Subject of Talk in Brookfield

Neil Goodwin, author of “We Go As Captives,” the first in-depth book about the Royalton Raid in 1780, the last Indian raid to occur in New England, will speak about his book Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. at Brookfield’s Old Town Hall in Pond Village near the Floating Bridge.

The Brookfield Community Partnership, together with the Brookfield Historical Society, will present the program. Admission is free and free-will donations would be appreciated in support of the continuing effort to renovate the Old Town Hall. Dessert will be served.

Goodwin’s book, published by the Vermont Historical Society in 2010, is described by them as a “riveting story of (the) attack, capture, imprisonment, and escape…of 32 prisoners captured at dawn by a war party of 265 Canadian Mohawks and Abenakis under British command.”

The book revolves around Zadock Steele, taken captive as he tried to warn his fellow settlers of the possibility of attack. Goodwin details frightening events in the central Vermont area late in the Revolutionary War, events that perhaps were never meant to happen. Goodwin used as a primary source for “We Go As Captives,” a detailed journal written by Steele. Goodwin will share his motivation for writing the book, will read passages from the text and from Steele’s personal journal, and will encourage questions and discussion.

Books will be available for purchase and signing that night, and in advance for purchase at Bud And Bella’s Bookshop in Randolph.

For more information, call 276-3488.