Please join us for a talk by New York Times best-selling author and journalist Kristen Green on the inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first HBCUs. In The Devil's Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail, Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre,” a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

A book signing will follow the talk. Preorder your book for the event from The Virginia Shop! To request a signed copy and/or a personalized message from the author, please use the "Add Order Note" option in your online shopping cart once you get to checkout.

This in-person event will also be live-streamed on our Facebook and YouTube pages. Visit www.facebook.com/LibraryofVA or www.youtube.com/user/LibraryofVA at the time of the event.

The Carole Weinstein Author Series supports the literary arts by bringing both new and well-known authors to the Library of Virginia through online or in-person events. Free and open to the public, the series focuses on Virginia authors and Virginia subjects across all genres. For more information, contact Dawn Greggs at 804.692.3813 or dawn.greggs@lva.virginia.gov.

Registration is now closed, please view the live stream at www.facebook.com/LibraryofVA or www.youtube.com/user/LibraryofVA.