The Sport of the Gods
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A harrowingly intense exploration of life for African-Americans post-emancipation.
The 1902 novella presents the bleak truth for so many Black families who were forced to leave the southern US and face the harsh reality of life in a northern city. A landmark in African-American literature, The Sport of the Gods is a deeply moving tale of familial struggle in times of great prejudice and racism. This short book is the ideal read for those looking to gain insight into the experience of so many Black families.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an African American poet, novelist, and playwright. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar was the son of parents who were emancipated from slavery in Kentucky during the American Civil War. He began writing stories and poems as a young boy, eventually publishing some in a local newspaper at the age of sixteen. In 1890, Dunbar worked as a writer and editor for The Tattler, Dayton’s first weekly newspaper for African Americans, which was a joint project undertaken with the help of Dunbar’s friends Wilbur and Orville Wright. The following year, after completing school, he struggled to make ends meet with a job as an elevator operator and envisioned for himself a career as a professional writer. In 1893, he published Oak and Ivy, a debut collection of poetry blending traditional verse and poems written in dialect. In 1896, a positive review of his collection Majors and Minors from noted critic William Dean Howells established Dunbar’s reputation as a rising star in American literature. Over the next decade, Dunbar wrote ten more books of poetry, four collections of short stories, four novels, a musical, and a play. In his brief career, Dunbar became a respected advocate for civil rights, participating in meetings and helping to found the American Negro Academy. His lyrics for In Dahomey (1903) formed the centerpiece to the first musical written and performed by African Americans on Broadway, and many of his essays and poems appeared in the nation’s leading publications, including Harper’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, however, Dunbar’s health steadily declined in his final years, leading to his death at the age of thirty-three while at the height of his career.
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Reviews for The Sport of the Gods
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I need to say that I read the latter portion of this book from the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Reader. I really enjoyed this story even though it was quite melancholy. The story of a falsely accused butler, Berry Hamilton, stealing money from his Southern employer, Maurice Oakley. Of course Hamilton was sent to jail without much of a thought and his family had to leave town.The family which consisted of Fannie(wife), Kit(daughter), and Joe(son) all made their way north to New York. When they arrived they were immediately confronted with the smooth talkers and wonders of the city. Fannie tried to keep somewhat of a grip on her children but it soon wilted. The "city" had much more appeal than Fannie's moral cautions. Fannie lost her grip on Joe first. The Banner Club and it's patrons feed his strong desire to fit in with the City. Kit's appetite for the stage blinded her relationship with her mother. They all soon forgot about Berry being in prison. Skagg's a Banner patron that had befriended Joe sought out to find a story and found the truth.The story is about how unfortunate circumstances and how the refuge of a new city ate away at a family like a parasite. The book ended in tragedy and redemption. Dunbar is so gentle with his characters. His gentleness makes the tragedy go down a little easier.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51902. Great book. Very plot-driven and gut-wrenching. A black family with a simple life in the South is shattered when the father is framed for a crime. Not even really framed, just blamed and convicted on absolutely no evidence. His family finds themselves unable to get work and move to New York City where they fare no better. The odds were stacked against them at every turn. A well-written book about the ugly truths of racism at the turn of the century.
Book preview
The Sport of the Gods - Paul Laurence Dunbar
THE SPORT
OF THE GODS
By
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
First published in 1902
Copyright © 2021 Read & Co. Classics
This edition is published by Read & Co. Classics,
an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any
way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.
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Contents
Paul Laurence Dunbar
I THE HAMILTONS
II A FAREWELL DINNER
III THE THEFT
IV FROM A CLEAR SKY
V THE JUSTICE OF MEN
VI OUTCASTS
VII IN NEW YORK
VIII AN EVENING OUT
IX HIS HEART'S DESIRE
X A VISITOR FROM HOME
XI BROKEN HOPES
XII ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
XIII THE OAKLEYS
XIV FRANKENSTEIN
XV DEAR, DAMNED, DELIGHTFUL TOWN
XVI SKAGGS'S THEORY
XVII A YELLOW JOURNAL
XVIII WHAT BERRY FOUND
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1872. His parents had both escaped from slavery in Kentucky, and his father was a veteran of the American Civil War. When Dunbar began to attend Dayton's Central High School, he was the sole African-American student, but despite bullying and abuse became both the editor of the school newspaper and class president, as well as the president of the school literary society.
Dunbar's first professionally published poems were 'Our Martyred Soldiers' and 'On The River', which appeared in Dayton's The Herald newspaper in 1888. Two years later, Dunbar wrote and edited Dayton's first weekly African-American newspaper, The Tattler. The publication lasted only six weeks, but provided Dunbar with valuable experience.
When his formal schooling ended in 1891, Dunbar took a job as an elevator operator. In 1893, he published his first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, subsidising the printing costs himself. The collection was popular, but Dunbar continued to struggle financially. It wasn't until 1896, when William Dean Howells published a favourable review of Dunbar's second book, Majors and Minors, that Dunbar's writing gained national attention. With his new-found literary fame, Dunbar collected his first two books into one volume, Lyrics of Lowly Life, which included an introduction by Howells.
Dunbar was the first African-American poet to earn nation-wide distinction and acceptance. Although his frequent use of African-American dialects polarised opinion somewhat – some saw it as fostering stereotypes of blacks as comical or unintelligent, others as a reclaiming of linguistic identity – he quickly became an associate of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Brand Whitlock. Dunbar's writing even became so popular that he was honoured with a ceremonial sword by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Over the course of his career, Dunbar penned a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. He also wrote lyrics for In Dahomey - the first musical written and performed entirely by African-Americans to appear on Broadway in 1903. His essays and poems were published widely in the leading journals of the day. Dunbar died from tuberculosis in 1906, aged just thirty-three.
THE SPORT OF THE GODS
I
THE HAMILTONS
Fiction has said so much in regret of the old days when there were plantations and overseers and masters and slaves, that it was good to come upon such a household as Berry Hamilton's, if for no other reason than that it afforded a relief from the monotony of tiresome iteration.
The little cottage in which he lived with his wife, Fannie, who was housekeeper to the Oakleys, and his son and daughter, Joe and Kit, sat back in the yard some hundred paces from the mansion of his employer. It was somewhat in the manner of the old cabin in the quarters, with which usage as well as tradition had made both master and servant familiar. But, unlike the cabin of the elder day, it was a neatly furnished, modern house, the home of a typical, good-living negro. For twenty years Berry Hamilton had been butler for Maurice Oakley. He was one of the many slaves who upon their accession to freedom had not left the South, but had wandered from place to place in their own beloved section, waiting, working, and struggling to rise with its rehabilitated fortunes.
The first faint signs of recovery were being seen when he came to Maurice Oakley as a servant. Through thick and thin he remained with him, and when the final upward tendency of his employer began his fortunes had increased in like manner. When, having married, Oakley bought the great house in which he now lived, he left the little servant's cottage in the yard, for, as he said laughingly, There is no telling when Berry will be following my example and be taking a wife unto himself.
His joking prophecy came true very soon. Berry had long had a tenderness for Fannie, the housekeeper. As she retained her post under the new Mrs. Oakley, and as there was a cottage ready to his hand, it promised to be cheaper and more convenient all around to get married. Fannie was willing, and so the matter was settled.
Fannie had never regretted her choice, nor had Berry ever had cause to curse his utilitarian ideas. The stream of years had flowed pleasantly and peacefully with them. Their little sorrows had come, but their joys had been many.
As time went on, the little cottage grew in comfort. It was replenished with things handed down from the house
from time to time and with others bought from the pair's earnings.
Berry had time for his lodge, and Fannie time to spare for her own house and garden. Flowers bloomed in the little plot in front and behind it; vegetables and greens testified to the housewife's industry.
Over the door of the little house a fine Virginia creeper bent and fell in graceful curves, and a cluster of insistent morning-glories clung in summer about its stalwart stock.
It was into this bower of peace and comfort that Joe and Kitty were born. They brought a new sunlight into the house and a new joy to the father's and mother's hearts. Their early lives were pleasant and carefully guarded. They got what schooling the town afforded, but both went to work early, Kitty helping her mother and Joe learning the trade of barber.
Kit was the delight of her mother's life. She was a pretty, cheery little thing, and could sing like a lark. Joe too was of a cheerful disposition, but from scraping the chins of aristocrats came to imbibe some of their ideas, and rather too early in life bid fair to be a dandy. But his father encouraged him, for, said he, It 's de p'opah thing fu' a man what waits on quality to have quality mannahs an' to waih quality clothes.
'T ain't no use to be a-humo'in' dat boy too much, Be'y,
Fannie had replied, although she did fully as much humo'in'
as her husband; hit sho' do mek' him biggety, an' a biggety po' niggah is a 'bomination befo' de face of de Lawd; but I know 't ain't no use a-talkin' to you, fu' you plum boun' up in dat Joe.
Her own eyes would follow the boy lovingly and proudly even as she chided. She could not say very much, either, for Berry always had the reply that she was spoiling Kit out of all reason. The girl did have the prettiest clothes of any of her race in the town, and when she was to sing for the benefit of the A. M. E. church or for the benefit of her father's society, the Tribe of Benjamin, there was nothing too good for her to wear. In this too they were aided and abetted by Mrs. Oakley, who also took a lively interest in the girl.
So the two doting parents had their chats and their jokes at each other's expense and went bravely on, doing their duties and spoiling their children much as white fathers and mothers are wont to do.
What the less fortunate negroes of the community said of them and their offspring is really not worth while. Envy has a sharp tongue, and when has not the aristocrat been the target for the plebeian's sneers?
Joe and Kit were respectively eighteen and sixteen at the time when the preparations for Maurice Oakley's farewell dinner to his brother Francis were agitating the whole Hamilton household. All of them had a hand in the work: Joe had shaved the two men; Kit had helped Mrs. Oakley's maid; the mother had fretted herself weak over the shortcomings of a cook that had been in the family nearly as long as herself, while Berry was stern and dignified in anticipation of the glorious figure he was to make in serving.
When all was ready, peace again settled upon the Hamiltons. Mrs. Hamilton, in the whitest of white aprons, prepared to be on hand to annoy the cook still more; Kit was ready to station herself where she could view the finery; Joe had condescended to promise to be home in time to eat some of the good things, and Berry—Berry was gorgeous in his evening suit with the white waistcoat, as he directed the nimble waiters hither and thither.
II
A FAREWELL DINNER
Maurice Oakley was not a man of sudden or violent enthusiasms. Conservatism was the quality that had been the foundation of his fortunes at a time when the disruption of the country had involved most of the men of his region in ruin.
Without giving any one ground to charge him with being lukewarm or renegade to his cause, he had yet so adroitly managed his affairs that when peace came he was able quickly to recover much of the ground lost during the war. With a rare genius for adapting himself to new conditions, he accepted the changed order of things with a passive resignation, but with a stern determination to make the most out of any good that might be in it.
It was a favourite remark of his that there must be some good in every system, and it was the duty of the citizen to find out that good and make it pay. He had done this. His house, his reputation, his satisfaction, were all evidences that he had succeeded.
A childless man, he bestowed upon his younger brother, Francis, the enthusiasm he would have given to a son. His wife shared with her husband this feeling for her brother-in-law, and with him played the role of parent, which had otherwise been denied her.
It was true that Francis Oakley was only a half-brother to Maurice, the son of a second and not too fortunate marriage, but there was no halving of the love which the elder man had given to him from childhood up.
At the first intimation that Francis had artistic ability, his brother had placed him under the best masters in America, and later, when the promise of his youth had begun to blossom, he sent him to Paris, although the expenditure just at that time demanded a sacrifice which might have been the ruin of Maurice's own career. Francis's promise had never come to entire fulfilment. He was always trembling on the verge of a great success without quite plunging into it. Despite the joy which his presence gave his brother and sister-in-law, most of his time was spent abroad, where he could find just the atmosphere that suited his delicate, artistic nature. After a visit of two months he was about returning to Paris for a stay of five years. At last he was going to apply himself steadily and try to be less the dilettante.
The company which Maurice Oakley brought together to say good-bye to his brother on this occasion was drawn from the best that this fine old Southern town afforded. There were colonels there at whose titles and the owners' rights to them no one could laugh; there were brilliant women there who had queened it in Richmond, Baltimore, Louisville, and New Orleans, and every Southern capital under the old regime, and there were younger ones there of wit and beauty who were just beginning