Harpur Edge Book Club explores Anne Bailey’s ’The Weeping Time’

Have you ever wondered what happened at the largest slave auction ever held in this country?

This past semester, Harpur Edge hosted its first annual virtual Book Club with History Professor Anne C. Bailey. She brought to life the realities and hardships of slavery during the time of slave auctions in her book The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History.

The Book Club is one of many initiatives offered through Harpur Edge, which seeks to help Harpur College students make the most of their education, prepare for their future careers, and pursue personal development and fulfillment.

An inspiring historian, Bailey articulates an extraordinary and unique perspective on the challenges of many former slave families in her book. The New York Times Magazine highlighted her work in the 1619 Project, which aimed to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of national narrative.”

At Binghamton, Bailey also directs the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity, which was founded in 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the African American presence in the American colonies and then the United States.

In her talk with Harpur Edge, Bailey addressed tough questions regarding the debate over racial injustice in contemporary times.

Attendee Julia Fitzgerald, a freshman studying history on a pre-medical track, was impressed by Bailey’s talk and the layers of humanity revealed in her work.

“The lesson that resonated with me the most would be the importance of telling stories like the Butler slave auction in order to remember those who suffered in chains and to fight against racial oppression in modern times,” Fitzgerald said.

A double major in psychology and political science, Katarina Vattes is a social media and marketing intern at Harpur Edge.