| Abstract |
"On November 10, 1898, a mob of 400 rampaged through the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing as many as 60 citizens, burning down the newspaper office, overthrowing the newly elected African American leaders, and installing a new white supremacist government. The marrow of tradition is a fictionalized account of this important, under-studied event. Charles W. Chesnutt narrates the story of 'Wellington, ' North Carolina, through William Miller, a black doctor, and his wife, Janet, who is both black and the unclaimed daughter of a prominent white businessman. Along with dozens of other characters, including a black domestic servant whose speech is rendered in vernacular dialect, they create a composite of Reconstruction and the violent racial politics created in backlash"--Page 4 of cover |
