The House Behind the Cedars

by Charles W. Chesnutt

Circumstances made weak men; strong men mould circumstances to do their bidding.

In Mis’ Molly’s small circle, straight hair was the only palliative of a dark complexion.

funny

Euphemism for homosexual.

That a woman of Rena’s complexion should eat at a negro’s table, or sleep beneath a negro’s roof, was a seeming breach of caste which only black blood could excuse. The explanation was never questioned.

No white person of sound mind would ever claim to be a negro.

Not so today in 2020.

They were the victims of oppression; they were not responsible for its results.

As slaves, negroes were tolerable. As freemen, they were an excrescence, an alien element incapable of absorption into the body politic of white men.