Tales of the Congaree

by Adams, Edward C. L.; O'Meally, Robert G.

• ISBN13: 9780807841884
• ISBN10: 0807841889
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

This volume brings back into print a remarkable record of black life in the 1920s, chronicled by Edward C.L. Adams, a white physician from the area around the Congaree River in central South Carolina. It reproduces Adams's major works, Congaree Sketches(1927) and Nigger to Nigger(1928), two collections of tales, poems, and dialogues from blacks who worked his land, presented in the black vernacular language. They are supplemented here by a play, Potee's Gal, and some brief sketches of poor whites. What sets Adams's tales apart from other such collections is the willingness of his black informants to share with him not only their stories of rabbits and "hants" but also their feelings on such taboo subjects as lynchings, Jim Crow courts, and chain gangs. Adams retells these tales as if the blacks in them were talking only among themselves. Whites do not appear in these works, except as rare background figures and topics of conversation by Tad, Scip, and other black storytellers. As Tad says, "We talkin' to we." That Adams was permitted to hear such tales at all is part of the mystery that Robert O'Meally explains in his introduction. The key to the mystery is Adams's ability--in his life, as in his works--to wear both black and white masks. He remained a well-placed member of white society at the same time that he was something of a maverick within it. His black informants therefore saw him not only as someone more likeable and trustworthy than most whites but also as someone who was in a position to help them in some way if he understood more about their lives. As a writer, O'Meally suggests, Adams was not simply an objective recorder of folklore. By donning a black mask, Adams was able to project attitudes and values that most whites of his place and time would have disavowed. As a result, his tales have a complexity and richness that make them an authentic witness to the black experience as well as a lasting contribution to American letters.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction Masks of Edward C. L. Adams	p. xi
Notes	p. lxv
Congaree Sketches	p. 1
The Big Swamps of the Congaree	p. 5
The Hopkins Nigger	p. 6
Jonas	p. 8
A Freshet on the Congaree	p. 9
Hell Fire	p. 11
The Rattlesnake	p. 14
Sunning on the Golden Stairs	p. 15
Judge Foolbird	p. 16
Old Sister	p. 17
Old Sister's Friends	p. 20
Old Sister in Heaven	p. 23
Old Sister in Hell	p. 26
The Settin' Up	p. 29
The Little Old Man on the Gray Mule	p. 30
The Lake of the Dead	p. 32
Aunt Dinah's Cat	p. 34
Murder Vs. Liquor	p. 35
Old Dictodemus	p. 37
Fragment of a Negro Sermon	p. 42
His Day is Done	p. 45
Ole Man Rogan	p. 48
Big Charleston	p. 50
The Yellow Crane	p. 53
White Folks is White Folks	p. 56
Wild Goose Nest	p. 58
Transmigration	p. 60
Belton's Spirit	p. 62
The Animal Court	p. 63
Ole Man Tooga's Chile (a Tale of the Chain Gang)	p. 65
Fine My Chile	p. 68
The Falling Star	p. 70
Jay-Birds	p. 71
Jack-Ma-Lantern	p. 72
Ole Man Rouse	p. 74
If You Want to Find Jesus	p. 76
The Ghosts of Elm Savannah	p. 78
The Crow	p. 79
Primus	p. 80
Jumping-Gut	p. 81
Cazenova	p. 83
Spirit Dogs and Barking Snakes	p. 84
Death Owl	p. 85
De Law Got Simon	p. 86
A Fool Nigger	p. 88
The Two Ducks	p. 89
The Mule and the Ox	p. 90
That Quart Kept on Beckoning Me	p. 91
Don't 'sturb a Houn'	p. 93
Don't You Play Wid Married Wimmens	p. 94
Tad's Advice to His Son	p. 95
Old Sister's Advice to Her Daughter	p. 97
Jesus Had Trouble All Over the World	p. 99
Nigger to Nigger	p. 103
Foreword	p. 109
The Swamps	p. 111
Nigger to Nigger	p. 131
White Folks	p. 179
Ghosts and Angels	p. 219
Bur Rabbit	p. 233
Preachers	p. 257
Slavery Time	p. 275
Funerals	p. 287
Glossary	p. 303
Appendixes	p. 313
	p. 329
	p. 357
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