Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales
    The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales
    The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales

    By Arthenia J. Bates Millican

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A collection of tales hinged upon "a way of life" in Southside Virginia, the "Old Dominion," in the authentic language as heard by the author and originally written down in the late 1950s. This treasure is re-published posthumously in cooperation with the Arthenia J. Bates Literary Foundation, in celebration of the author's 99th birthday. With the original foreword by Charles H. Rowell and afterword by Jerry Ward, these sixteen stories capture "those haunted Black Virginia voices" that "constrained her to write about them, and she willingly became an instrument, as it were, through which the folk preserved their culture and traditions, including their art of story telling." This edition faithfully recaptures the original, with new commentary and introductions by some of the great voices in Black America today.
    A portion of the proceeds will benefit the AJBM Literary Foundation, whose mission is to promote creative writing, and "to utilize Millican's literary work to help the parents, students and members of the community reclaim their pride in the creative imaginings of South Carolina."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPropertius Press
    Release dateJun 1, 2019
    ISBN9780463417737
    The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales
    Author

    Arthenia J. Bates Millican

    An author and lifelong educator, Arthenia Bates Millican has been described during her career as a writer, poet, professor, researcher, humanitarian and "humanist of rural Southern folk." She has received worldwide recognition for her work. Much of Millican's substantial literary reputation is based on "Seeds Beneath the Snow: Vignettes from the South."Her work has been compared to that of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston and Thomas Hardy. Born in Sumter in 1920, Millican is a graduate of Lincoln High School. She finished Morris College in 1941, received a master's degree from Atlanta University in 1948, and her doctorates from Louisiana State University in 1972, writing a dissertation on James Weldon Johnson titled "In Quest of an AfroCentric Tradition for Black American Literature."Millican began her career as a teacher and department head in South Carolina and Virginia public schools. She studied poetry with Langston Hughes, and her own work has been published in the "Oxford Companion to African-American Literature," Essence, the Negro Digest, the "College Language Association Journal" and many other publications. In 1970, The Washington Post praised Millican's "primitive themes," and in 1973, CLA Journal cited her for her unusual ability as a "local colorist." Local readers of her novels will find many references to familiar locales. She has also published numerous collections of essays, short fiction and poetry.Her work has been described as "words that continue to move and engage us today, a quarter- to a half-century after she first shared her visions with us." Millican has received numerous honors throughout her long career, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Morris College and Who's Who in America. In addition, her work is included in both the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters in the Beinecke Library at Yale University and the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina.Rick Jones, a nephew of Millican and the director of the Arthenia J. Bates Millican (AJBM) Literary Foundation, which hosts the AJBM Literary Festival in Sumter each year, noted that "One of the program's key goals is to utilize Millican's literary work to help the parents, students and members of the community reclaim their pride in the creative imaginings of South Carolina. The read-out-loud program will assist in developing higher order thinking skills, while engaging the audience - youth and adults - in understanding the unique components of their heritage."

    Related to The Bottoms and Hills

    Related ebooks

    Historical African American Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print

      Mar 4, 2021

      British Columbia’s history is told through multiple lenses. We must seek out diverse perspectives, continually reframe the ways in which we understand the past, and carefully choose formats for sharing stories. Should a particular story be told in pr

      6 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print

      Mar 15, 2024

      In her debut book Unbroken, Angela Sterritt, award-winning journalist and member of the Gitxsan Nation, gives a voice—a frustrated and ready-for-change voice—to the many victims, survivors, and family members who have been impacted by the disproporti

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Poor View

      Aug 15, 2019

      A Poor View
      10 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2023

      Books With The Most Impact
      9 min read

    • Article

      Paddling Through History

      Jun 15, 2023

      Paddling to DeCourcy Island is at the top of my summer activities wish list. The Southern Gulf Island region is steeped in thousands of years of culture and history for the Snuneymuxw, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Halalt, and Penelakut First Nations. DeCour

      9 min read

    • Article

      Behind the Scenes

      Sep 4, 2021

      Behind the Scenes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Erdrich, Enright, McBride, Unferth, Ripatrazone, and More

      Mar 3, 2020

      This week we're looking at books from Louise Erdrich, Anne Enright, James McBride, Deb Olin Unferth, and our own Nick Ripatrazone. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Erdrich, Enright, McBride, Unferth, Ripatrazone, and More appeared first on

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Black Woods

      Aug 10, 2023

      The Black Woods
      10 min read

    • Article

      Bravehearted Women

      Aug 29, 2023

      Bravehearted Women
      7 min read

    • Article

      Best Of Indy

      Nov 25, 2022

      Best Of Indy
      10 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Hamid, Gavino, Marra, and More

      Aug 2, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Mohsin Hamid, our own Kate Gavino, Anthony Marra, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The

      6 min read

    • Article

      Freedom Tales

      Sep 1, 2022

      In 1825, Lydia Maria Francis was only 23 years old, but she had already written two novels that had made her a literary celebrity. She was fiercely proud of her country’s new history and bright promise, and her protagonists exhibited all the virtues

      11 min read

    • Article

      Adirondack Blackface

      Dec 24, 2020

      Adirondack Blackface
      9 min read

    • Article

      Cast in Iron?

      Apr 2, 2020

      Cast in Iron?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Writing in the Dark

      Dec 15, 2022

      I’m writing this during a power outage, an experience befitting the winter issue of British Columbia History magazine. I’ve spent most of my life in rural areas where power outages are often measured in days, and we predict when electricity will be r

      9 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2022

      Books With The Most Impact
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Bottoms and Hills

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Bottoms and Hills - Arthenia J. Bates Millican

      PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

      The Arthenia J. Bates Millican Foundation is pleased to release this new edition of Dr. Millican's Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales. As noted in the 1972 introduction by Charles H. Rowell, Dr. Millican willingly became an instrument, as it were, through which the folk preserved their culture and traditions, including their art of storytelling. He notes that as a writer of tales, she does not intervene, comment, judge: she remains silent. The use of a folk raconteur helps to give the tales a pure folk authenticity, and she successfully preserves the Black folk tradition. Rowell's keen observation is one of the reasons the Foundation has chose Bottoms and Hills as the first of a new generation of releases of Dr. Millican's works.

      Foundation and Moving Forward

      The AJBM Literary Foundation was established in 2008 to recognize and preserve the legacy of Dr. Millican. Through seven decades, she educated readers through her narratives of life in the South. Her books include Seeds Beneath the Snow, The Deity Nodded, as well as The Bottoms and Hills: Virginia Tales. She is a 2017 inductee into the South Carolina Academy of Authors and her work has been included in the New Daughters of Africa Anthology (UK: Myriad, March 8, 2019; US: Harper Collins, May 7, 2019).

      In honor of Dr. Millican, the Foundation has contributed to the preservation and promotion of literary work and culture regionally, nationally, and globally. Initiatives have included conferences, festivals and other events, and partnerships with schools, not-for-profits and other like-minded institutions. A short film documentary was done in 2008, and in 2011 an AJBM magazine was released. On June 1, 2019, Dr. Millican’s home in Sumter, was dedicated as a literary landmark by the South Carolina State Library, in conjunction with United for Libraries. Richard (Rick) Jones, founder of the AJBM Literary Foundation, recognizes that the work and stories of Dr. Millican are relevant today and believes they will continue to lift up and inspire readers for decades to come.

      ***

      Inspired by Millican and guided and directed by God.

      CONTENTS

      Preface to the New Edition

      An Explanatory Note

      Foreword

      Introduction: Dr. Charles H. Rowell

      Group I—Meet a Smile: Food and Figuring

      1. When Comp’ny Come

      2. On Clean Cookin’

      3. Huntin’ Luck

      4. Fruit Craze

      5. Slychology

      6. Blame It On Adicol

      Group II—To Believe or Not: Hoodooism and Insanity

      7. Good Grazin’

      8. Bright Bunny

      9. Matter of Opinion

      Group III—Not Our Wishes: Denial and Death

      10. Homesick

      11. Funeral Manners

      12. The Sittin’ Up

      Group IV—By the Wildwood: Redemption and Redress

      13. Sinner, Come Home

      14. Church Meetin’

      Group V—Tears, Idle Tears: Love and Relief

      15. The Box Supper

      16. The Depression Bogies

      Afterword: Dr. Jerry W. Ward

      End Notes

      Glossary

      About the Author

      About the Arthenia J. Bates Millican Foundation

      AN EXPLANATORY NOTE

      A tale, that which is told, is a story or account of true, legendary, or fictitious events. [It may also be] idle or malicious gossip.

      Types of Literature gives this explanation:

      The tale is a loose, rambling narrative sometimes composed of a series of disconnected episodes, but attaining a semblance of unity in the character or characters. It lacks the formal unity and compactness of the modern short story developed by Poe and De Maupassant, which treats of a single episode, is severely selective with respect to character and incident, and relies upon a swiftly moving plot, employing the devices of surprise and suspense.

      In The Bottoms and Hills, no outright attempt has been made to follow the conventional demands of the tale. However, varying elements of the convention may prove applicable.

      Though the incidents recounted depend somewhat on real as well as imaginary situations, the characters are wholly fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely incidental.

      FOREWORD

      The Bottoms and Hills is a collection of tales hinged upon a way of life in Southside Virginia.

      When we say Virginia – meaning the Old Dominion, site of the first permanent settlement, hierarchy of the Confederacy, home of the nation’s second birth, home of the nation’s first president—a resonant chord is struck in our being.

      When we visualize the Old Dominion—where the Blue Ridge slants down to the Great Valley, where the Alleghany extends its long narrow ridges far and wide, where the rivers tumble from the harder rocks of the Piedmont Plateau to the softer, worn down rocks of the coastal plains—Arcadian beauty demands our view.

      But what of the people? Some take their seats with the remembered great. History has had a way of recording their deeds: the battles that were won… the lands that were conquered. Such things were easy to date and easy to tell about.

      What of the others? The people, driven by the impersonal—yet personal forces of existence who also encountered battles. They conquered land—the soil which gave them bread and water. References to the peach peelin’s and barn raisin’s, and feather strippin’s, and ’bacco primin’ and box suppers become a sing-song medley.

      Eventually, the medley becomes revealing, not disgusting. There is a fondness for good eatin’s, fine dressin’, a stirrin’ sermon, and a ’spectable funeral. At times superstition takes precedence over reason: white, black; hate, love; revenge, subservience.

      So Virginia—land of the steep hills and low valleys, home of the First Famous Families, and home of the servants of First Famous Families—has her written and unwritten history, her written and unwritten laws, her written and unwritten legends. She has her tales of hope and despair which are entwined in the warp and woof of the Old Dominion.

      Arthenia J. Bates

      INTRODUCTION

      With the interest in the Great Migration and the present Urban Crisis, and their indelible effects on Black America, it is natural that modern and contemporary Black writers would use the Black urban experience as material for their works. From the 1920s to the present, Black writers of fiction have, in great numbers, set out to interpret that experience.

      The interest in Black city life has been so great that in recent years few black fiction writers have used the Black rural experience in the South as the matrix of their work. It is somewhat surprising that during the Harlem Renaissance more fiction writers did not use the agrarian South as the central stage of on which to create a fictional world.

      By creating a realistic picture of the agrarian South its black folk and their true lifestyle, Harlem Renaissance writers could have effectively subverted the minstrel image created and perpetuated by White America. Moreover, numerous modern and contemporary Black writers seem to forget that the past rural Black experience in the South helped to shape Black urban life and culture and that the overemphasis on urban life gives us

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1