Pioneering journalist Ambrose Gonzales originally published his vivid character sketches of former slaves living along the South Carolina coast in the State, the newspaper he founded with his brother Narcisco in 1891 and South Carolina's largest newspaper today. Gonzales's stories focus on the black dialect of the South Carolina low-country developed by isolated plantation field hands who seldom came into contact with their white owners. He captures their characteristic patois and creates an authentic record of African American stories and speech of the time.