Women in "The Goophered Grapevine" and "Po' Sandy"

In "The Goophered Grapevine" and "Po' Sandy," the women are capable of conjuring and lead the plot along. In "The Goophered Grapevine," the woman who spells the grapes is responsible for the entire story because she is the one responsible for Henry's seasonal transformations that drive his and his master's plot. Though her magical contributions to the story are so important, she is not. Rather than flesh her out with details, Chesnutt keeps her character one dimensional as the "cunjuh 'oman." Similarly, Tenie in "Po' Sandy" is mostly valued for her magical contribution to the story. Chesnutt gives her more details than the first woman, but Tenie too is defined by her magical ability. By primarily writing the two black women to conjurers, Chesnutt doesn't really address the horrors women faced during slavery: separation from their children and families, rape, forced breeding, etc. Tenie is described as loving Sandy very much while his first wife is barely given a sentence. Women don't even talk to each other during these two stories; they only talk to men and try to make their lives easier, firmly aligning their characters with caring or mothering qualities. Miss Annie is also written as caring, it's one reason she always falls for Uncle Julius's stories. She not only listens to his stories, but tries to make his woes disappear (giving him the schoolhouse and ham).