The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest J. Gaines - 1971
Introduction
The novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, first published in 1971 by Dial Press, is arguably the best-known work by author Ernest J. Gaines. The text consists of a fictionalized autobiography of Jane Pittman, a woman born into slavery who lived to be nearly one hundred and ten years old. While Jane is still a child, the Civil War ends and the slaves are freed; she is forced to make her own way in the world. Though her first goal is to leave Louisiana for Ohio, the home of a Union soldier who showed her some kindness, Jane never manages to leave the state and spends the rest of her life working in Louisiana. Gaines uses Jane's experiences and her distinctive first-person voice to explore the effects of slavery, emancipation, racism, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement on African Americans. To a lesser degree, he also considers the consequence of these events on whites, both poor and rich.
Gaines spent nearly three years writing The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. For the first year, the novel was not an autobiography but a collected fictional biography that consisted of different people telling Jane's story as well as discussions of related historical topics.
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