Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note: This book contains outdated racial stereotypes and words that are now considered highly offensive.

THE CHRONICLES OF AUNT MINERVY ANN

THE CHRONICLES OF
AUNT MINERVY ANN

BY
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

ILLUSTRATED BY
A. B. FROST

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
NEW YORK 1899

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. An Evening with the Ku-Klux 1

II. “When Jess went a-fiddlin’” 34

III. How Aunt Minervy Ann Ran Away and Ran Back Again 70

IV. How She Joined the Georgia Legislature 97

V. How She Went Into Business 119

VI. How She and Major Perdue Frailed Out the Gossett Boys 139

VII. Major Perdue’s Bargain 157

VIII. The Case of Mary Ellen 182

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“I ain’t fergot dat ar ’possum” _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

“Well, he can’t lead _me_” 6

He wore a blue army overcoat and a stove-pipe hat 8

“Sholy you-all ain’t gwine put dat in de paper, is you?” 10

Inquired what day the paper came out 14

“I was on the lookout,” the Major explained 18

In the third he placed only powder 26

We administered to his hurts the best we could 30

“I’d a heap rather you’d pull your shot-gun on me than your pen” 32

The Committee of Public Comfort 72

Buying cotton on his own account 76

“Miss Vallie!” 78

“I saw him fling his hand to his shoulder and hold it there” 80

“Dat ar grape jelly on de right han’ side” 82

“‘Conant!’ here and ‘Conant’ dar” 84

“Drapt down on de groun’ dar an’ holler an’ cry” 90

“Oh, my shoulder!” 122

“Marse Tumlin never did pass a nigger on de road” 124

“We made twelve pies ef we made one” 126

“I gi’ Miss Vallie de money” 128

“Ef here ain’t ol’ Minervy Ann wid pies!” 130

“You see dat nigger ’oman?” 132

“An’ he sot dar, suh, wid his haid ’twix’ his han’s fer I dunner
how long” 134

“You’ll settle dis wid me” 136

“Dat money ain’t gwine ter las’ when you buy dat kin’ er doin’s” 160

Trimmin’ up de Ol’ Mules 162

“She wuz cryin’—settin’ dar cryin’” 164

“Here come a nigger boy leadin’ a bob-tail hoss” 166

“He been axin’ me lots ’bout Miss Vallie” 172

“Marse Tumlin ’low he’ll take anything what he can chaw, sop,
er drink” 176

“I hatter stop an’ pass de time er day” 178

“Hunt up an’ down fer dat ar Tom Perryman” 180

THE CHRONICLES OF AUNT MINERVY ANN