The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes Trilogy

Based on the true story of Author David J. Mason’s great-grandfather, The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes Trilogy delivers an intimate view of the experiences of Black soldiers fighting for the Union and their liberation.

 

The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes is a documentary novel based on a true story and actual events, drawn from a variety of sources, including published materials and family chronicles. The novel is the story of Parson Sykes, a curiously enslaved teenager in Virginia, who undergoes a historic self-liberation before enlisting in the Union Army.

 

The first book in the story takes place in Southampton County, near the end of the American Civil War, on the slave-holding Jacob Williams’ farm. During the 1831 Southampton Insurrection, the farm was attacked by Nat Turner and his insurgents, and this still haunts Jacob. In the book, Parson and Jacob Williams are faced at opposite ends of the disputed points over the moral issue of slavery and secession, a political decision that led directly to war.

 

Enslavement in Southampton County

 

 

The prologue recounts Nat Turner’s rebellion and its impact on the community of Southampton County, Virginia, during the American Civil War.

 

Each chapter accomplishes two things. The first section describes the conditions on the ground and the key events that affected the war. The second section describes Parson Sykes's work life in Cross Keys, Virginia. He and his family were monitored constantly.

 

In the book, Enslavement in Southampton County, Parson and Jacob Williams are faced at opposite ends of the disputed points over the moral issue of slavery and secession, a political decision that led directly to war.

 

The novel profiles Parson’s evolution from enslavement and self-liberation by running away from Jacob Williams’ farm. Before the Civil War started, Parson began discussing human rights and the political implications of the abolition of slavery with his two brothers. In December 1864, he planned to liberate himself by running away from Jacob Williams’ farm and following an eastward path along the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad to reach Norfolk, Virginia, which was a Union-occupied city.

 

Parson's Heroic Self-Liberation

 

Parson’s emerging understanding of human rights helped him to envision a new future and life after emancipation. He found discarded railroad maps, abolition pamphlets, and sectional periodicals very helpful in planning his liberation quest. In his haven, he risked life and limb to guard and protect his collection of documents about freedom, abolitionists, resistance, and humanity.

 

Parson grasped the injustice of his enslavement and felt called to react against slavery for no other reason than to gain his freedom. He learned that enslaved African descendants had always desired freedom, and self-liberation was his best way to achieve it. From his hidden haven, he planned his heroic self-liberation.

 

From Contraband to USCT Soldier 

 
At only seventeen, Parson committed to pursuing self-liberation and entered the Union Army to fight for freedom. He skillfully planned his self-liberation ordeal to reach Fort Monroe alive and fit for military service. In the second book, Enlistment in the Union Army, he and his two brothers solidified their commitment to the call for self-liberation and to entering the fight for human rights.

 

Their ultimate aims were to achieve willful freedom, gain desired ends via self-determination, and create a means for improving their rock-bottom economic conditions live on in his descendants. This riveting story explores the life of Parson's harrowing and courageous journey toward freedom by enlisting in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War.

 

After several more encounters along the way, Union pickets and recruiters from the 1st Cavalry Regiment, XXV Corps, stopped the three men near or at Camp Bower’s Hill. Upon reaching Norfolk and in the hands of Union troops, Parson had liberated himself from bondage. Next, they enlisted in the Union Army and steamed across the Chesapeake Bay to Fort Monroe. Enlisted in the USCT, Parson fought not only against Confederate forces but against the barriers of racial segregation, fear, and uncertainty. 

 

Return to Southampton County, Virginia!

 

With a victorious end to the Civil War, Parson Sykes fulfilled the goal of self-liberation. In the Return to Southampton, County, Parson confronts the defeated confederates, including the rise of hate groups and violent insurgents. But he grew frustrated with the Reconstruction programs.

 

Parson experienced the chaotic end of the Civil War while serving in the Union Army. Grappling with military-civil affairs duty, political uncertainty, and the unfulfilled promises of emancipation, Parson realized the Emancipation Proclamation did not go far enough.

Parson’s insights taught him that in war, the victory is just the blossom, and nothing is more frustrating than a bloom that refuses to morph into some fruit. Racism is an inescapable reality in American society.

 

Parson relentlessly advocated and pursued education, political participation, and full citizenship. Despite granting freedom, the federal government took little action to help Black families acquire the promised land.

 

 

He navigated the legal and social struggles surrounding the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, revealing both the hope they inspired and the violent backlash they provoked. Having secured his right to vote and purchase land, Parson married, started a family, and established himself as an independent community leader.

 

 

 

 About the Author

 

David J. Mason, the great-grandson of Parson Sykes, became interested in the Sykes family's history early in life, while attending family reunions and hearing stories about his mother’s ancestors from Southampton County, Virginia. The family descended from Louisa Williams Sykes, an enslaved African American matriarch who had lived on Jacob Williams’ farm in the nineteenth century. Intrigued by what he heard at a family gathering, David researched and published The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes as a documentary novel, based on the true story of self-liberation and actual events drawn from published materials and oral family chronicles. He holds a Master of Science degree from Hampton University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Norfolk State University. He is a graduate of the United States Army War College.