A Shadow On The Household
This Is Not A Reading Series kicks off Black History Month by launching Bryan Prince’s dramatic account of a little-known chapter in the Underground Railroad saga, A Shadow On The Household: One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle for Freedom. Prince will discuss the remarkable story of how John Weems reunited his family in Canada after it was torn asunder by America’s slavery system with esteemed television producer and host Rachel Harry. Harry will moderate an extended Q&A session between Prince and the audience.
A Shadow On The Household is the extraordinary story of one couple’s determination to free themselves and their children from slavery and make a new life in Canada, vividly recounted by award-winning author Bryan Prince.
Prior to abolition in 1865, as many as 40,000 men, women, and children made the perilous trip north from enslavement in the United States to freedom in Canada. Networks that came to be known as the Underground Railroad aided many. And the stories that emerge from the past about these journeys are truly remarkable.
In A Shadow on the Household, Bryan Prince, a descendant of slaves, brings to life the heart-wrenching story of the Weems family and their struggle to liberate themselves from slavery. John Weems, a man who purchased his own freedom, paid the owner of his enslaved wife and eight children an annual fee to keep them together at one plantation. But when that owner died, the Weemses were cruelly separated and scattered throughout the South. Heartbroken and desperate, John resolved to raise the money to buy his family’s freedom and reunite them. Mining newspapers, private letters, diaries, estate records, marriage registries, and abolitionist papers for details of a story cloaked in secrecy, Bryan Prince has rescued the Weems family and their plight from historical oblivion.
An unforgettable story of love and persistence, played out in four countries (the United States, Canada, Jamaica, and the United Kingdom) against the backdrop of the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a growing abolitionist movement, and the heroic efforts of the Underground Railroad, the Weems family saga must be read to be believed.
“A work with the breadth and depth of a historical epic. . . . At times, it’s easy to forget that A Shadow on the Household is a work of history, and not fiction. Often, the text has the heightened drama of a detective narrative, with villains and heroes, and people working against the clock, against unimaginable odds. . . . a gripping and comprehensive historical investigation that will draw you in and make you think.”
– Montreal Gazette
“What a fascinating story! With prodigious research, a fine eye for detail, and a deep respect for a family who endured the most painful trauma under the slave system that governed their lives, Bryan Prince brings the dramatic tale of Arabella and John Weems and their nine children to life. Prince is an accomplished storyteller.”
– Karolyn Smardz Frost, Governor General’s Award-winning author of I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land
Bryan Prince is an award-winning author and a descendant of slaves who came to Canada prior to the American Civil War. Among his many projects, he is a director and historian with the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, a partner of York University’s Harriet Tubman Institute, and a consulting editor with the Adam Matthew Publications digital project Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice in England. He is the author of I Came As a Stranger: The Underground Railroad, which won the 2005 Children’s Nautilus Book Award for Non-Fiction. He lives in Buxton, Ontario.
Rachel Harry is an esteemed television producer, interviewer and host. After completing her studies at Lee Strasberg's Theatre Institute, in New York, Harry’s love of literature and language brought her back home to Toronto and to BookTelevision. She started as a producer and story editor for Richler, Ink., but soon moved in front of the camera. Rachel hosted of BookTelevision's flagship show The Word This Week. She has interviewed a multitude of writers ranging from Christopher Hitchens to Deepak Chopra to Michael Cunningham to Barbara Taylor Bradford.
