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Box 212 Monroe, CT 06468
Sharon B. Smith is the author of Connecticut's Civil War: A Guide for Travelers. She will be speaking at the East Village Meetinghouse (at the corner of East Village and Barn Hill Roads) on April 17 at 2 pm. She will talk about Connecticut's role in the circumstances that led to the Civil War..from New Havener Eli Whitney's cotton gin that played a major part in making slavery almost the sole support of the Southern economy and ensuring that they would fight to protect it...to Connecticut natives and residents in the abolition movement. John Brown and Harriet Beecher Stowe were born here. William Lloyd Garrison was from Massachusetts, but his wife was from eastern CT and he drew a lot of emotional and financial support from our state. The Prudence Crandall and Amistad cases both played out here.She will talk about Connecticut's emormous production of weapons and other items used in the war (with examples) and touch on some of the heroes. For Monroe,she will talk a little more than usual about opposition to the Union effort within Connecticut (we know about the battle of Stepney green, but the Battle of Charcoal Run took place in New Fairfield the same day, and another violent peace flag riot took place in Old Saybrook). We had a substantial copperhead movement throughout the war, championed by former Governor Thomas Seymour. BIO: "Ispent the first part of my professional career as a broadcast journalist, working in Texas and New York before coming (very briefly) to WTNH in New Haven. I went up to ESPN when it began broadcasting and worked there and for NBC Sports primarily covering horse racing. Since then, I've concentrated on books, having five books on horse topics published. Connecticut's Civil War is my first book in which horses don't appear (or at least play very minor roles). It grows out of my life -long interest in the Civil War (I spent part of my growing up years in northern Virginia and Maryland. In fact, I graduated from Surrattsville High School, named for the family of Mary Surratt, who was hanged for her part in the Lincoln assassination. They changed the name of the town after her hanging but somehow neglected to change the name of the school.)' |
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