Cecelia and Fanny

Brad Asher talked about the relationship revealed in the letters exchanged between Frances “Fanny” Thruston Ballard and Cecelia, a former slave who crossed into Canada while accompanying Ms. Ballard on a trip to Niagara Falls. Brad Asher is the author of Cecelia and Fanny: The Remarkable Friendship Between an Escaped Slave and Her Former Mistress. He was interviewed at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, where the letters are archived.

C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles (LCVs) on their “2011 LCV Cities Tour” were in Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 28-31 and August 1-3, 2011, to feature the history and literary life of the community. Working with the Frankfort Plant Board local cable affiliate, they visited literary and historic sites where local historians, authors, and civic leaders were interviewed. The history segments air on American History TV (AHTV) on C-SPAN3 and the literary events/non-fiction author segments air on BookTV on C-SPAN2. close