The Bookplate is continuing their Authors & Oysters event series at The Retriever Bar on Wednesday, July 26th at 6pm. All are invited to The Retriever to welcome author Ned Donoghue as he discusses his book, Prisoners of Congress.
In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men—seventeen of whom were Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year.
Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nation’s first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition.
Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation’s founding.
“Norman Donoghue’s Prisoners of Congress brings to life one of the most important and compelling events of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. It is an untold story of national significance.”
—Patrick Spero, author of Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765–1776
Norman E. Donoghue II is an independent scholar and historian whose research focuses on pacifism in the mid-Atlantic during the American Revolution. A practicing probate and trust lawyer for more than thirty-four years, twenty-five of them as a partner at Dechert LLP, he served as chair in 2002 of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He was also elected to membership in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. On the civic side, he served as a founding board member and officer of Fund for Philadelphia and We The People 200, Inc., Philadelphia’s national celebration of the Bicentennial of the United State Constitution in 1987. He co-founded Philadelphia Volunteers Lawyers for the Arts and served as a board member and officer for more than 40 years of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining emerging talent in theater, dance, and film in the United States in tribute to Princess Grace of Monaco (1927-1982). He also was recruited to serve as a development officer of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association during its Endowment Campaign 2004-08. Ned rejoiced in dedicating the book to his wife of 34 years, Peggy O’Donnell, who proudly accompanies him and has helped him encourage the sale of 500 books in the first month.
For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. This event is free and open to the public and reservations are not required. The next Authors & Oysters event is scheduled for 8/23 with author Cynthia Miller-Idriss. All events are held in the back room of The Retriever, located at 337 ½ High Street in Chestertown, Maryland.
“This rigorous account clearly shows that Isaiah Fountain suffered a fate he didn’t deserve.” -Kirkus Reviews
Jamie Kirkpatrick is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Tunisia from 1970 to 1972. He was also the Associated Peace Corps Director in Tunisia from 1974 to 1976. Now retired after careers in international service organizations and education, Jamie is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine. For the past seven years, Jamie has written a weekly column for The Chestertown Spy and The Talbot Spy. Two collections of these essays (“Musing Right Along” and “I’ll Be Right Back”) are available at The Bookplate. Jamie and his wife Kat Conley have homes in Bethesda and Chestertown.