Diddie, Dumps, and Tot: Or, Plantation Child-Life was written by Louise Clarke Pyrnelle. Pyrnelle gives the reader a look at life from the slave owners perspective. Information customs, songs and etiquette are covered. The reader has a glimpse into the minds of the slave owners and learns their perspective on the issue of slave ownership. Pyrnelle says ""In writing this little volume, I had for my primary object the idea of keeping alive many of the old stories, legends, traditions, games, hymns, and superstitions of the Southern slaves, which, with this generation of negroes, will pass away. There are now no more dear old "Mammies" and "Aunties" in our nurseries, no more good old "Uncles" in the workshops, to tell the children those old tales that have been told to our mothers and grandmothers for generations--the stories that kept our fathers and grandfathers quiet at night, and induced them to go early to bed that they might hear them the sooner."