I have become acquainted with a remarkable mulatto gentleman by the name of Charles Chestnutt. Like no author we know of today, Chestnutt understands the parallel spirits of life in the South – his literary mind and ear attune to its slow evening feeling and smoldering wound of disunity – and speaks both its tongues… View More

Miss Annie done gone away for the weekend up North to visit her sister n ‘em. Says she be back come Monday. That mean its jus me and John and this big ‘ol plantation for the next coupla days. Its not that I don’t like John much. It’s just that he makes me so uneasy… View More

It seems to me you hit an interesting cross section of the Plantation genre, Mr. Chesnutt.  I myself, a Northerner new to the South, find joy in the bizarre attributes of the genre. I find interest in examining the sort of benign condescension present of old plantation owners, and characters like my own Julius grotesque… View More

Well, Ms. Pitswurst, I’m sure you think yourself mighty clever because of your observation that I am, indeed, a yankee. I also find it quite curious that you describe the “one drop” as merely a fly in the buttermilk. This very drop would’ve landed me in your (preposterous) care should I have had the misfortune… View More

Well, so I have begun this journey as a writer, as a creator of a great work of literature. Except I can’t quite figure out where to begin. I intend to make money off of this venture, but it seems to me that the genre that makes money nowadays is one so abominable I wish… View More

My dear! I think this would be such a great idea.

After a few months of settling into our new home in North Carolina, I found myself gradually getting better. The new scenery worked wonders — while John was working on the vineyard, I started a small garden of my own, growing herbs and vegetables. Two years came and went, and the redundancy of my life… View More

I’m finding it odd to notice how right at home I am beginning to feel and how Annie is not. I think it may in part be the work of Uncle Julius. He seems to make her rethink the smallest attributes of our new home, calling into question, it seems, her right to enjoy our… View More

Sum gud ‘ol white folk from up North jus come down ter the ‘ol plantation. Deys real nice. A lil stupid but nice. Jon n Annie dey names is. Annie just love my stories. Eats em right up I tell ya. Get dis, the other day I tol her bout ma ol friend Sandy from… View More

While the weather was never good for Annie where we were up North, it was good for wine.  There were such plentiful regions there with Vineyards across Ohio and the wineries around the finger lakes were just hours away, producing good enough wine to compete in Europe. It took a bit of convincing from Annie… View More