American Classics PDF EPUB Audio

The Marrow of Tradition

First published: 1901
Pages: 231

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Read by James K. White · 9 h 52 min · 37 parts

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Preface and Chapter I, At Break of Day
19:38
Chapter II, The Christening Party
28:16
Chapter III, The Editor At Work
22:34
Chapter IV, Theodore Felix
14:39
Chapter V, A Journey Southward
28:08
Chapter VI, Janet
7:53
Chapter VII, The Operation
20:10
Chapter VIII, The Campaign Drags
9:08
Chapter IX, The White Man's "Nigger"
15:55
Chapter X, Delamere Plays A Trump
18:41
Chapter XI, The Baby And The Bird
9:18
Chapter XII, Another Southern Product
11:18
Chapter XIII, The Cake Walk
13:37
Chapter XIV, The Maunderings Of Old Mrs. Ochiltree
15:30
Chapter XV, Mrs. Carteret Seeks An Explanation
13:30
Chapter XVI, Ellis Takes A Trick
24:35
Chapter XVII, The Social Aspirations Of Captain McBane
22:16
Chapter XVIII, Sandy Sees his Own Ha'nt
8:38
Chapter XIX, A Midnight Walk
6:22
Chapter XX, A Shocking Crime
9:48
Chapter XXI, The Necessity Of An Example
11:27
Chapter XXII, How Not To Prevent A Lynching
15:09
Chapter XXIII, Belleview
10:40
Chapter XXIV, Two Southern Gentlemen
14:21
Chapter XXV, The Honor Of A Family
11:33
Chapter XXVI, The Discomfort Of Ellis
11:00
Chapter XXVII, The Vagaries Of The Higher Law
25:49
Chapter XXVIII, In Season And Out
21:06
Chapter XXIX, Mutterings Of The Storm
11:22
Chapter XXX, The Missing Papers
26:11
Chapter XXXI, The Shadow Of A Dream
12:11
Chapter XXXII, The Storm Breaks
19:20
Chapter XXXIII, Into The Lion's Jaws
13:18
Chapter XXXIV, The Valley Of The Shadow
8:35
Chapter XXXV, Mine Enemy, Oh Mine Enemy
23:47
Chapter XXXVI, Fiat Justitia
22:29
Chapater XXXVII, The Sisters
13:54

The Marrow of Tradition (1901) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Charles W. Chesnutt based this 1901 novel on the Wilmington coup of 1898, when white supremacists overthrew the elected biracial government of a North Carolina city and killed dozens of Black residents. In the fictional town of Wellington, he follows two families, one white and one Black, bound together by blood and by a buried history. A newspaper editor foments racial violence for political gain while Dr. William Miller, a Black physician, watches Jim Crow tighten around his life and his work. The story builds toward a riot and a wrenching moral reckoning between the families. Sharp and unflinching, it stands among the strongest American protest novels of its era. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.

About the author

Charles W. Chesnutt

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an African American novelist and short-story writer whose work examined race, class, and the failures of Reconstruction. Writing from Cleveland while working as a legal stenographer, he became one of the first Black authors published by major American houses and an influential activist voice.