Keeping the record of one life

Most people held in slavery in the United States left no written record of their own. Names survive in ledgers and bills of sale, if they survive at all. Edmond Kelly is one of the few whose life can be followed, and following it changes what the period looks like.

He was born owned. He learned to read when reading was forbidden to him. He was ordained when ordination was closed to him. And when he escaped, he did not disappear into safety: he went back to work, in public, in front of congregations on two continents, until he had raised the price set against his own family.

Peter Douet is Edmond Kelly’s descendant. This is his family history, and the book is the form he has chosen to keep it in. That is what separates it from a study written at a distance: the line it traces did not end.

The immediate work is the book. One Thread in the Fabric of Freedom is a biographical and historical narrative. It is in its final stage before printing.

Beyond publication, the aim is straightforward. Make the record available. Keep it accurate. Put it where readers, students, historians and families tracing their own lines can find it.