Historian Alan Taylor will lead a discussion about his book “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832” at a virtual meeting of the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society.

The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, and those interested in taking part are asked to email mpaaghs.va@gmail.com or call 804-651-8753.

Taylor’s book is described in a news release as a “searing story of slavery and freedom in the Chesapeake” with an emphasis on the impact that enslaved people in Virginia had on the War of 1812.

The release notes that “Frederick Douglass recalled that enslaved persons living along the Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as ‘freedom’s swift-winged angels.’ In 1813, those angels appeared in the Bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Hundreds of enslaved persons paddled out to the warships seeking protection from the ravages of slavery. The runaways pressured the ...