Hearts of Gold (review)

One of the earliest novels published in the United States and written in English by a male African American is Hearts of Gold: A Novel. Self-published in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1896, it has been reissued by West Virginia University Press, as part of the series Regeneration: African American Literature and Culture; a dynamic series instituted primarily to reprint significant African American texts now out of print.

Jones, an erudite scholar and savvy, politically-inclined educator, created his cast of characters from the black middle class, a departure from the slave narratives and biographies common in the day. His characters came in many hues, but all are intelligent, prospering, professional, educated, cultured, Afro-Americans (Jones' term). Fond of quoting Shakespeare and the Bible, they use perfect grammar and diction and posses elaborate vocabularies. The Ohio-born Jones, then a young school principal in Wheeling, West Virginia, a state below the Mason-Dixon Line, took a risk by highlighting the severe problems faced by his people in these precarious times. The novel recognizes the post-Reconstruction Era weakening of civil rights laws, persistence of unpunished lynchings, proliferation of Jim Crow laws involving voting and transportation, false imprisonment of blacks, slavery-like conditions in the penal coal mine system, and sexual harassment. The four main characters are young members of a tightly-knit community of Afro-Americans living comfortable lives in the North in an Ohio-like location a few miles from Canada. At the beginning of the novel, they attend church, help the less fortunate, join lodges, worry about racial issues, enjoy lake cruises, and fall in love. Jones goes to great lengths to describe the various skin colors of his characters. Some could pass for white (but choose not to do so), one is a red head with skin "as free of pigment as an albino's," another is a transparent shade of brown produced from "a century of miscegenation of the best blood of the Caucasian." A frequent topic of their conversation is the "race outlook" and how to influence it in a positive way. They discuss the notion, popular with some, of Africa as a homeland. In the end they agree: they are Americans, and America is their home.

The beautiful heroine, Regenia, is the orphaned daughter of a mulatto slave (who escaped to Canada) and a wealthy young white woman (who followed him). Raised by her wealthy white grandmother, Regenia holds a Normal School teaching certificate and is proud of her Afro-American heritage. Circumstances force her to move to Irondale, a steel mill town in "Deep Dixie," to become a teacher. Dr. Lotus Stone, an admirer, relocates there to set up his practice. They grapple with the poverty of the formerly enslaved, the lack of health facilities, and lack of school supplies. Both face daily racial discrimination. Regenia faces sexual harassment from a villainous white physician, Dr. Leighton, who has Dr. Stone falsely imprisoned and leased to a coal mine owned by a millionaire senator. In this mine, foremen work the laborers to death as it is cheaper and easier to replace dead convicts than provide care, meals, housing, and clothing to prisoners. Prisoners too weak to work are suspended by their thumbs, beaten, and endure water poured down their throats until they pass out or die from the distention. Young Dr. Stone faces a brutal existence and certain death. In true melodrama style, the story twists and turns. With Regenia's help, Clement St. John, an albino-like young editor, uses personal connections, political savvy and the power of his own newspaper in his attempt to free Dr. Stone and incite public outrage regarding the evils of the prison leasing system.

Upon its publication, Heart of Gold received few reviews, and there is no indication it caused much comment. After its publication, Jones' career as an educator and political activist, already impressive, gained momentum. He became a significant figure: lodge officer, national and international speaker, highly successful president of the college that is now...