Talk:Charles W. Chesnutt

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Charles Chesnutt was born on June 20, 1858. He died in November 1932. When he was only 13 years old his mom died and had to work to raise money for his family. Both of his parents were mullatoes, which meant that they were of mixed racial ancestry.

[edit] Inaccuracies/No sources

There are no sources in the "Life" section, and there are claims made there that I've never heard before, specifically these: "His parents offered to sell him into slavery, but their potential buyer could not come up with more than $23 to pay for him." "It was suspected, however, that he had an affair with Ralph Waldo Emerson, which caused an almost irreversible rift in his marriage, until Susan decided to take him back." Note that Emerson would've been at least 75 years old at this time, and I've never heard such claims about Emerson's sexuality.

These statements about Chesnutt should be removed unless there's a source for them. BillAlbertini (talk) 03:37, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I concur, and have removed it. I suspect it is a cleverer-than-usual prank, particularly since Emerson is the least likely of all contemporary literary figures to have been party to a scandal of any type. Lindmere (talk) 20:07, 6 March 2008 (UTC)