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The House Behind the Cedars

by Charles Waddell CHESNUTT (1858 - 1932)

The Lost Knife

In this, Chesnutt's first novel, he tells the tragic story of love set against a backdrop of racism, miscegenation and “passing” during the period spanning the antebellum and reconstruction eras in American history. And through his use of the vernacular prevalent in the South of that time, Chesnutt lent a compassionate voice to a group that America did not want to hear. More broadly, however, Chesnutt illustrated, in this character play, the vast and perhaps insurmountable debt this country continues to pay for the sins of slavery. (Summary by James K. White)

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Listen next episodes of The House Behind the Cedars:
A Mule And A Cart , An Unusual Honor , In Deep Waters , Plato Earns Half A Dollar , The Power of Love