Nellie Brown, Or, The Jealous Wife

Download or read book Nellie Brown, Or, The Jealous Wife written by Thomas Detter and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The rediscovery of Thomas Detter’s Nellie Brown, or The Jealous Wife, with Other Sketches, published in 1871, could be to contemporary American Studies what the discovery of gold was to the development of the American West.”—from the introduction by Frances Smith Foster. This collection includes a novella, two short stories, and six essays. The title story, the first novel written by an African American in the West, takes place in Virginia and addresses adultery and divorce, subjects considered radical and risqué at that time. Equally provocative are the “Other Sketches.” These include two short stories: “The Octoroon Slave of Cuba,” an alternative to “tragic mulatto” fiction, and “Uncle Joe,” an African-American folktale. The six personal essays, including “My Trip to Baltimore” and “Give the Negro a Chance,” are as compelling now as they were then in depicting the West after Reconstruction.