Chesnutt's Stories within Stories

I found it very interesting that each of the first three stories we read by Chesnutt, each had a very obvious story within the story. The set up of these short stories reminded me of a movie that starts in the present day, shifts to a story from the past for most of the run time, then returns to the present day at the very end (like the Princess Bride of Edward Scissorhands). I think writing in this way allowed Chesnutt to juxtapose the current issues he observed in society with those that plagued the South during times of intense slavery. I found the stories within each of the three stories to be the most entertaining and interesting, and I especially enjoyed the central role that conjuring had in the plot of each. While we certainly have read and discussed a lot of literature with racial themes, this material hasn't mentioned conjuring nearly as explicitly. I think it's a very interesting topic, and it added a new element of divide between races in these stories.