A Wilderness of Vines is a 1966 novel by Hal Bennett. Despite its overtly romantic cover, the novel is a serious satirical novel about post-slavery life in the South: Being black-skinned, there are few adoptions from among the annex girls, except by black preachers who frequently adopt one of them on a trial basis to help wash and sew, the preachers claim, and to do other little Christian chores for the church.