Charles W. Chesnutt: Essays and Speeches: Essays and Speeches

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Stanford University Press, 2001 M12 1 - 636 pages
Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the life and work of Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932), considered by many the major African-American fiction writer before the Harlem Renaissance by virtue of the three novels and two collections of short stories he published between 1899 and 1905.

Less familiar are the essays he wrote for American periodicals from 1899 through 1931, the majority of which are analyses of and protests against white racism. Collected as well in this volume are the addresses he made to both white and black audiences from 1881 through 1931, on topics ranging from race prejudice to the life and literary career of Alexandre Dumas.

The 77 works included in this volume comprise all of Chesnutt s known works of nonfiction, 38 of which are reprinted here for the first time. They reveal an ardent and often outraged spokesman for the African American whose militancy increased to such a degree that, by 1903, he had more in common with W. E. B. Du Bois than Booker T. Washington. He was, however, a lifelong integrationist and even an advocate of "race amalgamation, seeing interracial marriage as the ultimate means of solving "the Negro Problem, as it was termed at the end of the century. That he championed the African American during the Jim Crow era while opposing Black Nationalism and other "race pride movements attests to the way Chesnutt defined himself as a controversial figure, in his time and ours.

The essays and speeches in this volume are not, however, limited to polemical writings. An educator, attorney, and man of letters with wide-ranging interests, Chesnutt stands as a humanist addressing subjects of universal interest, including the novels of George Meredith, the accomplishments of Samuel Johnson, and the relationship between literature and life.

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Contents

The Advantages of a WellConducted Literary Society 1881
13
The Future of the Negro 1882
24
SelfMade Men 1882
33
Methods of Teaching 1882
40
Things To Be Thankful For 1886
54
What Is a White Man? 1889
68
Some Uses and Abuses of Shorthand 1889
74
Some Requisites of a Law Reporter 1891
84
Lincolns Courtships 1909
271
Who and Why Was Samuel Johnson? 1911
281
Abraham Lincoln 1912
299
Address to the Medina Coterie 1913
308
Perry Centennial 1913
322
Race Ideals and Examples 1913
331
An Appreciation 1913
349
The Ideal Nurse 1914
371

Competition 1892
90
Liberty and the Franchise 1899 ΙΟΙ
109
On the Future of His People 1900
116
A Stream of Dark Blood in the Veins of
126
A Complete RaceAmalgamation Likely
131
The White and the Black 1901
139
A Visit to Tuskegee 1901
145
A Defamer of His Race 1901
152
The Negros Franchise 1901
161
Charles W Chesnutts Own View of His New Story The Marrow
169
The Disfranchisement of the Negro 1903
179
The Race Problem 1904
196
Peonage or the New Slavery 1904
205
The Literary Outlook 1905
211
Age of Problems 1906
238
Rights and Duties 1908
252
The Courts and the Negro 1908
262
Womens Rights 1915
383
George Meredith 1916
402
Social Discrimination 1916
423
Introduction to a Reading from an Unpublished Story 1916
441
Address to Colored Soldiers at Grays Armory 1917
449
Negro Authors 1918
458
Resolutions Concerning the Recent Election 1920
464
Remarks of Charles W Chesnutt Before Cleveland Chamber
480
How Shall He Be Portrayed? 1926
490
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass 1928
503
Remarks of Charles Waddell Chesnutt of Cleveland in Accepting
510
The Negro in Present Day Fiction 1929
516
Advice for Businessmen 1930
530
PostBellumPreHarlem 1931
543
The Writing of a Novel undated after 1899
549
The Term Negro undated before 2 June 1928
565
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