The Westport Library Presents
12 Years a Widow
A lecture with American historian, Connor Williams
Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 5:00 PM

Solomon Northup’s dozen years surviving slavery is a tragic but increasingly well-known story. A free man from the Adirondacks and upstate New York, he was kidnapped in 1841, enslaved, and suffered a dozen years as human property before getting word of his captivity to allies in New York. The film based on his autobiography, 12 Years A Slave, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Yet less told is the story of his wife Anne, who spent those same dozen years surviving society. She maintained her family despite living in a land that granted her virtually no rights or representation. How does one exist, labor, and progress in a place where both sex and race counted against them? And how can her story help us understand women’s’ history, African American history, and United States history more broadly?

On March 19, 2024, American historian (and Adirondack resident) Connor Williams will speak on Anne Northup’s life and times, explore how her story aligns with other black feminists of her age, and encourage further discussions about race and gender in America’s past.

Concluding his formal remarks, Connor will welcome questions and encourage conversation about how we might best remember Anne’s life and the times she lived in.

FREE, $20 suggested donation to benefit the library

ABOUT CONNOR WILLIAMS, AMERICAN HISTORIAN

A scholar, teacher, and advocate of American and African American history, Connor Williams shares the stories of our past to help shape the societies of our future. His historical work jointly focuses in History and African American Studies, and he researches, writes and teaches on more than two hundred years of American history, with a special focus on racial conflicts, racial politics and racial identities. In 2021 and 2022, Connor was honored to serve the United States Congress as the Lead Historian for its Naming Commission, researching the context, cause, and course of Department of Defense assets named after Confederates or the Confederacy and planning for their removal or modification. A year-round resident of the Adirondacks, Connor also serves as historian for Great Camp Sagamore, where he directs the presentation, interpretation, and preservation of a National Historic Landmark, non-profit educational organization, and former Vanderbilt estate. He uses this work to more broadly examine intersections of inequality, industry, and environmentalism in our history and memory. Connor is in the final stages of completing his PhD at Yale University.

ABOUT THE WESTPORT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The Westport Library Association was founded in 1884 and has been serving the Town of Westport and surrounding communities continuously since then. The library provides traditional library services as well as access to e-Books, Audio-Books, Free Wi-Fi (indoors and outdoors), copying, scanning and printing. The Westport Library is governed by an all-volunteer board of trustees and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tax revenue covers less than 20% of the library’s operating budget. The Westport Library is a member of the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System.