Historian Susan Cooke Soderberg, pictured at Heritage Days at Button Farm Living History Center last year, has more than 40 years of experience as a public historian. Her most recent book, 'My Name Is Not Tom,' will be published as an audiobook later this year. Photo courtesy of Susan Cooke Soderberg

• Share

PRINT

At 80 years old, Marylander Susan Cooke Soderberg has published the latest in a line of six history books.

In My Name Is Not Tom: The Life of the Reverend Josiah Henson, published last year by Georgetown University Press, Soderberg highlights Josiah Henson, who supposedly inspired the Uncle Tom character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

“History has always been a passion of mine; finding the facts,” Soderberg said in an interview with the Beacon. “I’m a seeker of truth.”

The book was 10 years in the making. During her research, Soderberg and her husband, Bill, traveled to several of the places Henson lived and visited, gathering information from archives, libraries and museums.

“We tend to think along linear lines when we look at history,” Soderberg said. “African American history and the history of slavery and white history…it’s all our history. We share this history.”

The historical Uncle Tom

Harriet Beecher Stowe originally published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. The only book to sell more copies than Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the entire 19th century was the Bible.

Stowe, an abolitionist, was looking for inspiration from someone with enough Christian piety to become a self-sacrificial martyr. She came across the 1849 autobiography of a man named Josiah Henson.

A devout Christian, Henson had developed a talent for preaching and orating, and Stowe decided he fit the bill. Since then, Henson has been associated with the subservient character of Uncle Tom.

Long before he was labeled “the real Uncle Tom,” Henson was born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland. He was maimed at a young age by his owner’s neighbor and as a result was unable to raise his hands above his shoulders for the rest of his life.

Henson achieved a degree of fame years before Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. He became an abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor and encountered many important people, including Frederick Douglass. On his book tour, he even met Queen Victoria.

Unlike his fictional counterpart, who was whipped to death, Henson had a happier ending: He purchased his own freedom in 1829, at the age of 33. He then escaped to Canada with his wife and four children, who were still enslaved, in 1830.

Later, Henson became frustrated with being introduced or referred to as “Uncle Tom.” In fact, the title of Soderberg’s book, My Name Is Not Tom, is taken from a speech Henson gave while on a book tour in Scotland.

A historian’s story

Soderberg fell in love with history while growing up in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. She received her bachelor’s degree in art history from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in American Studies from George Washington University.

When Soderberg’s two daughters were Girl Scouts, they wanted to receive their Local Lore badges, but it was difficult to find information on local history in the area. Soderberg decided to record the history herself by writing a weekly history column for the Gazette newspaper.

Since then, she has published multiple books and scholarly articles. Her book Lest We Forget: A Guide to Civil War Monuments in Maryland was developed from her master’s thesis and led her to serve on the Governor’s Commission on Maryland Military Monuments. She also published books about the B&O Railroad, Civil War correspondents, and the history of Germantown, Maryland, where she lives.

Soderberg also worked as a professional historian. In her job as public historian with the Montgomery County Park and Planning Commission, which she held from 1999 until 2008, she created exhibits for a historic slave cabin and a farmstead. She also helped create the Underground Railroad Experience Trail in Sandy Spring.

After her retirement, Soderberg was able to devote more time to writing.

Next book in the works

Looking forward, Soderberg plans to write more books, including a biography of Jane Claudia Saunders Johnson, who founded a women’s hospital in Baltimore after the Civil War.

In the meantime, her hope for My Name Is Not Tom is that it will help readers better understand slavery in America and its repercussions.

In the book, Soderberg pays special attention to how Henson was mistreated throughout his life — by his owners, by his editors and publishers, and even by Stowe. Writing the book, she said, was a way to try to right the wrongs of the past.

“I don’t have much money to give for reparations,” Soderberg said. “This is my contribution.”