The Split: How Slavery Forced Black Americans Into Living a Double Life

             Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is associated with the end of a bloody Civil War and subsequently the institution of slavery---11 seceding states were introduced back into the union with the idea that equality would reign supreme between them. However, this supposed "blank slate" for former-slaves did nothing to prevent the continual exploitation and struggle of black Americans. Notably, no restitution was provided to the people who had, for centuries, been prevented from freely utilizing all the advantages of the white American man (i.e. voting, owning property, rights to autonomy, etc.). Thus, black Americans were forced to squeeze into any crevice of western society that accepted them (a niche, perhaps). The Blue Vein Society in Charles Waddell Chesnut's "The Wife of His Youth" probably best exemplify this phenomenon.

          For argument's sake, I'll assume that there were two niches that former-slaves most often had to choose between: assimilation into white culture, or into black communities that would more readily accept them. The contrast is evident here, as choosing to assimilate into white America was often a fruitless endeavor; white supremacists were going to treat black people horrifically regardless of their actions. The Blue Vein Society was thus a strange mix between these two niches (it was a community that readily accepted certain black people, but that also promoted racist white beliefs), and so the organization seems very counter-intuitive to the current-day reader. The Blue Veins' ideals conflicted with the prosperity and well-being of its own members, as it promoted a physical characteristic and lineage which none of them could achieve. Although not explicitly stated, this issue is Mr. Ryder's (the protagonist's) primary concern by the story's climax. He must come to grips with the fact that he was idolizing an unachievable version of himself.

        Slavery is undoubtedly the heaviest chain restraining Mr. Ryder from achieving "whiteness". In a sense, he deals with a form of cognitive dissonance. His definition of "proper" involves marrying pale-skinned women like Molly Dixon with formal vernaculars, yet Eliza Jane is the opposite embodiment of this. It's obvious that the protagonist knows this fact, because he feels the need to gain approval from his lighter-skinned peers that he is making the right decision by rekindling a relationship with "the wife of his youth." Because of the strong relations he formed as a young adult (and perhaps a sense of morality), Mr. Ryder realizes the impossibility in not "acknowledging" his first wife. It's unclear whether the protagonist is happy about re-meeting his former spouse, but he knows that reforming their connection is inevitable.

        Evidently, Eliza Jane is Chesnut's attempt at a metaphor for slavery's repercussions---an institution so strong that even when shattered it left bits and pieces scattered in the lives of black Americans after the Civil War. "The Wife of His Youth" doesn't imply that it was impossible for freed slaves to form a revised identity in response to the changing world, but rather that it is illogical to assume that slavery's repercussions will forever remain hidden. Eventually, as Eliza Jane (a metaphor for slavery's repercussions) kept searching, she found her way into Mr. Ryder's life. Thus, African-Americans' course of recovery from slavery is not a linear process. Chesnut sees it more as a search for integration into a racist society, with constant interruptions from what remains of the institution of slavery.