Author Talk with Robert Hilliard: Spies, Slaves, and Secrets of the Civil War @ Aliquippa

Program Type:

Author

Age Group:

Teens, Adults
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Event Details

Join us in welcoming award winning, local author, Robert Hilliard to BF Jones to share with us his highly praised presentation entited "Spies, Slaves, and Secrets of the Civil War". 

Based on research for the multiple award-winning historical espionage thriller In Freedom’s Shadow, Robert Hilliard has developed a 60-minute slide program, plus time for Q&A, titled "Spies, Slaves, and Secrets of the Civil War". The presentation provides an overall background on Civil War espionage, and highlights individual operatives who served each army during the Civil War as well as the technology they used to conduct operations. It also focuses on the contributions of the escaped enslaved as a valued source of information to the US Army and as covert intelligence operatives who risked their lives serving undercover in the Confederacy.

Robert has previously presented this interactive discussion at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall as part of their distinguished Lincoln Gallery Second Saturday Civil War Lecture Series, the Dover (OH) Public Library, and the Gettysburg Heritage Center. He has also recorded a scripted version for the Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum YouTube channel.

In Freedom's Shadow is based on the heroic true story of John Scobell, an enslaved African American who escaped bondage at the outset of the Civil War only to return to the Confederacy as a Union spy. A historic yet fresh twist on the espionage thriller, enjoy the novel Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called "a poignant exploration of one individual's journey amidst the tumult of war and injustice."

In Freedom's Shadow Synopsis: John Scobell risked everything to escape slavery at the outset of the Civil War. He thought he'd made his way to freedom – until the moment he was recruited by Allan Pinkerton of the famed Pinkerton Detective Agency and assigned back to the Confederacy as an undercover Union spy.

Can Scobell avoid capture and certain death at the hands of brutal Rebel spy hunters? Will he find the one object that can break the Confederate codes and earn his emancipation? Or will he remain forever in freedom's shadow?

Author will have books available for purchase. Credit Card will be accepted.