The University of Notre Dame Press is thrilled to publish William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia by William C. Kashatus. In celebration of its publication, we are giving away a limited number of SIGNED copies! Enter to win by filling out the form at the bottom of this post. This offer expires July 13th and is limited to US residents.
“Kashatus highlights the critical roles Still and other Black Americans played along the entire Underground Railroad, and the risks they took to aid enslaved people. A penetrating analysis of Still’s interviews reveals new and important insights into the enslaved people who made the journey into freedom. . . . An essential work that is a must-read for those interested in the Underground Railroad and Black history in the U.S.”
—Library Journal (Starred Review)
William Still is the first major biography of the free black abolitionist William Still, who coordinated the Eastern Line of the Underground Railroad and was a pillar of the Railroad as a whole. This monumental work details Still’s life story beginning with his parents’ escape from bondage in the early nineteenth century and continuing through his youth and adulthood as one of the nation’s most important Underground Railroad agents and, later, as an early civil rights pioneer. Unique to this book is an accessible and detailed database of the 995 fugitives Still helped escape from the South to the North and Canada between 1853 and 1861. The database contains twenty different fields and serves as a valuable aid for scholars by offering the opportunity to find new information, and therefore a new perspective, on runaway slaves who escaped on the Eastern Line of the Underground Railroad.
“William C. Kashatus’s William Still, along with providing a rich account of the great abolitionist and archivist of the Underground Railroad, brilliantly conveys the courage, the resourcefulness, and the intelligence of the slaves escaping towards freedom. This is history as it should be written: poignant, passionate, and trenchant.”
—Kenneth A. McClane, author of Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History
Contact Kathryn Pitts at pitts.5@nd.edu to enquire openings on William Kashatus’s virtual or in-person book tour.
William Still is available for retail purchase through all the standard distribution channels. Contact Longleaf Services for the best direct-from-publisher discounts.