The Marrow of Tradition

The Marrow of Tradition (1901), Charles Chesnutt’s second novel, is one of the most prominent entries in the canon of post-bellum, pre-Harlem Black writing. Notable for its fictionalized retelling of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots, the novel is called to by scholars and readers for its acute depiction of America’s turn-of-the-century racial atmosphere. The Norton Library edition features the original 1901 text, explanatory endnotes, and a sweeping introduction by Autumn Womack (Princeton University) that thoroughly details the work’s historical contexts, literary achievements, and groundbreaking critique of white supremacy.