When a. Will come. On behalf of of the office of a like to welcome you all here for this landmark event honoring the launch of David Brion Davis new book. A couple of acknowledgments and brief introductions then we will turn the program over to the speaker is the first of all, by giving my thanks to harold, the person who arranged the event that brought us together. Also michelle summers, of the publishers of the book as well as leslie from the institute for their help and cooperation to arrange this evening. I would also like to recognize members of the board of trustees of for taking their time to come here this evening as well. Thank you for that. A few brief words of introduction. One of the reasons i was so glad i jumped at this opportunity was the work of professor davis that meant such a good deal and it has benefited from the riding especially years ago researching catholicism online with the breath of the work but yet with the landmark with its own right, also we are greatly i
Then ill do a little reading from the book, a certain passage or two from the book to give you a sense of the flavor of whats between these coffers. And covers, and maybe at the very end ill say a little bit about what drew me to the project in the first place and why i think it was worth spending quite a few years working on. It might even be worth reading a book about. How i got to the project. It was by total chance, serendipity. I have an old friend who has a house in the town of cornwall not too far from here, and one day in the mid 90s this was quite a while back my friend invited my wife and myself down for dinner. And as i recall it, we were standing around in the it was a summer evening, we were standing around outside with gin and tonics in our hands, i think, and one of the neighbors who was also a dinner guest started to tell us a little, what he called a piece of local history. He said, you know, its just a piece of local history, but im a history guy, so maybe i would be
Small groups, families, large communities especially in the small swamp all over the south. In sheer numbers you know what to me is unique in that place in the resistance story is that they were unique in many ways. And even less underground. Also they added a special kind of a freedom. They raised their food and nobody else was. When they created a mentality to life in the white hegemony. When somebody would run away to the south which was two cities or when people would run away to the north to canada or for free blacks they all lived under the control segregated and discriminated against and there were things that they were not allowed to do. If only the maroons were and they created that alternative to life and the slavery south and in the free north. And what i conceive of that is also the fact that you know these ideals of voluntary separation, this is something that exists within the Africanamerican Community and you find that actually in many different forms whether its cultura
Behalf of the center and the new york office i would like to welcome you all here for what i think is a momentous and landmark event for us, an evening honoring the launch of david brion daviss new book. I have a couple of acknowledgments and a brief introduction and then we will start the program an alternate over to the speaker. I would like to begin first of all but sending my thanks to my colleague and friend dr. Bragman who is the person who arranged or this event that brought dr. Davis in the center together i would also like to thank michelle from the publishers of the book. She is the gilda lerman institute for the help of operation in arranging this evening. I also would like to very much welcome and recognize alan and francis members of the board of trustees who have taken their time to come here this evening as well. Thank you for that. A few brief words of introduction. One of the reasons i was so glad and jumped jump at this opportunity was because this work and the work o
Communities was corn as well as vegetables like squash and peas. Growing rice requires a kind of hydraulic system with canals and guides and gates and its probably not something maroons would have been in a position to construct. They were small plots. That was one of the things also. They were rather small so again when you grow rice it has to be even more extended. The final question. I havent read your work but im looking forward to it. I have a question. In relationship to the maroons looking at louisiana want to focus on that before the Louisiana Purchase and being in haiti there was a lot of transfer between slaves from haiti and louisiana to this through the French Connection and also being that in 1793 the first refugee crisis in america when the french planters came to louisiana and their words a lot of interconnections and in haiti there is a Large Population of maroons. So being there would you think that is also something that could have led to the spread of the marans . Im