Part of Belt's Revivals Series and an undisputed classic of African
American literature. With a new introduction by Wiley Cash (When Ghosts
Come Home).
On November 10, 1898, a mob of 400 people rampaged through the streets
of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing as many as 60 citizens, burning
down the newspaper office, overthrowing the newly elected leaders, and
installing a new white supremacist government. In a violent reaction
prompted by the increasing political powers African Americans in the
town were gaining during Reconstruction, the Wilmington Race Riots--also
known as the Wilmington Insurrection and the Wilmington Massacre--was
the only successful coup d'etat on American soil.
The Marrow of Tradition is a fictionalized account of this important,
under-studied event. Charles W. Chesnutt, an African American writer
from North Carolina who lived in Cleveland as an adult and was the first
black professional writer in the nation, 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. The novel is also a
masterful work of art that stands on its own: gripping, nuanced, and
wholly original.
An unsung American classic with startling resonance for America's racial
issues today.
