Mammy Jane represents the Uncle Toms who care more about the masters wellbeing than the master himself. When an individual has lived for an extended period of time in an institution, they begin to believe that this institution is the only way to exist. Mammy Jane explains her opinion of the rebellious of her people, 
This shows how she has been so institutionalized that she believes that the subservient role her people play in this society is the ideal way to live and that feeling safe and being well fed is enough reward for serving. 
	Josh Green represents the Black militant who seeks revenge on his former masters and their henchmen. Josh Green believes that the riots are a good time to make a stand. he comments
Here Green is representing the role of John Brown, Nat Turner, and other Blacks who refused to abide the horrendous treatment that they received and instead chose to attack a superior force for the chance to live in honor. Green is killed in the riot, like many of his predecessors, but he dies with a dignity that he could not find in life.
	The Reconstruction period brought with it many things, but quite possible the greatest thing that it brought was hope, hope that the period of chattel slavery in the US was over, hope that the nation born after the horrors of a Civil War would be able to build a better future for all of its citizens, hope that the blood that had been spilt carried within its cells the spirit of true freedom. However, “After the removal of the armed forces under the terms of the compromise of 1877, which had protected newly freed slaves since Emancipation, the white south was anxious to reverse any and all progress made by blacks”. This compromise sealed the fate of the former slaves and removed coercive power and replaced it with goodwill, and this goodwill was nothing more than a mirage. Those who though that they were now free had to face a new challenge based on an ancient evil, and it fell to men like Charles W. Chesnutt to attempt to turn back the tide using nothing more than his pen.
