The central narrative and thematic premise of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is established by the woman herself when she trenchantly observes that “People and time bring forth leaders . . . leaders don’t bring forth people.” The book exists as a document of the hard existence lived by Miss Jane over the course of more than a century. Indiana Jones famously philosophized that “it’s not the years, it’s the mileage” but Miss Jane proves him wrong from at least one perspective. All the mileage she put in would have been for nought—relative to that story being told—had it not been for the years. The autobiography itself thus becomes a document standing a testament to time bringing forth Miss Jane herself as a leader.
The contention is consistently tested and invariably proven. No guide leader can be attributed to the stewardship of Big Laura as a person who commits to rescuing freed slaves; it was only time that afforded her the opportunity to step into this leadership role herself. This theme of the time and place colluding to create leaders is exemplified on smaller scales like Big Laura through a number of incidents with a variety of characters, but is also illuminated on a larger scale through Miss Jane’s march through the eventful 20th century. The color line in Major League Baseball could have been broken prior to 1947 through the sheer force of will by any of the white owners, but in doing so it is possible that the wrong player might have been chosen at the wrong time. Instead, Jackie Robinson proved to be exactly the right player who positioned himself at the right time to become the perfect person—not just the perfect ballplayer, but the perfect person—to take on the weight of that responsibility.
The volume is starkly divided according to certain periods of Miss Jane’s life. In the beginning, she is presented as a 10-year-old girl named Ticey only to reject that slave name and adopt the name of a friendly Union soldier’s daughter. As a young slave, her name hardly matters; essentially she has no identity at all. She is only what—and whom—others choose her to be. It will take nearly the course of a century of time to pass in order for that young girl to be brought forth as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement who demanded nothing more subversive and seditious than the dignity of being treated like a human being recognized for her essential contribution as an individual to the larger community.
