unique place in the institution of slavery. There were traditional plantation enslaved people. Rice was the real economic driver in colonial america. Most people dont know charleston was the richest city in america for over 100 years. Charleston was the richest city because of race, i think 17 of the richest 18 people in the country were in charleston. The richest man in the world was in charleston in colonial america. Charleston, a lot was happening. Traditionally, plantations, slave people, on the other end of the spectrum free people of color, and people like robert and his wife, hannah, who were more urban enslaved folks. Robert and hannah lived above a barn on east bay street and so my sense from what i read and understand, this really creative mix of people interacted with each other, learned from each other, they grew, i dont think that was one of the reasons robert was able to do what he did because not only did he grow up, the circumstances he grew up in allowed him to dream big dreams and wonder why are antifree but it was a stimulating kind of social situation as well. I dont know if this answers your question but from my perspective, that is part of it. Robert smalls, what i found in doing the book, he embraced every opportunity that came his way. Charleston had a lot of restrictions in place, but he found ways around them. That is extraordinary about his story, he was determined to create a life for himself that was not determined by someone else and that is remarkable to me. One thing, we have 30 seconds left. It astounds me how shocked people are that robert did what he did, took his boat and sailed to freedom. If you are starving, havent eaten in two weeks but put in a room with this amazing buffet in front of you and people leave and close the door, he wanted to be free. He save the money, tried to buy freedom of his wife and children, havent gotten that far and saw this opportunity and took it. Tell your friend. I did here we have time for one more question. If there was someone waiting in the back . When you are doing your research and as you are doing your writing, the men in history, did you find did you find yourself balancing the women in his life and they were important. Great question. We dont have a lot to go on. Hannah had a big impact on this trip, an unsung hero. Hannah was his wife, i was determined to find an interview with her and i looked and looked and only found one mention of her in one article. There was a correspondence, he happens to interview her on the street and she explains they all decided if it looks like they were going to be captured when trying to escape rather than going back to slavery, they would hold hands and jump overboard with their children and drowned themselves so as much as i adore Robert Smalls, i am biased that hannah and lydia, his mother, instilled in him a sense of empowerment that could have easily been lost to him. I wish there was more i could have added. I was interested in the two women brought on board, we dont know their relationship to smalls but i found an article later that said one of the young women on their hosted once he was able to buy the home, and considered his adopted daughter. What history we will never know. That is why fiction, you can add that. His mother is a central figure in his life. I dont think Robert Smalls is Robert Smalls with his mother and he had a rare opportunity to grow up the first 12 years and traditionally, once children got to the point they could monetize, they were whisked away and robert got a chance, i mentioned the quote, that speaks to something she invested and there are other examples, took in places to see the reality of slavery, might have been shielded from. The cork of history, when he was in charleston, she was still in buford and the battle of port royal in 1861, not legally but effectively freed her, when robert was in charleston, i can only imagine it worked on his nerves that his mom was free. Thank you very much. [applause] thanks for coming out. If youre interested in buying the book you can get it at the register at the front of the store and the line will form to the left if you are interested. [inaudible conversations] sunday night on afterwards, New York Times magazine contributor susie hansen on her travels abroad in her book notes on a foreign country, and american abroad in a postamerican world. Shes interviewed by foreignpolicy cofounder. There is the question of are we exceptional, the very question is why had i never thought this was a form of propaganda . Why had i never thought to question where this concept was coming from . What was the job it was doing for individual americans. One thing i was realizing it took a long time to realize is the language we use when talking about Foreign Countries has been determined for us a long time ago because we tended to look at Muslim Country that officially countries in the east, where they catching up with us or behind us . What that does is prevents you from seeing the country on its own terms. Watch afterward sunday at 9 00 eastern on cspan2s booktv. Booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading. Here is what Steve Russell had to say. I can read all kinds of stuff. Im a voracious history reader, not much on nonfiction. I just finished a fiction book. Im not much on fiction. I did finish a fiction book by Derek Robinson called goshawk squadron. It was a british antiwar protest on a world war i setting that reflects the times, i have a great interest on world war i, great grandfather and his brothers were world war i veterans. One of my relatives was killed in the First World War and is buried in france. In the 100th anniversary of our entry into that war and our participation in their campaigns i have been reading about that time. You are an author as well. Talk about your experience as an author . I have Great Respect for those that take the time to write. My realtime memoir and our experiences in iraq, the capture of saddam, were published by Simon Schuster with a memoir called we got him. It took me three years to write extensive notes and personal experiences getting into a major publisher where they want to publish it. No small task. The big question i get is who helped you write it, as if an infantryman couldnt put sentences together. Something i get often. It takes great discipline to do it. We have a lot of respect for the authors that are out there. It got good reviews and did quite well. It is nice when we get the public to appreciate what you wrote. Advice for any other writers who know what to draw from their experiences in history and connections as well . I would say to all veterans whether you get something published or not you should take time to write the experiences for yourself. For me it buried some old wounds, it was a therapeutic process, very difficult to write and relive those experiences but at the same time when i got it done i felt okay, i got it out of my system and there it is. With you do it for your own personal notes or you do it for your families, some record of your service, i encourage all veterans who participated in combat experiences to write about the warriors who could not tell their story and tell what they accomplished. Welcome to todays meeting in california. I