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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
Graphic racial violence; the massacre of Black citizens and destruction of Black political power depicted
Language
Barely any
Period-appropriate language; racial slurs common to the era
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Racial terror, the fragility of Reconstruction-era rights, and the psychology of white supremacy; the novel confronts historical atrocity directly
What this book is about
Set during and immediately before the Wilmington, North Carolina race massacre of 1898 — when white supremacists overthrew the city's elected Black government — Chesnutt's novel follows two half-sisters: one white, one Black. Their entangled lives and the political forces arrayed against Black citizenship come to a head in the massacre itself. A searing early American novel that confronted racial violence with uncompromising historical honesty.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Graphic racial massacre
Racial slurs throughout as historical language
Murder of Black characters
Reader Verification
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