Conscience of the Court

The testimony of the defendant was very real and matter of fact. I like how she did not hesitate to own up to the situation and clearly explained her side of the story. I guess what I found to be so moving was being able to read about a degree of justice that given the time and setting of the story, one would think was typically unheard of. For an African American woman of this time period to be facing charges, and to actually be able to represent herself in a court of law, and actually be found not guilty, is out of the ordinary.

I really liked this story because it was against the grain of this era. I really enjoyed the dialogue. The way Hurston used the phonetic sound of the dialect of that time period is fun. The testimony of Laura Lee was riveting and made the entire story. I found myself sympathizing with her very easily and the way Hurston described her in the beginning set us up to not really know one way or another if we were dealing with a real criminal, or someone who would be found unfairly guilty, or any number of things that were possible.