Born into slavery in Maryland,Thomas Smallwood by the 1840s was free, self-educated, and working as a shoemaker a short walk from the U.S. Capitol. He recruited a young white activist,Charles Torrey, and together they began to organize mass escapes from Washington, Baltimore, and surrounding counties to freedom in the North.

Celebrate International Underground Railroad Month at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum with a book talk discussion, on Flee North which details  the life of abolitionist Thomas Smallwood: A Black man who escaped slavery and helped hundreds more flee the domestic slave trade by pulitzer prize journalist Scott Shane. Flee North is a riveting account of the extraordinary abolitionist, liberator, and writer Thomas Smallwood, who bought his own freedom and named the underground railroad. A book signing will follow with the author.

Scott Shane was a reporter for 15 years at The New York Times, where he was twice a member of teams that won Pulitzer Prizes, and before that for 21 years at The Baltimore Sun. His two previous books are Dismantling Utopia, a firsthand account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Objective Troy, the story of an American terrorist killed in a drone strike on orders of President Obama. In 2019-2020 he was a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught courses on media and on the Russian attack on the 2016 American presidential election.

This Program is included with Museum admission.

Note: To view museum exhibitions, tickets must be purchased at the front desk. This program is in conjunction with Blacks in White: African American Health Professionals.