Set in the 1850's in Kentucky, "The Passing of Grandison" is a short story that follows Dick Owens, as he attempts to convince a woman to marry him by attempting to trick one of his father's slaves into running away. The story was first published in 1899 in Chesnutt's collection, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line.
The story's plot is informed by the Second Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which built on a legacy of legislation protecting and abetting the institution of slavery, despite the changes in the American economy and the burgeoning abolitionist sentiment. The first Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1793 and built off the Fugitive Slave Clause in the...
