On April 27, 1901, two reviews were published about Paul Laurence Dunbar's novel The Sport of the Gods, which had recently appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
The "new" Lippincott for May contains a complete novel by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It is an evident attempt of the author to do for the enfranchised Negro what "Uncle Tom's Cabin" did for the Negro in slavery. The tale opens with a false arrest, trial and conviction in a Southern town; then the scene changes to this city, and here the writer speaks with all sincerity when he says of the Southern Negroes who come North seeking their fortunes: "It was better for them to sing to God across the Southern fields."
"Notes and News." The New York Times (New York, New York). April 27, 1901. Page 304.
Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Sport of the Gods" occupies leading place in the May Lippincott's, and is a most interesting contribution to the literature of Negro life as viewed from the inside. Mr. Dunbar's novel is a bit crude in places, but its strength compensates for any slight lacks. Negroes of the South are contrasted forcefully with the Negroes of New York City, and the author reads a moral as well as tells a tale.
"The Magazines." Boston Home Journal (Boston, Massachusetts). April 27, 1901. Page 13.
The Sport of the Gods, Paul's fourth and final novel, addressed a contemporary social issue: the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, where they often experienced degradation.
In some of the Southern states there has developed among the colored people an idea that if they could only get North all would be well. Accordingly, multitudes have made an effort to reach the North. For the most part the result has been very sad. Multitudes of these have found themselves stranded in our Northern cities, especially in this city, and they have been the prey of evil to a degree that is appalling, until the situation in the colored communities in this city is scarcely describable.
"Religious," by Teunis S. Hamlin, D. D. The Independent (New York, New York). July 13, 1899. Page 1906.
The career of the average negro girl who comes to New York from the south is a pitiable one. The girl arrives, and with no one to meet her and no knowledge of a big city or its ways, falls a prey to those very active agents who are employed to secure negro girls for evil purposes. In a week she is working in the Tenderloin, where she is paid in finery and demoralized by her associates and surroundings. In a year or two she is known at the station houses and cannot get work with respectable families. In five years, she usually dies in the hospital, ashamed to let her friends know of her ways or her whereabouts.
"To Protect Negro Girls." Public Opinion (New York, New York). February 13, 1902. Page 206.
In Paul's novel, that scenario is played out through the experiences of one family. A formerly enslaved man named Berry Hamilton is wrongfully accused of theft by his white employers. His family leaves their Southern plantation and moves to New York City, where they endure a series of tragedies. Paul's mother Matilda had a powerful reaction to the story, according to a letter from his wife Alice.
"The Sport of the Gods" came today and I have been reading aloud to ma. She enjoys it immensely and wept copiously over Berry's conviction. I have half finished it.
Alice Moore Dunbar to Paul Laurence Dunbar, April 24, 1901. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).