The Marrow of Tradition

Elected black and white fusion party office holders run the fictional City of Wellington in this classic American novel set in the South at the end of Reconstruction in 1898. Bent upon restoring the traditional social order, a cabal of white racists engineer a race riot to drive the fusionists from office and restrict the "nigger" vote. Using the Wilmington, N.C. race riot of 1898 and the events leading up to it as his model, Chesnutt artfully explores the tangled skeins of motives propelling all his characters. Interesting and complex subplots abound, peopled by colorful characters of both races subjected to unmanageable colliding emotions that are energized by race, love, greed, shame, and unquenchable thirsts for power.