Charles Chesnutt (1858-1932) has permanently written Fayetteville into literary history.
He is considered the first Black novelist to gain nationwide acclaim. His best-known writings were post-Civil War and Reconstruction stories of the color line, some of them set in the fictional town of “Patesville” — a thinly disguised Fayetteville.
Chesnutt was born in Cleveland to free Black parents from Fayetteville. When he was 9, the family moved back to Fayetteville after the Civil War.
Later, as a married man in his twenties, he returned to Cleveland, finding better opportunities up north to support his family. There, he would pass the bar and start a successful legal court reporting business.