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For over 165 years, plantation owners in Southern Maryland depended on the labor of enslaved men, women, and children to bring in the tobacco crop. The photographs and stories in this book grew out of the author’s quest to understand how these people, who were subjected to a system that made every attempt to brutalize and dehumanize them, were able not only to survive but to build families and meaningful lives.

Author Merideth Taylor has created a credible, well-researched, richly imagined world that is both informative and moving. The traditional central figure and linear plot of the novel has been replaced by an interwoven collage of scenes and community of characters, that reflect the diversity of experience, “silences,” and incompleteness of the historical record. Her choice to largely avoid graphic depictions of the violence perpetrated on enslaved bodies allows the reader to focus, instead, on the remarkable resilience, ingenuity, skills, and cultural strengths that enabled them to make a way out of no way.

All author royalties will be donated to the Historic Sotterley Descendant’s Project.

Merideth M. Taylor is joining us, the Institute for Policy Studies and Busboys and Poets on the Busboys stage, alongside historian Angela Wilson, to share more about her research and her experience putting together this narrative. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Taylor will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.

Guests are asked to RSVP in order to receive direct updates about this event from Busboys and Poets Books.