Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar published this short story collection in 1904, two years before his untimely death. The son of freed slaves, Dunbar was best known for his dialect pieces as well as distinguished for his poetry and prose in standard English. These sixteen tales of the daily lives of African Americans in the post–Civil War South examine the promise of northward migration, the horrors of lynching, and the complexity of the relationships between...

Berry Hamilton was living a pretty good life-up until he was accused of stealing money from his employer. Despite having worked for the family for twenty years, Berry is found guilty of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to prison. As his wife and children turn to the community, they find themselves shunned. Left with no other choice, Fannie Hamilton and her two children, Joe and Kitty, pick everything up and move to Harlem. As the city begins...

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872—1906) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet during the turn of the 20th century. Born to ex-slave parents, Dunbar began writing at a very early age and had even published his first poems by the age of 16 in a local newspaper. Much of his work was written in the "African-American Vernacular" associated with the antebellum South, although he also employed conventional English in his novels and poems. Dunbar...