The Watermen: An Interview With James McBride
What’s A Waterman?
Q: Your description of people and places are so vivid and realistic. Have you researched these details or do you just have an active imagination?
McBride: Some of it is my imagination, but a lot of it is research. It seems to me the web of relationships that existed between whites and blacks during slavery was a lot closer than we first realized. On the Eastern shore, blacks and whites were dependent on each other.
Q: Were any personal, one-on-one interviews conducted to give you background material for your novel?
McBride: Yes, several. I conducted four interviews with John Creighton, a historian on the eastern shore of Maryland. He is the son of a waterman. Frederick Douglas was a waterman and a boat builder, crafting the boat that watermen used. Like other watermen, he understood the beauty and power of the Chesapeake.
Watermen lived on the eastern shore of Maryland. A waterman is someone who works on water. They are extremely superstitious and have a certain style of living - fishing and oystering in the winter and farming in the summer. The watermen were split on the element of slavery, some were for slavery and some were against it. The classic waterman was white, but they represented both black and white races. People were nervous about the waterman because he couldn’t be controlled.
Q: What about other truths depicted in your novel – that of the mother teaching her son “the code.”
McBride: That scene and the code is based on truth. Mothers taught what they knew of the code to their sons and daughters. In the book, I described Sarah’s husband as “a limited man.” He didn’t have the courage to find freedom and his wife knew it.
Q: Did you personally feel any emotional turmoil when writing strong slave scenes: The capture of slaves, the killing of slaves and the use of the “n” word?
McBride: It didn’t make me happy. I had to divorce myself from the characters to write about them with some sort of objectivity. The most important thing is to forgive the past.
Chesapeake Bay ruled the area and slaves and slave owners were more physically dependent on each other for survival. The elements were the real God. I didn’t realize that most white people didn’t own slaves. And many of those that did, had very complicated relationships with their slaves. Some were very brutal toward their slaves and others saw their slaves as chattel. Many others saw their slaves as family. I depict that in the book. This created a co-dependency that was not necessarily healthy, but it existed. Within the framework of that codependency there were other elements like love and to some degree, respect. That’s what made slavery very complicated.
Q: What is the one theme or common thread you want readers to get in “Song Yet Sung?”
McBride: To forgive the past in order to move ahead, to highlight commonalities and deal with our common ground. Find forgiveness in these commonalities, instead of highlighting our differences.
Q: Music and words. Is there a connection? How does one skill help you with the other one?
McBride: Discipline. As a saxophonist and jazz musician, I perform about 25 dates a year. I don’t limit myself.
Q: Your thoughts on the Civil Rights Movement.
McBride: I am a direct beneficiary of the Civil Rights Movement; and I’ve supported the Civil Rights Movement in my life as an adult. My mother, father and older siblings were very much involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
