A True Story

Content Warning: This section references racism and enslavement.

Misto C opens the story referencing an unspecified third person plural: “We were sitting on the porch” (591), he says, with Aunt Rachel sitting “respectfully below our level” (591). Presumably, this “we” refers to Misto C’s family, but it invites readers to begin thinking in the collective. However, Aunt Rachel is notably not part of the “we.” Misto C bears her no conscious ill will, but he thinks of her as a different kind of person—Black as well as a servant. This distinction sets the stage for his misunderstanding of her; he hasn’t considered that if he himself had been enslaved, he would likely view his life as full of “trouble.”

The story that follows works to erode the racial and class division for both Misto C and readers. It does so primarily by invoking a trait 19th-century readers would have understood as universal: familial love. In fact, when Aunt Rachel begins talking about her family, she draws comparisons directly with Misto C. Her husband is “lovin’ an’ kind to [her], jist as kind as [Misto C] is to [his] own wife” (591), and she loves her seven children “jist de same as [he] loves [his] chil’en” (591).