In the beginning chapters of Chestnutt’s Tales of Conjure and the Color Line, the character Julius represents the intelligence of enslaved people and the possibility of autonomy on a plantation. In contrast to novels such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin where even the most intelligent and caring enslaved people are spoken about as pets to their masters, Chestnutt creates a dynamic where Julius consistently outwits his white enslavers. Although, there are flaws with the representation of race in this novel, this relationship between a white enslaver and a black enslaved person emphasizes the enslaved person’s identity as an individual person instead of just as a “slave”.
Uncle Julius’s first story is about the Vineyard that the masters of the novel are soon to buy. Julius reveals that “but dat Yankee done dug too close under de roots, en prune de branches too close ter de vime, en all dat lime en ashes done burn’ de life out’n de vines, en dey des kep’ a-with’in’ en a-swivelin'” (Chestnutt, 10). Julius tries to convince the couple that the vineyard was ruined by this past Yankee and that the spirit of the enslaved man, Henry, haunts the vineyard and makes crops unprofitable. Throughout the tale Julius tells the story with such passion and detail, that it becomes quite easy to believe his often ridiculous tails. We soon find out that “Uncle Julius had occupied a cabin on the place for many years, and derived a respectable revenue from the product of the neglected grapevines” (Chestnutt, 11). By telling a story about the grapes, Julius outwitted the potential buyers of the grapevines, and consequently, was able to live similarly to a free man for many years. Julius’s storytelling skills represents one of the only powers that enslaved people are allowed to have: verbal communication. Although most enslaved people are silenced, Julius found a way around this problem and began to use his gift for storytelling to benefit his own life. This is seen again when Julius tells the story about Sandy and the schoolhouse in order to have a place for the Sandy Run Colored Baptist Church to meet and the story about Dave and his ham in order to walk home with plenty of ham in his pocket.
I really like your point that this short story emphasizes the power of oral histories and spoken stories. I think the use of dialect really enhances that idea because it makes it so the reader is imagining the words being spoken aloud. This is a completely off topic thought, but I think its sort of interesting that the tale has to do with grapes and he’s recounting something he’s allegedly heard. It makes me think os the saying “to hear something through the grapevine”
This is a great point. I found it really interesting how Chestnutt is telling a sort of meta-story, a story about the telling of another story. Julius’ storytelling capabilities definitely shines in this medium, and the use of dialect creates such a distinct voice, you often feel like you’re in the story listening to Julius speak. These stories are almost more about the power of Julius’ language than the actual plot of his tales.
I think your point, “the character Julius represents the intelligence of enslaved people and the possibility of autonomy on a plantation” is really interesting. I think the way I would describe it would be more along the lines of discussing the ways that enslaved people were denied education as a way for white people to continue to hold power over them. Although, I agree that we Chesnutt had created a dynamic where Julius could outwit his white enslavers, but again, I think this supports the point that enslaved people were denied so much education because white enslavers wanted to make sure that they couldn’t be outwitted and to make sure they could continue to hold as much power as they possibly could. I think that Uncle Julius is such an interesting character to analyze because he goes so far beyond being a character on a page of a book and spends so much time being a representation of different realities of being enslaved.