With the approach of our country’s 250th Anniversary arrives “The Valet’s Witness” ; the first book by Rohn Hein. This is of particular interest on a number of levels. This is an historical novel taking place at the time when representatives from the 13 colonies were just gathering to embark on what became our Declaration of Independence. The novel commences with the introduction of Edward Rutledge, a South Carolina grandee and his manservant Pompey. What follows is a well researched narrative of the Rutledge family’s travels to and involvement in what becomes the Continental Congress, as told through the voice of Pompey the valet. What makes this book of particular interest is Mr Hein’s documentation of what we seldom think of or are even aware of when the hoopla surrounding this national holiday is going on. And that is centered on that memorable phrase : “All Men Are Created Equal”. The divisiveness and contention that occurred surrounding this short phrase when the Declaration was being contrived and its impact on the already sectarian nature of the numerous attendees at the convention, as articulated and witnessed by the modest but insightful observations of Pompey and his fellows echo down through the years. The impact of this short phrase with all its implications has been the driving force in all of the history of our great country, and to this very day it remains the measure by which we will as a country be judged.

Author Rohn Hein was intrigued by the question: Why was there no mention of slavery in the final version of the Declaration of Independence, when it existed in the original draft? Because very few documents exist to illuminate the proceedings of the Second Continental Congress, Hein’s ambitious first historical novel attempts to reconstruct what happened between the first and final drafts of this cornerstone of American history. Framing the story around an original conceit, he describes the gathering of the colonial delegates as observed by their enslaved valets – whose freedom, unlike their masters’, was ultimately not attained through the process. Weaving together their imagined conversations, reconstructions of the delegates’ discussions, historical narration, and evocative descriptions of life in colonial Philadelphia, Hein recreates in detail the complex interpersonal story of how the final version of the Declaration came about.

The Valet’s was a well written revealing book.

It took the reader behind the scenes of the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. It was very
descriptive of the people and settings in Philadelphia.

It gave the valet’s serving their masters a voice. It was a radical change from their plantation life as they experienced free blacks in Philadelphia.

The book presented an in depth look at the opinions on slavery from the delegates. It examined the forces driving the elimination of the word slavery in the Declaration of Independence.

The author recognized the courage and achievements of African Americans in that period. Past slave rebellions were also noted. White slave owners preached they had saved the slaves from Africa.

As the issue of slavery is pushed aside the valet’s realized freedom and equality were not meant for them.

From his South Jersey home in Cherry Hill — only short miles from Revolutionary War battle sites on both sides of the Delaware River and exactly seven miles from Independence Hall in Philadelphia — Brother Rohn Hein has crafted a refreshingly unique historical fictional account of the informal discussions in taverns, at dinners and in sit down formal debates at the 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses.

What’s unique is found immediately in the title of Rohn’s work “The Valet’s Witness” where the black slave servants — of famed and obscure white delegates from the 13 colonies, then states gathered to hammer out the framing values and practicalities of our republic — consistently and skillfully found time from their slave chores to engaged in their own informed … via the black regional grapevine and listening attentively to white reps as they pondered daily over advances and set backs … Pompey, Edward Routlege’s key slave he stationed with him in Philly was a master in studying his master’s thinking and mood swings. He and several of his black peers justifiably became
increasingly suspicious with the realization that the majority of the white framers actually were in favor of black enslavement even hypocritically so while being very clear about about the value that black subjugation brought to the pursuit of white happiness and wealth.

The Routlege brothers slave reliant delegates of South Carolina were centered as Rohn’s voices of white patriotic hope for a conservative
white English style democracy (minus a king) and revolutionary change in politics but not in predatory capitalist politics and economic successes based on black slave labor; Native colonization, land theft even in the restrictions of the Northwest Territories; the general repression of non-citizen people of color and disenfranchised women.

I am grateful that Ron dug deep into the archives and research about not just the white framers of this republic. He has actually opened a unique and exciting way of reading black Revolutionary era history in Philly in addition to Black Founders like George Washington’s nine slaves brought from Virginia to the early Philly White House; the black sailers and longshoreman at Penn’s landing with news of black revolts and freedom and enslavement in the British Caribbean Islands; the free born, highly literate black religious, professional and business elders, and fraternal organization leaders among whom were Bishops R. Allen and A. Jones.

Word! This is an eye opener about the vastly different ways that the still vexing problems of racial freedom, racial democracy, racial capitalism and racial patriotism could have stirred the concerns of unfree and “free” but politically segregated black folk during the Revolutionary period.

Philly proud!

America’s founding is often remembered as a triumph of liberty.

Through his compelling book, Rohn tells the fuller truth.

Set during the Second Continental Congress, it reveals how the fight for independence also
preserved slavery. Through the eyes of enslaved Black valets—men who moved invisibly through the corridors of power—the Revolution’s contradictions come into sharp focus.

They heard the language of freedom. They experienced its limitations.

At a moment when truth is contested and democracy is under assault, this book reminds us why reckoning with history matters.

We cannot build a more just future without first telling the truth about how we began.

Approaching the semi quincentennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, first time novelist Rohn Hein has released a thought-provoking, historical novel, based on the presence of Southern delegate valets (slaves), as they witnessed high ranking dignitaries draft a document that led the colonies into war. This declaration proved to be one of the most highly recognized statements asserting freedom, independence, and self-determination as “unalienable rights” of all human beings. Imagine that! Slaves. Present and serving masters. Expected to stay in the background, quietly, without talking to each other, lest they might foment their own rebellion/revolution aimed to assert those same unalienable rights … life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, for themselves. But they did meet, and they talked secretly, asserting what limited power they had.

While toggling between the dialogues of three key groups (Northern delegates, Southern delegates, and valets in bondage), Hein forwards another, quite sinister message that is germane for all times, and quite applicable to the present, and that’s that despite the high moral status of our revered Declaration of Independence, it’s wealth and power, not morality and righteousness, that drives the decisions our leaders make and subsequently sends young people into war. Hein’s narrative suggests that the sides would have been reversed had the North, not the South, built an economy that depended on slaves. It’s easy to be moral if you have nothing to lose. But those values can vanish when they carry a cost.

Through a fascinating and worthwhile read (reader beware: this could spoil your Fourth of July plans), Hein has added a perspective that few others have.