The Marrow of Tradition

by Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt

"The Marrow of Tradition" by Charles W. Chesnutt is a novel published in 1901. Set in the fictional town of Wellington, it portrays the 1898 Wilmington Insurrection, when white supremacists violently overthrew a legitimately elected government. The story follows interweaving plots across racial lines: a newspaper owner conspiring to seize political control, a Black physician facing Jim Crow segregation, half-sisters divided by race, and a son seeking revenge for his father's murder. All converge in election-day violence that forces each character toward a reckoning.