Po' Sandy

“Po’ Sandy,” a short story by Black American writer Charles W. Chesnutt, was first published in The Atlantic in 1888. The version most commonly read today is from a collection of stories Chesnutt published in 1898 titled The Conjure Woman. These stories share settings and narrative voices. Each story in the collection is contained in a frame narrative in the voice of John, a Northerner. While it is never directly stated, John is white. He is the new owner of the property where a man called Uncle Julius was born into slavery and, at the time of the story, now lives as a freed Black man. The story focuses on the interactions between John, his wife Annie, and Julius. This summary refers to the 1990 reprint of the 1969 edition of The Conjure Woman from the University of Michigan Press.

Warning: This language used in this story was common at the time but is considered inappropriate today. The Julius uses the n-word, and John uses the word “colored” to refer to Black people. Julius also speaks in a heavily affected Black Southern

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