Charles W. Chesnutt

The story occurs in the southern American states of North and South Carolina a few years following the American Civil War. Rena Walden, a young woman of mixed white and black ancestry, leaves home to join her brother, who has migrated to a new city, where he lives as a white man. Following her brother's lead, Rena begins living as a white woman. The secret of her identity leads to conflict when she falls in love with a white aristocrat who learns the truth of her heredity.

A collection of short stories told by a former slave named Julius to a White couple who have recently moved to the South.

Based on the acclaimed story by Charles Chesnutt published in 1889, "The Sheriff's Children" dramatizes the conflict between duty and family, as a sheriff guarding a prisoner from a lynch mob faces a crisis of conscience.