Author and professor Bland Simpson will read from his latest book, “Two Captains from Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt and the Coming of the Civil War” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 13) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
One of the Carolina captains is Grandy, who was born a slave in Camden County, captained freight boats on the Dismal Swamp Canal and later became involved in Boston abolitionism. The other is Maffitt, a legendary blockade runner who grew up in Fayetteville, became a U.S. Navy midshipman at age 13 but enlisted in the Confederate Navy when North Carolina seceded.
Simpson is Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Tony Award-winning band the Red Clay Ramblers. His previous books include “The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country,” “Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering” and “Into the Sound Country: A Carolinian’s Coastal Plain,” all from UNC Press.
The reading and discussion will take place in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of Wilson Library. Books from Bull’s Head Bookshop will be available for sale and signing following the reading.
