{"product_id":"2940012355126","title":"THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN","description":"PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF 1912\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis vivid and startlingly new picture of conditions brought about by\u003cbr\u003ethe race question in the United States makes no special plea for\u003cbr\u003ethe Negro, but shows in a dispassionate, though sympathetic, manner\u003cbr\u003econditions as they actually exist between the whites and blacks\u003cbr\u003eto-day. Special pleas have already been made for and against the Negro\u003cbr\u003ein hundreds of books, but in these books either his virtues or his\u003cbr\u003evices have been exaggerated. This is because writers, in nearly every\u003cbr\u003einstance, have treated the colored American as a whole; each has\u003cbr\u003etaken some one group of the race to prove his case. Not before has a\u003cbr\u003ecomposite and proportionate presentation of the entire race, embracing\u003cbr\u003eall of its various groups and elements, showing their relations with\u003cbr\u003eeach other and to the whites, been made.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is very likely that the Negroes of the United States have a fairly\u003cbr\u003ecorrect idea of what the white people of the country think of\u003cbr\u003ethem, for that opinion has for a long time been and is still being\u003cbr\u003econstantly stated; but they are themselves more or less a sphinx to\u003cbr\u003ethe whites. It is curiously interesting and even vitally important\u003cbr\u003eto know what are the thoughts of ten millions of them concerning the\u003cbr\u003epeople among whom they live. In these pages it is as though a veil had\u003cbr\u003ebeen drawn aside: the reader is given a view of the inner life of the\u003cbr\u003eNegro in America, is initiated into the \"freemasonry,\" as it were, of\u003cbr\u003ethe race.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese pages also reveal the unsuspected fact that prejudice against\u003cbr\u003ethe Negro is exerting a pressure which, in New York and other large\u003cbr\u003ecities where the opportunity is open, is actually and constantly\u003cbr\u003eforcing an unascertainable number of fair-complexioned colored people\u003cbr\u003eover into the white race.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this book the reader is given a glimpse behind the scenes of this\u003cbr\u003erace-drama which is being here enacted,--he is taken upon an elevation\u003cbr\u003ewhere he can catch a bird's-eye view of the conflict which is being\u003cbr\u003ewaged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Publishers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know that in writing the following pages I am divulging the great\u003cbr\u003esecret of my life, the secret which for some years I have guarded far\u003cbr\u003emore carefully than any of my earthly possessions; and it is a curious\u003cbr\u003estudy to me to analyze the motives which prompt me to do it. I feel\u003cbr\u003ethat I am led by the same impulse which forces the un-found-out\u003cbr\u003ecriminal to take somebody into his confidence, although he knows that\u003cbr\u003ethe act is likely, even almost certain, to lead to his undoing. I know\u003cbr\u003ethat I am playing with fire, and I feel the thrill which accompanies\u003cbr\u003ethat most fascinating pastime; and, back of it all, I think I find\u003cbr\u003ea sort of savage and diabolical desire to gather up all the little\u003cbr\u003etragedies of my life, and turn them into a practical joke on society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, too, I suffer a vague feeling of unsatisfaction, of regret, of\u003cbr\u003ealmost remorse, from which I am seeking relief, and of which I shall\u003cbr\u003espeak in the last paragraph of this account.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was born in a little town of Georgia a few years after the close of\u003cbr\u003ethe Civil War. I shall not mention the name of the town, because\u003cbr\u003ethere are people still living there who could be connected with this\u003cbr\u003enarrative. I have only a faint recollection of the place of my birth.\u003cbr\u003eAt times I can close my eyes and call up in a dreamlike way things\u003cbr\u003ethat seem to have happened ages ago in some other world. I can see in\u003cbr\u003ethis half vision a little house--I am quite sure it was not a large\u003cbr\u003eone--I can remember that flowers grew in the front yard, and that\u003cbr\u003earound each bed of flowers was a hedge of vari-colored glass bottles\u003cbr\u003estuck in the ground neck down. I remember that once, while playing\u003cbr\u003earound in the sand, I became curious to know whether or not the\u003cbr\u003ebottles grew as the flowers did, and I proceeded to dig them up to\u003cbr\u003efind out; the investigation brought me a terrific spanking, which\u003cbr\u003eindelibly fixed the incident in my mind. I can remember, too, that\u003cbr\u003ebehind the house was a shed under which stood two or three wooden\u003cbr\u003ewash-tubs. These tubs were the earliest aversion of my life, for\u003cbr\u003eregularly on certain evenings I was plunged into one of them and\u003cbr\u003escrubbed until my skin ached. I can remember to this day the pain\u003cbr\u003ecaused by the strong, rank soap's getting into my eyes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBack from the house a vegetable garden ran, perhaps seventy-five\u003cbr\u003eor one hundred feet; but to my childish fancy it was an endless\u003cbr\u003eterritory. I can still recall the thrill of joy, excitement, and\u003cbr\u003ewonder it gave me to go on an exploring expedition through it, to find\u003cbr\u003ethe blackberries, both ripe and green, that grew along the edge of the\u003cbr\u003efence.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078767788272,"sku":"2940012355126","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012355126_p0.jpg?v=1763567838","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012355126","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}