An Examination of Select Charles Chestnutt Slave Narratives

Charles Chesnutt is a revolutionary Southern author who challenges the racial views of post-Civil War white America in his collection of short fiction, The Conjure Woman. This volume of conjure tales, set in southeast North Carolina, focuses on the plight of black people trying to maintain their personal identity and dignity in the face of a society dominated by whites. The lack of control over their lives and bodies caused slaves to retain their old beliefs in immortality and conjuration to exert control over the slave master. Two of Chesnutt's stories, "The Goophered Grapevine" and "Mars Jeems's Nightmare" key on the role of conjuration and metamorphosis for slaves and free black such as Uncle Julius McAdoo. In both texts, Uncle Julius, Aun' Peggy, and other use conjuration to gain power over their white oppressors, while proving blacks are more than mindless drones capable of more power than white masters and slave-owners thought possible.

In the past, Southern writers like Thomas Nelson Page wrote of the contented slave myth. The myth held that slaves were happy in their role of the white man's servant. Slaves never worked hard, they could hold joyous celebrations on birthdays and holidays, and were a loving part of the Master's family. In Page's "Unc Edinburg," Marse George loved his slave Edinburg to the point where he risked his love for Charlotte by fighting his enemy, Mr. Darker, who would whip Edinburg on occasion. This gallant myth, part of the plantation tradition, romanticizes slave life in the South. This is not the case in Chesnutt's two texts. In both texts, "Chesnutt depicts the parsimonious Scots of down-east North Carolina cheating each other, indulging their gambling vices, hunting down the runaways, arguing with their wives, and perpetually scrambling for financial gain (Brown and Flora 111). In "The Goophered Grapevine," Mars Dugal's grapevine is ruined after a man from up North, affectionately referred to as a Yankee, tries to help. That drives Mars Dugal to fight in the Civil War "to kill a Yankee fer eve'y dollar he los' long 'long er dat grape-raisin' Yankee" (Chesnutt 12). Furthermore, Dugal sets steel traps to catch his slaves from trying to steal grapes and assists other slave masters in retrieving escaped slaves. In "Mars Jeems's Nightmare," the title character is a ruthless master who allows no joy for his slaves. In fact, he works them from sunrise to sundown, allowing the slaves little sleep. His overseer, Nick Johnson, starved one of the slaves and beat him unmercifully. In real life, not just in the text, slaves could not openly practice their African religion because the oppressive system of slavery discouraged celebration (Johnson 168). Chesnutt bravely states slaves were abused and denigrated by their masters.

Slaves are people too, however, and Chesnutt displays the power of the black individual. Each text "develops an inner plot in which a slave seeks a conjurer in order to gain control over his or her life, primarily to redress a power imbalance or to mitigate sufferings caused by a master's callous disregard of basic human needs" (MeKeithan 581). Both narratives are told by Uncle Julius McAdoo, a former slave who lived on the old Mars Dugal plantation. A tall man with unusual vigor, Julius speaks in a deep southern dialect which contradicts the proper northern English spoken by John and Annie, the Ohio couple he works for. To the couple, "he seems simple and naïve, but he successfully used his wily storytelling gifts to outwit his employer" (Eckard 167). The woman Julius used in his narratives to outwit the white man, to gain power and control, is Aun' Peggy.

Aun' Peggy, a free black woman who lives just outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina, has voodoo powers. Her "abilities, deeply rooted in African American folk knowledge and traditions, add mystery, strength, and purpose to Uncle Julius' stories" (Eckard 131-32). In fact, "in most of the stories, Julius describes the plight of slaves whose only real defense against the inhumanity of slavery lies in Aun' Peggy's conjure spells" (167). She is the agent of power which reinforces change in the lives of oppressed slaves like Henry in "The Goophered Grapevine." For example, Mars Dugal hires Peggy to curse his grapevine so slaves would not eat from its abundant wealth of grapes. Henry ate a couple of grapes then promptly told by other slaves he was cursed. After stealing a ham to pay Peggy for her services, she removes the curse. She tells his to anoint his head with grape sap in order for the curse to finally leave. However, he finds that eventually his health would rise and fall with the success of grapes as a crop. His health would rise in the summer, yet fail in winter. The continually saves Henry from having to work in the cold because every time Mars Dugal sold him to another owner, they would sell him back because of his winter illness. This, of course, resulted in great profits from Mars Dugal and as easy life for Henry during the winter. Therefore, Henry had his masters eating from his fingers because of his shifting metamorphosis through conjuration. In addition, there is an important metaphor involving the grapes and Henry. Since the growth of the grapes coincided with the growth of Henry's hair and strength, the slave matures. That is, Henry grows from a childish slave who steals and depends on his master, to a man who seems to reverse the roles of a slave and master. Henry gains more autonomy in life because Henry is tall, strong, and the slave masters believe he will work hard. However, because he cannot work much of the year, the masters do everything in their power to keep him well fed, sleeping well, and relaxed. Henry is living a more enjoyable life, even though he is still a slave.

In "Mars Jeems," Aun' Peggy uses conjuration to turn the hard-bearing Mars Jeems into a contented slave master. After a failed romance, Mars Jeems lashes out his internal anger on his slaves until "dey wuz no use in libbin' at all ef you ha'ter lib roun' Mars Jeems. He niggers wuz bleedzd ter slabe from daylight ter da'k" (Chesnutt 27). Solomon, a slave under Mars Jeems, fell in love with another slave and Mars Jeems discovered the relationship. He sends the girl to another plantation, jealous of two people in love, especially two people who he considered inferior. Solomon was so upset over the fact he lost his love and the harsh treatment from Mars Jeems that he visits Aun' Peggy. She advises him to put special herbs in the master's okra soup; only then the conjuration begins. After partaking in the soup, Mars Jeems leaves the plantation to attend business for a few weeks. After weeks of torture by a poor overseer, Solomon, walking through the woods outside the plantation, finds Mars Jeems returned not in the usual plantation society dress, but in slave-like rags. He does not carry the violent attitudes prevalent in the previous relationship with his slaves. He seems meek and discouraged, a completely changed man. Jeems comes back to his plantation and removes Nick Johnson, the harsh overseer left in charge of the plantation during his absence. He refuses to allow any rash treatment of slaves on his property. The conjuration rendered Mars Jeems helpless over his slaves, allowing them a much easier life. This is an example of a common theme in African-American literature. One person used the power of conjuration for group liberation (Johnson 169). The white man, the person of power, loses his power and grip on reality. In turn, this gives the slaves increased autonomy to do as they wish. Furthermore, the "Nightmare of Mars Jeems" is a metaphor for how Chars Chesnutt envisioned the South's future. Chesnutt wanted the slave tradition eradicated. He longed for removing the hatred between races that went back for many years in American history. Mars Jeems, representing the white man, has to let the slaves do as they wanted and to treat them fairly. The conjuration placed by Aun' Peggy caused the important metamorphosis of the white plantation tradition into a relationship of increased tolerance and kindness. Even as the owner/slave relationship still existed, slaves held more power.

As Uncle Julius tells these stores to John and Annie, one cannot help but that that he "seems cast in the mold of the aging black retainers who evoke the past for the plantation literary tradition," like the slave Sam in T.N. Page's "Marse Chan" ("Charles W. Chesnutt" 110). This is not the case. His "reminiscences stem not from nostalgia or a desire to entertain, but rather from self-interested schemes to secure his own economic advantage through the artful manipulation of his white listening audience" (110-111) Julius is a trickster figure who uses his power to subvert white men. He is helpful because he "cannot be pinned down to any one form, shape, or position, and because he continually disrupts the status quo with laughter, outrage, and rebellion, he acts both as a figure of cultural strength and as a sign of diversity" (Smith 737). The trickster in both of these texts has a dual role; slave owners may believe their slaves and free blacks as stupid, passive children ensnared in the typical slave myth, but Julius subverts that very role in proving black are more than mindless drones. Julius shows superstition, traits John and the ignorant slave owners expect to see. However, Julius also shows logic and reason in telling these stories because it proves he is not an idiot. In fact, his trickster stories give him control over John and Annie because he obtains a job with the couple whole maintaining his ground on the old plantation.

John and Annie, however friendly, are a stark contrast from the dividing truths which abound in the texts. To the couple, "the agricultural potential of the area, and the pleasing manners and customs of its people render an idyllic portrait of the New South" (Eckard 167). However, the stories of Uncle Julius become another form of metamorphosis. To Annie and John, Julius McAdoo presents different view of the south. The chivalric, mannerly view is wiped clean by the harrowing conjure stories, and, "most importantly, they reveal the essential humanity of slave characters with great empathy and understanding" (168). It is essential to understand the pitiful situation of slaves in both texts. These are subservient men and women who have no escape from the constraints of slavery. Chesnutt teaches us a lesson on human depravity, and because he uses conjuration as the method for payback in the texts, he is honoring the history of black people and using that history to conquer the racial injustice Uncle Julius states in his narratives.

In conclusion, Uncle Julius McAdoo and Aun' Peggy are important figures in southern literature. They are symbols of black power in the texts. Using the "practice of conjuration or magic, an African survival, serves as Julius (and Aun' Peggy's) tool of resistance..." (Wilcots 9). Conjuration breeds persuasion, and persuasion breeds power. John and Annie might think that Julius is ignorant and dumb for believing in conjure, but he has to use it in order to survive. Aun' Peggy must charge for her services as a conjure woman in order to survive as a free black woman with no respect outside of the slave community. It is Chesnutt's way of subverting the stereotypical role of a "dumb slave" to even out the relationship between both white and black people.

Works Cited

Andrews, William, ed. "Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Lines." New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

"Chesnutt, Charles W." Fifty Southern Writers Before 1900: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Ed. Robert Bain and Joseph M. Flora. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987. 110-111.

Eckard, Paula. "Conjure Woman, The." The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews and Frances Smith Foster. Oxford, NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 167-68

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Johnson, Carol. "Conjuring." The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature.

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MacKeithan, Lucinda. "Plantation Tradition." The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews and Frances Smith Foster. Oxford, NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 167-68

Smith, Jeanne. "Trickster." The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature.

Ed. William L. Andrews and Frances Smith Foster. Oxford NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 167-68

Wilcots, Barbara. "Animal Tales and Conjure Stories." The Companion to Southern Literature. Ed. Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda MacKeithan. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Press UP. 9-10.