Did Dicey and Thomas Know Each Other From Childhood?
The following question was submitted to me today and I thought it was a good question.
Q. I was wondering about your book on Dicey. It sounds interesting to get but I am wondering if it is all true or part fiction. I know when people say Dicey met Thomas Springfield I doubt that as the two volumes of the Springfield Family indicate to me that Dicey knew Thomas from birth most likely.
A. Thank you for your interest in my novel about Dicey. I stayed as true to the stories that we have of her as I could and then fictionalized the rest in a way that seemed logical and plausible. I think whether Dicey knew Thomas that closely before the gun incident is a matter of opinion. The stories handed down seem to indicate that she was not familiar with him. The Springfield family books (which I have a copy of) seem to assume there was an earlier connection since Solomon Langston (Dicey’s father) was one of the jurors on the investigation of Thomas’ father’s death.
If memory serves, the Springfield volumes assume that since Thomas was an orphan, the Langstons somehow raised him, but there were 11 other jurors in that investigation and other townspeople who could have taken him in. I think it’s more of a leap to assume the Langstons raised him than it is to assume the gun story passed down about how Dicey and Thomas met is true.
There really is no indication that I could find that shows an ongoing interaction between Thomas and the Springfield’s after the time Thomas was 3 years old.
When writing the book, I worked off the assumption that a) the historical record of the jurors is accurate AND b) the story of how Dicey and Thomas met is accurate as well…
I bring in the Solomon Langston – Thomas Springfield Sr. connection in my book, but I do it in a way that stays true to the story that has been passed down about how Dicey and Thomas met. There’s no way to make the book 100% accurate, of course, because we don’t have those details. Whenever I write historical fiction I do my very best to stay as true to the stories, history, and personalities as I possibly can. Rather than assume one account is inaccurate and another accurate, I usually try to find a way to incorporate both in a plausible cohesive story. This is a typical example of one of those incidences.