The Passing of Grandison

However, Colonel Owens, Dick's father, is opposed to his son's being accompanied by Tom as he is convinced that the slave will escape and constitute a property loss.

Dick decides to have Grandison kidnapped to get him out of view in order to appear to have helped the slave gain freedom when he reports back to Charity.

[7] Rather, Grandison passes for a contented and devoted slave, who is therefore selected to accompany his master's son, Dick Owens, on a trip north.

Grandison seems to have "adopted the racist discourse of the slave system",[8] which Colonel Owens, in the story, describes as a "blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand, of wise subordination and loyal dependence on the other".

[14] Third, in response to Dick's decision on a trip across the Niagara River to Canada, Grandison appears to be afraid to lose sight of his master and worries that he "won' hab no marster, an' won't nebber be able to git back home no mo'".

Dick decides to have Grandison kidnapped in order to appear to have helped him achieve freedom, and returns alone to his plantation in Kentucky.

[17] According to Joel Taxel, Grandison's performance in certain aspects conforms to historian Stanley Elkins' definition of the characteristics of the stereotypical plantation slave, the Sambo model, in Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life: ... docile but irresponsible, loyal but lazy, humble but chronically given to lying and stealing; his behavior full of infantile silliness and his talk inflated with childish exaggeration.

[19] In Taxel's opinion, the short story's focus on Grandison's performance of loyalty and childlike behavior reflected two elements characteristic of the Sambo type.

[13] By his performance, Grandison first gains the trust of the Colonel and his son, and, secondly, confirms his master's opinion of his slave's having adopted the qualities most valued: "humility, loyalty, and servility".

[14] Kim Kirkpatrick suggests another reason for Grandison to adopt the Sambo-like character: Colonel Owens promises that he can marry Betty, the enslaved maid, after he returns if he has pleased the son.

[25] Grandison uses the colonel's belief that he has a secure knowledge of the behavior and culture of slaves by reconfirming it through "[t]otal subordination, veiled presence, and masked speech".

Through "the reversal of polarities, particularly of the master-servant relationship, of truth and falseness, of knowledge and ignorance, and of autonomy and control," Grandison achieves freedom.

[26] When the colonel realizes he has been tricked and that Grandison's behavior had been a performance, his view of slavery is shaken and his concepts of racial identity destabilized.

[31] Along with the theme of passing on the narrative level, Chesnutt's short story "enact[s] a profound destabilization of constructs of race, identity, and finally of textuality itself".

[6] Martha J. Cutter argues, in reference to other critics, that "The Passing of Grandison" imitates and ridicules the tradition of the post-Civil War southern plantation school of writing that portrayed slavery as a "'benevolent' patriarchal institution".

[33] In slave narratives, the fugitives follow the North Star in pursuit of freedom and are welcomed by abolitionists when they reach the northern states.

[32] Reversing the narrative, Grandison refuses abolitionists' offers of help, travels southward, and rejoins his slave master.

[32] The colonel rewards Grandison's loyalty by giving him a position with the house servants, and letting him tell his story of return to slavery.

[35] Chesnutt indicates this coordination with abolitionists: "The magnitude of the escaping party begot unusual vigilance on the part of those who sympathized with the fugitives, and, strangely enough, the underground railroad seemed to have had its tracks cleared and signals set for this particular train.

[29] Through an "openness and instability of the system of signs," the short story suggests a destabilization of such categories that are used to define characterization according to race and racialization of an individual.

[29] "The Passing of Grandison" highlights that "binary categories and stereotypical ideologies ... limit our ability to see the complexity of any given racial or textual situation".

[37] Martha J. Cutter suggests that one possible goal of Chesnutt in this story is to raise the reader's awareness "not just of the complexity of race itself, but of the ideologies that create racist ways of thinking".

[40] Cutter draws a connection between the choice of name for the enslaved hero of this story, as Charles Grandison Finney was a well-known Christian evangelist and abolitionist of the Antebellum period.