The Passing of Grandison

Chesnutt’s short story The Passing of Grandison explains the story of a slave owner’s son and one of his best slaves. Dick Owens, son of Colonel Owens was trying to win Charity Lomax’s heart in the story. Everyone believed that Dick was handsome, intelligent, a gentlemen but none the less extremely lazy. So Charity declared that the only way that Dick would win over her heart was by actually doing something, and doing something that was meaningful. That same day Dick had attended the trial of a young white man from Ohio who had attempted to set a slave free that was not his property free and got convicted and ended up dying. Dick decided that the best way to win Charity’s heart was by doing the same with one of his father’s slaves. He then journeyed through New York, Boston, and finally Canada, but Grandison had no intention of escaping. When they arrive to Canada, Dick could not take it anymore and basically left Grandison behind. He lied to his father about the occurrences of the trip and married Charity. A couple of weeks later Grandison showed up at the house with an absurd story about what had occurred to him on the trip. The conclusion of the story was Grandison and a few of the other slaves escaping from the Colonel almost undetected. I believe that this story is trying to explain that the people that you care about are worth everything. Grandison risked everything he had just so that he could be with those people that mattered most to him, and in my opinion I believe that every person should be like him because there is nothing more important than being with the ones you love.