The Conjure Woman

by Charles W. Chesnutt

Overview

According to Wikipedia: "Charles Waddell Chesnutt (June 20, 1858 – November 15, 1932) was an African-American author, essayist and political activist, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity…. Chesnutt's stories were more complex than those of many of his contemporaries. He wrote about characters' dealing with difficult issues of miscegenation, "passing", illegitimacy, racial identities and social place throughout his career. The issues were especially pressing in the social volatility of Reconstruction and late 19th century society, as whites in the South tried to press all people with any African ancestry into one lower caste. At the same time, there was often distance and competition between families who had long been free persons of color, especially if educated and people of property, and newly freed slaves."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455311217
Publisher:	Seltzer Books
Publication date:	10/23/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	564 KB

About the Author

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was the author of many books, including the novel The Marrow of Tradition and the collection The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories, also available from the University of Michigan Press.

Table of Contents

Superstitions and Folklore of the South by Charles W. Chesnutt; 1-The Goophered Grapevine; 2-Poor Sandy; 3-Master James's Nightmare; 4-The Conjurer's Revenge; 5-Sister Becky's Baby; 6-The Gray Wolf's Haunt; 7-Hot-Foot Hannibal; Charles W. Chesnutt by Wikipedia Contributors; Appendix A: The Goophered Grapevine (Original); Appendix B: Po' Sandy (Original); Appendix C: Mars Jeems's Nightmare (Original); Appendix D: The Conjurer's Revenge (Original); Appendix E: Sis' Becky's Pickaninny (Original); Appendix F: The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt (Original); Appendix G:
Hot-Foot Hannibal (Original); Appendix H: Superstitions and Folk-Lore of the South (Original) by Charles W. Chesnutt

Editorial Reviews

Charles W. Chestnutt was the most widely read and influential African American fiction writer of his time and the first ever brought to press by a major publishing house. The Conjure Woman introduced the verbal and philosophical richness of African American folk culture to a white readership largely ignorant of true southern black life. Even today, this collection is thought to be among the best representations of life on a southern plantation to be found in American literature.

The Conjure Woman is a collection of "conjuring tales" written in rich dialect. Each of the stories masterfully portrays both the inhumanity of plantation life and the cunning wisdom used by many to survive post-Civil War neoslavery. The stories are more accurate than those written by contemporary writers like Joel Chandler Harris, whose Uncle Remus stories fondly portray life on the plantation. Chestnutt's stories more often reflect the true conditions of plantation life, if in slightly muted tones: forced separation of loved ones, the greed of the slave masters, and the ready violence to be found on the plantations.

Chestnutt's later—and more straightforward—explorations into biracialism, miscegenation, and racisim (The Home Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition, and The Colonel's Dream) met with so tepid a commercial response that Chestnutt decided to return to his private legal practice in order to support his family. But The Conjure Woman has ensured his reputation as a groundbreaking writer of fiction that truthfully tells the stories of slave life.

Sacred Life