Emory & Henry College: News

	About Emory & Henry
	Admissions
	Academics & Career Opportunities
	Student Life
	Distinctive Programs
	Athletics
	For Parents
	For Visitors
	For Current Students
	For Faculty & Staff
	For Alumni

E&H Professor Illustrates Life Choices in Civil War Era with Novel

Click to enlarge

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Imagine a civil war hero who is a saint and despises slavery, yet traffics people. A Southern hero, but also a coward. A runaway aching for home with ties to Emory, Virginia.

E&H Professor of Religious studies James M. Dawsey composed such traits into the world of Witfield Stone in his most recent novel, Masters and Savages.

Witfield is entrusted with transporting contract laborers from Africa to Brazil as his father and members of the Southern Land and Immigration Society plan to reconstruct their lost fortunes. Along his journey, Witfield makes connections, one of which is Emory & Henry College, as he takes special interest in the fate of 11-year-old Fatima.

Plagued with disease, a trip across the seas spells disaster as Witfield is forced to make the decision of freedom over cargo for the child he is protecting. An observer is prompted to question Witfield’s motive of staking the last vestiges of his crumbling humanity on saving this particular child among so many. Danger continues to follow Witfield and Fatima as they proceed to their future.

The flavor of Washington County permeates the story. Witfield’s memories recapture Abingdon, Emory & Henry College and the Holston valley. The action moves quickly with an almost cinematic depiction of plot development. Characters are fully rounded as tension exists between the Confederates. The issues and actions of long ago surprise us by their relevance today. Above all, the author tells about the South. This is a Washington County story of yesterday filled with evergreen themes of racial, sexual and class tensions; the issues of slavery, war, and conflicts external and internal.

Dawsey is the author of works of theology and history including The Confederados: Old South Immigrants in Brazil; From Wasteland to Promised Land: Liberation Theology for a Post-Marxist World; The Lukan Voice: Confusion and Irony in the Gospel of Luke from Mercer University Press; and many other monographs and articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Dawsey is an ordained minister in the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Masters and Savages is published by Mercer University Press. For more information on Masters and Savages visit www.amazon.com.

<< previous page