From W.E.B. Dubois' 1903 The Souls of Black Folk, this excerpt is a
moving account of the short life and tragic death of his first-born son.
In it is the wonder of creation, the bond between mother and child, the
awakening love of a parent for his offspring, and the reality of a
father of color seeing freedom in the loss. "Well sped, my boy, before
the world had dubbed your ambition insolence, had held your ideals
unattainable, and taught you to cringe and bow. Better far this nameless
void that stops my life than a sea of sorrow for you." This short work
is part of Applewood's "American Roots," series, tactile mementos of
American passions by some of America's most famous writers and thinkers.