On April 13, author will discuss the local connections to the Underground Railroad at Florida Public Library

Florida - Author Fergus Bordewich will appear at the Florida Public Library on Sunday, April 13, at 2 p.m., to discuss his newest book, entitled “Bound for Canaan,” which tells the epic story of the Underground Railroad, America’s first civil rights movement. Bordewich will concentrate his discussion on the role that the Railroad played in the Hudson Valley. In addition to “Bound for Canaan,” he is the author of “Killing the White Man’s Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century,” “My Mother’s Ghost, a memoir” and “Cathay: A Journey in Search of Old China.” His articles on American history have appeared in Smithsonian and American Heritage. As a journalist, he has also traveled widely in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and has written on human rights and other issues for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Readers Digest, and other periodicals. Bordewich was raised with the Underground Railroad, or at least with its legend. He grew up in Yonkers in a neighborhood adjoining one that was reputed to have been settled by fugitives who had come north via the underground. In 1998, Bordewich visited the site of the Dawn Institute, founded in 1841 in southern Ontario, a school and refuge for fugitive slaves, and a terminus of the Underground Railroad. It served as his inspiration to begin Bound for Canaan. Visit his Web site www.FergusBordewich.com for more information about the author and the book. Stop in or call the Florida Public Library at 651-7659 to register for this program.