On Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 6PM, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia will feature Dr. John Kneebone, who will lecture on the topic “An Aquatic Branch of the Underground Railroad: The James River and the Keziah Affair of 1858″.

On 31 May 1858, authorities from Petersburg, Virginia, stopped a schooner, the Keziah, on the James River, removed five fugitives slaves from the hold, and arrested the ship’s owner, William Baylis. This dramatic “break down on the underground railroad” provoked excitement in eastern Virginia and received extensive coverage in the press, as did the trials that followed. The Keziah affair illuminates the hidden operations of the Underground Railroad along the James River.

The metaphor of an underground railroad, with conductors and stations, has obscured the significance of water transportation for the successful flights of fugitives to freedom. Using court records, contemporary newspapers, and government documents, John T. Kneebone examines the operations of those who aided slaves to escape along the James River. The Keziah incident shows that by 1858, Virginians — white and black, slave and free — were profoundly aware of the aquatic branch of the Underground Railroad.

John T. Kneebone is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he teaches the History of the American South and graduate courses in public history. He is a former co-editor of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography project at the Library of Virginia. This lecture is held in partnership with the James River Advisory Council.