This teaching edition of Charles W. Chesnutt's 1901 novel about racial conflict in a Southern town features an extensive selection of materials that place the work in its historical context. Organized thematically, these materials explore caste, gender, and race after Reconstruction; postbellum laws and lynching; the 1898 Wilmington riot upon which the narrative is based; and the fin de siecle culture of segregation. The thematic sections are rich with documents such as letters, photographs, editorials, speeches, legal decisions, journalism, and essays from leading periodicals of the era. The editors' introductions and selection headnotes provide additional background for understanding the mythology of race and Chesnutt's penetrating examination of its mechanisms and consequences.

PART ONE: THE MARROW OF TRADITION: The Complete Text
Introduction: Cultural and Historical Background
Chronology of Chesnutt's Life and Times
A Note on the Text
The Marrow of Tradition [1001 Houghton Mifflin edition]
PART TWO: THE MARROW OF TRADITION: Cultural Contexts
Caste, Race and Gender After Reconstruction
Law and Lawlessness
The Wilmington Riot
Segregation as Culture: Etiquette, Spectacle, and Fiction

Charles W. Chesnutt and Edited By Nancy Bentley and Sandra Gunning