Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved
The fields are being harvested and burned. A crumbled shack from the "quarters," once home to slaves, then sharecroppers, still stands amid overgrown trees and weeds.
This is home to some of the great characters of American literature, from books such as "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Gathering of Old Men." To author Ernest Gaines, it's his home and the home of "my early heroes" -- the aunt who raised him, his brothers, his neighbors, his friends.
Sacred ground lies in the middle of the cane fields, a tranquil cemetery where five generations have been buried. About 80 vaults sit amid lush green grass. More people are buried here, in unmarked graves. Two giant pecan trees shade the grave sites. A third snapped in half during Hurricane Gustav; its trunk juts into the sky.
About 50 family members, friends and former students gather in Mount Zion River Lake Cemetery. Some descendants of the plantation are also on hand. They've come for the 13th annual cemetery beautification, held every October on the Saturday before All Saints' Day.
Gaines and his wife, Dianne Saulney Gaines, saved the cemetery in the early 1990s. They formed a nonprofit organization, and 16 heirs of the plantation transferred ownership....
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This is home to some of the great characters of American literature, from books such as "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Gathering of Old Men." To author Ernest Gaines, it's his home and the home of "my early heroes" -- the aunt who raised him, his brothers, his neighbors, his friends.
Sacred ground lies in the middle of the cane fields, a tranquil cemetery where five generations have been buried. About 80 vaults sit amid lush green grass. More people are buried here, in unmarked graves. Two giant pecan trees shade the grave sites. A third snapped in half during Hurricane Gustav; its trunk juts into the sky.
About 50 family members, friends and former students gather in Mount Zion River Lake Cemetery. Some descendants of the plantation are also on hand. They've come for the 13th annual cemetery beautification, held every October on the Saturday before All Saints' Day.
Gaines and his wife, Dianne Saulney Gaines, saved the cemetery in the early 1990s. They formed a nonprofit organization, and 16 heirs of the plantation transferred ownership....