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Vanessa Williams Spot Lights New Guide – Literary
Rych McCain Worldwide/Nationally Syndicated Leisure Columnist
Multi-Faceted Entertainer
Vanessa Williams
Spotlights New American Founding Determine Slave Heroine
with Foreword in Artistic Nonfiction Launch,
“Espionage and Enslavement within the Revolution:
The True Story of Robert Townsend
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| Vanessa Williams Picture Gilles Toucas |
Multi-award-winning entertainer
Vanessa Williams has penned a shifting guide foreword that shines the highlight on
an incredible story of spying and slavery through the Revolutionary Battle whereas
unveiling an unlikely heroine. “Espionage and Enslavement within the Revolution:
The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth” by Claire Bellerjeau and
Tiffany Yecke Brooks, printed by Lyons Press, is an enchanting historic
narrative that takes place within the North through the 18th century
and particulars the intertwining of two lives, a Revolutionary Battle spy, Robert
Townsend and an enslaved girl, recognized solely as Elizabeth or Liss.
Bellerjeau, an acclaimed historian and the
Director of Schooling at Raynham Corridor Museum, the previous dwelling of the Townsend
household in Oyster Bay, New York, has researched the Townsend household and people
they enslaved for over sixteen years. Her discovery of Liss lends essential
credence to not solely the expertise of a lady of colour throughout America’s
founding interval, but additionally contributes priceless perception into the extent of
slavery within the North, lengthy earlier than the Civil Battle.
Slavery was not only a 19th-century
problem. Actually, there have been 244 years between the arrival of the primary African
slaves to the colony of Virginia in 1619 to the Emancipation Proclamation in
1863. In contrast, there have solely been 158 years between 1863 and 2021, with
the USA having an extended historical past as a nation with slavery
than with out it. American historical past is grossly misrepresented
when slavery is barely acknowledged as an prevalence in the course of the 19th century
In “Espionage and Enslavement within the Revolution,” we be taught that Liss was first
enslaved in Oyster Bay on Lengthy Island, NY within the 1770’s through the
Revolutionary Battle by Robert Townsend’s household. Townsend turned a spy
for George Washington and a key member of the legendary Culper
Spy Ring. She escaped with a British commander named Col.
Simcoe, later was re-enslaved in New York Metropolis, and after the battle was
separated from her toddler son and transported to Charleston, South Carolina
the place she was enslaved but once more. Robert’s persistent efforts to deliver her again
to New York and reunite her along with her little one are the second half of this superb
narrative.
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| Vanessa Williams |
Vanessa Williams’ personal ancestral ties to Oyster Bay, which additionally date again to the early 1800’s, endeared her personally to the story of a lady that historical past ignored. “Claire was capable of hint my lineage again to the 1820’s, all the way in which again to a time when slaves didn’t have a final title. I discovered her analysis about Liss fascinating and intriguing. Right here was a courageous Black girl from Oyster Bay who began life as a slave, turned concerned with the spy Robert Townsend, and will have been a spy herself. She lastly achieved her freedom all in the identical space the place my roots as an American return a whole bunch of years. Traditionally marginalized tales are eventually being delivered to the forefront and Liss rises like a phoenix amongst them. Claire’s Bellerjeau’s collaborative effort with Tiffany Brooks brings historical past to life and divulges a brand new African American feminine hero, Liss!” cites Vanessa Williams.
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| Claire Bellerjeau |
“After I first uncovered Liss’ story, not solely was she utterly invisible, however the very concept that there was slavery in New York through the Revolution was utterly overseas to nearly everybody,” notes Bellerjeau. “In common tradition, we’re typically given broad brush-stroke tropes about heroic figures like George Washington, Paul Revere, and the Sons of Liberty, and vital occasions just like the Boston Bloodbath. For a number of years I resisted connecting Liss to the Townsend spy story, however as my analysis continued, the 2 tales merged. To me, what makes her so essential in American historical past is we haven’t had an individual of colour to give attention to, to see the Revolution by means of their eyes. Our story, whereas unfolding among the many well-known folks and locations of the Revolution, offers the reader a uncommon glimpse of what life was actually like for enslaved folks struggling although the upheaval of the time.”
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| Tiffany Yecke Brooks Ph.D |
“The guide is of curiosity for a lot of causes,” provides Tiffany Yecke Brooks, “not the least of which is that Liss’ story touched so many alternative headliners from early American historical past. Our guide offers America a approach of seeing the northern theater of the battle, which is a part of our cultural legacy, but additionally opens our eyes to northern slavery. To see how deeply slavery was ingrained in New York is surprising. However to acknowledge the various roles and dynamics that everybody performed, and never a choose view, is crucial to the true telling of historical past.”
“My persevering with focus goes to be to deliver this story to a nationwide viewers,” says Bellerjeau. “I’m grateful for the curiosity proven by Vanessa Williams and hoping her connection to the story will elevate much more consciousness. Liss is symbolic of so many unheralded voices and tales from our collective previous. She’s a nationwide founding determine.”
Additional immerse your self in American ‘herstory’ at https://www.espionageandenslavement.com/ and observe “Espionage
and Enslavement within the Revolution” on Fb at https://www.facebook.com/Espionage-and-Enslavement-in-the-Revolution-177409520576347. Watch the guide trailer at https://youtu.be/_o795GPxdOM. Buy the guide at Barnes & Noble, on Amazon.com and wherever books are offered.