"The Wife of His Youth" is the title story of Charles W. Chesnutt's short story collection, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line, first published in 1899, the same year Chesnutt published his short story collection, The Conjure Woman. William Dean Howells reviewed The Wife of His Youth in The Atlantic Monthly.
"The Wife of His Youth" follows Mr. Ryder, a biracial man who was born free. Mr. Ryder heads the "Blue Veins Society," a social society for colored people but generally consisted of those who were more white than black. The society's name stemmed from the joke that you'd have to be so white your veins could show through. Mr. Ryder is quite sought after by the town's women, but begins courting a very white mulatto woman named Molly Dixon from Washington. He planned to propose to her at the next Blue Vein ball during his speech, but is met by before by an old, plain looking black woman. Her name is Liza Jane and she is in search of her husband Sam Taylor who she has not seen in twenty-five years. She says she was married to Sam before the Civil War when they were slaves. Mr. Ryder tries to tell her that Sam could be dead, may have out grown her or remarried. She is persistent that her husband has remained faithful and refuses to stop looking despite Mr. Ryder telling her that slave marriages didn't count after the war. She shows him an old picture of Sam and then she goes. At the ball Mr. Ryder addresses the members and tells them that he was put into slavery long ago when his parents died. That he was Sam Taylor, a slave who ran north long ago. He presents Liza to everyone as the wife of his youth and asks if he should remain with her. Everyone urges him to remain with her so he does.