Author: Susan Bradford Eppes

Publisher:

Published: 1925

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13:

The Negro of the Old South, written by a Mrs. Nicholas Ware Eppes, and published in 1925, is a book whose only relevance lies in its bias. The author explains her authority on the subject of slavery by stating that she is, "one of the lauded, much abused, much despised, and much ridiculed classes -- one of the blue-booded children of the Old South, surrounded for many years by the slaves who were as truly ours as anything else we owned and served by them in many ways, 'sence freedom drapped'." Such is the tone throughout the whole of this favorable recollection. Cooks are referred to as 'pets, ' the Klu Klux Klan is described as 'the great third kingdom, ' and the crime of lynching was never known by the African American in the south "until these apostles of negro equality (carpet-baggers) put it in the minds of the newly made citizens." The only historical analysis of slavery is given to suggest that the climate, the 'mother country' (Britain), the "New Englanders who sought a market for their wares," and others had forced the institution of slavery upon the South. -- Melissa Wilks and Alexander Wray-Kerr (Monticello High School Scholars Program, Spring 2003)