Description: In 1842 Charles Lewis Cocke brought sixteen slaves with him to Roanoke, Virginia, when he founded Hollins College, an elite women's school. Early students also brought their slaves to the college town. Upon Emancipation many of the African Americans of the community -- mostly women -- stayed on as servants. Although the servants played an integral part in the college system, students were strongly discouraged from acknowledging them as people. Rules forbidding any familiarity" with the servants were published in the catalogs, establishing a certain attitude toward the African American community that would persist well into the 1940s.

Determined to give voice to a generations-old African American community that served as the silent workforce for Hollins College, Ethel Morgan Smith succeeded in finding individuals to step forward and tell the story of their people. From Whence Cometh My Help examines the dynamics of a town built on the foundations of slavery and so steeped in tradition that it managed to perpetuate servitude for generations. Interviewing senior community members, Smith puts a face to the invisible population that has provided the support labor for Hollins College for more than 150 years.

Although African American students have been admitted to Hollins College for roughly thirty years and two black instructors have served on the faculty, to this date only one African American from the Hollins community has ever enrolled as a student. From Whence Cometh My Help explores the subtle and complex relationship between the affluent white world of Hollins College and the proud African American community that has served it since its inception. Interweaving personalobservations, historical documents, and poetry throughout a revealing oral history, Smith shares her fascinating discoveries and the challenges involved in telling a story silenced for so long.

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