Source: NewsBank/Readex – October 25, 1817, City Gazette (published as City Gazette and Daily Advertiser.)
Charleston, South Carolina, Advertisement, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12043, Page [3]

“Payne-ful” Business:

Charleston’s Journey to Truth

By Margaret Seidler

Illustrations John W. Jones

“Walter Edgar’s Journal: Payne-ful Business – Charleston’s Journey to Truth”

“Payne-ful” Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth follows Margaret Seidler’s mission to learn and process her family’s genealogical past. Using extensive research and personal experience, Seidler discusses the realities of Charleston’s racial history while highlighting the historians, journalists, and community members who work to reconcile those truths. The book features authentic, historic slave advertisements brought to life by vivid paintings by artist John W. Jones that uncover the humanity hidden beneath the detached advertisement descriptions. Seidler hopes that acknowledging a more complete truth about our past will motivate us to bridge today’s racial divide.


Author

Margaret Seidler

Margaret Seidler is a retired Organization & Leadership Development consultant, national conference speaker, and author. Her book, Power Surge: Energizing your Leadership Strengths, was published by HRD Press, 2008. Her practice focused on creating higher performance in leaders and in addressing local government and community system complexity.

Margaret was born and raised in Charleston. In the aftermath of the Mother Emanuel massacre, she and former City Police Chief Greg Mullen led the Charleston Illumination Project, a year-long effort, designed to give all parts of the community a voice in strengthening citizen/police relationships. A case study of the Charleston Illumination Project was published in The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox, Oxford University Press, UK, 2017.

Her broader work with the city of Charleston was published in Both/AND Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, Harvard Business Review Press, MA, 2022. 

Margaret has a BA in Psychology and a Master of Public Administration from the University of South Carolina. She became a certified Polarity Thinking Master in 2009.


Painter

John W. Jones

John W. Jones is an African American artist who first gained acclaim for his series, Confederate Currency: The Color of Money. Self-taught and drafted into the U.S. Army in 1970, he served in Vietnam, eventually becoming an Army illustrator.

Examining Confederate banknotes, he became interested in the depiction of the slave economy in the American South before and during the American Civil War. Banknotes of the era often depicted slaves as happy workers on the cotton plantations. Jones has said he intended to demonstrate that banknotes served a propaganda purpose in depicting slavery as a natural state of affairs and one on which the Southern states’ economies rested. Jones recreated these scenes in large color paintings, using models and posing them as in the original etched images. He exhibited his paintings next to the banknote with the original etching.

More recently, he has created a series of paintings, “Lowcountry Gullah Series.” He also painted a series featuring the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of Black soldiers that fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War.


Ms. Cassandra Jenkins of James Island and Margaret with the beautiful palmetto rose bouquet Cassandra gifted her. The two met at Brasserie La Banque after a book talk at the certified tour guides association meeting. 

Current & Upcoming

Events

Book Talk: Charleston
Sunday, DEC 8 at 2pm
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue
90 Hasell Street, Charleston, SC

Art Exhibition: Beaufort
JAN 6 – FEB 16, 2025
University of South Carolina Beaufort, Center for the Arts
801 Carteret Street, Beaufort, SC
Thursday, JAN 9 at 5:30pm: Opening Reception
Monday, JAN 27 at noon: Books Sandwiched, Friends of the Beaufort Library
Wednesday, FEB 5 at 1pm: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Panel Discussion: Kiawah Island
Wednesday, JAN 15 at noon
Sandcastle Book Club with authors, Karen Brothers and David Schaeffer
River Course, Kiawah Island, SC
Author to display sample paintings

Panel Discussion: Charleston
Sunday, FEB 9 at 3pm: Dr. Nic Butler and Author
Middleton Place
4300 Ashley River Road, Charleston SC
Author to display sample paintings

Panel Discussion: Charleston’s International African American Museum

Wednesday, MAR 5 at 6:30pm
Dr. Shirley Green, artist John W. Jones and Author
IAAM Center for Family History with the Charleston Symposium
14 Wharfside St., Charleston, SC
Original paintings from the collection, not in the exhibition

Book Talk: Summerville
Monday, MAR 10 at 7pm
Del Webb at Cane Bay History Club
325 Palmetto Point Dr., Summerville
Author to display sample painting

Art Exhibition: Florence
MAR 18 – MAY 18, 2025
Steven F. Gately Gallery, Francis Marion University
142 N. Dargan St. Florence, SC
Event dates and times to be announced.

Ongoing: Gallery Chuma
African American Paintings by John W. Jones
188 Meeting St, in the Charleston City Market

Events Archive

Events Archive

Art Exhibitions


“Payne-ful” Business, Charleston’s Journey to Truth Exhibition

December 1 – February 11, 2024
City Gallery
Waterfront Park on Prioleau Street

Art Exhibition: Columbia
JUL 19 – SEP 13, 2024
Richland County Library
1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC
Sunday, SEP 8 at 3pm: Panel Discussion SC Senator Mia McLeod, artist, and author. Facilitated by Dr. Bobby Donaldson, USC

Art Exhibition: Spartanburg
OCT 3 – OCT 31, 2024
Milliken Art Gallery, Converse College
580 East Main Street, Spartanburg, SC
Thursday, OCT 3, 6 – 8pm: Opening Reception

Book Talks


Monday, March 18; 6 pm

Book Talk at First Baptist Church, 61 Church Street, Downtown Charleston
Sponsored by the Preservation Society of Charleston.
On-site parking available using Meeting Street entrance.

Saturday, March 23; 10 am – 1 pm 
Building Bridges Across Time and Race
Campbell Chapel AME Church
25 Boundary Street, Bluffton, SC

Saturday, April 27; 3 – 4:30 pm
Charleston County Public Main Library
68 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC 29401
Parking is under the library.

Saturday, May 11; 3 – 4:30 pm
Dorchester Road Library
6325 Dorchester Road, North Charleston, SC 29418
*Please note Nic Butler will not be participating on this date

Saturday, June 8; 3 – 4:30 pm
Hurd/St. Andrews Library
1735 N. Woodmere Drive, Charleston, SC 29407
https://www.ccpl.org/news/payne-ful-business-margaret-seidler

Tuesday, June 19; 11 am-1 pm
Moveable Feast Luncheon
Litchfield Country Club, Pawleys Island, SC 29585
For reservations, 843.235.9600, linda@classatpawleys.com or visit www.ClassAtPawleys.com

Book Talks on the Piazza: Charleston
Saturday, OCT 5 at 3 – 6pm
Historic Charleston Foundation Family Day at Aiken-Rhett House
47 Elizabeth Street, Charleston
Author to display sample paintings

Book Talk: Charleston
Wednesday, OCT 9 at 6pm
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens – Fall Speakers Series
3550 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC
Author to display sample paintings

Book Release


Wednesday, March 13; 5:30 pm

Charleston Visitors Center in the Camden Room.

View Paintings

Gallery Chuma
View the work of John W. Jones
188 Meeting St. in the City Market

View Events for Gallery Showings.

Contact Author

Margaret Seidler
margaret@margaretseidler.com