{"product_id":"when-trees-testify-science-wisdom-history-and-americas-black-botanical-legacy","title":"When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eEssence\u003c\/i\u003e's \"16 Books by Black Authors We're Excited About This Month\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA LibraryReads Notable Nonfiction Pick\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/i\u003e' Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2026\u003cbr\u003eA Top 10 Title in \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e's Science Preview\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A poignant and singular retelling of Black American history.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Botanical knowledge, Montgomery argues persuasively, was intrinsic to Black people's survival and sustenance before and after emancipation. A fresh perspective on Black history.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautiful journey through the imagination and intellect of one of our most important contemporary science writers. Montgomery is an inheritor of the Black ecological tradition, who brings her heart and knowledge to bear on the world around us, offering deep illumination and abundant wisdom.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eImani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eSouth to America\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlack in Blues\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Beronda L. Montgomery draws on the experience of Black Americans, her memories of growing up in Arkansas, and her expertise as a plant scientist to reflect on the deep connections between botany and history. \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify \u003c\/i\u003eis a fascinating, informative, and deeply moving book.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e―\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sixth Extinction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLife on a Little-Known Planet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"We have been waiting for this. A botanical memoir, a history, a history with a Black lens--that takes us from roots to branches giving us the keys to an alternative retelling of the American landscape and the ways plants mark who we are and where we've been. This is an electric, bold weaving of ethnobotany, personal memoir, spirit and science and I am here for it.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Michael W. Twitty, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Cooking Gene\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKoshersoul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in the convergences of human and plant lives. Full of joy, sorrow, and brilliant insight, this book forever changed how I think about trees and American ecology and history. Black botanical legacies, and their vitally important roles in culture and ecology today, are vividly evoked in this extraordinary weave of biology, history, and memoir.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--David George Haskell, biologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist for \u003ci\u003eThe Forest Unseen \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSounds Wild and Broken\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I love this book. \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify\u003c\/i\u003e is a profound journey into the heart of America. Beronda L. Montgomery shares with us the power and beauty of Black botanical knowledge. Trees invite us into the entangled lives, loves, and freedom struggles of those who came before us and those who will come after us. I learned things about trees and people that made me laugh, cry, and gasp in wonder. I wish everyone could read it.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eKatie Holten, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Language of Trees\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify \u003c\/i\u003eis a moving and informative study of American and Black American botanical history. Combining personal narrative, family lore, and often-chilling history with deeply researched studies of important tree species, this book is thoroughly compelling. Beronda L. Montgomery opened my eyes to so many remarkable ways that trees have shaped our past and continue to guide our future.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eCamille T. Dungy, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eSoil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A journey through science and the sacred, \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify \u003c\/i\u003eis a revelation! Gently tracing the roots of Black land trauma--from poplar trees that bore strange fruit to cotton bolls soaked with the tears of the enslaved--Beronda Montgomery invites us to reckon with a botanical inheritance long buried beneath silence and sorrow. This powerful book illuminates an ennobling legacy . . . I will never see a tree the same way again.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eRuha Benjamin, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eViral Justice\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Imagination: A Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBeronda L. Montgomery \u003c\/b\u003eis an award-winning plant biologist and the author of the acclaimed \n\u003ci\u003eLessons from Plants\u003c\/i\u003e (Harvard University Press, 2021). She has been named one of the journal \n\u003ci\u003eCell\u003c\/i\u003e's 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, and was awarded the 2021 Cynthia Westcott Science Writing Award and 2022 Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant biology. She was named a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University (2025-26), and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Plant Biologists, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Academy of Microbiology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis stunning cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery offers up lessons from the natural world shared through the stories of long-lived trees.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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 with lynching; and willow bark has offered the gift of medicine. These trees, and others, testify not only to the complexity of the Black American narrative but also to a heritage of Black botanical expertise that, like Native American traditions, predates the United States entirely. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \n\u003ci\u003eWhen Trees Testify\u003c\/i\u003e, award-winning plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery explores the ways seven trees--as well as the cotton shrub--are intertwined with Black history and culture. She reveals how knowledge surrounding these trees has shaped America since the very beginning. As Montgomery shows, trees are material witnesses to the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Combining the wisdom of science and history with stories from her own path to botany, Montgomery talks to majestic trees, and in this unique and compelling narrative, they answer. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 10\/15\/2025 (EAN 9781250335166, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/span\u003e 11\/01\/2025 pg. 77 (EAN 9781250335166, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 11\/03\/2025 (EAN 9781250335166, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 11\/19\/2025 (EAN 9781250335166, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/01\/2025 (EAN 9781250335166, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eMontgomery, Beronda L\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBeronda L. Montgomery \u003c\/b\u003eis an award-winning plant biologist and the author of the acclaimed \n\u003ci\u003eLessons from Plants\u003c\/i\u003e (Harvard University Press, 2021). She has been named one of the journal \n\u003ci\u003eCell\u003c\/i\u003e's 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, and was awarded the 2021 Cynthia Westcott Science Writing Award and 2022 Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant biology. She was named a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University (2025-26), and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Plant Biologists, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Academy of Microbiology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Henry Holt \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496192377110,"sku":"9781250335166","price":33.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781250335166.jpg?v=1783057194","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/when-trees-testify-science-wisdom-history-and-americas-black-botanical-legacy","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}