Charles Waddell Chesnutt was born to free blacks Andrew Jackson Chesnutt and Anne Maria Sampson, in Cleveland, Ohio, on 20 June 1858. Chesnutt's parents had recently emigrated from Fayetteville, N.C.
After the Civil War, when he was eight years old, Chesnutt's parents returned to Fayetteville, where Charles worked part-time in the family grocery store and attended a school founded by the Freedmen's Bureau.
In 1872 financial necessity forced him to begin a teaching career in Charlotte, N.C. But he soon returned to Fayetteville in 1877 to become an instructor in the new State Colored Normal School. He was appointed principal the following year and married Susan Perry. During this time, he continued to pursue private studies of the English classics, foreign languages, music, and stenography. Despite his successes, he experienced constant discrimination. His continued longing to develop the literary skills would, by 1880, led him toward an author's life.
After a brief stay......
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