Sketches of Southern Life

Sketches of Southern Life is considered to be one of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's best works by historians of African American literature, though it is not her most well-known work. Sketches of Southern Life, an anthology of poems, is narrated by former slaves, Aunt Chloe and Uncle Jacob. Written in African American vernacular speech and praised by critics who recognize it as a forerunner of the dialect verse used by influential writers like Paul Laurence Dunbar. Sketches is not only an act of poetry, but a study on the history of African American writing. Shrewd and charismatic, Aunt Chloe and Uncle Jacob provide a commentary on the concerns of African Americans living in the South: family, education, religion, slavery, and Reconstruction.