thank you, kevin quashie. i began writing freeman's challenge because of two moments of surprise as the first surprise happened when by chance i found a footnote about a theatrical staging of a black on white murder. and this was in 1846 in the city of auburn, which is in the central new york state, in the finger lakes region. i was astounded and here's why. my fields of expertise include american racial formation and theater and performance history. so what i knew from both of these fields was that in the mid-19th century, white people absolutely did not want to see any representations of black on white violence on stage. it was too terrifying. it was to disturbing. it could not be contained within the framework of entertainment. and so for that reason, it simply wasn't present on the american stage. and i'll give you an example to show you how not present it was when people performed othello. othello, of course, contains a scene of black on white violence, and people would bend over backwards, turn themselve

kevin quashie. what a conversation this is. this is what we hope to do with the american antiquarian society. to think about the past in all its complexity and its resonances for our own day. and you'vetonight. we're here to hear christopher christopher minty talk about his new book. christopher is joining us from the university of virginia, where he is an editor at the center for digital editing, which is a wonderful institution at uva. and maybe we'll talk a little bit at the end about what the work that you do there. he's also an elected fellow of the royal historical society in the united kingdom. he received his b.a., ph.d. from the university of stirling, scotland. he's held a number of different fellowships, including the bernard and irene schwartz fellowship, the new york historical society and, previously served as the assistant editor of the adams papers project and also the managing editor of john dickinson writings project. you want to join me. so i a lot of questions because this book unpacked a lot of different st