Author Scott Shane on "Flee North" and the Underground Railroad

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Scott Shane joins Midday. He worked for 36 years with the New York Times and, before that, with the Baltimore Sun.  Shane is the author of an award-winning book, Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President and the Rise of the Drone.   He retired from the Times in 2019, and dove into a very different kind of project: a book that tells the story of the extraordinary Thomas Smallwood. Born into slavery, Smallwood purchased his freedom and helped hundreds of other enslaved people escape their bondage in the Baltimore-Washington area. He capped off these successful escapes by taunting slave holders in print. Along the way, Smallwood coined the term “underground railroad.” Scott Shane has written a compelling, assiduously researched and eye-popping book that I hope will catapult Thomas Smallwood out of obscurity, and into the light of recognition he richly deserves. It’s called Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.