THE UPRISING

A thoughtful deep-dive into a moment in our collective history that illustrates the power of ordinary people anywhere, anytime, standing together against injustice, in this case the historic U.S. norm of human trafficking in the form of slavery.

In The Uprising, Cristin follows the branches of her own family tree back to another time when politics and race-relations tore families and communities apart, an incendiary moment when neighbors and relatives feared sharing a mere suggestion of how all may move forward, at peril of public shaming (now better known as "canceling") or worse.

What's new here is Cristin's account of the little-known and very bloody events of September 11, 1851, and the surprising collaboration between the region's wealthy free Black elite, the very modest rural white Quaker farmers, and self-emancipated Black families - three communities that shared few other ideas and priorities, save for the notion that human beings should not be treated as property - and the ensuing "Trial of the Century" that moved U.S. politicians from compromise to the civil war that would end slavery in the U.S.

This intense but uplifting history reminds us all that - however little power we wield or how little we have in common - there is a way for each of us to find the common ground required to effect change in government overreach, the treading on human rights, and all other manner of tyranny.

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an award-winning writer of Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam and popular touring poet and spoken word performer. She lives in Austin, Texas.