A new, original one-man stage show will trace the history of a family from Africa to enslavement in West Virginia and then modern descendants discovering those ancestors.
On Saturday, Feb. 10, at Central State University, WCSU General Manager Charles Fox will bring to life a collection of his family stories spanning decades. The show "Journey with Ancestors" will be at 7 p.m. in the Paul Robeson Cultural and Performing Arts Center on campus.
The free program will also stream on CSU's Facebook page. This performance is part of the Title 3 Theatre Arts program, presented by the CSU Department of Fine and Performing Arts.
Recently, he spoke with WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley about visiting his grandfather’s West Virginia farm as a child. There, elders talked about their enslaved ancestors who — almost 100 years earlier —lived on the plantation just a few miles from where they sat.
Charles Fox: In Jefferson County, West Virginia, at my great-grandfather's 300-acre farm—the women would be out on the porch talking, wrapped in blankets, out on the swings, and the men would be in the parlor. It was the place I grew up knowing as home. But I constantly would hear this word brood woman. "Yeah, Mary was a brood woman," they said. Eventually, I learned Mary was my great-great-grandmother. She and my ancestors were enslaved just six miles away from the farm.
WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley: Your great-great-grandmother, Mary, was enslaved in the 1850s, and she was on the Bower Plantation in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Now, you say your last name, Fox, actually came from Mary when she was attempting to escape. Explain that.
Fox: Someone told on her from the quarter — that's what they called the community where the enslaved lived, they called it the quarter. The overseer caught her in the middle of the night: "Where are you going?" And she turned around with some small portion of food in her hand, saying, "Oh, I'm just going to feed some little baby foxes that have been abandoned by their mama." But she had a lot more food sewn into the hems of her skirt.
Mobley: Thus, those little baby foxes, in reality, were Mary's five children. What year was that?
Fox: It was in 1855. My great-grandfather was 10 years old, and he had siblings. He was the oldest.
Mobley: What ended up happening to her?
Fox: She was tied to a wagon wheel and she was beaten. Then she learned the man who was her conspirator was found dead down along the Opequon Creek. She took her life.
Mobley: And her children after her death. What happened to them?
Fox: They took the code word as their name. They were called the Foxes after she took her life. The man who owned her, Adam Stephen Dandridge II, went off on a four-day drunk. Why would he have such a strong emotion about the death of a slave woman? I think Dandridge is my great-great-grandfather. The "Old Man," as they called him, had the children brought into the main house. They were taught skills. Horseshoeing, working with metal. My great-grandfather, John, was taught to work with wood, and he had a lot of freedom. He was sent with a team of horses in a wagon to go get supplies or deliver things to where the supply trains would come in at Bardane. John would take runaways from other plantations to the port area. Quakers would come down from Pennsylvania for their supplies. Then the runaways would climb underneath the hay on the Quaker's wagons and go back up into Pennsylvania to freedom.
Mobley: Charles, over the years, you've learned a lot about the many branches of your family tree. In 1992 you had a big surprise while working with the Maryland Film Commission. What happened?
Fox: I sat down for coffee at a staff meeting, and Anne Hartman and I were the first two there. And during a conversation, we discovered that she was the descendant of the family that owned my ancestors at the Bower. That's where I found the name of the family. She said, "Oh, what was it?" I said, "Dandridge." She hesitated for a minute. She said, "That was my maiden name." I said, "Yeah, but this Dandridge family, they owned a plantation in Jefferson County called The Bower." "Oh my god, that's my family," she said, "I always heard the Fox name, but I just never thought to associate it with you." I said, "Well, it was a code word."
Mobley: Charles, as you talk with more relatives, learning other family stories, pulling back dusty layers of history, talk about some of the life lessons you've learned.
Fox: I'm very proud. I'm the third generation born free. I'm very proud of what I have learned from my ancestors, and what I've learned from them is what my mother used to say. If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything. And that, in fact, is on our family crest that my father had made for me when I was 9 years old — to do without saying. Something else I've learned is how to take the word "impossible" and make it into "I'm possible."
Mobley: And of course, Mary's advice.
Fox: Never hate, or it will infect you and your children and your children's children. Sometimes it makes me cry. Kathryn, it's so humbling. It's really humbling. One thing I'm presenting in my presentation is Leviticus, the third book in the Old Testament, it's also the third book in the Torah. Leviticus 25, verses 44-46 talks about you have the right to have slaves, and you have right to make slaves from the nations around you. It's a book of social laws. Why are we still carrying a book that justifies slavery? Why haven't we evolved? It's the only way we're going to have the peace and the harmony and the productive society that we all want.
Mobley: Something for all of us to reflect on. Charles Fox, general manager of CSU farm on the campus of Central State University. You're going to have a wonderful show and thank you for giving us a glimpse into your family ancestry.
Fox: Thank you, Kathryn. Thank you.
