Charles W. Chesnutt was an early pioneer is writing about African American folklore and racial identity. He wrote about lynchings, segregation and the hypocrisy of American values in post Civil War South. The Wife of his Youth is a collection of nine stories in which Chesnutt tells the African-American's search for identity in the tumultuous period from Reconstruction to the turn of the century. His themes are the tensions of inter and intra racial living. Stories include The wife of his youth, Her Virginia mammy, The sheriff's children, A matter of principle, Ccely's dream, The passing of grandison, Uncle Wellington's wives, The bouquet, and The web of circumstance.