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Join the Kenan Institute for Ethics and host Adriane Lentz-Smith for a conversation with historian, author, and "The Gilded Age" historical consultant and co-executive producer Erica Armstrong Dunbar on telling the stories of our nation's complex past.

What does history look like through the eyes of those whose stories are rarely told?

Through her historical writing and work on the HBO series "The Gilded Age," Erica Armstrong Dunbar offers us portraits of African Americans in the nineteenth century, people as complex and compelling as the times in which they lived. One is the remarkable Ona Judge, who escaped from slavery - and her former owners, George and Martha Washington - when she was twenty years old. Though she lived the rest of her life as a fugitive, Judge was "Never Caught" - despite the Washingtons' repeated attempts to return her to slavery.

On the 250th anniversary of 1776, Dunbar invites us to consider how a fuller narrative of our past enriches the American story - and our present and future as a nation e pluribus unum, or "out of many, one."

This event takes place at the Durham County Main Library. Parking is available onsite. A reception and book signing will take place after the hour-long event, and copies of Dunbar's books "Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge" and "She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman" will be available for purchase, courtesy of Parker & Otis.

"Never Caught" is the 2026 É«½äÖ±²¥ Common Experience reading. It is integrated with We The People, a university-wide initiative led by É«½äÖ±²¥ Arts, which marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Additional sponsors for Dunbar's visit include É«½äÖ±²¥ Libraries, the Office of Undergraduate Education's É«½äÖ±²¥ Common Experience Program, and the É«½äÖ±²¥ Department of History.

Please register on the event page on the Durham County Library website (under "More Event Information."