At noon, join us and Speaker Dr. Caleb McDaniel for “Captain’s Story: Slavery and Freedom in the Archives of The Heritage Society and Rice University”

In 1997, archivists at Rice University learned of a document which referred by name to a person enslaved by William Marsh Rice, the university’s founder. But it was not until the work of the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice (2019-2023) that the full significance of the document, held in the archives of the Heritage Society, became clear. In this talk, Prof. McDaniel will return to those archives to examine what they can teach us about the history of slavery, emancipation, and the Civil War era in Houston and its hinterlands, as well as the importance of the institutions that preserve archives today.

Speaker’s Biography

Dr. W. Caleb McDaniel is a historian of the United States. His teaching and research to date have focused on the nineteenth century, the Civil War Era, and the struggle over slavery. He is also co-chair of the Rice University Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice.

His most recent book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Civil War and Reconstruction book prize from the Organization of American Historians. It tells the story of Henrietta Wood, a formerly enslaved woman who, in the twilight of Reconstruction, won the largest known sum ever awarded by a U.S. court in restitution for slavery.

Dr. McDaniel’s first book, The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionism and Transatlantic Reform, was published in 2013 and won the Merle Curti award from the Organization of American Historians and the James L. Broussard Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

His scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of the Early Republic, American Quarterly, and elsewhere, and he has published essays in the New York Times, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and other outlets.

Educated in the "Texas state of mind" she never questioned that she'd spend her life telling the stories about the state and the people who make its past, present, and future.

Meet Texas History and Houston History Author Lora-Marie Bernard at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 4, 2024, when Mister McKinney of Mister McKinney's Historic Houston opens the fall season with enchanting stories about Texas. View the show on Facebook or Instagram on his free, online program that also highlights history happenings at The Heritage Society.

About the Author

Lora-Marie Bernard writes nonfiction books about Texas. She has been called one of the state's best storytellers by Texana Reads. 

She was the 2018 recipient of the Dan Parkinson Literary Award for her efforts to preserve Texas culture through literature. She is the 2020 recipient of the Catherine Munson Foster Memorial Award for Literature in recognition of her efforts to increase the public’s understanding of Texas and its people.

During her time as a Texas-based journalist and communicator, she won numerous Associated Press awards and national press honors for her public affairs and investigative reporting. Early in her career, she earned the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

As a Washington D.C. field correspondent, she served as an international radio commentator, journalist and photographer for the 2017 Trump presidential campaign, the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate Race, the Washington D.C. Women's March, and Hurricane Harvey.

She earned her master’s degree in liberal arts extension studies from Harvard University in 2018. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. She is the Vice President of the Southeast Texas Museum. She also serves as an international Corporate Board member for the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women.