September 25, at 700 pm.
Reading, MA— Join us as the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner in History, Jacqueline Jones, presents her most recent work, No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era.
Impassioned anti-slavery rhetoric made antebellum Boston famous as the nation’s hub of radical abolitionism. In fact, the city was far from a beacon of equality. Before, during, and after the Civil War, several groups of potential white allies proved indifferent to the plight of Black wage earners. Still, some Black entrepreneurs ingeniously created their own jobs and forged their own career paths. Highlighting the everyday struggles of ordinary Black workers, Jones shows how inequality in the workplace prevented Boston and the United States from securing true equality for all.
Praise for No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era
“Superb…A brilliant exposé of hypocrisy in action, showing that anti-Black racism reigned on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.”—Kirkus, starred review
“Jones brings this history to life with graceful storytelling and a generous use of primary sources.”—Christian Science Monitor
“A breathtakingly original reconstruction of free Black life in Boston that profoundly reshapes our understanding of the city’s abolitionist legacy and the challenging reality for its Black residents.”—Pulitzer Prize jury
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