Kinsey Research Paper

Peter Rickens

Prof. Humpe

Humanities - Colonel's Dream

10/18/2006

Colonel's Dream - Question 4 P. 312

The Colonel's Dream, written by Charles Chesnutt, is a wonderfully written, thrilling book. It is suspenseful, while at the same time speaking of nothing but the truth of how one town back in the days of slavery is overrun by the greed of one powerful white man. The book is also about the journey of the Colonel, or Mr. French, who from day one is after the fantasy of extreme wealth. He achieves his wealth by selling his business to a firm in the North - at the time of this book, the United States was separated by the "North" and the "South," the North being non-slavery, and the South being pro-slavery - and moving back to his home town in the South. The journey and story of his return to his home town is riddled with hatred, discomfort, but also some good in it. When he first returns, he finds that the town is a completely different place than what he can remember, and the town has been struck with greed of a white man named Fetters, who has created his own businesses and wealth. His money had bought him his power in the town, now owning multiple slaves and discomforting many of the aristocrats of the town. However, they really have nowhere to turn, but Mr. French decided to try and fix many of the problems that were running down the town.

Mr. French's continuous journey to try and better the town and slow down slavery is a painful, twisting story. He tries to fix and build libraries, for both the whites and the blacks, which brought about huge amounts of criticism from all of the others in the town, especially Fetters, who tries to stop French at any cost. By building these libraries, French tried to improve the overall lifestyle of both the whites and blacks, but especially the black slaves in the town. The criticism was brought about by most, if not all, of the aristocrats in the town, but especially Fetters. Fetters is like the evil sibling, who always seems to be there to tell you to stop doing whatever it is you may be doing, whether it's a good thing, the right thing, or a bad thing to do. Mr. French was trying to do the best and right thing that he thought, and knew, the town needed. This meaning that by building the libraries, fixing up the schools, and trying to better the town of slavery, French was trying to revamp the town, to make it the more desirable place to live. Fetters, however, was always in the way of anything that French did. He would interfere with French's work, and publicly speak out against him, bringing the town against French, which hurt, or even halted, any and all of his work.

After seeing what the Colonel was doing, Fetters decided to create his own businesses, and hire more than just his usual blacks. Fetters was going to hire white women, and even children. This brought attention to the situation that Fetters was creating in the town to most of the others that lived and worked there, and especially the aristocrats. They were slowly but finally realizing what Fetters was really trying to do to the town, but by the time that this realization came, it was too late to do anything. Fetters was now employing white women and children, and treating them "worse than slaves." This was a huge problem for French's old town, creating tension and problems among French and Fetters. At this time, more and more people were joining French in his endeavors to better the town, to create jobs that paid people more of what the job was worth, more of what the people were worth, and to get rid of the racial profiling in the town as well. The slavery was a main focus of French to fix. To "fix" the slavery in the town to him was to rid the slavery, and give jobs to both the blacks and the whites. The phrase used by the town concluding how Fetters was treating the white women and children