As the Lord Leads...

     Margaret began writing as a free-lance on topics such as family life, history, and current events. When her family went camping, she'd compose an article for the campground's newsletter; she wrote the public relations copy to launch a new hospital; she wrote letters to the editors of newspapers on social issues; and, for the newsletter of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. 

     She just wanted to write!

     Anecdotes and funny events about family life drew Margaret  into a deeper search of African American history.

     Research study groups taught her a lot, and she began to write about her findings.Her work has been published in  newsletters,  newspapers, magazines, and historical journals.

   While employed, her desire to write still held her captive, so she sought opportunities with her employer. This led to penning an employee handbook, writing company publications, and contributing articles to the employee magazine.

     After becoming a Christian, she desired to focus on Christian writing. 

     Margaret's first book brought together her two passions: Christianity and African American history. In 2001, she self-published Given to God:  The Life of Katherine Ferguson.  A year later, it was picked up by Moody Publishers of Chicago,  re-titled More Than A Slave: The Life of Katherine Ferguson, and released in 2003.  It's based on the true story of a woman who, born as a slave, became a Christian, won her freedom, learned a trade to support herself, and opened a school in her home to teach the Bible to children. Winning the admiration of a noted pastor, he invited her to move her school into his church.

     It made history in 1793 by becoming the first Sunday school in the state of New York in the church that is now  the

Second Presbyterian Church

  4 West 96th Street

Central Park West

New York City. 

     A second book, Song of Life,  followed.  Originally published as The Fulani Girls, it won both the Henri Award and the Readers' Choice Award in the Youth and Young Adult Category from the 2015 Christian Literary Awards organization of Frisco, Texas. 

     The book tells the story of two sisters captured in Nigeria, brought to colonial America as slaves, and sold separately, one in New York City and one in Silver Bluff, South Carolina. Their rugged determination to be together again makes for a daring, heart-felt adventure.  Both girls find love along the way. 

     Margaret's books are set in pre-Revolutionary War New York City. 

     They are featured in the Volume 1 2008 issue of "Morgan Magazine: A Christian Writer Brings History Alive."

     Living and writing in Baltimore, Maryland, she graduated from Morgan State College (now University) and studied writing at Johns Hopkins University. She also worked as an adjunct professor at Baltimore City Community College and teaches many workshops for the Black Writers' Guild of Maryland, Inc., of which she is past president. 

     Though Margaret determined to stop writing when she had two beautiful, young grandchildren, an opportunity presented itself that she could not refuse.  She mentioned to a friend and fellow historian that she had lots of clippings about African American history.

    "I know someone who will publish them!" her friend responded.

      After working out a deal with the publisher, Margaret is now researching and writing a chronology of African American history covering a period of one hundred years from 1870 to 1970.  

     She still likes to write!

  See Updates for her latest work.