The storyteller
Dr. Larry H. Spruill
And the song it sang yesterday here at the Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research was the song of the storyteller every bit as much as it was the story of the people whose genealogy he had so carefully researched.
A professor of history at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Dr. Spruill breathed life into the long-dead story of Benjamin Turner, a freed slave and landowner in Westchester County, New York, who was born c1774 and died in 1833. Skillfully weaving a wide variety of records — newspapers, church records, land and tax records, town histories, court records and so much more — into a compelling tale of a man once dismissed as nothing more than “a Negro… a squatter,” Spruill revealed almost as much about himself as about the Turner family in a riveting performance that — by itself — would make a week at IGHR worth the price.
“We are miracle workers,” he declared. “We raise the dead, we perform resurrections. We are the gate keepers to the secret abode of our ancestors. … while searching for others we often find ourselves.”
And, he said, this thing we do, this genealogy, “it’s a calling, we’ve been called to do this, we get smitten with the calling and we cannot not do it.”
Then he shared a poem he wrote just days ago while preparing for this institute — for this incredible immersion into this calling — and graciously gave permission to share it here:
At the Roots of Rainbows
I am a pilgrim,
a sojourner;
a seeker
of scattered forgotten truth
buried in dark earthen tombs.
Born to chase elusive rainbows.
Called to dig at their roots.
I am a storyteller,
the gate keeper of secrets
with blessings for humanity.
I am an oracle for ancestors
seeing, hearing and doing
what others won’t.
I am an agent of new life
digging at
the roots of rainbows.
I am a storyteller.
Larry H. Spruill, June 7, 2012
Would that we all could tell our families’ stories half so well…
I LOVE this!!
Dr. Spruill is just wonderful!
Wow. That is powerful. I’m so glad you are having the experience of the IGHR – and even more glad that you are sharing it with us.
Thanks, Nan! Any institute is worth doing and this one… wow is a good word.
Quotes worth recording and using! Wow, he must be a powerful speaker.
He will be the featured speaker at the dinner Thursday night — I can’t wait!
Yes, he was wonderful. Brought tears to me more than once.
I was too busy being amazed to cry!
I so agree…genealogy is a calling. We just can’t help it. Someone asked me what I was going to do when I retired? Retire….I can’t imagine.
I can imagine retiring — but not from genealogy!!
Wonderful. I would love permission to put this on my website too. Can you send me contact info or ask on my behalf. Many thanks.
His email is dralif163 (at) aol.com.
Wonderful. I wonder if he could get the song up on YouTube so we could hear it.
It would be nice if one of his lectures (a song, in my eyes!) could be recorded, for sure!
Wow wow wow — I just love this. I am going to get this made into some kind of art for my study (calligraphy maybe). It sounds like an amazing lecture – and thanks so much for sharing it so vividly! I want to thank him (and you) for the inspiration and I am not even there!
Being able to share terrific things that happen at an institute is part of the fun of being at an institute — and this was a particularly terrific part of this week, without doubt.