Book 1, Chapters 1-2 Summary
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) by Ernest J. Gaines is written as if it were being dictated to a man who is interested in hearing Miss Jane’s story. Miss Jane is more than one hundred years old as she recounts all the circumstances of her life as a slave and later as a free woman.
After introducing the story, the novel begins in the voice of the protagonist, Miss Jane, who as a slave was called Ticey. Ticey is serving water to Southern troops who are passing by the plantation on which Ticey lives. The men are completely exhausted; they can barely lift their arms to receive the gourd of water Ticey hands them. They do not even see her, she says. They do not notice if she is a girl or a boy or if...
(The entire section is 554 words.)
