HOLLYWOOD, Md. – Historic Sotterley is proud to announce a free hybrid presentation by Dr. Tayzhuan Glover exploring the stories of enslaved men, women, and children from Sotterley who secured their freedom by aiding the British during the war of 1812. The event will be available both in person and virtually on Wednesday, July 16, at 7:00 pm. Registration is required for all participants.
During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children in the Chesapeake, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana were able to secure their freedom by offering aid to the British. Following the war, many of these freedom-seekers were resettled in Nova Scotia and Trinidad. This presentation will use American and British colonial archives to follow the journey to freedom of the enslaved men, women, and children from Sotterley who were resettled in Trinidad in 1815, where they laid the foundation for Trinidad’s “Merikin” descendant community.
Our guest speaker for the evening, Dr. Tayzhuan Glover, received a Ph.D. in History from Duke University in 2024. He also received a B.A. in Africana Studies, Anthropology, and French from Franklin & Marshall College in 2017. The focus of his work has been on the seaborne mobility practices of freedom-seeking enslaved men, women, and children in the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Eastern Caribbean, and the Americas, more broadly. He engages with questions about labor, geography, law, and European and Indigenous sovereignty to understand how enslaved people conceptualized refuge, liberty, and freedom based on their geopolitical knowledge of their worlds. He is currently a Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the National Park Service where he researches and interprets the legacy of enslaved people from the Chesapeake who joined the Colonial Marines during the War of 1812.
Participants attending in person are invited to enjoy a pre-event reception at 6:30 pm with cookies and drinks. The event is free and open to the public.
To learn more and register, visit: https://sholink.to/SotterleyTayzhuanGlover