Other Fools and Their Doings; or, Life among the Freedmen

Goff, H. N. K. (Harriet Newell Kneeland), 1828-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6

Word count: 312K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Other Fools and Their Doings, or, Life among the Freedmen by H. N. K. GoffAuthor: Goff, H. N. K. (Harriet Newell Kneeland), 1828-,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 17, 2016

Editor's review

This work is a novel by the nineteenth-century American writer Harriet Newell Noyes Kneeland Goff, set against the lives of freedpeople during Reconstruction and classified under American and Canadian literature. Project Gutenberg's free e-book brings this little-known work back into readers' view, and its value lies first in documentary accessibility: it presents how a white author of the time imagined and narrated the social situation of Black people after freedom, and is a primary text for examining nineteenth-century American racial attitudes and literary expression. Readers may read it alongside abolitionist narratives and local-color fiction of the same period, observing the ideology implicit in the narrator's stance, characterization, and plotting. Because the work bears vivid marks of its era, it should be read with a historically critical eye, distinguishing literary depiction from historical fact. It is suitable as supplementary material for scholars of American literary history and racial history, and for in-depth readers interested in nineteenth-century American social imagination. The free e-book facilitates searching and excerpting, making it suitable for close reading and classroom discussion.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and graduate students studying nineteenth-century American literature and racial narrative
History enthusiasts interested in the history of social attitudes during American Reconstruction
Teachers and students who need free original English texts for textual analysis
In-depth readers interested in marginal subjects in early American fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for Black self-narratives or first-hand historical testimony
Readers of popular fiction who prefer modern pacing and strong plots
Those who face major obstacles reading English originals and lack辅助 tools

Reading tips

Read the preface and table of contents first to ascertain the narrator's stance, then enter the main text, marking questionable stereotyped descriptions as you go.
Read in comparison with abolitionist literature or Reconstruction-era historical sources of the same period, creating a two-way reference.
Use the e-book's search function to organize recurring character types and rhetoric into reading notes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a self-narrative written by a Black author?

No. The author, Harriet Newell Noyes Kneeland Goff, was a nineteenth-century white American writer, and this book is a novel, not a self-narrative or memoir. Its depictions of freedpeople carry the perspective and limitations of the author's era; readers should distinguish it from Black self-narratives and should not treat it as first-hand testimony.

Is the original English text difficult to read, and what preparation is needed?

The work was composed in the nineteenth century, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of the era; it also involves the background of American Reconstruction. Readers are advised to first learn the basic historical facts of Reconstruction, prepare dictionary tools, or read with an annotated edition and introductory materials, which can significantly reduce the difficulty of comprehension.

Is this book suitable for classroom teaching?

It can be used as supplementary material but should not be used alone. It is suitable for placing alongside Black self-narratives, abolitionist literature, and historical scholarship to guide students in discerning narrative stance and period prejudice. Teachers need to explain the work's historical limitations in advance to avoid misreading fictional depiction as historical fact.

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About the author

Goff, H. N. K. (Harriet Newell Kneeland), 1828- Author · United States · 1828

Harriet Newell Kneeland Goff (1828– ), usually credited as H. N. K. Goff, was an American writer. Public information about her life is very limited; what can be confirmed is that she lived in the United States during the nineteenth century. One work by her is held in this collection: Other Fools and Their Doings, or, Life among the Freedmen. Judging from its title and subject, the book focuses on the Black population emancipated after the American Civil War and belongs to narrative writing set against social realities, bearing clear marks of its era. Because relevant sources are scarce, a full picture of her writing style and later influence is difficult to give; this single work can only suggest her choice of material. She turned her attention to the social transformation following abolition and used story to present the living conditions of the freedpeople, preserving for today's readers a sidelight on nineteenth-century American social history.