Past Event
Saturday, September 19, 2015, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Chinese Yankee: Ruthanne Lum McCunn
541-B Second Avenue, San Diego, 92101
Cost: $4
Ah Yee Way, brought to the United States for schooling in the 1850s, was enslaved in Baltimore and renamed Thomas Sylvanus. Thomas began to set himself apart when he fled from captivity to fight for the Union Army at 16. He lost much of his sight to battle wounds and was discharged. Yet Thomas still reenlisted twice and distinguished himself in the bloody Battle of Spotsylvania before surviving imprisonment in Andersonville to raise a family after the war.
Meet Ruthanne Lum McCunn, who grew up in Thomas’ original home of Hong Kong, and learn how she rediscovered and chronicled this and other moving stories of courage and perseverance. Copies of the book, Chinese Yankee, will be available for purchase on the day of the event only.