The Seventeenth Child - Hardcover

Rice, Dorothy Marie ; Payne, Lucille Mabel Walthall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 020802414X ISBN 13: 9780208024145

Publisher: Shoe String Press Inc.,U.S., 1999

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The oral history of the seventeenth child of Black sharecroppers, describing her life in Virginia and New Jersey during the Depression

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From the Author

Evocative! This book should be judged by it's cover!
What a blessing! To listen to my mother's stories; to have the priviledge of transcribing, editing, and bringing them to the printed page. It has been an honor and delight. This collection of stories is for everyone who will be touched by the authentic language and universal experiences of youth. A large sharecropping family, tobacco farming, mischievious children, real and eccentric characters, superstitions, haints, devoted, no-nonsense parenting, moving to New Jersey, survival, humor. These are all part of this lyrical memoir. Every home and library should have a copy of this wonderful, little book.

Synopsis

For ages 9-12. Born in Virginia in 1929, Mabel Walthall grew up working tobacco with her large sharecropping family during the middle years of the century. She was the seventeenth child in the combined fourth marriage of Percy and George Walthall. Her stern father liked his independence and kept moving the family, but he kept his children in school. Her mother was strong and warm. She could bundle tobacco all day long, make a dress from a feedbag, or a dessert out of potatoes. Older siblings who had moved North to find work would come and go. Although it was the Depression and hard times, Mabel's life was full, with family and friends, church activities, work, and the humour and devilry of a country childhood. In Mabel's childhood world, there were still people, both black and white, who had little or nothing. They got through by hard work, faith, and sharing the good things when they came. Theirs was a unique American place and time. This is a true story of that life, told one episode after another, by the woman who was the little girl who was the seventeenth child.

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