Understanding Reconstruction Through the Eyes of Charles Chesnutt's "The Wife of His Youth"
Charles Chesnutt The notable Reconstruction era, occurring after the American Civil War, is depicted in many ways. Some see it as the bridge between the antebellum, oppressive United States, to a more prosperous, equal time, and others may see it as an overglorified time period that did nothing but lay the groundwork for the decades of Black struggle to come. The commonality between many of the ways Reconstruction was and is understood is the strong feeling of then vs. now. We had slavery then; now we don’t. African-Americans couldn’t be citizens then; now they could. African-American men couldn’t vote then; now they can. This sentiment of separation between the two eras suggests that the issues that arose from slavery can be dropped, that something new can immediately spring from the rubble. This belief is an overreaching one because (for one) Jim Crow still rampaged in the South for decades after the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, and in the North, there were still al...