For Immediate Release
Written by: Susan Alderman, 260-481-6165
Media Contact: Chris Patterson, 260-481-5451
Author Juanita Patience Moss to Visit IPFW
(Fort Wayne, Sept. 19, 2005) -- Juanita Patience Moss retired as a high school biology teacher in New Jersey. She is anything but retired these days. Moss is still an educator, a historical researcher; family griot, otherwise known as a professional oral historian, and author. She will spend the week of Oct. 26 on the IPFW campus as a visiting scholar, meeting with various classes. On Friday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Classroom Medical Building, Room 35-A, Moss will re-enact the life of Harriet Jacobs, a slave girl who hid in her grandmother’s attic for seven years before she could escape to the North.
Moss became interested in genealogy after her retirement as a teacher and found that her great grandfather was a runaway slave who joined the Union Army in 1864. She broadened her research into finding out more about black soldiers who served in white regiments. During this research, she came upon a book written by another runaway slave, Harriet Jacobs. Jacobs’ story had been published as a novel in 1861 by another author. Another hundred years would pass before it was discovered that the other author was actually Jacobs and that the story was fact, not fiction. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl tells the story of slavery as it can only be told by someone who has lived it.
Moss has published the historical novel Created to be Free; and two books on black civil war soldiers: The Battle of Plymouth, N.C., April 17—20, 1864: The Last Confederate Victory and The Forgotten Black Soldiers in White Regiments During the Civil War. Moss’ visit is sponsored by IPFW’s Diversity Council, Office of Multicultural Services, History Department, Women’s Studies Program, and the Fort Wayne African American Historical Museum.
For more information on Moss and her visit to IPFW, call Chris Patterson in Women’s Studies at 260-481-5451.
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