Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
- The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I The Blind Ruck of Event
- Part II Worlds Made and Remade
- 11 The Literature of Reconstruction and the Worlds the Civil War Might Have Made
- 12 Frederick Douglass, Andrew Johnson, and the Work of Reconstruction
- 13 African Americans, Africa, and the Long Watch Night for Freedom
- 14 Literature and the Material Cultures of Confederate Remembrance
- 15 Elmira and the Post-War Geographies of Black Monumentalizing
- 16 Charles Chesnutt and the Reconstruction of Black Education
- 17 Charles Chesnutt, The Colonel’s Dream, and The Futures of Cotton
- 18 Brown v. Board, the Civil War Centennial, and the Literature of Civil Rights
- 19 The Future of Civil War and Reconstruction Literature
- 20 Reenactment as Resistance
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to …
17 - Charles Chesnutt, The Colonel’s Dream, and The Futures of Cotton
from Part II - Worlds Made and Remade
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2022
- The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
- The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I The Blind Ruck of Event
- Part II Worlds Made and Remade
- 11 The Literature of Reconstruction and the Worlds the Civil War Might Have Made
- 12 Frederick Douglass, Andrew Johnson, and the Work of Reconstruction
- 13 African Americans, Africa, and the Long Watch Night for Freedom
- 14 Literature and the Material Cultures of Confederate Remembrance
- 15 Elmira and the Post-War Geographies of Black Monumentalizing
- 16 Charles Chesnutt and the Reconstruction of Black Education
- 17 Charles Chesnutt, The Colonel’s Dream, and The Futures of Cotton
- 18 Brown v. Board, the Civil War Centennial, and the Literature of Civil Rights
- 19 The Future of Civil War and Reconstruction Literature
- 20 Reenactment as Resistance
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to …
Summary
While not as financially or critically successful as his previous novels, Charles Chesnutt’s 1905 novel The Colonel’s Dream is an important, though understudied, contribution to a vein of black anti-capitalist thought emergent in the post-Reconstruction era. The story of a former Confederate soldier’s failed endeavor to buy a dilapidated cotton mill and introduce economically and racially progressive labor practices, the novel explores how the post-slavery afterlife of the cotton commodity continued to contribute to Black subjugation in the south. In the end, The Colonel’s Dream asks us to consider whether the fallout of racial capitalism can be remedied by introducing more “humane” capitalist practices, or whether capitalism will always proceed on the same, ruinous route it has historically followed.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction , pp. 256 - 267Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022