The Winnebago Indians have a saying:
Holy Earth Mother, the trees and all nature are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds. 1
Trees have also been witnesses to—and have been part of—the thoughts and deeds, both bad and good, of the problematic species we call Homo sapiens. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima denuded its trees and flattened them to the ground. Those bare tree trunks, radiating outward from a center-point, then helped scientists understand the action of that terrible weapon. Hardy trees have become lynching trees, over whose heavy branches ropes with nooses were thrown. And they have been the sites where American slaves were regularly bought and sold. Both science and religion have been part of those troubled histories. Scientific technology forged the thumbscrews for punishing recalcitrant slaves (such as the devices Charles Darwin, when in Brazil, knew his neighbor to use). And Protestant churches in the U.S split, North and South, over whether slavery could be justified or condemned by Scripture, reason, or a combination of both.
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