Bricks Without Straw

by Albion W. Tourgée

Dar! 'Liab," he said, as he entered and handed the paper which he had been examining to the person addressed, "I reckon I'se free now. I feel ez ef I wuz 'bout half free, ennyhow. I wuz a sojer, an' fought fer freedom. I've got my house an' bit o' lan', wife, chillen, crap, an' stock, an' it's all mine. An' now I'se done been registered, an' when de 'lection comes off, kin vote jes' ez hard an' ez well an' ez often ez ole Marse Desmit. I hain't felt free afore--leastways I hain't felt right certain on't; but now I reckon I'se all right, fact an' truth. What you tinks on't, 'Liab?

Genres: History

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Albion Winegar Tourgée was an American soldier, lawyer, writer, politician, and diplomat. Wounded in the Civil War, he relocated to North Carolina afterward, where he became involved in Reconstruction activities. He served in the constitutional convention and later in the state legislature. A pioneer civil rights activist, he founded the National Citizens' Rights Association, and founded Bennett College as a normal school for freedmen in North Carolina (it has been a women's college since 1926).

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing "political fiction" written in 1880 by a Radical Republican who lived & worked in NC during Reconstruction and the post-Reconstruction period. Unlike a lot of literature of that era, this white author chose to make blacks the main characters- and non-stereotypes and sympathetic. The KKK is referred to as a "terrorist organization"! In 1880 someone was actually calling the Klan what it was/is! Author Albion W. Tourgee also takes apart the whole Southern Lost Cause mythology and reduces it for what it was...a bunch of formerly rich planters who wanted to maintain control from both newly freed blacks as well as poor whites. An excellent examination of American predudices and an intentionally forgotten & intentionally misinterpreted period of US history. Much can still be applied to 21st Century America....Unable to give this book "5 stars" because the melodramatic storyline is formulaic. But a brilliant piece of American literature nevertheless.
Example of quotes applicable to current times----

"Ignorance, unless biased by religious bigotry, always clamors for knowledge."

"...American conservatism consists of doing nothing until it is absolutely necessary. We never move until the 59th minute of the 11th hour."

In 1880!

[Hadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I read this is because my grandfather has in his possession a first edition copy from 1880, complete with antiquated blurbs, the signature of the first owner, and a little slip from the publisher correcting a typo.
The book definitely brings the Reconstruction period to life, and Tourgée, a white northerner who came south shortly after the Civil War and would later be the lead lawyer for the plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson, expresses a view of the period that's much more widespread than it was at the time he wrote: namely, that the freedmen were simply trying the best they could to exercise the rights of citizens, that they were not in any way to blame for the violence, and that the eventual status quo was quite bad. (As the daughter of a constitutional scholar who specializes in one of the Reconstruction Amendments, I'm the last person to disagree.)
Unfortunately for the construction of the work as a whole, however, the author finds it necessary to continually launch into (for instance) an apologia for the Freedman's Bureau. I sympathize with the desire to be clear about right and wrong, but such blatant abandonment of the plot is only really excusable if one has the pen of Victor Hugo, which Tourgée unfortunately did not possess. The prose is, in my opinion, the main reason why this novel is nearly forgotten, being, aside from the all-too-rare instances of bitter sarcasm, stilted in a very sentimental, 19th-century sort of way.
The characters are all interesting and reasonably nuanced, the Black community being particularly vividly portrayed. There’s a lovely friendship between two freedmen who serve as narrative foils throughout, as well as a romance between a Confederate veteran and a New England schoolteacher which alternates between nicely integrated with the social commentary (such as when he encounters KKK violence and is driven to the realization that Southern white men are the main aggressors) and frustratingly stereotypical (such as when she breaks off communication for a year due to a misunderstanding.
As for the plot, it's occasionally confusing but overall quite effective in showing tragedy mingled with continued hope. Hindsight somehow makes things more and less sad.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm still looking for the Great American Novel about the crucial Reconstruction period. Before the Civil War, we have writers like Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson and Thoreau. Whitman and of course Steven Crane cover the war. But then we jump straight to Mark Twain.

Albion Tourgee is as close as I've found so far to a writer who puts Reconstruction into fiction, making it come alive in a compelling story with relatable characters. His more famous book, the autobiographical novel "A Fool's Errand," is not as good as "Bricks without Straw," which creates black characters through which the reader can experience the hopes and tragedy of America's first and greatest experiment in multiracial democracy.

Tourgee is no Hawthorne or Twain, but he's worth rediscovering nonetheless, both for his works' historical significance and also for their literary value.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still can't believe this was written well over a hundred years ago. It is eerily prescient.

It was solidly just pretty good until the last chapter when I started highlighting what felt like most of it.

Great - and important - read.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful post civil war story, Nimbus starts his own town which is later destroyed, later bebuilt