 | Echoes ... From The Cabin and Elsewhere |  |
INTRODUCTION.
The evolution of the Negro is fast destroying the unique types of the race. Another quarter of a century of freedom and the Negro of slavery days, the Negro of the log cabin and the corn field will be but cherished memories. To those who have known the solicitous care of a “black mammy” and listened to the homely philosophy and quaint humor of the plantation darkey there is a touch of pathos in the transformation they are undergoing, relieved by a feeling of pride and pleasure in their progression.
In his anti-bellum state the Negro was close to nature. He gave a language to the birds and beasts, and his simplicity and superstition formed the basis for a charming fiction. Melody sprang spontaneously within him, and his gravest utterances were gilded with the quaintest humor.
American literature has preserved few of these types. The efforts of the majority of writers to portray them have been failures.
The author of this volume has caught the true spirit of the anti-bellum Negro, and in characteristic verse has portrayed the simplicity, the philosophy and the humor of the race. In no instance has he descended to caricature, which has made valueless so many efforts in this fertile field of literary effort. These poems will awaken tender memories in all who have dwelt in the Southland; they will be an inspiration to the musician in adding to the melodies peculiar to the plantation black, for all of them are adapted to musical interpretation. To the captious critic who may be inclined to find fault with the varying dialect, the following incident will be valuable:
A member of a minstrel company who desired to thoroughly master the Negro dialect associated for months with the Negroes on a Virginia plantation. When he appeared upon the stage in Richmond, he made an instantaneous success. Later on, he appeared in Georgia and Alabama, and no one understood him.
There are other than dialect poems in this volume, and they show a fine feeling and are of a high order of expression.
I regard “Echoes from the Cabin” as a valuable contribution to American literature. The Negro dialect poems have not been equalled for fidelity to character since the Suwanee River was written.
| Echoes ... From The Cabin and Elsewhere | |