-Author-
Don 'Ogbewii' Scott
The very important story of an interracial family that can be traced through multiple generations and into the 21st century.
The African-American Montier family traces its roots to the British-born Caucasian son of Philadelphia’s first mayor, Richard Morrey, who had a relationship with Cremona, a young African-descended woman who had been enslaved by the Morrey family, resulting in five mixed-race children. Before his death, Richard would pass to Cremona 200 acres of land, giving her an almost unique position in 18th-century Philadelphia. On this land a small Black town known as Guineatown would grow up, with an associated cemetery.
Cremona’s descendants and luminaries associated with the family include Cyrus Bustill, a Black activist and baker who made bread for the Continental Army; David Bustill Bowser, a 19th-century activist who designed and created the colors for eleven African-American regiments at Camp William Penn; the great Paul Robeson, renowned scholar, lawyer, diplomat, athlete, singer, and actor; and William Pickens, Sr., a co-founder of the NAACP. The Montiers traces this unique family to the present day.
PRAISE ABOUT THE BOOK:
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“Don Scott, Sr. has written an epic generational American story that is sure to become a classic as a work of history and art. I was spellbound as I read the story of the Montier family from the 17th century to the 21st. Scott’s writing is sharp, authoritative, and fluid …. The Montiers demonstrates the incredible human story of an African American family, intertwined with the various tributaries that enter from other cultures. The Montiers is a magisterial work with social and cultural implications … [commencing] when Richard Morrey, the son of Philadelphia’s first mayor, the Quaker Humphrey Morrey, had five children by Cremona, a former enslaved woman who had worked for the Morrey family. The family would give us the Bustills, the Pickenses, the Robesons, the Bowsers, and even more, a picture of our evolving American nation. Scott’s handling of this multifaceted narrative shows his fascinating talent at weaving a very believable account of our story... It is the long-awaited epic story of one of the earliest Philadelphia families told by a master storyteller.” ~ Molefi Kete Asante, PhD, preeminent Afrocentricity scholar and Africology professor, author of The African American People
“Don Scott, Sr. gained recognition for his epic history on Camp William Penn and the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. The Montiers puts this historian’s deep knowledge of the black experience in Pennsylvania fighting for power and civil rights on a sweeping stage spanning the 18th century until today. It all starts with the incredible courage and valiant tenacity of enslaved house servant Cremona Morrey, who navigated ‘landmines’ to make a legacy for her interracial children, then tells the history of the settlement of Guineatown on her land, and continues with her descendants’ activism through the lives of William Pickens, Sr., a co-founder of the NAACP, and the great singer and activist Paul Robeson, who devoted his life to the international cause of humanity for freedom and unity. Thank you, Don Scott, Sr., for your commitment to researching and honoring the lives of Cremona Morrey and so many other black Pennsylvanians who fought for their freedom and liberation and continue to inspire and change history through their example.” ~ Laurie Zierer, Executive Director of PA Humanities
Paul Robeson's mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, was a descendant of the Bustills and the colonial interracial couple, Cremona and Richard Morrey.
The renowned scholar, activist, athlete and entertainer Paul Robeson descended from Cremona, as well as the Bustills and Morreys.
An Epic Story
The almost 11,000 black soldiers at Camp William Penn were among America's first African-American federal soldiers under the brand-new apparatus of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). During the Civil War they were stationed at Camp Penn, the first and largest federal facility to train Northern-based black warriors during the war from 1863 to 1865. During that period, they fought in many major battles, with several earning the Congressional Medal of Honor, as well as helped to corner Rebel leader Robert E. Lee and catch President Abraham Lincoln's assassins. The camp was located in what's today Cheltenham Township next to the home of the anti-slavery abolitionist and women's rights' advocate Lucretia Mott, just outside of Philadelphia, Pa., and became an epicenter of the Underground Railroad and the 19th Century civil rights' movement. The likes of Frederick Douglass, Octavius V. Catto, Harriet Tubman and William Still were associated with the legendary facility.
. . . In his new book, Donald Scott Sr. deftly details the good, the bad and the ugly of African-American soldiers' experiences during the war. The focus of Scott's meticulously researched effort is Camp William Penn, just outside Philadelphia, and the nearly 11,000 soldiers who trained there -- many of them runaways or ex-slaves . . . . The book is lavishly filled with fascinating period photos, newspaper graphics, correspondence and copies of military documents. It also contains a thorough bibliography and endnotes.
America's Civil War magazine
. . . a much-needed and excellent work. . . . Camp William Penn is indeed the best available source of information on the camp itself and the story of the often-overlooked African-American soldiers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who marched out its gates and into history.
Civil War News
. . . In a new book, 'Camp William Penn: 1863-1865' (Schiffer Publishing), the historian Donald Scott Sr. describes how tourists thronged the place. 'Colored and white ladies and gentlemen left the city of Philadelphia in carriages, hacks, omnibuses and cars, for the camp of the colored soldiers to see them drill, and to see a flag hoisted,' a newspaper reported in 1863. The visitors using public transportation, Mr. Scott notes, would have been strictly segregated.'
The New York Times​

. . . The book 'chronicles with pride and sensitivity little known facts pertaining to historic Camp William Penn and provides your readers much that has been omitted from so-called official versions of our nation's military history....' It 'is a description that stimulates the heart and soul as it does the mind. Camp Williamm Penn: 1863-1865 will be a welcomed addition to the Charles L. Blockson Afro American Collection.' Charles L. Blockson
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EXAMINE PRECISE CAMP WILLIAM PENN BOOK TOPICS: ACCESS THE INDEX
Author's Biography & Presentations: Don Scott lives in Cheltenham Township, Pa. where Camp William Penn was located. He has written the books indicated below, as well as hundreds of articles in America's Civil War magazine; The Journal-Register Media Co., The Philadelphia Inquirer; The Philadelphia Tribune; Afrigeneas.com; England's National Archives' magazine, Ancestors and many other publications. Scott, a professor at the Community College of Philadelphia, has also contributed five stories to the African American National Biography, co-edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Higginbotham, as well as the Encyclopedia of Jim Crow, co-edited by Nikki Brown and Barry Stentiford. The graduate of the historically black college, Cheyney University, as well as the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, can be reached for signed copies or presentations at: dscott9703@gmail.com.
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MY TELEVISION PRESENTATIONS:
SEE DON SCOTT'S CAMP WILLIAM PENN TELEVISION PRESENTATION AT THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA VIA: AWARD-WINNING CCP-TV
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TELEVISION'S WHYY-PBS FEATURES SCOTT AS A COMMENTATOR IN: THE MONTIERS
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ACCESS ONLINE RESUME OF QUALIFICATIONS
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Domain Address: http://www.kumbayah-universal.com/
Design and Social Media Promotions: Donald Scott, Jr.
