The post-Civil-War era of Reconstruction was one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the United States, and the colossal failure of Reconstruction allowed the former Confederate States to reverse many of the gains that African Americans had made up until that point. The era of Jim Crow had just begun to dawn, and with it the return of slavery in another name and in another form. Charles W. Chesnutt, the first black novelist in America choose to use his pen to fight the injustices. According to critic John Cyril Barton Chesnutt attacked and anticipated the legal system that allowed crimes like lynching to go on unpunished. Consequently, “The Marrow of Tradition” is an allegory and the characters represent the different races, classes and organizations vying for survival in the Post-Civil-War Reconstruction period.
Major Carteret represents the landed gentility desperate to regain their former statuses as gentleman slave owners. Major Carteret took great offense at being ruled by elected officials who were black. It is a sign of racism to object to being ruled by an elected official because he is of another race. He attempts to explain away this character flaw, by deflecting, he comments
This shows the hypocrisy of the class that he represents. They believe that racism is not groundless hostility. It is just the natural way of things. The fact that the town is mostly black and it is ruled by the local Democratic party causes Major Carteret to feel that his race is being oppressed, and he will try desperately to return to a system in which white aristocrats rule. 
	Major Carteret used his paper as an organ to agitate for the return of white supremacy. Since the media is such a powerful vehicle for getting, molding and decimating views, Carteret’s position of editor made him the natural choice of leaders for this revolution. “Carteret conducted the press campaign, and held out to the Republicans of the North the glittering hope that, with the elimination of the negro vote, and a proper deference to Southern feeling, a strong white Republican party might be built up in the New South.” Knowing that his cause was best served if it could gain support from all possible angles, Carteret was willing to address the Republican party and convince them that their cause was a common cause, and that if they were willing to look the other way, their party would prosper in the south. It was not only the Republican Party that he was willing to work with, he was forced to find common cause with other sections of white society that he found distasteful; especially lower class whites.
	His relationship with Captain McBane was one of necessity, and he lamented having to deal with poor upstart whites,			
Major Carteret realized that upstarts like McBane were a symptom of a much larger problem, and if he could get the Blacks back in line, it would have a similar effect on the low-born whites. This illustrates that Carteret’s main concern were for his social status and those like him being assaulted on all fronts. 
