Authors take on legacy of slavery

Slavery: It was a tumor in the bones of the nation from its infancy; a bloody Civil War cut it out, yet it took another 100 years for real healing to begin. And, according to two authors who will speak this weekend in Sisters, the healing and recovery is far from finished.

Tom DeWolf and Sharon Morgan will visit Paulina Springs Books in Sisters at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 12, to share their book "Gather at the Table."

"Gather at the Table" is described as "the chronicle of the shared journey of a black woman and a white man to address issues of racial equity and justice on the path toward reconciliation."

Tom DeWolf is a native Central Oregonian who once served as a Deschutes County Commissioner.

This is not DeWolf's first foray into this darkest territory of American history. A few years back, DeWolf discovered that he is a distant descendent of James DeWolf, a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, who died the second-richest man in America in 1837. He made his fortune in the slave trade.

DeWolf, along with eight relatives, participated in a journey launched by his cousin Katrina Browne to trace the heritage of the slave trade, a journey that was to become a film documentary titled "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North." DeWolf then wrote a successful memoir of his journey titled "Inheriting the Trade."

Morgan comes at the legacy of slavery through her geneological research into her own family's experience. She is the descendant of slaves. Together with DeWolf, she spent three years traveling overseas and through 27 states, visiting ancestral towns, courthouses, cemeteries, plantations, antebellum mansions, and historic sites.

"We engaged in deep conversations about how the lingering trauma of slavery and racism shaped our lives and continue to profoundly impact America," DeWolf said.

"It's pretty unusual seeing a black woman and a white man having this kind of conversation in public," DeWolf told The Nugget.

In fact, DeWolf discovered, it's not all that easy to have any kind of conversation about slavery at all.

"We think it's unpatriotic, many of us, to look at the dark side of our country, our history," DeWolf said.

With the election of President Barak Obama and undeniable strides toward racial equality in many areas of American life, there has been a tendency in recent years to believe that the nation has moved into a "post-racial" society, one that doesn't need to dredge up a painful past that is now receding into the mists of time. DeWolf rejects that notion - "because," he says, "it's not true."

DeWolf says that most of the people who believe we are now a post-racial society "are white. They don't see how history continues to repeat itself."

In fact, DeWolf thinks we may have regressed in some ways recently.

"You see incidents of racial disharmony all over the place like we haven't seen in a long time," he said. "We've definitely made progress, but we've got a long way to go. Whether some folks want to acknowledge it or not, the issues of race are still in place."

DeWolf believes the only way to truly move past the past is to engage with it, even when it's painful and difficult. That's a hard story to sell. DeWolf has forged a career as an author and speaker on the legacy of slavery. Yet he finds that even on college campuses, there is a tendency to avoid the subject.

"There's a lot of places that shy completely away from this," he said. "We don't have a full picture of this history being taught in school. I can't tell you how many history teachers have said to me, 'I never knew this stuff before.'"

DeWolf has found personal growth and satisfaction in his journey, and fulfillment of youthful dreams in an almost accidental foray into authorship.

"This is what I'm committed to," he said. "I knew as a freshman in college that what I wanted to do was write, but I never had the courage to do it..."

Now he's doing it, and criss-crossing the country from campuses to television studios.

"I haven't traveled this much, I think, in my whole life," he said.

His travels will continue, but this weekend he's working on his home turf.

Saturday's presentation at Paulina Springs Books will include video and images from the book, and the authors will read excerpts and share stories from their journey. Paulina Springs Books is located at 252 W. Hood Ave. For more information call 541-549-0866.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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