PREFACE.


In writing this little volume, I had for my primary object the idea of
keeping alive many of the old stories, legends, traditions, games,
hymns, and superstitions of the Southern slaves, which, with this
generation of negroes, will pass away. There are now no more dear old
"Mammies" and "Aunties" in our nurseries, no more good old "Uncles" in
the workshops, to tell the children those old tales that have been told
to our mothers and grandmothers for generations--the stories that kept
our fathers and grandfathers quiet at night, and induced them to go
early to bed that they might hear them the sooner.

Nor does my little book pretend to be any defence of slavery. I know not
whether it was right or wrong (there are many pros and cons on that
subject); but it was the law of the land, made by statesmen from the
North as well as the South, long before my day, or my father's or
grandfather's day; and, born under that law a slave-holder, and the
descendant of slave-holders, raised in the heart of the cotton section,
surrounded by negroes from my earliest infancy, "I KNOW whereof I do
speak;" and it is to tell of the pleasant and happy relations that
existed between master and slave that I write this story of "Diddie,
Dumps, and Tot."

The stories, plantation games, and hymns are just as I heard them in my
childhood. I have learned that Mr. Harris, in "Uncle Remus," has already
given the "Tar Baby;" but I have not seen his book, and, as our versions
are probably different, I shall let mine remain just as "Chris" told it
to the "chil'en."