The Marrow of Tradition

The Marrow of Tradition
Author(s)	Charles Chesnutt
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Houghton, Mifflin
Publication date	October 1901
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
OCLC Number	939418

The Marrow of Tradition is a historical novel by African-American author Charles Chesnutt first published in 1901.

Plot introduction

A fictional retelling of the rise of the white supremacist movement, specifically as it aided the fomentation of what was originally referred to as the “race riots” that took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. (Critics argue over what would be a more proper term, with some favoring the blunt and descriptive “massacre” while others prefer coup d'etat, in reference to the fact that the local government was successfully overthrown by force.) ^[1]

Plot summary

The fairly complicated novel follows several small plots in order to paint a portrait of a town that acts as a microcosm. The primary plot involves the birth of the first and only child of Olivia Carteret and her husband, Major Carteret. Olivia is a very sickly woman and has been told that this new child, Theodore, will be the only one she will ever be able to have.

Complications come in the form of Olivia's illegitimate half sister, Janet, who was the progeny of Olivia’s father's longtime love-affair with his former slave. At the novel’s start, which details the birth of Theodore, it is revealed that Olivia so reviles Janet that the mere sight of her has launched Olivia into premature labor.

An adjacent plot puts at odds two young men who are both vying for the love of Olivia’s niece Clara. The favored suitor is the exceedingly handsome Tom Delamere, grandson of the elder Mr. Delamere, one of the town’s wealthiest landowners. His overwhelmed opponent is Lee Ellis, a studious-but-plain young man who works as an editor at the local newspaper, which is run by the Major.

Tom Delamere uses his honored family name to hide his brutish temperament. He is prone to drunkenness and gambling. Ellis, by contrast, is rightfully referred to as being “steady as a watch.” He is honest, hard-working, and one of the novel’s few admirable characters. This rivalry is one of many of the novel’s contrasting pairs that Chesnutt uses to relay his social message by assigning commonly recognized positive characteristics to reform-minded characters and commonly recognized negative characteristics to racist characters. Here, Tom represents an unrepentant perspective whereas Ellis represents the reform-minded population.

Dr. Miller, a well-respected black physician (married to Olivia’s half sister Janet), is invited by a white surgeon to the Carteret’s home to aid in an emergency operation on little Theodore who has choked on a rattle. The Major attempts to turn Dr. Miller away at his door. However, the surgeon does not allow the Major to reject Dr. Miller's aid because of his race. Ultimately, Carteret succeeds in turning Dr. Miller away because of his wife's abjuration for Janet and her family (i.e. Dr. Miller).

Soon afterward, another plot arises, focusing on the “Big Three” (see “Characters” section below) of the town’s white supremacist movement. The triumvirate is composed of Major Carteret, Captain McBane, and General Belmont. They operate out of Carteret’s newspaper (which also serves as a mouthpiece for the local Democratic Party), and mean to use their control of the town’s local media to stir up anger against the local black community. Their plan is spread ire in regards to “inflammatory” pieces written in the local black newspaper that discussed the legitimacy of lynchings, their logic being that blacks have no right to question such firmly-held traditions.

Major Characters in "The Marrow of Tradition"

Major Carteret: A gentleman of modest background who came into wealth through marriage. The least virulent of the book's three main white supremacists, he nonetheless uses his high rank at the town’s local paper to incite violence against the town’s black community.

Olivia Carteret: Wife to the Major, a frail and delicate woman who is as racist as her husband and very ashamed of her half-black sister, Janet.

Dr. Miller: One of the town’s most successful African Americans, Miller is a physician of great skill and high esteem (even among the town’s white population). Miller is a reform-minded character, although he goes about reform in a very non-confrontational manner.

Janet Miller: Olivia’s half sister and wife of Dr. Miller. She bears a striking resemblance to Olivia.

Tom Delamere: A racist young drunkard whose good looks and white skin help him avoid accountability. He robs and murders old Ms. Ochiltree and frames his grandfather's servant/friend Sandy.

Lee Ellis: Tom’s reform-minded opposite. He loves Clara but never tells her. He is Major Carteret's colleague at the newspaper.

McBane: His father was the son of a slave overseer, which is seen as the lower class. McBane has become rich and thinks that because he is rich he is "in" but Wellington measures wealth by class and ancestors. McBane is trying to make race the deciding factor on who is "in" and "out".

Ms. Ochiltree: Olivia's old aunt. She has wealth but hides it all in a trunk in the house.

Josh Greene: African American Character. Victim of Ku Klux Klan violence when he was young when they killed his father. He knows that McBane is his father's killer, and desperately wants revenge. Holds a certain amount of animosity towards Whites, and is aggressive

Sandy Campbell: African-American character who is a long time servant of Mr. Delamere. Falsely accused of a controversial crime, which almost caused him to be lynched. His case sparks extreme racial tension in the town.

Major themes

The novel was written in direct refutation of many of sensationalized accounts of the “race riot.” These accounts included inaccurate news reports and a series of white supremacist novels. As inaccurate as they may have been, these accounts were the only ones available to readers in the North, whose knowledge was limited to what was readily available in print.

Literary significance & criticism

Also of note is the fact that this novel was one of the very first to showcase how a form of mass media—here a newspaper—could be used explicitly as a propaganda tool (see yellow journalism).^{[citation needed]}

Allusions/references to actual history and current science

The novel is often thought of as one of the most accurate literary pictures of the postbellum southern United States ever written.^{[citation needed]}

The book also provides direct commentary on previous revolutionary efforts such as Frances Harper's Iola Leroy and Booker T. Washington's famous Atlanta Address of 1895, criticizing the latter for its non-confrontational approach to race relations, which is evident in the character of Dr. William Miller.

Also, this book is a fictionalized account of The Wilmington Race Riots which actually occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Footnotes

1. ^ 1 Washington Post "1898 Race Clash Ruled a Coup

External links