The long life of Pokey

Abstract

This creative writing is a group of independent short stories. It sets forth the lives offictional characters who illustrate the impact of slavery in the southern United States as well assome of the ways in which slavery’s legacies impinge upon life into the twentieth century. Thelife of Pokey, the character who is first shown as an infant born a slave in the 1850's, and later asa woman of more than one hundred years, provides reference points to historical periods fromantebellum times all the way into the 1950's. She continues to make statements through hermaterial artifacts which outlive her. The work spends time revealing the role played byneedlework in the lives of girls and women over the two centuries covered. It was very often theonly mode of expressions allowed to them. The work is exposed through nine stories that canstand alone but are closely enough related that they can also be read as chapters of a novel ornovella. In that regard, it may be considered a noveta.