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Let's Talk Books: "Snow-Storm in August"

by Jefferson Morley

Join us for an in-person meeting at the Barrett Branch to discuss the tense atmosphere in the city of Washington in 1835and the city's first race riot that ensued.

About "Snow-Storm in August" from the publisher Penguin Random House: "In 1835, the city of Washington simmered with racial tension as newly freed African Americans from the South poured in, outnumbering slaves for the first time. Among the enslaved was nineteen-year-old Arthur Bowen, who stumbled home drunkenly one night, picked up an axe, and threatened his owner, respected socialite Anna Thornton. Despite no blood being shed, Bowen was eventually arrested and tried for attempted murder by district attorney Francis Scott Key, but not before news of the incident spread like wildfire. Within days Washington’s first race riot exploded as whites, fearing a slave rebellion, attacked the property of free blacks. One of their victims was gregarious former slave and successful restaurateur Beverly Snow, who became the target of the mob’s rage. With "Snow-Storm in August," Jefferson Morley delivers readers into an unknown chapter in history with an absorbing account of this uniquely American battle for justice."

Review from Publishers Weekly:  “Salon Washington correspondent Jefferson Morley boldly and elegantly recreates a moment in time when free black businessmen mingled with their white counterparts while proponents of slavery and abolitionists struggled to co-exist in the nation’s bustling capital. . . . A crackling good tale of the deep impact of race and politics on a young nation struggling to create its identity.”

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