Participants in the WTB Book Club are delighted to learn that the author of the book they are next discussing is going to meet with them. On Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. the author of Dreams of Freedom, Marilyn Higgins, will join the group for conversation. Higgins wrote on facebook, “Every time I walk along the Erie Canal, I imagine the immigrant families who once stood on these same banks — hopeful, tired, determined. Dreams of Freedom grew from that imagination and real history intertwined.”
Higgins’ author website includes this blurb for the book: “As the chief economic development officer for National Grid and later Syracuse University, she was told intriguing stories, visited mysterious mansions and was shown the hidden artifacts of the Erie Canal communities. Her fascination with these places, where new religions were born and waves of immigrants, abolitionism, women’s rights and Haudenosaunee culture entwined in the 19th century continues.”
“Good Reads teases the book this way, ” Millions of immigrants were entering America’s heartland. Anti-Catholic bigotry and the seething national divide over slavery were soon to erupt in mob violence. Thousands of religious zealots could be heard chanting at revival meetings in upstate New York. Native people were being forced off ancestral lands.”
Readers will find a lot of local history in the book.
If you’d like to attend the Zoom discussion contact Barb Bova babova@aol.com for the Zoom link.