Whose little lady is you, chile,Whose little gal is you?What’s de use o’ kiver’n up yo’ face?Chile, dat ain’t de way to do.Lemme see yo’ little eyes,Tek yo’ little han’s down nice,Lawd, you wuff a million bills,Huh uh, chile, dat ain’t yo’ price. Honey, de money ain’t been madeDat dey could pay fu’ you;‘T ain’t […]

I ‘s feelin’ kin’ o’ lonesome in my little room to-night,An’ my min ‘s done los’ de minutes an’ de miles,Wile it teks me back a-flyin’ to de country of delight,Whaih de Chesapeake goes grumblin’ er wid smiles.Oh, de ol’ plantation ‘s callin’ to me, Come, come back,Hyeah ‘s de place fu’ you to labouh […]

Do’ a-stan’in’ on a jar, fiah a-shinin’ thoo,Ol’ folks drowsin’ ‘roun’ de place, wide awake is Lou,W’en I tap, she answeh, an’ I see huh ‘mence to grin,“Howdy, honey, howdy, won’t you step right in?” Den I step erpon de log layin’ at de do’,Bless de Lawd, huh mammy an’ huh pap’s done ‘menced to […]

A song for the unsung heroes who rose in the country’s need,When the life of the land was threatened by the slaver’s cruel greed,For the men who came from the cornfield, who came from the plough and the flail,Who rallied round when they heard the sound of the mighty man of the rail. They laid […]

Darling, my darling, my heart is on the wing,It flies to thee this morning like a bird,Like happy birds in springtime my spirits soar and sing,The same sweet song thine ears have often heard. The sun is in my window, the shadow on the lea,The wind is moving in the branches green,And all my life, […]

TO F. N. Like sea-washed sand upon the shore,So fine and clean the tale,So clear and bright I almost see,The flashing of a sail. The tang of salt is in its veins,The freshness of the sprayGod give you love and lore and strength,To give us such alway.

Some folks t’inks hit’s right an’ p’opah,Soon ez bedtime come erroun’,Fu’ to scramble to de kiver,Lak dey ‘d hyeahed de trumpet soun’.But dese people dey all missesWhut I mos’ly does desiah;Dat ‘s de settin’ roun’ an’ dozin’,An’ a-noddin’ by de fiah. When you ‘s tiahed out a-hoein’,Er a-followin’ de plough,Whut’s de use of des a-fallin’On […]

Key and bar, key and bar,Iron bolt and chain!And what will you do when the King comesTo enter his domain? Turn key and lift bar,Loose, oh, bolt and chain!Open the door and let him in,And then lock up again. But, oh, heart, and woe, heart,Why do you ache so sore?Never a moment’s peace have youSince […]

By Mystic’s banks I held my dream.(I held my fishing rod as well,)The vision was of dace and bream,A fruitless vision, sooth to tell.But round about the sylvan dellWere other sweet Arcadian shrines,Gone now, is all the rural spell,Arcadia has trolley lines. Oh, once loved, sluggish, darkling stream,For me no more, thy waters swell,Thy music […]

There is no adequate reason why Schwalliger’s name should appear upon the pages of history. He was decidedly not in good society. He was not even respectable as respectability goes. But certain men liked him and certain women loved him. He is dead. That is all that will be said of the most of us […]

Patsy Ann Meriweather would have told you that her father, or more properly her “pappy,” was a “widover,” and she would have added in her sad little voice, with her mournful eyes upon you, that her mother had “bin daid fu’ nigh onto fou’ yeahs.” Then you could have wept for Patsy, for her years […]

There was a great commotion in that part of town which was known as “Little Africa,” and the cause of it was not far to seek. Contrary to the usual thing, this cause was not an excursion down the river, nor a revival, baptising, nor an Emancipation Day celebration. None of these was it that […]

It was June, and nearing the closing time of school. The air was full of the sound of bustle and preparation for the final exercises, field day, and drills. Drills especially, for nothing so gladdens the heart of the Washington mother, be she black or white, as seeing her boy in the blue cadet’s uniform, […]

Scene–Race track. Enter old coloured man, seating himself. “Oomph, oomph. De work of de devil sho’ do p’ospah. How ‘do, suh? Des tol’able, thankee, suh. How you come on? Oh, I was des a-sayin’ how de wo’k of de ol’ boy do p’ospah. Doesn’t I frequent the racetrack? No, suh; no, suh. I’s Baptis’ myse’f, […]

Even as early as September, in the year of 1870, the newly emancipated had awakened to the perception of the commercial advantages of freedom, and had begun to lay snares to catch the fleet and elusive dollar. Those controversialists who say that the Negro’s only idea of freedom was to live without work are either […]

There was a very animated discussion going on, on the lower floor of the house Number Ten “D” Street. House Number Ten was the middle one of a row of more frames, which formed what was put down on the real estate agent’s list as a coloured neighbourhood. The inhabitants of the little cottages were […]

In the centre of the quaint old Virginia grave-yard stood two monuments side by side–two plain granite shafts exactly alike. On one was inscribed the name Robert Vaughan Fairfax and the year 1864. On the other was the simple and perplexing inscription, “Cahoots.” Nothing more. The place had been the orchard of one of the […]

Jeremiah Anderson was free. He had been free for ten years, and he was proud of it. He had been proud of it from the beginning, and that was the reason that he was one of the first to cast off the bonds of his old relations, and move from the plantation and take up […]

Between the two women, the feud began in this way: When Ann Pease divorced her handsome but profligate spouse, William, Nancy Rogers had, with reprehensible haste, taken him for better or for worse. Of course, it proved for worse, but Ann Pease had never forgiven her. “‘Pears lak to me,” she said, “dat she was […]

Gordon Fairfax’s library held but three men, but the air was dense with clouds of smoke. The talk had drifted from one topic to another much as the smoke wreaths had puffed, floated, and thinned away. Then Handon Gay, who was an ambitious young reporter, spoke of a lynching story in a recent magazine, and […]