Of the Passing of the First-Born

Chapter eleven of W.E.B. Dubois’ 1903 work The Souls of Black Folk is a moving account of the short life and tragic death of his first-born son. In it is the wonder of creation, the bond between mother and child, the awakening love of a parent for his offspring, and the reality of a father of color seeing freedom in the loss. “Well sped, my boy, before the world had dubbed your ambition insolence, had held your ideals unattainable, and taught you to cringe and bow. Better far this nameless void that stops my life than a sea of sorrow for you.” This short work is part of Applewood’s “American Roots,” series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers and thinkers.