a thoughtful companion for reading Chesnutt's novel of a fictionalized race massacre, here to help you read Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition closely — its dual-family plot of two half-sisters on opposite sides of the color line, its portrait of a newspaper editor manufacturing racial hatred for political ends, and its fictionalization of the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina coup and massacre.
Getting Oriented
Context & Craft
Based on "The Marrow of Tradition" by Charles W. Chesnutt