D****y Ways in Dixie

A mother hushes her baby as his father goes to hoe in the master’s field; she promises he will come home to rock the child. The lullaby’s tenderness carries the weight of a hard day’s labor.

In these early-twentieth-century poems and songs, Margaret A. Richard gives voice to Black life in the South through scenes of washing, selling, bargaining, and making do. A washerwoman counts the hours by her work; an old wood-seller keeps faith as he makes his way to town; a street vendor turns his call into a song. Humor and everyday ingenuity sit beside fatigue, want, and longing, while songs tie private hopes to community life. What can these voices make of a world that gives them so much to carry?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

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