The Water Cries

The Water Cries represents an ambitious search forthe location of the slave auction houses in one of America's most storiedcities. The author plumbs historical documentation, sifting historicaladvertisements and archiving familial connections.

The book is a history told by grandmothers and grandfathers.It addresses a history previously told under a different light or never told atall. These are the tales of an heir of the previously enslaved, tales of imagesseen and unseen, the voices of the mystical. The Water Cries representsa contribution to the telling of the long-ignored truths of Galveston's central rolein the untenable trade of human souls, slavery.

The book is divided into three sections: before Emancipation(1840?1865); after Emancipation (1865?1940); and concrete suggestions for Galveston moving forward. This latter section involvesgiving faces and names to the voices we hear, the creation of a historicaldistrict, and the borrowing of other communities' progress.

The Water Cries is a contribution to the rest of usalso, particularly as we continue to grapple with what W. E. B. Du Boisdescribed as America's unique problem, the color line.