The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

This is a novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollection of a 110-year-old black woman who was born a slave but who lived to see the black militancy of the 1960s. The secret of this book's success is the characterization of Miss Jane. She is a master of her people's language. But more than that, she is unsurpassed as a storyteller. "Ernest Gaines has written a book that comes down on the side of time, on the side of the future." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board) --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature Novel by Ernest J. Gaines, published in 1971. Set in rural southern Louisiana, the novel spans 100 years of American history--from the early 1860s to the onset of the civil rights movement in the 1960s--in following the life of the elderly Jane Pittman, who witnessed those years. A child at the end of the Civil War, Jane survives a massacre by former Confederate soldiers. She serves as a steadying influence for several black men who work hard to achieve dignity and economic as well as political equality. After the death of her husband, Joe Pittman, Jane becomes a committed Christian and a spiritual guide in her community. Spurred on by the violent death of a young community leader, Jane finally confronts a plantation owner who represents the white power structure to which she has always been subservient. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.