Sketches of Southern life

Chapter 4: Aunt Chloe’s Politics.

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About This Book

A collection of poems and sketches gives voice to Black Southern people before, during, and after slavery, using first-person narrators and colloquial speech to depict forced separation, faith, wartime upheaval, emancipation, and the challenges of Reconstruction. It balances sorrowful reminiscence with moments of communal jubilation, religious consolation, satire, and political commentary, particularly about voting and corruption. Through intimate scenes of family, labor, and local gossip the pieces emphasize resilience, moral conviction, and the complex adjustments to freedom. The tone shifts between plaintive, celebratory, and didactic to convey varied communal perspectives.

Aunt Chloe’s Politics.

Of course, I don’t know very much
About these politics,
But I think that some who run ’em,
Do mighty ugly tricks.

I’ve seen ’em honey-fugle round,
And talk so awful sweet,
That you’d think them full of kindness,
As an egg is full of meat.

Now I don’t believe in looking
Honest people in the face,
And saying when you’re doing wrong,
That “I haven’t sold my race.”

When we want to school our children,
If the money isn’t there,
Whether black or white have took it,
The loss we all must share.

And this buying up each other
Is something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
I go for voting clean.