November 15, 2019
Hello ,
Thanks for the love! So many of you wrote last week. It really means a lot.
I'm passing along this wisdom from Toni, "within the suffering and effort, in the direction of goodness and fairness, lies the truth of the stories."
Onward.
This week I'm happy to extend a warm welcome to new subscribers Chelsea Goodrich and Happi Jones. Thanks for joining us!
Also, welcome Author Carla Killough McClafferty who generously agreed to write a guest post for us this week.
Carla's new book is the culmination of nearly six years of research that started and ended at the historic home of George Washington.
Buried Lives at Mt. Vernon
I didn’t determine to write a book about slavery and look for a way to do it. Instead, like all my best ideas, this book concept came to me suddenly and worked its way into my heart and mind. And once the idea planted itself, it wouldn’t leave.
Through the years, I’d come to know the archaeologists there and I met with them to ask about what they were working on around the estate. They explained they were planning a multiyear archaeological dig in the Slave Cemetery (they will never disturb any remains in their graves).
Naturally, I asked lots of questions.Thoughts and questions started swirling through my mind.
Who is buried in the cemetery filled with unmarked graves? What were their lives like? Immediately I wondered: Is there enough primary source material to write a book about individual enslaved people?
A section of the Mount Vernon cemetery showing graves of several enslaved people. The flowers were placed for a memorial ceremony. At the end of the dig season, archeologists fill the area back in with soil.
I chose to highlight the lives of six REAL, specific enslaved people who were owned by the Washingtons: William Lee, Christopher Sheels, Caroline Branham, Peter Hardiman, Oney Judge, and Hercules.
One of the challenges for this book is that none of them left a written record of their own experiences or feelings (with a minor exception for Oney Judge). I wrote the book in such a way that I did NOT put words or feelings in their mouths—for no one can ever know how they felt or what they thought.
Below: A silhouette portraying Oney Judge on the Mount Vernon Website.
When my research began, these six people were strangers. But as a biographer, I got to know them as I studied their lives. In most cases, I knew the name of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, spouses and children.
I understood how each of them fit within a large family group. I followed their lives through primary source letters, journals, and farm reports to learn what sort of work they did.
I followed the historic record to see when they traveled with Washington and when they returned to Mount Vernon.
I followed their lives as they fell in love, married, had babies, lost babies, as they were injured, as they recovered, as they died, and as some of them escaped.
I thought about their lives, spending five and a half years actively studying the lives of these six enslaved individuals. As a biographer, I got to know them and care about them-even though they lived a long time ago.
One of my favorite parts of being a nonfiction author is getting to know people through my research. With this book, I had the great pleasure of interviewing and getting to know some descendants of people who were enslaved at Mount Vernon. I became friends with Caroline Branham’s descendant, Zsun-nee Matema-who wrote the forward for my book.
I also became friends with Brenda Parker, a woman who works at Mount Vernon interpreting Caroline Branham for visitors. Two hundred years after the life of Caroline Branham, we three modern women have an invisible connection with George Washington’s housemaid. We each tell her story in different ways.
After studying the lives of six enslaved people who worked at Mount Vernon, I had to participate-for myself and for the people I wrote about. I worked alongside the archaeologists using a trowel to move soil into buckets, then into the shaker.
I helped uncover grave number 67. I stood over the newly discovered grave. No one will ever know who was buried there. Tears fell down my cheeks. They are not forgotten.
Thank you, Carla! It's so interesting to read about your process and how this important book came about.
Last week I took some time off in the sun visiting New Orleans and Pass Christian, Mississippi. Here are some photos from what was supposed to be a swamp tour to see alligators.
The weather was too cold for the gators to be moving much, but it was a beautiful day on the bayou.
Honey Island Swamp, Slidell, Louisianna
Sleeping alligator in the Pearl River, Louisiana.
Wild Boar, Louisiana Bayou
I just cannot end on that ugly pig, so here's a shot of the Gulf of Mexico near Pass Christian, Mississippi.
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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
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