Go Stand Upon the Rock

by Samuel Michael Lemon Ed.D.

Go Stand Upon the Rock is a deeply moving story based on real people and events in the lives of a runaway slave and his family, who witness some of the most compelling moments in antebellum American history. It is a tale of unsettling plantation life, courageous women, dramatic Civil War battles, heroes and hoodoo, and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. This novel is based on the family history handed down to me by my maternal grandmother, Maud Ray Ridley Ortiga - the granddaughter of former runaway slaves. Fiercely proud of our ancestors, I spent countless hours at my grandmother's table, committing this history to memory as we poured over a trove of antique family photographs. I grew to love these forebears who died long before I was born, and I eventually became the family historian. This made me determined to achieve two lifelong goals. The first was to see that my ancestors no longer rested in unmarked graves. The second was to solve the mysteries of who we were, where we came from and how we came to be. After my ancestors escaped from slavery in the mid-1860s, no one in my family had ever returned to our places of origin -- in fact, no one even knew where they were. What began as a noble quest to uncover my roots became a cultural detective story, with only the names of the plantations and slave quarters serving as paltry clues. As I grew into adulthood, I discovered the remarkable accuracy of the age-old family tradition of oral history, and everything my beloved grandmother told me proved to be true. I added to this body of knowledge through historical and genealogical research at the National Archives, the U.S. Census, and countless books and websites, all of which enabled me to turn my love of family history into a doctoral dissertation at one of the most distinguished academic institutions in America -- the University of Pennsylvania -- where I earned a doctorate in Education, Culture, and Society in 2007. The story begins on the Bonnie Doon plantation in Southampton County, Virginia, where my ancestor Cornelius Ridley -- the mulatto son of his wealthy, slavemaster/father -- was born in 1839 - eight years after Nat Turner's Rebellion. But no rosy or revisionist retrospective on genteel plantation society, this book examines the historical events and complex social and sometimes biological relationships between masters and slaves. Go Stand Upon the Rock is a tapestry of interwoven stories of a remarkable family's journey through history that began with my great-great grandfather Cornelius Ridley's epic 300 mile walk to freedom in the North to escape from bondage on his putative father's plantation. It also follows his wife Martha Jane Parham, as she strives to escape her horrible fate as a breeding woman on the neighboring Fortsville Plantation. Learning what she endured made an indelible impact on me. Unlike her husband who was able to pass for white, they were forced to escape separately. And the story follows her perilous flight with two young children, to the safety of a company of U.S. Colored Troops, where she meets a young black soldier from Pennsylvania who is wounded during one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War - the Battle of New Market Heights - who has an unexpected role in her life half a century later. This first part of the Ridley family saga draws to a close with Cornelius and Martha Jane's brilliant son William - a pioneering African American law student - who miraculously survives a hail of bullets in the midst of a dangerous political dispute in Chester, Pennsylvania, that nearly ends his life and legal career captured in detail in local contemporary newspaper accounts just one month before his marriage to an elegant, mysterious clairvoyant woman from the Danish West Indies in October 1889. Telling the story of my ancestors is a debt I have longed owed them, because they are giants upon whose shoulders I stand today. And there is much more of their saga to

300 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2014

Reviews

[Carlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by an old friend and colleague from our days working in child welfare in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Samuel "Sam" Lemon. The County seat of Delaware. County is Media where Sam grew up and continues to reside. What I never knew about Sam were the details of his family history other than that his great-grandfather, William Henry Ridley, Esq., was the first African-American to be admitted to the Delaware County Bar. Sam based his book on his doctoral dissertation wherein he researched the history of his family fromVirginia plantation slave quarters to their flight to freedom in the North and onward to becoming a highly respected family in Delaware County within one generation. It is a remarkable story in part because much was based on the stories told to Sam by his grandmother (substantiated by Sam's subsequent research) and bolstered by the historical family photographs that were passed down to current family members.

The book, although based on Sam's dissertation, is very readable. The legacy of interracial "relationships" during slavery, the underground railway, the Civil War, all are part of this personal and facinating story. I congratulate Sam on his achievement and look forward to the next installment in his family's story.

[Teresa V · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Go Stand Upon the Rock" tells a story of African-American resilience in the face of slavery and the Civil War. It is a fictionalized account based on Sam Lemon's own family history as told to him by his maternal grandmother. In the book, we are able to see how slavery impacted people differently. We learn about what it meant to a breeding woman, the mixed race son of a slave owner, the trusted slave, the hoodoo woman, displaced Native-American, the long suffering slaveowner's owner's wife among others. We also learn about the unsung heroes-- the ordinary slaves who helped others escape to the North despite their own predicament, the Quakers who led many to freedom, both black and white Underground Railroad conductors and station masters, and the United States Colored Troops. Moreover, we learn that Lemon's reunited family was able to prosper after finally making their way North.

I highly recommend this book. It is a quick read, riveting, and informative. It is also nice to learn about the rich legacy his family bequeathed to him. Lemon has undoubtedly made his ancestors proud by telling the stories of their lives from slavery to freedom and after. In "Go, Stand Upon the Rock", Lemon has given them back their voices and has told their stories well. Kudos to him!

[Mary Gabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

We come to know and love Cornelius Ridley as we follow him from slavery to freedom. Samuel Lemon does a masterful job of bringing his great-great-grandfather to life in this novelized account of the stories told to him by his grandmother. This book is an engaging look into the lives of slaves, the complexities of the South, and the depth of the human spirit.