Video: Bland Simpson reads from “Two Captains from Carolina”

[This article is crossposted at UNCPressCivilWar150.com.]

If you didn’t make it to hear Bland Simpson read at UNC’s Bull’s Head Bookshop last month, well, let us bring the reading to you. Legendary chronicler of the North Carolina coast, Simpson is author, most recently, of Two Captains from Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt, and the Coming of the Civil War. In this book, Simpson twines together the lives of two accomplished nineteenth-century mariners from North Carolina—one African American, one Irish American. Though Moses Grandy (ca. 1791 – ca. 1850) and John Newland Maffitt Jr. (1819-1886) never met, their stories bring to vivid life the saga of race and maritime culture in the antebellum and Civil War-era South. With his lyrical prose and inimitable voice, Bland Simpson offers readers a grand tale of the striving human spirit and the great divide that nearly sundered the nation.

Events for Two Captains from Carolina continue. Check Simpson’s author page for the latest schedule so you can meet up with Bland and get your book signed.

The following video is from Simpson’s Nov. 13, 2012, appearance at Bull’s Head Bookshop on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. (running time: 16:04)