Showing results by author "Charles W. Chesnutt" in All Categories

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) is considered the first important Black American novelist. The Conjure Woman is a collection of seven stories that began appearing in magazines in 1887 and were first published together in 1899. The narrator of The Conjure Woman is a White man from the North living in the South who passes along the stories told to him by the ex-slave Julius McAdoo. The narratives provide a realistic picture of the pre-Civil War South, including descriptions of brutish slave owners.

A northern white couple has relocated to the South to operate a vineyard on a North Carolina plantation. There, they pass their idle hours listening to the stories of one Uncle Julius, who has a deep knowledge of the land. These stories, however, are more than mere entertainments. They all have their time and place, and they offer not only a quiet commentary on the events of the day but also a deeper reckoning with the plantation’s disturbing past.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, siblings Rena and John Walden seek a better life for themselves by passing as white in their new home state of South Carolina. John’s success as an attorney and marriage to a white Southerner help cement his own place, but Rena’s engagement to John’s best friend brings a new level of scrutiny that threatens to expose them both. As the rewards increase, so does the risk, and ultimately, the color line seems determined to re-exert itself.

Drawing on the 1898 overthrow of the Wilmington, North Carolina, government by white supremacists, Charles W. Chesnutt’s classic novel unmasked the racism of the post-Reconstruction South.

The Conjure Woman is a collection of short stories by noted African American author Charles Waddell Chesnutt. It is considered to be one the seminal collections of African American literature.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an influential African American writer of fiction at the turn of the 20th century; his biographical work on Frederick Douglass was thus an exception. The book begins with Douglass’ birth in slavery and covers escape to New York. It culminates in Douglass’ life as a free man and lecturer on the antislavery circuit.

Po' Sandy is a second short story from The Conjure Woman, was published in The Atlantic in 1888. It follows the same frame narrative as the previous one with Julius McAdoo advising John against following through with his plans of demolishing a schoolhouse to build a kitchen. In this short story, Sandy is an enslaved man owned by Mars Marrabo McSwayne, who sends Sandy to travel to help friends and families. During one of Sandy's trips, McSwayne sells Sandy's wife and replaces her for another woman named Tenie.

The Negro Problem is classic collection of essays, edited by Booker T. Washington and with contributions from many of post-Civil War America's other prominent African-American thinkers, sought to redefine the role of Black persons in the new Jim Crow era and beat back white supremacy through racial uplift. Seven essays include Charles Chesnutt's The Disfranchisement of the Negro, W. E. B. DuBois "The Talented Tenth", and Wilford Horace Smith's "The Negro and the Law".

The short story Sis' Becky's Pickaninny of "The Conjure Woman" now follows John as he reproaches McAdoo for all of his superstitious beliefs and how they lack foundation, commenting that these traditions are the reason why Southern Black people are destined for a life of continued acquiescence and little prosperity. This opinion stemmed from McAdoo's assertion that carrying a rabbit foot leads to good luck. John is concerned for Annie's health, since the main reason they moved to the countryside was to improve her health due to her current bouts of depression and anxiety.

The Goophered Grapevine is the first short story from The Conjure Woman, published in The Atlantic in August 1887, told to the narrator by Julius McAdoo, a former enslaved man who lives on the plantation that the narrator, John, and his wife, Annie, visit one day. Set in Patesville, North Carolina, John and Annie moved there for an improvement in his wife's health and to seek other business opportunities. Knowing that the couple wanted to purchase the property, McAdoo advises them not to do so, informing them that when Dugal McAdoo, the previous master, purchased the property, it was very rich in wine production because of its vineyards.

Charles Chesnutt's The Doll is a story of seeking truth, facing discrimination, and making bold choices for the sake of one's own livelihood. The Doll, depicts the African American barber as a human character by showing him struggle with and simply show human thoughts and emotions. The story takes place during a time of huge racial prejudice, a time in which some people did not even consider African Americans to be human

The Wife of His Youth is a short story by American author Charles W. Chesnutt, first published in July 1898. It later served as the title story of the collection The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line. That book was first published in 1899, the same year Chesnutt published his short story collection The Conjure Woman. The Wife of His Youth features an upwardly mobile, light-skinned mulatto man who is a respected member of the Blue Veins Society in a Midwestern city.