Stardate 20010616.1652 (On Screen): And now
The Wind Done Gone has been printed, and it turns out not to be quite as profound as some would have hoped. I have not read the book. But I found in this review some quotes from the book, intended to be the first-person words of a freed woman slave during and shortly after the Civil War, and they ring completely false. For instance:
All these bits and pieces of 'edjumacation' I have sewn together in my mind to make me a crazy quilt. I wrap it 'round me and I am not cold, but I'm shamed into shivering by the awkward ways of my own construction. All the different ways of talking English I throw together like a salad and dine greedily in my mongrel tongue.
The review describes this as being "in the vernacular" but it sure doesn't sound like what Mark Twain recorded as the voice of a real freed woman slave that he knew and clearly cared about, does it?
I was bawn down 'mongst de slaves; I knows all 'bout slavery, 'case I been one of 'em my own se'f. Well, sah, my ole man -- dat's my husban' -- he was lovin' an' kind to me, jist as kind as you is to yo' own wife. An' we had chil'en -- seven chil'en -- an' we loved dem chil'en jist de same as you loves you' chil'en. Dey was black, but de Lord can't make no chil'en so black but what dey mother loves 'em an' wouldn't give 'em up, no, not for anything dat's in dis whole world.
If you read his article (it is quite short and extremely moving) I think it becomes evident that he was documenting a conversation which really happened, and that he applied the full power of his formidable talent to reproducing her words and manner and story as closely as he knew how, for he had been told something deeply important which was well worth preserving. Mark Twain saw slavery first hand; he grew up with it, and he hated it. (discuss)
