ANNUAL LECTURE
DHF Presents Dr. Carole Marks, Author of Moses, the Monster and Miss Anne 

Date:
Monday, October 26, 2009, 6pm

Location:
Theatre N at Nemours, 1007 N Orange St, Wilmington, Delaware. Click here for directions

Price:
Annual Lecture is free and open to the public. To attend the meet-the-author reception at
the Wilmington Club, the price is $35. Registration requested by Monday, 10/19.

To register:
Click here for registration form. Payments accepted by mail or online only.
RSVPs to LECTURE ONLY may be emailed to rsvp@dhf.org

For More Info:
Call (302) 657-0650 ext. 10 or toll free (800) 752-2060.

Join Delaware Humanities Forum for its Annual Lecture on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 6pm, when Dr. Carole Marks will discuss her book, Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne. DHF's final anniversary event embraces a number of themes reflected in its year-long Picturing Delaware: Inside and Outside the Frame celebration, including people and places throughout history that have made an impact on the lives of today's Delawareans. DHF is pleased to offer a program that combines issues of race, gender and social class into one exciting anniversary finale.

One anniversary theme--People--has allowed DHF to shine a light on those people in Delaware's history who were "Inside and Outside the Frame." In response to this theme, DHF engaged Dr. Marks to discuss the lives of three "ordinary" women from 19th century Delmarva Peninsula--Harriett Tubman, Patty Cannon and Anna Ella Carroll--and their extraordinary stories. Each woman pushed the edges of acceptable behavior and made history, for better or for worse.

Another anniversary theme--Places--enabled DHF to explore the rich history of Delaware and particularly Sussex County. Dr. Marks will touch on the places in the Delmarva Peninsula that play a role in the myths and truths attributed to Tubman, Cannon and Carroll. Though these women never met, it is geography that causes their stories to overlap.

Says Delaware Humanities Council President Larry Josefowski, "When you hear the names Harriett Tubman or Patty Cannon, you immediately think of the fight to free slaves in America," adding, "In her book, Dr. Marks draws attention to other battles that were being fought in their lifetime: gender relations, women's suffrage--which did not come to pass until 1920--and the need for both genders to find non-traditional ways to make a living in a changing post-tobacco, post-colonization and a soon-to-be post-slavery economy."

Dr. Carole Marks is a professor of sociology at the University of Delaware and the author of several books: Farewell, We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration; The Power of Pride: Stylemakers and Rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance; and, A History of African Americans in Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore. She has also penned numerous articles on migration and the urban underclass. Before joining the University of Delaware in 1987, Marks held research positions at Duke and Harvard universities and teaching positions at St. Lawrence University, Brown University and Williams College.

"DHF is thrilled to be working with Dr. Marks for our anniversary finale," says Executive Director Marilyn Whittington. "All year, we have turned the humanities focus on things that Delawareans value--its material culture, portraiture and architecture, its industrial past, its traditions and its landscapes. And while the stories of Tubman and Cannon are well known to Delawareans, we wanted to shake things up a bit. Our annual lecture will focus on the story of three 'dangerous' women and expose myths and exaggerations that, while colorful, take away from the truly amazing imprint they, collectively, left on the Delmarva Peninsula." While it would seem natural that these women's paths would have crossed at some point, they are believed never to have met, which makes their legacy all the more interesting.

The "monster" of the book, Patty Cannon, was ruthless: a thief, murderer and the undisputed leader of a vicious gang that kidnapped free blacks and returned them to the auction block. Miss Anna Ella Carroll was a politically active slaveholder acclaimed by suffragists and called an "unrecognized member of the Lincoln cabinet"; her feminist legacy is clouded by her unusual pro-Union / pro-slavery stance. Harriet Tubman evolved from slave rescuer and abolitionist to a women's suffragist in post-slavery America, and lived her life being concurrently acclaimed as "the Moses of her people" and hunted as an outlaw with a five-figure bounty on her head.

The Annual Lectureis free and open to the public. Join us for a meet-the-author reception at the Wilmington Club immediately after; cost for reception, $35.

To reserve tickets to the reception call (302) 657-0650 extension 10 or toll free (800) 752-2060 extension 10, or email your name, address and phone number to rsvp@dhf.org to have payment instructions emailed to you. Because seating is limited, registration is requested no later than Monday, October 19. Payments will be accepted by mail or online.

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