What is the Blue Vein Society in "The Wife of His Youth"?

Racial bias that stems from skin color is what created the Blue Vein Society. Black people with light enough skin that you can see the color of their veins beneath it are allowed to join; those who have darker skin are rejected. The main character of the story, Mr. Ryder, is a leader in the society. He places a lot of importance on the lightness of his skin and believes that the right thing to do is to produce children with lighter skin over time.

Mr. Ryder has to face his own beliefs and prejudices when the woman he married when he was young appears. She doesn't recognize him, and is only looking for help to find her husband. Though he doesn't reveal his identity at first, he is torn with doubts about what the right thing to do is. The woman he was married to originally is older than him and has very dark skin.

Acknowledging the woman and thereby preventing his marriage to a lighter-skinned woman goes against the beliefs espoused by the Blue Vein Society. He completely believes that the right thing to do in his life is to marry and produce children who are lighter in skin tone than himself. He was married to this woman in another life, and she doesn't represent who he is anymore.

At the end of the story, his bride-to-be says that she would acknowledge the previous wife after Mr. Ryder tells a hypothetical story about the situation. He then introduces his original wife to the Blue Vein Society, even though she's someone who wouldn't meet their standards ordinarily.

The Blue Vein Society was one of several exclusive social clubs formed by upwardly-mobile African Americans whose skin was light enough to allow them to pass as white. The "blue vein" test was one of several that some light-skinned African Americans used to distance themselves from those who were darker. The "paper-bag test" was a test in which one's skin color was compared to a paper bag. Only those who were the same color as the bag or lighter could gain membership to the group they were trying to join.

Though it is possible that members of the society found solace in their mutual sense of not quite belonging to either the black community or the white one, very often these societies were designed to establish light-skinned people as separate from and better than those who were darker. This was a belief carried over from slavery, when, on some plantations, lighter-skinned slaves (often the offspring of masters) were granted favor (e.g., the old clothes of mistresses and masters and easier jobs working as house servants) over those who were darker.

The desire to maintain proximity to whiteness, both as a result of the internalization of racism, which taught black people to believe that whites were better by virtue of skin color, as well as the hope to "pass" as white to gain equal treatment and social privileges greatly influenced the choices of people like Mr. Ryder, who initially disowned his darker-skinned wife in favor of an easier, more privileged life.

The narrator tells us the following:

The original Blue Veins were a little society of colored persons organized in a certain Northern city shortly after the war. Its purpose was to establish and maintain correct social standards among a people whose social condition presented almost unlimited room for improvement. By accident, combined perhaps with some natural affinity, the society consisted of individuals who were, generally speaking, more white than black.

The story is set not very long after the Civil War, approximately twenty-five years, and individuals of mixed race are in a somewhat unique social position. Many of these individuals appear to be more white than black, but they feel themselves to be neither white nor black. The Blue Vein Society was evidently created in order to work out and make public the social norms for this particular group. Many, like the protagonist, Mr. Ryder, feel that the

Fate [of mixed-race individuals] lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black. The one doesn’t want [them] yet, but may take [them] in time. The other would welcome [them], but it would be for [them] a backward step. "With malice towards none, with charity for all," [they feel they] must do the best [they] can for [them]selves and those who are to follow [them].

Thus, the members of the Blue Vein Society do not feel at home in either group, being neither white nor black. With the creation of their society, they can come together as their own group, finding some strength and meaning in their shared struggles and victories, doing the best they can for themselves and their children, as Mr. Ryder says.

In Charles Chesnutt's story "The Wife of His Youth," written in 1898, the issue of race is central to the story. The protagonist, Mr. Ryder, is a light-complexioned African-American man who belongs to a society known informally as the Blue Vein Society. They are called this because people say that only those individuals whose skin is light enough to see their blue veins are allowed into the society. This then suggests that African-Americans who have darker complexions would not be allowed entry. The ideal the society aspired to was a lighter skinned, more educated, cultured African-American individual, therefore they excluded darker skinned people. In writing about such a society, Chesnutt brings attention to the challenges of African-Americans after the Civil War and the end of slavery--how they fit into society, how they were treated, and the perception of light and dark skinned individuals.

Who were the "Blue Veins" in "The Wife of His Youth" and what was their purpose?

In Charles W. Chestnutt's story "The Wife of His Youth," the Blue Veins were people of color who had joined together to form a social club in an unnamed Northern city a few years after the Civil War. The club had an official name, but most people inside and outside its membership called the club "The Blue Vein Society" and people who belonged to the group "Blue Veins." The group was controversial within the black community in this city. The nickname had originally been given as a pejorative; someone who didn't belong to the club made the satirical charge that one had to have skin light enough to be able to see "blue veins" in order to be accepted into the group. While this was not technically true, those who belonged to the group, "by accident, combined perhaps with some natural affinity," tended to have more white ancestry than black. A large majority of the group had been freeborn; only a few former slaves were part of the society. This exclusive nature of the social club caused those who hadn't been accepted for membership to be jealous of the group and speak ill of it--but only until such time as their membership was accepted. Then they insisted the group performed a much needed function for blacks in their city.

That function was to "establish and maintain correct social standards" among blacks, an important function because many blacks, due to poverty, lack of opportunity, and discrimination, had not had the natural opportunities for cultural improvement that their white counterparts had. In general, the group existed to provide entertainment to their members of a more sophisticated variety than might be readily available to them. Thus Mr. Ryder, the "dean" of the group and a very influential member, is in the process of planning a ball at the beginning of the story. Mr. Ryder has a passion for poetry, and such pursuits were in sync with the objectives of the Blue Vein Society. Part of the society's goals, in Mr. Ryder's opinion, however, could seem racist by some people's understandings. He felt it was the duty of those who had mixed blood to continue to preserve their level of whiteness and not allow their progeny to become more black, which "would be for us a backward step," in Mr. Ryder's view. The club, therefore, provided ways for the blacks of mixed blood to associate with their own kind rather than with those with a greater degree of blackness. Of course, these values of Mr. Ryder face a stern test when he is confronted by the wife of his youth.