When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy Riley Sager In each story

In each story

For a quarter century

leaving them to carry the burden of this secret alone

the power of love to get us through life

By turns inspiring

When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy Riley Sager In each storyHow the Word Is Passed meets Braiding Sweetgrass in a cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery, shared through the stories of long lived trees. The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; sycamore trees were both havens and signposts for people trying to escape enslavement; poplar trees are historically associated