The Conjure Woman by Charles Waddell Chesnutt

The Conjure Woman by Charles Waddell Chesnutt

Seven short stories from one of the most influential African-American authors of the early twentieth century have been edited for modern readers. Changes include standardized spellings and replacement of offensive terms. The bones of the stories are just as he told them with no changes to plot or settings. Best of all the book includes the original unedited versions in appendixes, and the author's essay about Southern folklore.
The Goophered Grapevine: A conjured slave finds his life closely mirroring the grapevines on his plantation.
Poor Sandy: A slave attempts to escape his plantation through conjuration.
Master James's Nightmare: A slave arranges for his master to be given a potion to have a bad dream.
The Conjurer's Revenge: A slave eats a conjure man's pig and incites his wrath.
Sister Becky's Baby: A slave is sold away from her baby, but is reunited through conjuration.
The Gray Wolf's Haunt: A conjure man avenges his son's death.
Hot-Foot Hannibal: Two slaves conspire to conjure a third.

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an African American author, lawyer, and political activist. Born in Cleveland to a family of free persons of color from North Carolina, Chesnutt spent his youth in Ohio before returning to the South after the Civil War. As a teenager, he worked as a teacher at a local school for Black students and eventually became principal at a college established in Fayetteville for the purpose of training Black teachers. Chesnutt married Susan Perry--with whom he had four daughters--in 1878 and moved to New York City for a short time before settling in Cleveland, where he studied law and passed the bar exam in 1887. His story The Goophered Grapevine, published the same year, was the first story by an African American to appear in The Atlantic. Back in Ohio, Chesnutt started the court stenography business that would earn him the financial stability to pursue a career as a writer. He wrote several collections of short stories, including The Conjure Woman (1899) and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line (1899), both of which explore themes of race in America and African American identity as well as employ African American Vernacular English. Chesnutt was also an active member of the NAACP throughout his life, writing for its magazine The Crisis, serving on its General Committee, and working with such figures as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.