Sitting Up With the Dead: A Storied Journey Through the American South

Sitting Up With the Dead: A Storied Journey Through the American South
Pamela Petro

An enthralling, rollicking tour among the storytellers of the American Deep South.The story of the South is not finished. The southeastern states of America, the old Confederacy, bristle with storytellers who refuse to be silent. Many of the tales passed down from generation to generation to be told and re-told continue to change their shape to suit their time, stretching elastically to find new ways of retailing the People’s Truth. Travelling back and forth, from the Carolinas to Louisiana, from the Appalachians to Atlantic islands, from Virginian valleys to Florida swamps, and sitting before bewitching storytellers who tell her tales that hold her hard, Pamela Petro gathers up a fistful of history, and sieves out of it the shiny truths that these stories have been polishing over the years. Here is another America altogether, lingering on behind the façade of the ubiquitous strip-mall of anodyne, branded commerce and communication, moving to other rhythms, reaching back into the past to clutch at the shattering events that shaped it and haunt it still.

Copyright (#ulink_224990c5-bdc4-5393-915d-e031043e0f1d)

The author and the publishers of this work would like to express their gratitude to the following: Louisiana State University Press for permission to quote from Black Shawl by Kathryn Stripling Byer (Copyright © 1998 by Kathryn Stripling Byer); Copper Canyon Press for permission to quote from Deepstep Come Shining by CD. Wright; Vintage Press for permission to quote from North Toward Home by Willie Morris; J.M. Dent and Sons for permission to quote from ‘Eheu Fugaces’ from Collected Poems 1945–1990 by R.S. Thomas; and Universal Music Publishing Ltd for kind permission to quote lyrics from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (King/Vanzant/Rossington). Although we have tried to trace and contact all copyright holders before publication this has not been possible in every case. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to make any necessary emendations at the earliest opportunity.

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First published by Flamingo 2001

Copyright © Pamela Petro 2001

Copyright disclaimer: All of the material printed in optima retains the copyright of the storytellers featured in this book.

Pamela Petro asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007292295

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007391073

Version: 2016-02-17

Dedication (#ulink_ceb86c05-e40b-58ec-a1e5-9f73ec4d20f7)

For Marguerite Itamar Harrison,

who introduced me to the American South

and the Southern Hemisphere.

Contents

Cover (#u96a38b1d-b5ac-5c50-8f24-94178243de78)

Title Page (#u059a6dc5-cbd9-58ee-9394-b15b3b2f8e59)

Copyright (#ulink_07e584f4-4832-5fa4-8e8f-acb036417bf1)

Dedication (#ulink_c8080964-5605-55a3-895e-e30310952676)

Map of the American South (#ulink_71dfeb94-a7a0-5d92-9840-8fcb5c118fa9)

The Prologue (#ulink_23948d1f-6964-5ab6-9e45-4403939591c7)

JOURNEY 1 (#ulink_ebefd322-b028-5764-ab8b-e561aa462e1d)

AKBAR’S TALE (#ulink_4d9ab19c-9b4f-5f5a-b8b1-88084a956733)

Tar Baby (#ulink_948d760f-5fbf-5361-8d49-3d1c2ef429db)

COLONEL ROD’S TALE (#ulink_ff771ca8-bb38-521b-9f11-31f6eb352a14)

The Mule Egg (#ulink_995393fb-ac92-501a-920f-52680bafb153)

VICKIE’S TALE (#ulink_3d0bdb70-5d62-5f65-a6e5-aa79e8eae285)

ROSEHILL’S TALE (#ulink_3d8baa47-f19a-53ed-951c-1ec97bf212be)

The KUDZU’S TALE (#ulink_4d653bbd-6524-5751-b20e-e9d9c9ce6194)

Grandfather Creates Snake (#ulink_f4305a1b-7f64-5d5d-897a-61d496887c66)

ORVILLE’S TALE (#ulink_35e12e0a-eba2-5a3a-8053-6ecf68f74284)

Jack and the Varmints (#ulink_e309d2dc-1ffd-54c4-8c9a-f3fe3ff68cb0)

DAVID’S TALE (#ulink_5d29a120-62f0-560d-92ce-fb026a04df3c)

Ross and Anna (#litres_trial_promo)

JOURNEY 2 (#litres_trial_promo)

VERONICA’S TALE (#litres_trial_promo)

A Polar Bear’s Bar-be-cue (#litres_trial_promo)

Taily Po (#litres_trial_promo)

KWAME’S TALE (#litres_trial_promo)

The Story of the Girl and the Fish (#litres_trial_promo)