Dignity in Southern Society in A Lesson Before Dying, Autobiography of Jane Pittman, and Of Love and Dust The antebellum Southern social system placed blacks in an economic and low social class and limited the pursuit of happiness. The aristocracy held blacks firmly in emotional and spiritual bondage. Cajuns, Creoles, and poor whites maintained a low status in society, which frustrated them because they felt they should be superior to blacks and equal to whites. Racism was a foundation of Southern society and a hope for improving lives and gaining respect. Ernest J. Gaines grew up in southern Louisiana and his aunt Augusteen Jefferson taught him “the art of living with dignity” (Current 201). In The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the protagonist, Jane, recounts her life spanning from the Civil War to the 1960s. It portrays the lives of black people who struggle against the stigma of social inferiority to achieve their dreams. Of Love and Dust depicts rebellious radical characters fighting for new standards of equality in the reform of a small traditional community. A Lesson Before Dying shows Grant Wiggins and Jefferson's personal battles to reform themselves and their community's battle to earn self-respect. Living in subordination compromises freedoms of socioeconomic mobility. Gaines' characters rebel against repression to gain deserved rights and privileges. They achieve dignity through the struggle to maintain the honor gained by society. . Ernest J. Gaines describes people who survive within the social system and at the same time overcome it to find dignity and freedom from prejudice. Living in subordination compromises social freedoms...... middle of paper..... Yearbook, 1994. New York: Gale, 1995. Estes, David C. ed. Critical reflections on the fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. Athens: University of Georgia, 1994, 1-29, 89-123, 139-157, 250-264. Gaines, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: Bantam, 1971._____. A lesson before dying. New York: Vintage, 1993._____. Of love and dust. New York: Vintage, 1967. Graham, Judith, ed. "Ernest J. Gaines." Current Biography Yearbook 1994. New York: H. Wilson, 1994, 200-204. Larson, Charles R. "End as a Man." Chicago Tribune. May 9, 1993, 5. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook, 1994. New York: Gale, 1995.Senna, Carl. “Dying Like a Man: A Novel of Race and Dignity in the South.” The New York Times book review. August 8, 1993, 21.Rpt. in the Yearbook of Contemporary Literary Criticism, 1994. New York: Gale, 1995.