“The Wife of His Youth” unfolds after the Civil War and the 1865 ratification of the thirteenth amendment, which abolished slavery. The author uses the story to point out how the effects of this monumental change were felt unequally by all those involved and reveal the unfortunate reality that the deep-seated racism and prejudice that informed the institution of slavery did not dissolve alongside its abolition. 

Some, like Mr. Ryder and those of the Blue Vein Society, found themselves in affluent positions of wealth and power. Though still at the margins of white society, they enjoyed new privileges and freedoms they might not have otherwise achieved. Others, like Liza Jane, struggled to survive. With their lives uprooted and their loved ones scattered, post-war life was a chaotic time of redefinition and recovery for many. As such, new ways of evaluating the world and one’s place within it emerged. Some, like the Blue Veins Society, evaluated status as an expression of proximity to whiteness: the lighter one was and the more high-society one acted, the better. This sense of skin-color-based status left many by the wayside and created new divisions in an already deeply discriminated against population. 

Indeed, in Mr. Ryder’s first interactions with Liza Jane, her appearance and speech seem almost laughable to him, and he does little more than humor her. She seems to him more a caricature than a person. Over time, however, he sees that his prejudiced way of evaluating the world is false and acknowledges her tireless virtue and devotion. For these two and those in their orbit, the changes wrought by the Civil War feel pressing and poignant, leaving characters and readers alike to consider the complex and deeply entangled effects of abolition and its less-than-perfect social restructuring. 

Through Mr. Ryder, Chesnutt imposes a strict and dichotomous alignment upon the world. According to his protagonist, there is an association between lightness, meaning whiteness, and social value. Markers such as education, refinement, class, and culture he sees as directly correlated to white society: he believes that the lighter one is and acts, the closer one is to acceptance by white Americans. The Blue Veins Society furthers this association, claiming to permit members based on their status, intellect, and merits, even though they prefer to invite light-skinned African Americans only. 

Chesnutt intentionally creates this hierarchized sense of skin color as a marker of value to address an insidious problem of the post-Civil War era: the colorism and internalized racism promoted and felt by Black Americans. Though legally free, Black Americans living throughout the US still felt the gaze of slavery; white Americans viewed freed slaves and their descendants in negative ways that ranged from apathy to poorly-disguised vitriol. The strong association of white as good and Black as bad created an environment in which Black Americans unintentionally reprised the discrimination they faced upon those in their community. Many, as Mr. Ryder and the Blue Veins Society indicate, used their lighter skin as a tool to avoid this discrimination, arguing that they were better, more educated, and more refined than those with darker skin. 

This hierarchization of Black Americans based on skin color alone was, as Chesnutt indicates, absurd and misguided. However, it was an unfortunate reality with ramifications still felt today. As Liza Jane proves, skin color and access to education are not markers of virtue or moral superiority; indeed, the opposite often proves true.