For those of us who are your contemporaries and were once neighbors, I have to believe that my understanding of your book, and its visceral impact, are heightened by my sense of familiarity. For example, I was a student of Mr. Renwick in the early 1960s. He commanded our respect and he taught us so much. We must bring back capable teaching of social studies and it must include all of our histories. Thank you from my heart for sharing your stories.

I grew up near Flemington so I was familiar with the Hopewell area. I have read a few books about African American history in New Jersey and your summary of the slavery era through the Great Migration is the best I have read. I also enjoyed the discussion of the African American community in the Hopewell-Pennington area, including the recipes. Very interesting. It shows how much life has changed over the last 60 years.

I gave my brother a copy of “If These Stones Could Talk” as an early Christmas present. It was the first book he had read in a long time, and he could not put it down! We spent the entire holiday talking about family history.

This is an excellent and important book that has some personal meaning for me: I was honored and privileged to create a map for the book, featuring African American historic and cultural sites in the Sourland Mountain region.