Book Talk with Melvin Patrick Ely | A Terrible Intimacy

Join historian Melvin Patrick Ely, Ph.D., for a thought-provoking program exploring his new book, “A Terrible Intimacy: Interracial Life in the Slaveholding South.” In his book, Ely explores six criminal cases in one Virginia county in the years preceding the Civil War. Witnesses of both races describe a startling variety of encounters between white and Black people that reconfigure the binary terrain of “master-slave” relations.

Ely is the author of “Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War,” which won the Bancroft, Beveridge and Wesley-Long prizes, and “The Adventures of Amos ‘n’ Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon.” He’s a co-author of “Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865.” A retired William & Mary history professor, Ely previously taught history and American studies at Yale.

A book signing will follow the program.

This is a free event, but registration is required. Seating in the Lecture Hall is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Limited free parking is available in the deck underneath the Library at 800 East Broad Street. For more information, contact education@lva.virginia.gov