A saint who despises slavery yet traffics people. A Southern hero, but also a coward. A runaway aching for home. Civil War survivor Witfield Stone totters on the brink of insanity. Entrusted with transporting contract laborers from Africa to Brazil where his father and members of the Southern Land and Immigration Society plan to reconstruct their lost fortunes, Witfield takes special interest in the fate of eleven-year-old Fatima. On the eve of embarkation, disease breaks out, and there is pressure to sacrifice the child for the sake of the cargo. Witfield resists and even as the clipper ship sails and disease takes hold of all on board, Witfield protects her. But why does he stake the last vestiges of his crumbling humanity on saving this particular child among so many? What leads him to think she is the road to redemption? There is more to Witfield’s past than first meets the eye. And there is more trouble ahead than he can imagine.

Quotations

“What is still amazing to me is that white theologians and ethicists, the intellectual and spiritual conscience of America and the world, continue to write about everything under the sun except the cancer of racism.” — James H. Cone, Risks of Faith, p. xxvi.

“M]isery and oppression lead to a cruel, inhuman death, and are therefore contrary to the will of the God of Christian revelation who wants us to live…” — Gustavo Gutiérrez, Expanding the View, p. 8.

“[T]here is a distinction between stories and experiences which enables us to see that not all stories are adequate to our experience. Conversely we experience a shock of recognition when we find a story which articulates an as yet unarticulated part of our experience.” — Carol Christ, Womanspirit Rising, p. 229.

Family History

Fiction is family history with names changed and lid removed from the laundry hamper.

Michael Dawsey arrived in Virginia from England in 1761. During the Revolutionary War he enlisted in the Second Virginia Infantry and was killed in 1783, outside of present-day Charlottesville. He was one of only 4,435 Americans killed in that war. Michael’s son, Thomas, was sixteen when his father died. By the start of James Madison’s presidency, we find him a dealer and speculator in slave properties, accumulating wealth in South Carolina and Georgia. But then…? In 1819 Thomas reappears as a Methodist preacher, without slaves, in that area where Tallahassee now stands. He was later appointed the first Probate Judge of Leon County.

Thomas’ grandson, T. J. or Thomas Jefferson Dawsey, lived most of his life in Henry County, Alabama, where his father in the 1840s helped raise the courthouse in Abbeville and served as County Commissioner and Justice of the Peace. When the South seceded in 1861, T. J. crossed the Chattahoochee to join the Seventh Georgia Infantry. But for unknown reasons in 1863 he left the Confederate army in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and there joined and fought for the Union until the war ended in 1865. After traveling to Texas and Mexico, T. J. returned in 1866 to the home place in Alabama where he became one of the most respected citizens of the area.

Acknowledgements

Writing represents much more of a joint effort than the title page allows. I am indebted to the unselfish reading and truthful comments of family and friends. Early on, the Poet Ethelbert Miller gave sound advice–as did two colleagues at Emory & Henry College, Dr. John H. Roper and Ms. Sarah Williams. Former students John Ball, Ashley Billingsley, Zach Franks, and Will Lauderbach read a draft. Also administrators and other colleagues at the college offered encouragement. Ms. Susan Malone of www.maloneeditorial.com provided keen insight and outstanding help. Ms. Elizabeth Durant and the Reverend Bill Rogers read the next to last draft. The story improved with their contributions. The fiction editor of Mercer University Press, Mr. Kevin Manus, gave of himself unstintingly to the project. Greatest appreciation is reserved, however, to my companion, sweet Dixie. She is my best booster, critic, editor.