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Keys to the Archive: Miss Jane PittmanMain MenuAboutIntroductionKeyword EntriesThe CollectionsBibliographyDavid Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674
Typescript of "The LeFabre Family," pg. 222
1media/IMG_6673_thumb.jpg2019-11-26T01:59:04+00:00Jaleesa Harriseba4efd7d677e37f373ea422f78682da76b96d8b44Ernest J. Gaines Center, Folder 6-3plain2020-02-18T01:20:09+00:00David Squiresc613f45970ae89ef70516076df94370392b06674
12019-11-26T01:17:35+00:00Archival Connections17Novel archival connections to Creole.plain2020-02-28T19:06:45+00:00Different drafts of the novel offer additional insight into Gaines’s motives when including the Creole people of color. In one early typed draft, Gaines includes what historically has proved to be accurate, that within certain Creole cultures, the linage must prove someone owned slaves. In that earlier typescript, Claudee’s inability to prove his authentic Creole lineage through owning slaves is why he is not accepted. Pittman states, “He couldn’t prove his granddaddy was Creold or owned slave.” On the same page, New Orleans is mentioned as a source of origin for Creoles. He excludes both of these details in the final version of the novel. Additionally, he changed the spelling of Creole, which replaces the “d” with an “e.”
The exploration of Creole culture continues in in the typescript draft; Pittman explains, “No matter how White you was if you was not Creole, and had not come from culture, you couldn’t go there.” This specific detail of the “culture,” establishes the group as grouped neither by phenotypic similarities nor racial similarities, but by who is not allowed. In the novel, Creole identity is not given the distinction of culture. Instead, it suggests how the group differs from those of African descent, outside of their physical location and dialect, while only briefly inferencing that European descendants are also not welcomed. It could be argued that Gaines intended to include more detail about Creole heritage in his earlier manuscripts but throughout the drafting process eliminated historical details.
