in an 1890 letter to his mentor, the southern novelist george washington cable, chesnutt explained his intent to subvert the popular image of the negro in literary magazines, saying that "all of the many negroes . . . whose virtues have been given to the world in the magazine press recently, have been blacks, full-blooded, and their chief virtues have been their dog-like fidelity to their old master, for whom they have been willing to sacrifice almost life itself. such characters exist. . . . but i can't write about those people, or rather i won't write about them."