Works in Progress
Searching for Pasquale
Family portrait of Pasquale Bilotta c. 1913
After six years of research, I am now writing my fourth book, Searching for Pasquale. A true-crime tale told in memoir style, this is the story of my investigation into the life and death of Pasquale Bilotta, a talented Italian woodcarver. Late on a Friday night in February 1931, Pasquale was shot while he did battle with a married woman in a small café in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The shooter, the woman’s husband, fired the shot while hidden outside the café and then immediately fled home.
I discovered this mystery after a 2016 visit to my grandfather’s home town of Sambiase in the southern Italian region of Calabria. While doing my research, I found that Pasquale grew up in a house less than 100 feet from my grandfather’s boyhood home.
My quest includes seeking answers to questions about the whys and hows of Italian immigration that I had failed to ask my grandfather before he died at the close of my teenage years.
If you would like to see a television news report, from early in my search (2018), please click here: www.wdtv.com/content/news/A-search-for-closure-thousands-of-miles-away-478699223.html
Click the image below to read newspaper clippings from era.
Revising and Updating Lewis Hayden Biography
Five scholarly works that cite Lewis Hayden and the War Against Slavery by Joel Strangis as one of their sources.
Twenty-five years after publication of my biography of Lewis Hayden, this heroic American is finally getting the recognition he is due – a U.S. postage stamp, a memorial statue in his home town, and frequent recognition in scholarly works about the anti-slavery struggle. Inspired by this recognition I have decided to update my 1999 Hayden biography. In this effort I have three goals. First to update the language. “Slaves” were people held against their will, often by cruel force. Thus, these people are more correctly described as “enslaved persons” or “captives” and those who hold them by force are no longer “owners” but “enslavers” or “those who claimed to own.” Second, to explore more fully Harriet Bell Hayden’s life and personal journey. What was Harriet’s situation as an enslaved person? The man who claimed her as a servant was Paterson Bain but we know her as “Harriet Bell.” Why not Harriet Bain? And, what roles did she play in the liberation of fugitives and later the liberation of women? And, third, I want to incorporate new research about Lewis’s leadership in the anti-slavery fight that has come to light, much of it now available electronically.
I have identified five scholarly works (image above) about the anti-slavery struggle published since 2019 that cite my Hayden biography as one of their sources. All were written by Ph. Ds; three were published by university presses; another one written by an associate curator at the Smithsonian Museum; and the fifth one was a New York Times bestseller. As these scholars have learned from me – I have learned from them. In most cases, with the help of the internet, I can go back to the same primary source documents that they cite. I look forward to including their research (properly cited) in my revised tribute to Lewis Hayden.
For more information about the Lexington Freedom Train monument, visit http://www.
Lewis Hayden was among ten Americans honored on March 9, 2024 when the United States Postal Service issued a block of stamps featuring heroes of the Underground Railroad. A criminal activity during the time that slavery was a legal endeavor, Underground Railroad activity endangered the lives, the freedom, and the financial resources of its conductors and station masters in addition to the safety and freedom of the human beings who were its passengers. Those honored included three Americans of European heritage and seven Americans of African heritage.
Hayden escaped enslavement in Lexington, Kentucky in 1844 with his wife Harriet and their son Joseph. After traveling through Ohio on the Underground Railroad (UGRR), and early stops in Canada and Detroit, the couple reached Boston where they operated a busy UGRR station and Lewis became a leader of anti-slavery activities. When Harriet Beecher Stowe visited Lewis and Harriet, their home was shelter for thirteen fugitives on their way to Canada.
Lewis Hayden, 2nd row, 2nd from left is among those Americans honored for their part in the Underground Railroad. Image courtesy of the USPS.