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The True Citizen, Wednesday, March 2, 2022 — Page 5
Michael N. Searles
CRITICAL RACE THEORY PART TWO
Ronda Rich
WHEN GOES THE HEART
One of the biggest expressed
complaints some white par
ents have is the teaching of
American history that high
lights racial discrimination
and makes white kids feel like
oppressors and black kids like
victims. While I do not agree
with the assumption, there
are ways of addressing this
concern. American history
past and present is replete with
stories of whites and blacks
working together in a common
cause. One of these stories
focuses on Elizabeth Van Lew
who was born on October 12,
1818 in Richmond, Virginia
to John Van Lew and Eliza
Baker. John Van Lew came
to Richmond at the age of 16
and within 20 years had estab
lished a prosperous hardware
business and owned several
slaves. Elizabeth’s family sent
her to Philadelphia for her
education at a Quaker School
that reinforced her abolitionist
sentiments. Upon the death of
her father in 1843, Elizabeth's
brother John Newton Van
Lew took over the business
and freed the family’s nine
slaves, even though John had
been somewhat opposed to
the idea. Those slaves included
the young future Union spy
Mary Bowser. In the depths
of the 1837-44 depression,
Elizabeth used her entire cash
inheritance of $10,000 (nearly
$200,000 in current money) to
purchase and free some of their
former slaves' relatives. For
years thereafter, Elizabeth's
brother was a regular visitor
to Richmond's slave market.
When a family was about to
be split up, he would purchase
them all, bring them home, and
issue their papers of manumis
sion. Mary Bowser, a possible
family member, was one of
the slaves freed by the Van
Lews’. The record indicates
that Elizabeth established a
very elaborate spy ring that
communicated secret messages
to Union forces throughout
the war. The Van Lew family
began working on behalf of
the Union caring for wounded
soldiers and when the local
Libby Prison was opened,
Elizabeth petitioned to be
allowed to bring them food,
clothing, writing paper, and
other items. She aided prison
ers in escape attempts, pass
ing them information about
safe houses and getting Union
sympathizers appointed to
the prison staff. Information
provided by recently captured
Union soldiers, provided use
ful intelligence that was sent to
Union commanders. Elizabeth
even made her own mansion a
hiding place for escaped Union
prisoners. Elizabeth operated
a spy ring known as the “Rich
mond Underground.”
The freed slave Mary Bowser
who lived with Elizabeth was a
less known member of the spy
network. Mary was not only
able to read and write; there is
evidence to suggest she played
an even more dangerous and
important role. She was said
to have been hired into the
White House of the Confed
eracy as a household servant.
Confederate First Lady, Va-
rina Davis later said no such
person was ever employed
arguing that all of the servants
in her hire could neither read
nor write. Mary Bowser, pos
sibly one of her pseudonyms,
was but one of several names
adopted as she plied her spy
craft. Those names included
Mary Jane Richards and Mary
Jane Richards Garvin Den
man. Mary Jane Richards may
have been her actual name.
While the success of these two
women, one white and one
black, was of material benefit
to the Union war effort, there
was a conscious effort on the
part of Elizabeth Van Lew
after the war to avoid public
acclaim for the work she had
done. She still
lived in Rich-
mond, Virginia SEARLES,
and her neigh- 8
So much happened in the
last couple of years that you
probably don’t remember this
snapshot from our lives so I’ll
remind you.
Two years ago, Tink flew to
Vancouver to oversee the writ
ing and the production of a hit
Hallmark show, “When Calls
The Heart.”
In the time that Tink has em
bedded himself in the life and
friendships of the South, he has
come to love it mightier than
any man I have ever known
who was not born of this dirt.
I, the land, the Rondarosa, and
the animals are his heart.
A car arrived to pick him up
for the 90-minute drive to the
airport and, as he left, the grav
eled dust spewing behind the
black SUV, I thought “There
goes our heart.”
It was to be for three months
— but, two weeks later, while
we chatted by video, an alert
popped up on his phone: the
borders of Canada had been
closed. “Tighter,” Mama would
have said, “than Dick’s hat
band.” Whatever that means.
For nine months, home was
a deep longing for Tink. His
sadness grew daily.
Church folks prayed for his
release as a prisoner of a viral
war. One church even had a
special prayer for him where
people fell into the altar and
prayed for his return.
In the grocery store, a woman
approached one day, “Please,
tell Tink that we are prayin’
for him.”
“Y’all need to be prayin’
for me,” I retorted comically.
“Tink is sitting in a high-rise,
luxury, air-conditioned condo,
overlookin’ Vancouver and I’m
at home, bush hogging the pas
ture in 100-degree weather!”
The Lord is good. He didn’t
send Tink home promptly but
He rewarded him with sky-
high ratings and a renewal
for another season. (The new
season premiers March 6 on
the Hallmark Channel.)
Because he was mostly quar
antined in the condo and not
on the set, he made a decision:
this summer, he’d stay home
and run the show. He’d conduct
writing, oversee production -
with a litany of problems - and
edit by video.
Halfway through the sum
mer, I was thinking that a plane
ticket to Vancouver, for one of
us, was a pretty good idea.
My nerves frayed. I built the
house we live in several years
before we married. It’s two
stories but it’s a very open plan
so his meetings interrupted
my writing. His problems
disturbed my thinking. One
actor got a sore throat which
required rewriting three days’
of shooting. (Note here: no
farmer ever stayed in bed over
a sore throat.)
Once, the show’s horse
wrangler had an accident while
driving a set of horses, pulling
a wagon. Fortunately, the in
juries weren’t life threatening.
The three-hour time differ
ence meant constant calls until
10 p.m. It was trying. Almost
as trying as cutting the pasture
by myself.
But there was good. Tink’s
on-screen titles are “Executive
Producer” and “Written By...”
In contract and with some 200
employees, it is “Showrunner”.
That means he oversees the de
cisions from writing to casting
to props to locations.
He is Big Man on set.
Though, they wisely gave the
checkbook to someone else.
Tink doesn’t care a lot about
adding and subtracting.
When Tink has been away,
running a show for a few
months, he comes back dif
ferent than the sweet, under
standing, immensely
thoughtful man he SEE
was when he left. pj|Q^
For the first couple
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