Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Orginal Publication Date
1988
Journal Title
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Volume
8
Issue
ess/vol8/iss1
First Page
29
Last Page
30
Abstract
Haley wanted to write a biography of C. N. Hunter, noted black educator/newspaperman/businessman/community leader, but instead he wrote a multilayered work which also included a study of race relations and black history in North Carolina from post-Civil War up to the Great Depression. Hunter was born a slave in 1851 and died a freeman in 1931. His mother died when he was approximately four years old and he was raised by "enlightened" slave masters. Haley's account of Hunter's life leads the reader through a series of disconcerting struggles which are almost storybook in nature. C. N. Hunter comes across as a constantly aspiring, but never quite succeeding, opportunist.
Rights
Copyright, ©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1988