Jacksonville Review – June 2026

AN ANTEBELLUM Mississippi cotton and indigo slave plantation is the opening setting for Jacksonville resident Tom Withenbury’s recent debut novel of historical fiction: The Color of Indigo. The protagonists are Indigo, a young slave laundress, and her budding love interest, Major, a slave man who works tirelessly as the plantation blacksmith.

Indigo and Major foster a sub rosa love relationship. Their secret tryst engenders a pregnancy. But the couple’s horrific existence with the white slavers leads the expecting parents to realize they cannot, must not, have their child born into bondage. They learn about something called the Underground Railroad, and Indigo receives a ticket, so to speak, on this metaphorical conveyance to freedom. She and her newborn are secreted on a steamboat bound for Cincinnati and the next leg of their odyssey that is the promise of freedom in the Village of Century.

The Color of Indigo fast-forwards more than a century to 1972 in Century. It is a factious time in American history with opposing generations at grievous odds over the country’s involvement in a conflict in Vietnam. The reader is introduced to new protagonists: Ward, a returning Vietnam vet, and Caro, an accomplished journalist. After Ward’s father bequeaths his weekly newspaper, the Century Chronicle, to his son, he and Caro set out to unravel the mystery of a young slave girl from long ago.

It is a moving saga of familial love. Of ancestry. Of shared grief for a country embroiled in a struggle over a conflict in Southeast Asia. The novel explores the contentious milieus of the Civil War and the Vietnam Era. It is about the dehumanizing effects of racism and segregation. In the end, Indigo offers a promise of dignity and hope.

At the time of America’s Bicentennial, Tom Withenbury graduated with a degree in communication (journalism) from what was then Southern Oregon State College.

While most writers attribute their creative passions to an already accomplished scribe of note or a teacher or perhaps even a parent, Tom unabashedly cites the U.S. Army, from whom he says he learned to perform as an “information specialist.” This early training did not offer much of a release for any creative longings, but it did earn him the much coveted, but mostly unknown, Award of the Golden Quill at Ft. Benjamin Harrison.

The first half of Tom’s career was dedicated to editorial positions on various newspapers.

Midway through his career in print and electronic journalism, Tom accepted a challenge to jump the proverbial fence to accept a position as the director of communication and adjunct professor of journalism at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. All in all, Tom’s affinity for writing produced miles of editorial copy, but nary a word of fiction.

Tom’s ancestral muses have deeply inspired him. As he grew up, they were larger than life and unwittingly became the creative foundation for his premiere novel.

Recently Tom was a featured author at the Spring Local Authors Fair, hosted by Rebel Heart Books which, along with Art Presence in Jacksonville, carry his novel. He can also be found on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and others.