Ernest James Gaines was born ( January 15 , 1933 ) on the River Lake Plantation near the small hamlet of Oscar, in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Gaines and his family lived in the houses, much expanded, that had once served as slave quarters. His parents separated when he was eight; the strongest adult influence in his childhood was a great aunt, Augusteen Jefferson, she was crippled from birth. She crawled from kitchen to the family's garden patch, growing and preparing food, and caring for him and for six of his brothers and sisters.
Story-telling and oral tradition were a powerful part of African American life in the rural South. Ernest Gaines at his young age absorbed the stories of his family and neighbors, acquiring a sense of history and an ear for the rhythms of vernacular speech. The only school for African American children in the district was conducted in a single room of the black church.
Dury.