The Marrow of Tradition Author:Charles W. Chesnutt First published in 1901, _The Marrow of Tradition_ is in many respects the most artistically and historically interesting of Chesnutt's three novels of Southern life. In this stirring tale of racial confrontation in a reconstructionist Southern town,Chesnutt dramatically explores themes used by later American novelists: the basic interdependence... more » of European and African-American attitudes and actions and the volatile effects that racial mythology has for black and white alike.
_The Marrow of Tradition_ is a swift-moving novel with a memorable cast of characters--the imperious Major Carteret, whose newspaper dominates the town of Wellington; Dr. William Miller, a young African-American physician married to Mrs. Carteret's unacknowledged octoroon half-sister; and Josh Green, a laborer who plans to settle an old debt with the area's most notorious racist.« less