Posts Tagged ‘John F. Baker Jr.’

WESSYNGTON PLANTATION: A FAMILY’S ROAD TO FREEDOM

Saturday, July 12th, 2014

On July 11th Nashville Public Television aired its documentary Wessyngton Plantation: A Family’s Road to Freedom.  The film was inspired by my book The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family’s Journey to Freedom and the Tennessee State Museum exhibition Slaves and Slaveholders of Wessyngton Plantation.  The documentary highlighted the life of my great-great-great-grandmother Jenny Blow Washington.  Jenny along with her sister Sarah was brought from Sussex County, Virginia to Tennessee in 1802 by Joseph Washington who founded Wessyngton Plantation.  Jenny married Godfrey a slave from a neighboring plantation and became the matriarch of one of the largest families on Wessyngton.  Godfrey and Jenny later had nine children, including my great-great-grandfather Emanuel Washington (1824-1907).  Today there are thousands of their descendants throughout the United States.  Click link to view the documentary:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdce9dud1c0

SLAVE CEMETERY AT FORMER MIDDLE TENNESSEE PLANTATION GIVES UP SECRETS

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131231/NEWS01/312310023/Slave-cemetery-former-Middle-TN-plantation-gives-up-secrets?nclick_check=1

RESEARCHERS STUDY SLAVE CEMETERY AT WESSYNGTON PLANTATION

Saturday, December 28th, 2013

wessyngton-cemetery-article-001-2wessyngton-cemetery-article-page-2-001

30 Year Old Photo Foretells Subtitle of The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
John Baker and Friends at Greater South Baptist Church, 1981

John Baker and Friends at Greater South Baptist Church, 1981

Recently while going through some old photographs, I ran across this one taken with childhood friends Wanda Gardner, Drextel Bowling, Teresa Gardner, Charles Gardner and Kim Bradley.  The photo was taken in 1981 at Greater South Baptist Church during a Black history lesson.  I was quite surprised when I noticed the blackboard behind me had part of the subtitle to my book Journey to Freedom in the background nearly thirty years before the book was published.  My publishers at Atria Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster selected the subtitle for The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation.

Television Interview with John Seigenthaler Sr.

Monday, May 18th, 2009

My half-hour television interview with John Seigenthaler Sr, A Word on Words, is available as a free downloadable Podcast.

http://www.wnpt.org/productions/wow/

 

Mr. Seigenthaler asked me many in-depth thought-provoking questions.  At the end, he said, “I learned more from your book than I learned from reading my friend Alex Haley’s book called  Roots.” I hope you enjoy the interview. Leave a comment with your reaction.