Miss Jane Pittman

Year and place published: 1971, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, and Auckland.

Type of Book: Fictional Autobiography

Ernest James Gaines was born in 1933 on River Lake Plantation in Louisiana. He is the author of six novels including the widely acclaimed Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Gaines' fiction deals exclusively with life in rural black America, specifically in the fictional town of Bayonne, Louisiana. His work explores universal themes such as the conflict between tradition and change, relationships between father and son, and the importance of maintaining dignity. Gaines learned the art of storytelling firsthand in his home because it was filled with visitors who gossiped and told elaborate ghost stories and folk tales. At 15, Gaines moved to Vallejo, California, where he spent hours in the library reading Willa Cather, Turgenev, and Chekhov. He also read novels dealing with life in the American South, which he found "untrue and unreal." In 1957 Gaines committed himself to the idea of becoming a professional writer in order to "truly write about what he knows and feels." He studied

Gaines wrote this book because of culture, and what was happening during that time.

Life on Mr. Bone's plantation initially is good with a colored schoolteacher and a political scene still monitored by Republicans from the north. Then the original owner of the plantation, Colonel Dye, buys it back (with money borrowed from Yankees). Life reverts back to almost how it was before slavery, with segregation and violence against blacks who step out of line. The blacks start fleeing north because of the worsening conditions. Initially the whites do not care, but soon they try to stop the flight. Ned, who is now almost seventeen, joins a committee that helps blacks leave. Colonel Dye warns Jane that Ned must stop, but when he will not, Ku Klux Klan members arrive at Jane's house. Ned is not home when they come and is able to flee the plantation later that night. Jane does not want to leave her secure life, so they separate with sadness. Ned goes to Kansas, gets an education, and eventually joins the U.S. Army to fight in Cuba. Jane soon marries Joe Pittman (without an official ceremony). Despite Colonel Dye's attempts to keep them, Joe and Jane soon move to a ranch near the Texas-Louisiana border where Joe has found a job breaking horses.

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