In one of Chesnutt’s conjure tales, titled “Po’ Sandy,” a conjuring woman named Tenie turns a fellow slave, Sandy, into a pine tree to protect him from the hardships of slavery. Each night she turns him back to human so they can keep company. Until one day Sandy, living as a tree, is chopped down for lumber. His body can never be reassembled. Bereft, Tenie sees Sandy mangled, neatly planked, and turned into a small building: a monument to suffering. Uncle Julius tells this story to his Northern neighbors in order to prevent them from tearing down that very structure, which is now on their
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