Mapping Words – The Writing Life

The carved spines of mountains clothed in trees, the shadow of a house barely visible.  Or San Francisco defined clearly by roads and the expediency of horses, tucked complete against the north shore by the Gate. Or roads – Secretary’s Sand, Cocke, River...

Chimneys in the Slave Quarter

He beckoned to us from the back of the yard, and ever the obedient hiking group, we snaked out way back to him, past the pit that once sat below the ice house, past the smoke house and dairy, behind the boxwoods into the woods.  I have been most places at Bremo but...

The South Speaks of Slavery

The South speaks of slavery with every breath.  From the columned plantation houses that we sometimes call estates or mansions or museums – or even “the big house”- to the boarded, two-doored schools that communities built when their children could...