Voices of the American South Book

*This tentative table of contents is for early review purposes; the final contents may not include all of the selections listed here. Each chapter begins with “Map,”   “Illustrative Timeline,” and “Introduction.”

Preface to Instructors.

Preface to Students.

I. ANTEBELLUM PERIOD BEGINNINGS THROUGH 1860.

Introduction.

John Smith.

from General Historie of Virginia, “The Accidents that Happened in the Discovery of the Bay of Chesapeake.”

Ebenezer Cook.

“The Sotweed Factor.”

William Byrd.

from History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, “Run in the Year of Our Lord 1728.”

Thomas Jefferson.

from Autobiography, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled.”

from Notes on the State of Virginia, “Query XIV, Laws;” “Query XVIII, Manners.”

from Climate and American Character, “To Chastellux.”

from African Colonization, “To the Governor of Virginia (James Monroe).”

William J. Grayson.

from The Hireling and the Slave “Part First.”

Caroline Howard Gilman.

from Recollections of a Southern Matron, “The Planter's Bride.”

John Pendleton Kennedy.

from Swallow Barn, “Introductory Epistle;” “A Country Gentleman;” “The Quarter.”

George Moses Horton.

“Myself.”

“Division of an Estate.”

William Gilmore Simms.

from Woodcraft, “The Grapes Are Sour!“.

Edgar Allan Poe.

“To Helen.”

“Israfel.”

“The Raven.”

“Sonnet: To Science.”

“Annabel Lee.”

“A Tale of the Ragged Mountains.”

Voices in Context: Southwestern Humor.

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet.

from Georgia Scenes, “The Dance. A Personal Adventure of the Author.”

George Washington Harris.

“Sut at a Negro Night Meeting.”

Johnson Jones Hooper.

from Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, Late of the Tallapoosa Volunteers,“The Captain Attends a Camp Meeting.”

Thomas Bangs Thorpe.

from The Hive of the Bee Hunter, “The Big Bear of Arkansas.”

Henry Clay Lewis.

“Stealing a Baby;” “A Struggle for Life.”

II. Civil War and ReconstructionEras: 1861-1865 and 1866-1880.

Introduction.

John C. Calhoun.

The South Carolina Exposition, 1828.

The South Carolina Protest, 1828.

Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions.

Caroline Lee Whiting Hentz.

from The Planter's Northern Bride.

Angelina Emily Grimké.

Appeal to the Christian Women of the South.

Robert E. Lee.

from Selected Letters.

Jefferson Davis.

“Farewell Address.”

“Second Inaugural Address.”

“Speech“ Jackson, Miss.

Abraham Lincoln.

“A House Divided Speech.”

“Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley.”

“Emancipation Proclamation.”

“Second Inaugural Address.”

“The Gettysburg Address.”

Louisa Susanna Cheves McCord.

from “Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin.”

Harriet Jacobs.

from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Elizabeth Keckley.

from Behind the Scenes.

Frederick Douglass.

“What to the Slave Is the 4th of July.”

“Fighting Rebels with Only One Hand.”

“What the Black Man Wants.”

Henry Timrod.

“Carolina.”

“Charleston.”

“Ethnogenesis.”

“Christmas.”

“The Unknown Dead.”

John Esten Cooke.

from Surry of Eagle's Nest,

from Mohun, “Final Memoirs of a Staff-Officer Serving in Virginia.”

Augusta Jane Evans Wilson.

from Macaria; or Altars of Sacrifice.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

from Life on the Mississippi, “Journalism in Tennessee,” "Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims.”

Voices in Context: Confederate Women's Diaries.

Mary Boykin Miller Chestnut.

from Mary Chestnut's Civil War.

Kate Cumming.

from The Journal of a Confederate Nurse.

Sarah Morgan.

from The Civil War Diary of Sarah Morgan.

III. Rebuilding and Repression 1880–1910.

Introduction.

George Washington Cable.

“The Voodoos.”

“Belles Demoiselles Plantation.”

Joel Chandler Harris.

“The Wonderful Tar Baby Story.”

“How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox.”

“Why the Negro Is Black.”

“Free Joe and the Rest of the World.”

Kate Chopin.

“Désirée’s Baby.”

“At the 'Cadian Ball.”

“The Story of an Hour.”

 “Nég Créol.”

 Alcée Fortier.

 From “The Acadians of Louisiana and Their Dialect.”

Mary Noailles Murfree. “The 'Harnt' That Walks Chilhowee.”

Grace King.

“A Crippled Hope.”

Ruth McEnery Stuart.

“Christmas Gifts.”

Charles W. Chesnutt.

“The Wife of His Youth.”

“The Goophered Grapevine.”

Thomas Nelson Page.

“Marse Chan: A Tale of Old Virginia.”

Thomas Dixon, Jr.

from The Clansmen, from “The Reign of Terror," "The Ku Klux Klan.”

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson.

“I Sit and Sew.”

“Little Miss Sophie.”

from “People of Color in Louisiana.”

IV. The Southern Renaissance: Industrialism and the Emerging Modernist Voice 1910–1956.

Introduction.

Voices in Context: The Fugitive Poets and the Southern Agrarians.

Twelve Southerners.

from I'll Take My Stand, “Introduction: A Statement of Principles.”

John Crowe Ransom.

“Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter.”

“Janet Waking.”

“The Equilibrists.”

“Antique Harvesters.”

Robert Penn Warren.

“Bearded Oaks.”

“Founding Fathers.”

“Last Meeting.”

from All the King's Men.

John Gould Fletcher.

“The Evening Clouds.”

from “The Ghosts of an Old House.”

“The Stars.”

“Down the Mississippi.”

“The Unfamiliar House.”

Donald Davidson.

“Lee in the Mountains.”

Allen Tate.

“Ode to the Confederate Dead.”

“The Swimmers.”

Anna Julia Cooper.

“The Status of Woman in America.”

James Weldon Johnson.

“O Black and Unknown Bards.”

“Go Down Death—A Funeral Sermon.”

“The White Witch.”

Ellen Glasgow.

from “Dare's Gift.”

William Alexander Percy.

from Lanterns on the Levee, “The Ku Klux Klan Comes and Goes.”

H. L. Mencken.

from Prejudices, “The Sahara of the Bozart.”

Elizabeth Madox Roberts.

“Sacrifice of the Maidens.”

Anne Spencer.

“At the Carnival.”

from Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry, “I Have a Friend.”

from Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry, “Innocence.”

from Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry, “Dunbar.”

from Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry, “White Things.”

from Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry, “Letter to My Sister.”

Katherine Anne Porter.

from The Old Order, “The Grave.”

Zora Neale Hurston.

from Mules and Men.

Lyle Saxon.

from Children of Strangers.

Jean Toomer.

“Reapers.”

“November Cotton Flower.”

“Becky.”

“Georgia Dusk.”

“Portrait in Georgia.”

Caroline Gordon.

“Last Day in the Field.”

Katherine Du Pre Lumpkin.

from The Making of a Southerner, “A Child Inherits a Lost Cause.”

William Faulkner.

“Red Leaves.”

“Delta Autumn.”

Lillian Smith.

from Strange Fruit.

Thomas Wolfe.

from You Can't Go Home Again, “The Microscopic Gentleman from Japan.”

George Sessions Perry.

from Hold Autumn in Your Hand.

Richard Wright.

from Native Son, "Fear."

James Agee.

from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

W. J. Cash.

from The Mind of the South.

Margaret Mitchell.

from Gone with the Wind.

Sterling Brown.

“Memphis Blues.”

from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, “Slim in Atlanta.”

from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, “Remembering Nat Turner.”

from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, “Ma Rainey.”

Arna Wendell Bontemps.

“A Summer Tragedy.”

James Aswell.

from The Midsummer Fires.

Woody Guthrie.

“I Ain't Got No Home.”

“Pretty Boy Floyd.”

“The Blinding of Isaac Woodward.”

Randall Jarrell.

“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.”

“Eighth Air Force.”

“A Camp in the Prussian Forest.”

“A Country Life.”

Margaret Walker.

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “For My People.”

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “Birmingham.”

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “Southern Song.”

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “Sorrow Home.”

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “Kissie Lee.”

from This is my Century: New and Collected Poems, “Lineage.”

V. The Era of Civil Rights: 1956–1974.

Introduction.

Voices in Context: Proletarian Writers of the South.

Olive Tilford Dargan.

from Call Home the Heart, “A Wife She Must Carry Heigh-Ho!”

Myra Page.

from Gathering Storm, “Young Marge and Bob.”

Erskine Caldwell.

from God's Little Acre....

Eudora Welty.

“A Worn Path.”

“Petrified Man.”

“Why I Live at the P.O.”

Tennessee Williams.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Karl Shapiro.

“University.”

“Conscription Camp.”

“The Southerner.”

Margaret Danner.

“The Convert.”

“This Is an African Worm.”

“The Painted Lady.”

“The Slave and the Iron Lace.”

Walker Percy.

from The Moviegoer.

Carson McCullers.

from The Collected Stories of Carson McCullers, “Like That.”

Peter Taylor.

“First Heat.”

Ellen Douglas.

“I Just Love Carrie Lee.”

James Dickey.

“Cherrylog Road.”

“Hunting Civil War Relics at Nimblewill Creek.”

“Sled Burial, Dream Ceremony.”

Vassar Miller.

“On Approaching My Birthday.”

“Memento Mori.”

“Since No One Will Sing Me a Lullaby...”

“Raison d'Etre.”

“Affinity.”

“Reassurance.”

Donald Justice.

“Anonymous Drawing.”

“My South.”

Flannery O'Connor.

Everything That Rises Must Converge.

“Good Country People.”

“The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”

Maya Angelou.

from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, “Graduation Day.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I Have a Dream.”

“Eulogy for Martyred Children.”

Etheridge Knight.

“Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane.”

“Haiku.”

“For Freckle-Face Gerald.”

“He Sees Through Stone.”

“The Idea of Ancestry.”

“For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide.”

Sonia Sanchez.

“we a badddDDD people.”

“right on: white America.”

“poem.”

“now poem, for us.”

Wendell Berry.

“The Work of Local Culture.”

Nikki Giovanni.

“Knoxville, Tennessee.”

“For Saundra.”

Alice Walker.

“The Black Writer and the Southern Experience.”

VI. The Contemporary South 1974–Present.

Introduction.

Voices in Context: Death and Burial Traditions.

Doris Betts.

“Three Ghosts.”

Harry Crews.

“Fathers, Sons, Blood.”

Clyde Edgerton.

from The Floatplane Notebooks, “Bliss.”

Michael Lee West.

from Consuming Passions, “Funeral Food.”

Randall Kenan.

from Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, “Clarence and the Dead.”

—-

George Garrett.

“Feeling Good, Feeling Fine.”

Reynolds Price.

“Summer Games.”

William Styron.

“Shadrach.”

A. R. Ammons.

“Mule Song.”

“Nelly Myers.”

“Foot-Washing.”

“Hippie Hop.”

Ernest Gaines.

from A Lesson Before Dying.

Ellen Gilchrist.

“In the Land of Dreamy Dreams.”

James Lee Burke.

“Losses.”

Andre Dubus.

from Dancing After Hours, “At Night.”

Fred Chappell.

from Wind Mountain: A Poem, “Second Wind.”

from Source, “Here.”

from Earthsleep, “My Mother's Hard Row to Hoe.”

from First and Last Words, “Bee.”

“The Encyclopedia Daniel.”

Lewis Nordan.

“The Sears and Roebuck Catalog Game.”

Bobbie Ann Mason.

“Drawing Names.”

Frederick Barthelme.

“Domestic.”

John Sheldon Reed.

“New South or No South? Southern Culture in 2036.”

Dave Smith.

“Smithfield Ham.”

“Wedding Song.”

“Cumberland Station.”

“In Memory of Hollis Summers.”

“Canary Weather in Virginia.”

James Alan McPherson.

“I Am an American.”

Ellen Bryant Voigt.

“Lesson.”

“This is the double bed where she'd been born.”

“Short Story.”

Robert Morgan.

“Hayfield.”

“Sunday Toilet.”

“Firecrackers at Christmas.”

“Overalls.”

“Uranium.”

“Bare Yard.”

Richard Ford.

“Going to the Dogs.”

Everette Maddox.

“Cleaning the Cruiser.”

“New Orleans.”

Lee Smith.

“Me and My Baby View the Eclipse.”

Josephine Humphreys.

from Rich in Love.

Mary Hood.

“Inexorable Progress.”

Marilyn Nelson.

“Diverne's Waltz.”

“Chopin.”

“Alderman.”

“Tuskegee Airfield.”

Martha McFerren.

“The Princess and the Goblins.”

“The Famous Picnic of 1906.”

“Seven Petticoats.”

“The Bad Southern Cooking Poem.”

Yusef Komunyakaa.

“Untitled Blues.”

“Boy Wearing a Dead Man's Clothes.”

“Night Muse and Mortar Round.”

“Tu Do Street.”

from Dien Cai Dau, “Facing It.”

Tim Gautreaux.

“Rodeo Parole.”

Dorothy Allison.

“The Meanest Woman Ever Left Tennessee.”

Rodney Jones.

“Mule.”

“Alma.”

“Simulated Woodgrain Vinyl.”

Larry Brown.

“End of Romance.”

Jayne Anne Phillips.

“Home.”

Julie Kane.

"Reasons for Loving the Harmonica.”

“Dead Armadillo Song.” MBHEADS = from The Bartender Poems, “Kissing the Bartender.”

“Ode to Big Muddy.”

Jill McCorkle.

“Crash Diet.”

Kaye Gibbons.

from Charms for the Easy Life.

Voices in Context: Religion and the Southern Experience.

Elizabeth Spencer.

“The Everlasting Light.”

Richard Bausch.

“1951.”

John Dufresne.

“The Freezer Jesus.”

Ron Rash.

from The Night New Jesus Fell to Earth.

Bibliography.

Index.