When Trees Testify

By: Beronda L. Montgomery

Published by Henry Holt, 2026-01-20

How the Word Is Passed meets Braiding Sweetgrass in a cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and the Black botanical mastery, told through the stories of long-lived trees. Plants, including trees, hold the transformed breath of decades of humans in their physical form ...These beautiful and majestic beings are undeniable witnesses to lives lived and legacies realized. 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. In When Trees Testify, award-winning plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery explores the way six 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. Combining the wisdom of science and history with stories from her path to botany, Montgomery talks to majestic trees, and in this unique and compelling narrative, they answer. Her work extends an invitation to reflect upon testimonies that we need to hear, honor, and reckon with.