White House History Live: At the Threshold of Liberty - Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C.

Join us in learning more about White House History right from your own home. Our Facebook Live series, White House History Live, delves into the stories that make up the history of the Executive Mansion.

The capital city of a nation founded on the premise of liberty, nineteenth-century Washington, D.C., was both an entrepôt of urban slavery and the target of abolitionist ferment. The growing slave trade and the enactment of Black codes placed the city’s Black women within the rigid confines of a social hierarchy ordered by race and gender. Tamika Y. Nunley will discuss her book At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. to reveal how these women—enslaved, fugitive, and free—imagined new identities and lives beyond the oppressive restrictions intended to prevent them from ever experiencing liberty, self-respect, and power.

This event will be live streamed on the White House Historical Association's Facebook and YouTube pages starting at 5 pm ET on September 21st.