The Colonel's Dream

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858—1932) was an African American writer, essayist, Civil Rights activist, legal—stenography businessman, and lawyer whose novels and short stories explore race, racism, and the problematic contours of African Americans’ social and cultural identities in post—Civil War South. He was the first African American to be published by a major American publishing house and served as a beacon—point for future African American writers.

The Colonel’s Dream, written in 1905, ...