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The Slavery North Initiative at UMass Amherst will host a book launch for “Joe the Pressman: The Incredible True Story of an Enslaved African Boy Who Became a Heroic Freedom Fighter,” on Thursday, Feb. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. at its offices on campus at 472 N. Pleasant St. 

Authored by Charmaine A. Nelson, founding director of Slavery North and provost professor of art history at UMass Amherst, the children’s book explores the history of slavery in Canada.

“Joe the Pressman” (Black Maple Magazine Publishing, January 2026) recounts the life of an African boy enslaved in the Caribbean, Philadelphia and Quebec City, where he worked as a pressman for the Quebec Gazette. Historical records document his repeated escape attempts and resistance to enslavement.

“To date, Joe is the most outwardly resistant enslaved person known in Canadian history! His resistance forced the printer, William Brown, to document his existence across five fugitive slave advertisements and nine years of Joe’s life,” Nelson notes. “Today, we can speak Joe’s name because he refused to submit to slavery.”

Nelson’s nine previous books include “The Color of Stone” (2007) and “The Precariousness of Freedom” (2024). She has delivered over 340 lectures and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Copies of the new book will be available for purchase at the launch. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. 

More information about the Slavery North Initiative can be found at slaverynorth.com.