Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist Jack Ford to visit Barr Sept. 19

By Barr Memorial LibrarySeptember 14, 2018

Award-winning journalist Jack Ford to visit Barr Library Sept. 19
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Award-winning journalist Jack Ford will visit Fort Knox's Barr Memorial Library at noon Wednesday as part of the Authors at Your Library program. Ford will discuss and sign copies of his newest novel, Chariot on the Mountain, based on true events that took place in the 1840s.

After her husband Samuel dies, Mary Maddox grants Samuel's natural-born daughter Kitty and her three children their freedom. But Kitty's freedom does not last; she is taken back to Virginia by slave-catchers under the orders of Samuel Maddox's nephew. Kitty takes the extraordinary and unprecedented step of suing for kidnapping and assault. Mary and wealthy socialite Fanny Withers join her to attempt defying the odds in a sensational trial for Kitty's freedom almost 15 years before the Civil War.

Ford stumbled across a plaque commemorating Kitty's case while wandering the lawn of an old 1830s courthouse in Virginia. Intrigued by the case he had never heard of, Ford began an investigation. Using handwritten court records, newspaper accounts, letters and descendants' recollections, he discovered the story that became Chariot on the Mountain.

Ford is a former trial lawyer who has become a prominent legal journalist, appearing on Court TV, ABC, CBS and NBC. He has received two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, an American Radio and Television award, a National Headliner award, and the March of Dimes FDR award. Ford is a visiting lecturer at Yale, New York University and the University of Virginia. He also teaches a seminar on famous trials.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Barr Memorial Library by calling (502) 624-1232, or visit the website Caution-www.barrlibrary.org.