BNHA Hands on History Series: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Join us for a celebration of Womens’ History Month with another lecture in the Baltimore National Heritage Area’s Hands on History Series.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: A Woman for All Seasons. Born in Baltimore, poet, fictionn writer, journalist, and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was the only chil dof free African American parents. She embarked on a career as a traveling speaker on the abolitionist circuit. She helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote frequently for anti-slavery newspapers, earning her a reputation as the mother of Arican American journalism.
Meet the Lecturer: Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, PhD. Archaeologist Cheryl LaRoche has been researching the Underground Railroad and women’s escape experiences for thirty years. LaRoche also studies Black communities and their relationships to the Black church. Her biography Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop William Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad brings to life the little known activities of one of the AME church’s most active bishops. The book is a follow-up to her first book, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: the Geography of Resistance. She is an Associate Research Professor in Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture at the University of Maryland.
