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
2025 AAHGS International Book Award
2025 Phillis Wheatley Book Award
2025 SC Governor’s Award in the Humanities
The Chavis Chronicles on PBS
Walter Edgar’s Journal on SC Public Radio
“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.
John W. Jones speaks about his “Payne-ful” Business artwork at the International African American Museum.
Current & Upcoming
Events
Art Exhibition: City of Seneca
In Partnership with Clemson University
JAN 15 – MAR 31, 2026
221 E. N. 1st Street
Seneca, SC 29678
Book Talk & Art Display: Charleston
Overture West Ashley
Thursday, March 19 at 11:30am
45 Coburg Road
Charleston, SC 29407
Book Talk & Art Display: Beaufort
Pat Conroy Literary Center
Thursday, MAR 26 at 5-6:30pm
601 Bladen Street
Beaufort, SC 29902
Book Talk & Art Display: North Charleston
Center for Creative Retirement
Monday, MAR 30 at 2:30pm
Charleston Atlantic Presbytery
4701 Park Circle West
North Charleston 29406
Book Talk: Mt. Pleasant
Rotary Club
Tuesday, APR 1 at 12:30
Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church
302 Hibben Street
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Book Talk: Charleston
AHI Tours
Thursday, APR 16 at 6pm
Charleston, SC 29401
Book Talk and Art Display: Salt Lake City
ANCESTRY.com
Tuesday, APR 21
Corporate Headquarters
Lehi, Utah
Indiana Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (online)
Saturday, AUG 15 at noon-2pm
National Conference Speaker
Sleeping with the Ancestors
OCT 1-3
Charleston, SC 29406
Ongoing: Chuma Gullah Gallery
African American Paintings by John W. Jones
188 Meeting St, in the Charleston City Market
Events Archive
Events
Awards Conference and Book Signing: Columbia
SC African American Heritage Commission
Saturday, FEB 28, 2025 at 10am- 3pm
SC Department of Archives and History
8301 Parklane Drive
Columbia, SC 29223
Book Talk & Art Display: Charleston
Burke High School
Wednesday, FEB 25 , 2025 at 8:45-3:30
244 President Street
Charleston, SC 29403
Book & Art Display with artist John W. Jones
Blythewood Historical Society
Saturday, FEB 21, 2025 at 1-3pm
Bethel-Hanberry Gym
100 McNulty Street
Blythewood, SC 29016
Book Talk: Pickens County Museum
Saturday, FEB 14, 2026 at 1-2:30PM
307 Johnson Street
Pickens, SC 29671
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
Art Exhibition: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
SEP 6 – DEC 27, 2025
African American Research Library & Cultural Center
2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311
Art Exhibition: City of Seneca
Sponsored by Clemson University
JAN 15 – MAR 31, 2026
221 E. N. 1st Street
Seneca, SC 29678
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, 2025; 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, 2025 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, 2025 at 6pm
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens – Fall Speakers Series
3550 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC
Author to display sample paintings
Book Talk: Pickens County Museum
Saturday, FEB 14, 2026 at 1-2:30PM
307 Johnson Street
Pickens, SC 29671
Book Release
Wednesday, March 13, 2024; 5:30 pm
Charleston Visitors Center in the Camden Room.
News
The Accidental Historian
The Accidental HistorianNative and an eighth generation Charlestonian, Margaret Seidler’s genealogical...
View Paintings
Gallery Chuma
View the work of John W. Jones
188 Meeting St. in the City Market
Contact Author
Margaret Seidler
margaret@margaretseidler.com