The Marrow of Tradition

Charles W. Chestnutt

• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781513269191, 9781513221076
• eBook ISBN: 9781513274195
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

The Marrow of Tradition (1901) is a historical novel by African American author, lawyer, and political activist Charles Chesnutt. Based on the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898—in which a group of white supremacists rioted and overthrew the elected government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing hundreds of African Americans and displacing thousands more— The Marrow of Tradition follows two interconnected families on opposite sides of the violence.

Set in the fictional city of Wellington, the story begins with Major Carteret, a white newspaper owner whose colleagues and powerful peers are growing increasingly outraged by widespread condemnation of local lynchings. At the same time, a black physician named William Miller is establishing a local medical practice while settling into married life with his wife, Janet, the unacknowledged half-sister of Major Carteret's wife. When Polly Ochiltree, a local white woman, is murdered, a black servant named Sandy Campbell is initially accused. When the identity of the true killer—a white aristocrat—is discovered, however, and when authorities fail to arrest him, the racial tensions dominating Wellington reach their breaking point. The Marrow of Tradition is a harrowing story of family, race, and identity which brilliantly dissects the historical events of the Wilmington Insurrection without sensationalizing them. Although Chesnutt hoped that his book would help to improve race relations in the United States, the book was a commercial and critical failure. For readers today, however, the novel is a picture of how far we have come, and a chilling reminder of how far we have left to go.

This edition of Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1. At Break of Day
• 2. The Christening Party
• 3. The Editor at Work
• 4. Theodore Felix
• 5. A Journey Southward
• 6. Janet
• 7. The Operation
• 8. The Campaign Drags
• 9. A White Man’s “Nigger”
• 10. Delamere Plays a Trump
• 11. The Baby and the Bird
• 12. Another Southern Product
• 13. The Cakewalk
• 14. The Maunderings of Old Mrs. Ochiltree
• 15. Mrs. Carteret Seeks an Explanation
• 16. Ellis Takes a Trick
• 17. The Social Aspirations of Captain McBane
• 18. Sandy Sees His Own Ha’nt
• 19. A Midnight Walk
• 20. A Shocking Crime
• 21. The Necessity of an Example
• 22. How Not to Prevent a Lynching
• 23. Belleview
• 24. Two Southern Gentlemen
• 25. The Honor of a Family
• 26. The Discomfort of Ellis
• 27. The Vagaries of the Higher Law
• 28. In Season and Out
• 29. Mutterings of the Storm
• 30. The Missing Papers
• 31. The Shadow of a Dream
• 32. The Storm breaks
• 33. Into the Lion’s Jaws
• 34. The Valley of the Shadow
• 35. “Mine Enemy, O Mine Enemy!”
• 36. Fiat Justitia
• 37. The Sisters
• A Note About the Author
• A Note from the Publisher