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Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s short story, “The Wife of His Youth,” is available online at the National Humanities Center’s America in Class: The Making of African American Identity, Volume II: 1865-1917: Identity project. It was originally published in The Atlantic in July 1898 (Chesnutt was the first African American to publish in the highly-respected monthly). Narrated in three parts by a limited, omniscient narrator, the story recounts the reunion of a couple separated by slavery.
Part 1 introduces the Blue Vein Society, a group of light-skinned, upwardly-mobile African Americans who exclude darker-skinned, working-class African Americans from their society. The social center of the club is Mr. Ryder, a man whose somewhat darker skin is excused because of his straighter hair texture and his refinement. Mr. Ryder is the most conservative member of the club, dedicated to maintaining social separation between mixed-race and single-race African Americans. In his own right, he is a well-respected railroad stationary clerk and property owner.
After many years as the most eligible bachelor in the African American society of the Northern town of Groveland, Mr. Ryder develops an affection for Mrs. Molly Dixon, a widow and visitor to town who so reciprocates his feelings that she extends her stay.
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By Charles W. Chesnutt