Letter from Wilson to Chesnutt

Dear Mr. Charles Chesnutt,

On the basis of your work, “What is a White Man?” I am writing to request your participation in the Freethinkers' Society. After a recent legal case I was involved in, I have realized the value of your questions on what it means to be white and black. I finally see that the arbitrarily divide black and white society we live in does not fit some of the most complex questions of what it means to belong to one race.

You must have heard news of this case with Tom, Chambers, and the murder of the judge. With my fingerprinting data I was able to determine that "Tom" was the murderer—and after a dream I realized that Tom and Chambers had been switched at birth. “Tom” was born to the one-sixteenth black slave woman, Roxana, and “Chambers” was the son of old Driscoll! To think that the slave boy had been living like a white master all along! To think that his 1/32 black blood had made him a Negro—a man thought acceptable to enslave. Where do we draw the line? And why do we need to draw a line? Are there no alternatives for our society other than this harsh separation?

“Tom” was sent down the river as his punishment, rather than imprisoned or executed once they found out he was “black”. It makes me wonder whether that is any better than facing capital punishment. I wonder, was it how he was raised that made him so bad, or his blood? And why is it that the Italian twins were so fascinating, but Tom and Chambers (nearly identical) were seen as completely separate identities. All these questions that I have—you are the only one I can ask. There is no one here who will listen to me. I am, after all, seen as nothing more than Pudd’nhead Wilson—my thoughts and wanderings cast aside as simple eccentricities.

I truly hope you will join me in my quest for these answers.

Yours truly,

DW

Questions:

1. How is Mark Twain toying with this idea of nature vs. nurture in this piece? Why does he make “Tom” the bad guy? What if “Tom” had been virtuous—how would that have changed the story?
2. What do you make of both “Tom” and “Roxy being sent down the river by the end of the book, and the twins being free of any explicit guilt/crime? What might Twain be trying to show/say?