HIGH PROFILE: Simon Lewis

Professor focuses on observance of slave-trade ban

An English professor who directs a program about the effects of trade on a society certainly can be called unorthodox. The subject seems more the domain of those in economics or the social sciences.

But Simon Lewis, a professor at the College of Charleston, is different. He's director of the college's Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World program, which focuses on the lasting influence of 18th- and 19th-century trade — largely the slave trade — on people bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

It's a position that's focusing more attention on him than being the 2007 recipient of the college's Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award. And that attention is growing as the Jan. 1, 2008, bicentennial of the U.S. ban on international slave trading draws closer.

Lewis would rather focus the attention on the observance.

"It's a useful anniversary to commemorate to get people to address the actual history of this place and this nation. We need to talk about it because it is the basis of who we are. It would be anti-American not to commemorate it. Ending the international slave trade was the first successful international human rights campaign.

"Too many people in Charleston, in South Carolina, in the South think of slavery as a local issue, and they really get stirred up about it. Charleston happens to be a key node, but slavery depended on British bankers, West African chieftains and American factors. In some ways, slavery fueled the Industrial Revolution and made the Western economy."

Lewis was born in England and at age 8 moved with his family to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father managed a large poultry farm. He describes the community he grew up in as politically opposed to apartheid, but not actively engaged in ending it. The family returned to England when Lewis was 17.

The CLAW program has begun highlighting projects both new and established that focus on the contributions that enslaved blacks made to the Lowcountry's cultural, economic and social fiber. The goal is to provide local forums for the public to examine closely how those contributions have made the Lowcountry what it is. It will continue to highlight them through the end of 2008.

In March, Lewis will convene a conference on the slave trade and its effects on the American South, including Charleston as a slave-trading center and the illegal importation of slaves. The conference, "Ending the International Slave Trade: A Bicentenary Inquiry," is part of a wider bicentennial observance of the ban on international slave trading that includes England, which banned the trade in 1807, and other parts of the United States.

Since coming to the college 11 years ago, Lewis has taught courses on African writers, the literature of colonized people, that of newly independent people and English literature. Lewis first came to South Carolina in 1983 to spend a year taking courses at the University of South Carolina because he wanted an American experience.

While there, he met Janet Watts of Columbia, who is now his wife.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Oxford University in English literature in 1982 and 1993, respectively, and a doctorate in the field from the University of Florida in 1996. In between degrees, he taught school in England and Tanzania.

"He is really passionate about what he teaches," says Scott Peeples, also an English professor at the college. "He wants whatever he teaches to make a difference in the lives of the students, whether it's about an African novel or a George Orwell essay.

"We shared an office for a number of years, and I would see students come and talk to him about their assignments. He was never dismissive. He wanted them to get it and, if possible, to get it on their own, to work through the problem.

"Simon has the talent to do a number of things. He's a great writer and researcher, and with CLAW, he's proven to be a really effective administrator. But I can't imagine him not teaching. I think that's what makes him tick."

In July, Lewis traveled to England, where commemorative events were very visible.

"It was all over the television, local and national, when one of these events would take place," he says. English Heritage, the National Trust, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Maritime Museum at Greenwich all were involved.

"England's bicentennial observance is absolutely huge. There's central government money behind it. Major museums and the Houses of Parliament (are having events), and the new International Slavery Museum in Liverpool" is dedicated to understanding trans-Atlantic slavery.

"I really hope that this commemoration of the bicentennial would not be divisive. There's this fear that you will be scratching at scars," Lewis says. "I admit to a certain positive naivete, but I absolutely do not see this as anti-anybody. It doesn't have to be racially divisive."

Reach <strong>Wevonneda Minis</strong> at 937-5705 or <a href="mailto:wminis@postandcourier.com">wminis@postandcourier.com</a>.

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