The Goophered Grapevine and The Sheriff's Children

We have now entered the Southern Gothic portion of the course, and I was surprised by the similarities, but also the differences in Southern Gothic compared to the traditional American and British Gothic stories.  The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt was one of the first Southern Gothic stories, written in 1887, and was a difficult read.  The story talks about the history of a grapevine plantation and how it was "goophered."One of the slaves, Henry, and been goophered because of magic and his body was like the life cycle of the grapes.  When the vines were healthy during the spring and summer, he was strong, but by winter he would be weak and old.  His owner would always sell him for a high price and get him back for a low price.  The story had many elements of the Southern Gothic, including the plantation, decay, and slaves.  The plantation is the heart of the story, and is described as "decayed" with "broken-down arbors."  Like the South declined after the Civil War, so does the plantation, a relic of the past.  However, the story was written as written from an old black man's point of view, and he speech was downright impossible to understand.  I'm not sure if that is how they really talked, or if it is a form of condescension.

The Sheriff's Children was an excellent story, with an ending that represents how many blacks and people of color felt in the South, even after they were "freed."  The story is set in North Carolina in the village of Troy, where apparently a "negro" killed Captain Walker.  The townspeople decide to try to lynch the man, but the Sheriff tries to protect him.  It is not out of kindness, but out of duty.  However, he later learns that he is the father of the mulatto man, and sold his mother and his son.  The man escapes and tries to kill the Sheriff, but his daughter comes in the nick of time and injures the mulatto man.  He man is left in the jail cell overnight and dies in the morning because he tore his bandage off and bled to death.  This story most directly looks at racial barriers and interracial sex.  I was completely thrown off when I found out that the man in jail was the son of the Sheriff.  This relationship is used to directly talk about colored people's rights.  For instance, the mulatto man says, "I learned to feel no degree of learning or wisdom will change the color of my skin and that I shall always wear what in my own country is a badge of degradation."  The ending is almost shocking has the man decides to bleed to death, demonstrating that he, like many others in his position, feel hopeless and would rather die than face the consequences of being black in what was and partially still is a white man's world.