"the conjure woman" differs from other post-civil war literature in the plantation tradition in condemning the plantation regime and eschewing popular racial stereotypes like the magnanimous white slaveholder and the infantile black in need of a caring master. critics noted that chesnutt deploys a clichéd or codified structure, with a friendly former slave recounting a story to white northerners, and creates a familiar impression of antebellum nostalgia. the tales told by julius are more tragic than wistful and underscore a deceptive naivety and mysticism with a subtle, sly challenge to white authority. julius contradicts the dominant racial discourse of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries, depicting black resistance and survival as well as demonstrating the psychological effects of oppression and slavery. despite their enslavement, uncle julius and other slaves leveraged power in exchange for information, favors, or conjuring, and demonstrate their intelligence through plots of self-gain and sometimes revenge.