The Goophered Grapevine
The collection starts off with what is probably the second most cohesive display of the Chesnutt’s brilliantly subtle method of telling a story-within-a-story-within-a-story-within-a-story to force readers to understand theme, character, literary method, irony and historical revision, bested only by his masterpiece (and one of the finest short stories in the history of American literature), “Dave’s Neckliss.” “The Goophered Grapevine” sets the template for the stories to follow as it is introduced by a white narrator who has bought the plantation where old Uncle Julius used to be a slave. The narrator, John, introduces Julius as a storyteller and proceeds to relate the story the old man tells complete in slave dialect. The story turns on the introduction of a supernatural element at the resolution of which the narrative turns back to standard English with John again the de facto narrator relating how he and his wife Annie each respond (in increasingly different ways) to the strange story. Many of the stories, like “The Goophered Grapevine” also conclude with some kind of surprise revelation about the likely intent of Julius telling the story. For instance, he tells the story this story with the intention of staying on the plantation as a hired hand tending to the grapevine he’s been working on all during the period of Reconstruction. The story itself tells of the master getting a conjure woman to poison the vines to keep the slaves from eating them and how a newly arrived slave unwittingly ate the grapes. The result was
"Po’ Sandy"
Again, the story starts out in the contemporary setting with John’s wife wanting a kitchen and John deciding he will use old lumber from a schoolhouse on the property. Julius warns against using that lumber by telling a story about a slave who so wanted to ensure he was never separated from his wife that was conjured into a tree. In the end, his plans went terribly awry as the tree was cut down to make lumber to build a kitchen. The kitchen became so subject to tales of being haunted that eventually it was turned into a schoolroom. Thus, if John uses the lumber from the schoolroom, he is sure to have a haunted kitchen. The story ends with Julius asking for permission to use the schoolroom as a meeting place for the temperance group from his church, explaining that ghosts don’t haunt church meetings.
“Mars Jeems Nightmare”
John opens his narrative by reluctantly but firmly telling Uncle Julius that he can no longer allow the old man’s grandson to continue working on the plantation because he is unreliable. Julius is inspired to tell the tale of a particularly harsh and vicious news master—Mars Jeems. (Mars is the dialect pronunciation of “master” by Julius). His nightmare is being conjured into a slave himself, thus learning an important lesson in the value of treating others more humanely so that when the nightmare ends he makes good on his vow to become a more benevolent master. And just in case his listeners might have missed the point of this one, Julius foregoes his usual attempt to remain subtle and let the lesson sink in by outlining the moral clearly for John and Annie: Those that treat people bad are subjects to horrible nightmares while those that treat people well will prosper. John responds with a superior attitude and condescension, but Annie takes the moral to heart, informing her husband that she knew he wouldn’t mind when she told the grandson he could have one more chance on the farm.
“The Conjurer’s Revenge”
John writes that he was considering investing in a mule when Julius related the strange story of the conjuring of a slave into a mule after he was mistakenly thought to be stealing a pig. Later on, the conjurer attends a religious revival meeting at which grows sick and decides to confess and repent his sin. Overcome with remorse, he vows to reverse the spell and turn the mule back into man, but before he can finish the job he dies from accidentally consuming poison. The slave is thus left incomplete, suffering from a clubfoot for the rest of his life which he did have before the conjuring. After hearing the story, Julius almost offhandedly informs John about the availability of a good horse that he should consider instead of the mule. John buys the horse which almost instantly proves frail and quickly dies. John is left pondering whether to trust Julius completely ever again, feeling as though he has somehow been duped.
“Sis Becky’s Pickaninny”
The story starts off with John concerned about Annie’s health. It seems she is subject to bouts of depression and has recently fallen into dark moods given to bouts of extreme dread about the arrival of misfortune. Julius arrives carrying a lucky rabbit’s foot and after John shows off his deep-seated feeling of racial superiority by lecturing the old man on how his race will never amount to anything if they keep holding fast to such superstitions, he launches into a particularly heartbreaking tale about a slave named Becky who loses her husband and is traded for a racehorse and so separated from her son. The conjure women transforms the son into a hummingbird and mockingbird so that he can fly to see his mother from a different plantation. John’s reaction to this story to focus on what is there—children being turned into birds—and dismiss it as fairy tale. Annie’s reaction is starkly different: by focusing on what is not in the story, she is able to counter John’s argument that story proves possession a rabbit’s foot does not bring luck. "I rather suspect that Sis' Becky had no rabbit's foot."
“The Gray Wolf’s Hant”
John is considering clearing out a portion of the plantation for planting, but Julius keep knocking down his ideas: it’s fitting for neither grapes nor cotton and raccoons would eat up all the corn before it could be picked. When John says he thinks it’s worth a try anyway Julius warns him against it one final time with a story explaining why people have always considered it haunted. Uncle Jube seeks revenge for those responsible for his son’s death by conjuring a husband into a wolf and his wife into a black cat. It is a particularly dark tale, essentially a horror story about a cruelly vicious killer and the intent is to so terrify the listener that they cannot but nurse a lingering doubt about treading upon the haunted land if they do not really have to. Later on, John discovers that this story was probably quite effective at keeping others from discovering the secret treasure trove honey found in one of the trees there.
“Hot Foot Hannibal”
John introduces this story with some new developments: he has become the ward of his wife’s younger sister while she is visiting the couple and she has fallen in love with a local boy. The story opens with John being rustled from a nap by harsh voices raised in bitter argument. According to Annie, it was more than a disagreement; it’s all over. Ten days after the fight, all three decide to take a buggy ride to their neighbor’s farm and Julius—who has just shown up—suggests that they take the longer route rather than the shorter since it is a nice ride and doesn’t take much longer. Annie insists they take the shorter route so she can pick flowers. After stopping to pick flowers, the horse travels only a short distance before balking at going further. Julius has a sudden revelation for this strange behavior: he has seen the ghost of Chloe. Chloe was a young slave girl who died of a broken heart after believing a lie told about her suitor. The suitor is sold off by the master and Chloe is useless because she keeps pining for the man she loves. The master agrees to try to get him back once the deception is revealed, but her hopes are soon dashed with the news that he fell off a riverboat and drowned. And so Chloe dies and haunts the spot near where the horse balks. Since the horse won’t move, they have to backtrack and take the long way like Julius suggested in the first place. And who should be walking that way toward them, but the local boy Annie’s sister has fallen in love in with. The argument is over, the rift is healed and they get married, leaving John to wonder just why Julius wanted so badly to take the long route that day and why the horse had never again balked when taking the short route.
