Martha Hodes: The Sea Captain's Wife: Reading & Discussion

MARTHA HODES, Associate Professor of History at New York University, will read from and discuss her new book, The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century, published in the Fall of 2006. ( www.seacaptainswife.com).

The book traces the unusual mid-19th century life of Eunice Connolly through letters and family papers. Raised white and poor in New England, Connolly moved to the Deep South with her husband, then back to her New Hampshire home when the men in her family began fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War. Finally hearing news of her husband's death in the Confederacy, and struggling to raise her children and get by, Connolly married a well-to-do black sea captain, and relocated to his home in the British Caribbean. Following an intricate maze of family letters, Professor Hodes searched for descendants to trace Eunice's footsteps, unravel her unique story and create a record of American history dealing with the themes of war, racism, and freedom.

There will be opportunity for audience comments, and a book signing will follow the event.

Professor Hodes, a former Co-Director of the NYU Humanities Council Workshop "Storytelling Across Disciplines," has also authored White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the Nineteenth-Century South and edited Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Selected honors and fellowships include the Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of American Historians; Honorable Mention for Outstanding Books, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights; Scholar-in-Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library; National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for University Teachers; and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship.

Martha Hodes at NYU

Event Sponsor: Caltech's Words Matter Program