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The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Colored Line

Charles W. Chesnutt

Book Overview: 

The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line is a collection of narratives that addresses the impact of Jim Crow laws on African Americans and white Americans of the South. Many of Chesnutt's characters are of mixed-race ancestry which sets them apart for a specific yet degrading kind of treatment from blacks and whites. These stories examine particularly how life in the South was informed through a legacy of slavery and Reconstruction—how members of the “old dominion” desperately struggled to breath life into the corpse of an antebellum caste system that no longer defined the path and direction in which this country was headed.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .o piteously for life a few minutes before.

At length the sheriff spoke:——

"Is this your gratitude to me for saving your life at the risk of my own? If I had not done so, you would now be swinging from the limb of some neighboring tree."

"True," said the prisoner, "you saved my life, but for how long? When you came in, you said Court would sit next week. When the crowd went away they said I had not long to live. It is merely a choice of two ropes."

"While there 's life there 's hope," replied the sheriff. He uttered this commonplace mechanically, while his brain was busy in trying to think out some way of escape. "If you are innocent you can prove it."

The mulatto kept his eye upon the sheriff. "I did n't kill the old man," he replied; "but I shall never be able to clear myself. I was at his house at nine o'clock. I stole from it the coat that was on m. . . Read More

Community Reviews

The wife of his youth holds up loyalty and honor, as do one or two similar to it. Others are devastating, such as the Sheriff's Children. All concern themselves with the absurdity of the color line and unrelenting presence of white supremacy in various degrees.

Charles Chesnutt wrote local colour stories that focus on Black life, whether in the North or the South. This is his second collection of stories, published later in the same year as "The Conjure Woman," a collection with more of a folkloric inflection. The stories in "The Wife of His Youth" are muc

Beautiful stories—in eloquent writing and with entertaining plots—that are relevant, historic, helpful for the understanding of environmental justice in the US, and inspiring for the promotion of equality and human rights.

These stories focus on the issue of "passing"--African Americans who look white and could pass for white. Mostly Chesnutt puts them in ethical situations where they need to decide how important loyalty to their race is. This is a key issue for Chesnutt, who also could have passed for white, but chos

Primarily stories set during the Antebellum & Reconstruction Eras.
This short story anthology primarily deals with colorism, passing and IR marriage.
Interesting and well written.
This is a really good snapshot of colorism and colorist views from this era.
A Matter of Principle should be VERY widely rea

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