Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch, author of Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania (The History Press, February 2018) will discuss her book which traces the stories of residents of Hinsonville, a free black community in southeast Pennsylvania, who fought for the Union. The former 19^th century village of Hinsonville attracted both free and determined to be free people who championed religious freedom, higher education, land ownership and equal rights. Residents organized a black Protestant church, supported the founding of Ashmun Institute (now Lincoln University), vigilantly opposed slavery and, in some cases emigrated to Liberia as a part of the colonization movement. The community’s tradition of self-determination compelled 18 of its men to enlist to advance the freedom cause. Some of the men are buried at Hosanna church cemetery next to the entrance to Lincoln University’s campus. “These men and their families anticipated that history would overlook them and their role in transforming America, so they placed headstones, monuments to their lives next to our country’s oldest degree-granting historically black University,” says Dr. Gooch. “By placing their personal monuments there, they placed themselves into historical memory. Yet, having fought to reunify our country, most of these veterans struggled to secure equitable pensions and lived in or near abject poverty.”

Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch is an academic leader, published scholar and active historical researcher. She served as historian and primary writer for the Delaware History Museum’s permanent exhibition “Journey to Freedom” chronicling the Black Delawarean experience from 1629 to the present. A life member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), she is a member of the organization’s committees which advise the National Park Service on ways to ensure inclusive interpretive themes at battlefields, parks and historic sites.  Dr. Gooch has been a featured author on PCN-TV's PA Books.

Since its release, Hinsonville’s Heroes has maintained active interest among diverse audiences, including Cecil County, Maryland and Chester County, Pennsylvania Library systems; National Civil War Museum; Camp William Penn Museum; Grand Army of the Republic Museum; Delaware History Museum; the National Park Service Fort Stevens Day; and numerous Civil War groups, including Baltimore Civil War Roundtable; Old Baldy Philadelphia Civil War Roundtable; Eastern Pennsylvania Civil War Roundtable; American Legion Benjamin Franklin Post #405; and Sons of Union Veterans-Bradbury Camp.