Unfettered: A NovelGriggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
General
Unfettered: A Novel
Griggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)
African Americans -- Fiction; United States -- Race relations -- Fiction
"I had rather see my people render back this question
rightly solved than to see them gather all the spoils
over which faction has contended since Cataline
conspired and Caesar fought."--_Henry W. Grady_.
FOREWORD.
Prior to the coming of Dorlan Warthell, there were many to be found in the
United States who utterly despaired of a happy solution of the problem of
adjusting the relations of the Anglo-Saxon and Negro races to each other on
an honorable and mutually satisfactory basis, taking care the while to meet
the highest demands of the present and of all future ages.
Others, while not despairing, confessed that in the horizon subject to
their vision not a glimmer of light appeared; confessed that they were only
sustained by their general knowledge of nature's power to solve, through
tears and years, all her problems.
Thus, until the day when Dorlan came, Columbia sat chained on the one side
by benumbing pessimism and on the other by deferred hope. Accepting the
judgment of so sweet and true a soul as Morlene, it was he who solved the
problem. In view of the complicated nature of the problem and the great
interests involved, its solution must ever be regarded as a noteworthy
achievement.
It occurred to us that the ages which now sleep in the womb of time would
be pleased to ponder the achievement, hoping to find in the spirit and
method of its undertaking, suggestions that would enable them to deal
wisely with the problems of their day.
For the sake, therefore, of posterity we have concluded to place on record
a copy of Dorlan's Plan by means of which he swept away the last barrier
that stood between himself and the woman who had entered into his life to
give color to the whole of his existence in this world and in such other
worlds as may afford a dwelling place for the spirit of man.
Perhaps a majority of those who have read "Unfettered" and have learned to
share Dorlan's exalted opinion of Morlene, will not care to read the Plan,
being content to rest the whole matter upon Morlene's decision. Those who
pay such a tribute to our heroine may thus escape the tedium of wading
through the dry details of a plan by means of which a long suffering race
was saved.
Others who may be disposed to question Morlene's judgment, who think that
her love for Dorlan influenced her to decide in his favor, are hereby
furnished with the Plan and ordered to read it as a befitting punishment
for their temerity.
As these "doubting Thomases" wearily plod their way through the Plan we
hope that they will have ever present with them to add to their torture,
the thought that they would have escaped the punishment of reading all that
Dorlan wrote had they meekly accepted Morlene's verdict. As wail after wail
shall arise proclaiming what dull reading the Plan makes, we shall chuckle
gleefully and rub our hands joyfully, happy that those who would not take
the word of our heroine have come to the end so richly deserved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account