cover hinge crease. cover rub marks, scratches, and crease marks. edges bent and slightly worn. 1 page corner folded and other minor corner wear. no marks on text

Mary Othella Burnette, an 89 year old African American woman, was born and reared in Black Mountain, North Carolina. While much has been documented about White communities in Southern Appalachia, little has been written by a native mountaineer about African Americans living in that area. All of Ms. Burnette's stories are rare, and most of them contain vibrant and emotional depictions of characters she grew up with and around from early childhood through the mid-1940s, a time when the sun was setting on the lives of the few surviving family members of freed slaves and their community-minded heirs who settled in the Swannanoa Valley after 1865. As these original stories display the social and cultural norms of a fading era, they also reveal how residents of those times faced oppression with a steadfast belief in America and held on to their unwavering hope for better days. Thus this thoughtful work becomes an open window into African American history.