Central Library of Rochester & Monroe CountyNews Release
(Monday, March 16, 2021) – Louis A. DeCaro Jr., noted John Brown scholar, will discuss Shields “Emperor” Green and his connections to Rochester, Frederick Douglass, John Brown and the doomed raid on Harper’s Ferry. The webinar will be live streamed by the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County as a part of its Rochester’s Rich History series.
The program will take place at 1 p.m., Sat., Mar. 20. Registration is required by completing the form located at:
calendar.libraryweb.org/event/6939607.
After escaping from slavery in South Carolina, Green moved north, became an abolitionist and lived off-and-on in Rochester where he got to know Frederick Douglass. During a meeting in Douglass’s home, Green agreed to join John Brown’s anti-slavery raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, where they hoped to seize weapons from the federal armory and inspire a slave revolt. Green was captured, along with Brown and the rest of his surviving comrades; Green was hanged on December 16, 1859. Faced with the scaffold, Green declared that, “Death from the hands of the law for no offence save for believing in liberty for myself and my race would not be degradation.”
Despite Green’s critical role as a member of John Brown’s Harper’s Ferry raiders, his story has long been overlooked. DeCaro’s new book, The Untold Story of Shields Green: The Life and Death of a Harper’s Ferry Raider (NYU Press, 2020), restores Green to his rightful place as a “radical vanguard of the black antislavery movement” who deserves to be remembered along Douglass and Brown. Tracing his life from his birth into slavery in South Carolina, through his life in Rochester and to his eventual death, DeCaro paints a portrait of an abolitionist freedom-fighter whose passion for the liberation of his people outweighed his own sense of self-preservation.
Louis A. DeCaro Jr. holds graduate degrees in theology and history from Westminster Theological Seminary and New York University and a Ph.D. from New York University. For over two decades, DeCaro has studied the life and letters of abolitionist John Brown, publishing two books and countless articles. His latest work, The Untold Story of Shields Green: The Life and Death of a Harper’s Ferry Raider (NYU Press, 2020), reveals a unique and challenging effort to rediscover a figure who has been obscured within the conventional history of the struggle for justice in the United States.
Media Contact: For more information, contact Adam Traub at
Adam.Traub@libraryweb.org
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