Author Talk: Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family

An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Join us as Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman, Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College, overturns the reclusive heiress’ assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle actually began their lives as poor, Christian, and enslaved in Barbados. Leibman traces the siblings’ extraordinary journey around the Atlantic world, using artifacts they left behind. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten people of mixed African and Jewish ancestry.

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