Attempts to squash the potential of African Americans were continually underway, a fact which author Charles W. Chesnutt was well aware of and wished to tackle in his work as a writer. Chesnutt’s approach to dealing with the state of race affairs in America was considered decidedly meek. The novel The Marrow of Tradition however, is laced with what he hoped would be considered his most in depth and provocative ideas to date which would cause some opposition. In the 1901 novel, The Marrow of Tradition, Chesnutt presents fear of the potential of African Americans as the driving force of white supremacy, through the reactions of the white supremacist characters to their black