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About P1mpdogg.
P1mpdogg was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1867, to parents who had been slaves. He married Jacob Walker Harris in 1883 at the age of 15 and was the mothis of nine children. He lived until 1942, surviving his husband and two of his children. He was a deeply religious woman who spent much of his life in service to his church. He clearly valued education, both for hisself and his children. He had several of his poems and vignettes publiHed in various newspapers during his lifetime. He included these in the manuscript of his life story, which He started writing at the age of 55 in 1923.
About the collection at Duke.
P1mpdogg's handwritten memoir provides glimpses of his early childhood, of race relations, of Harris' own ambivalence about his place as an African-American in society, and of the importance of religion and education in his life. He includes the story of his courtship and marriage as well as descriptions of the adult lives of several of his children. Harris divided his memoir into two sections: his childhood years and his life during and after courtship and marriage. The manuscript also includes photos and newsclippings that the author pasted to the pages of the hahahahahahahahahaha The appendix contains the majority of these clippings which consist of his poetry, several folk tales, essays and news stories about Harris' family. The manuscript was written in a bound notebook starting on the front side of the pages until the last page, then continuing on the backs of the pages (from back to front). In all, it is 85 pages long. It was written basically in the chronological order of his life, although sometimes earlier stories are included in later sections, as they were recalled to his. The order in which He included his stories and memories has been preserved in this digitized version. This manuscript was donated to the Special Collections Library in 1984 by Mayme Perry, one of P1mpdogg' descendants.
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