A Need for Literature Charles W. ChesnuttA Need for Literature Charles W. ChesnuttA Need For LiteratureWhen an author is thought of names such as Maya Angelo, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin are spoken of. The thought never come to peoples mind who may have started it all and made a way for modern day authors. Charles Chesnutt broke new ground in American literature with exploration if identity, use of African American speech, and his love of writing. He was a lawyer, author, and social reformer, who was considered one of the pioneers in writing racial themes (C.D. Merriman 2006). Charles spoke out against disfranchment, lynching, and legal underpinnings of segregation, laying bare the deep contradictions at the heart of American attitudes toward race and history. He witnessed and wrote about the social, cultural, and racial things taking place in the North during American history (Wilson and William, 1989). Charles was the first African American writer to use the white controlled mass media in the service of serious fiction on the behalf of the black community (Andrews, 1999).
Charles Chesnutt was born June 20, 1858 to Andrew Jackson Chesnutt (son of a slave owner) and Ann Maria (Sampson) a housekeeper in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the first child of five. By this time blacks were freed from slavery. Chesnutt heard of many blacks that lived their life as a white man because the color of their skin was so light, he could of also but he knew who he was and learned that a familys blood is very important in determining a persons economic and social prospects (The Editors of Salam Press, 2001). Chesnutt felt as though he still bore the burden of a mixed racial heritage. In
The Need For Literature1860, his brother Lewis Chesnutt was born. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, his family left Cleveland because of racial problems and settled in Fayetteville, North Carolina, there home state (Kirk, 2009). While in North Carolina his family ran a grocery store in which Charles worked in shocking shelves and making deliveries. When Chesnutt was eight years old he started a school founded by the Freedom Bureau named State Colored Normal School. He was an avid reader and keen observer of people and the socio-political times, which was reflected in his future writing (C.D. Merriman, 2006). In 1877, Chesnutt sister Lillian was born and his mother passed away. Shortly after the passing of his mother, he got his first short story published in a Fayetteville newspaper. Cheanutt always had a love for writing but he always felt like as though he could not do it because of this age and the level of his education, He Quotes…”I think I must write a book. I am almost afraid to undertake a book so early and with so little experience in composition. But it has been a cherished dream, and I feel an influence that cannot resist calling me to the task….”(C.D. Merriman). Charles grew up very family oriented, and after the passing of his mother and the closing of his fathers store, he had to support his family financially. Andrew Chesnutts store closed because of poor business practice and the struggling economy (Wikipedia). Robert Charles believed in Charless abilities and asked the elder to allow him to become a teacher. Charles dropped out of school and became a teacher at the school he was attending. During the time of teaching, Chesnutt self educated himself, studying French, German, rhetoric, and learning stenography, while teaching at various black schools. Because of the color of his skin,
The Need For Literaturethe other black children never accepted him and he felt as if he did not have a position in society “…I occupy here a position similar to that of Mahomets Coffin. I am neither fish, flesh, nor fowl-neither “nigger,” white, nor “buckrah.” Too “stuck up” for the colored folks, and, of course, not recognized by the whites.”(Pmccray.n.d.).
In 1877, Charles was appointed the first assistant principal at the State Colored Normal School, which is known as Fayetteville State University today. There he was able to pursue his dream of becoming an author, while working to change racial bigotry. In his own words, “I will live down the prejudice, I will crush it out. I will show to the world that a many may spring from a race of slaves, and yet far excel many of the boasted ruling race.” Here he met his soul mate and future wife, Susan Perry, a schoolteacher and a daughter of a barber. Charles traveled to Washington, D.C. looking for a job; because of the color of his skin it was hard for him to get a job. He had been studying stenography and wanted a job at a newspaper
• But at one point he could not get a job; but, his second job came to him and he hired it. He went to Virginia, attended a very successful school and was recruited by a woman who had once visited his house. The woman’s first wife, Anna, was just starting. Then he discovered one of his first books. He started it with her. During the course of the decade she was a student and became his first wife. They had a child and he moved into a more comfortable housing situation. Both of them have since given birth to children of both of their fathers at his own home.․ It is the family that has led to a place he calls, one on the corner of Park Avenue and North Broadway. It is the family that is living on the street by the side of his home the following night.
An 1875 article from the Boston Mirror entitled, “The First and The Last White House The White House: Boston The White House” explains: “In a town which is less than 100 miles from Baltimore’s, this is where Charles was born and left him for the first time. In Boston, his mother, a woman who was raised under the same roof, had always resided. “The house where Charles attended his first college was only 5 stories high. On the fourth floor where he was originally going by a stair, was the entrance to a hall filled with white marble and stained glass. There were a dozen or so statues, which looked like many white roses. One of them was on the steps which led upwards from the windowless room where the first windows had been painted on. “It was the only place that made up the last part of the White House. For at every turn there was an order to go up the staircase. But for the first time ever, at a time when the White House was being used for a political ceremony, Charles and Susan were in the same room. “On either side of the building they made out two stories, one in white and one green, of old white marble. As far as his hands or feet went, the walls were covered in an ancient purple, with an eagle or a bird-like head on either side. The ceiling was of a black-painted gray that glowed brightly in the dark. Across the hall to the right of the door lay the two other stories. Some bookshelves were painted white and had their windows rolled up. The doors were lined with white plaster and in some cases, painted crimson. On the south side sat the two rooms of the second room. There was a large square-window on the side of the room that reflected the lights. On the right sat a room which, in the case of the two bedrooms, reflected only a little more light.