African American Writers

Clotelle; Or, The Colored Heroine, a tale of the Southern States; Or, The President's Daughter

FOR many years the South has been noted for its beautiful Quadroon women. Bottles of ink, and reams of paper, have been used to portray the “finely-cut and well-moulded features,” the “silken curls,” the “dark and brilliant eyes,” the “splendid forms,” the “fascinating smiles,...

Chapters

8. CHAPTER VIII. A NIGHT IN THE PARSON'S KITCHEN

BESIDES Agnes, whom Mr. Wilson had purchased from the slave-trader, Jennings, he kept a number of house-servants. The chief one of these was Sam, who must be regarded as second...

14. CHAPTER XIV. THE PRISON

WHILE poor little Clotelle was being kicked about by Mrs. Miller, on account of her relationship to her son-in-law, Isabella was passing lonely hours in the county jail, the pla...

13. CHAPTER XIII. A HARD-HEARTED WOMAN

WITH no one but her dear little Clotelle, Isabella passed her weary hours without partaking of either food or drink, hoping that Henry would soon return, and that the strange me...

20. CHAPTER XX. THE HERO OF MANY ADVENTURES

JEROME had scarcely passed the prison-gates, ere he reproached himself for having taken such a step. There seemed to him no hope of escape out of the State, and what was a few h...

18. CHAPTER XVIII. A SLAVE-HUNTING PARSON

IT was a delightful evening after a cloudless day, with the setting sun reflecting his golden rays on the surrounding hills which were covered with a beautiful greensward, and t...

23. CHAPTER XXIII. MEETING OF THE COUSINS

THE clock in the hall had scarcely finished striking three when Mr. Taylor entered his own dwelling, a fine residence in Camp Street, New Orleans, followed by the slave-girl who...

34. CHAPTER XXXIV. CLOTELLE MEETS HER FATHER.

THE clouds that had skirted the sky during the day broke at last, and the rain fell in torrents, as Jerome and Clotelle retired for the night, in the little town of Ferney, on t...

11. CHAPTER XI. TO-DAY A MISTRESS, TO-MORROW A SLAVE

THE night was dark, the rain descended in torrents from the black and overhanging clouds, and the thunder, accompanied with vivid flashes of lightning, resounded fearfully, as H...

39. CHAPTER XXXIX. CONCLUSION

THE fiendish and heartless conduct of a large number of the people of the South towards Union men during the war, and especially the unlady-like demeanor of rebel women at New O...

32. CHAPTER XXXII. THE HAPPY MEETING

AFTER passing a sleepless night, and hearing the clock strike six, Jerome took from his table a book, and thus endeavored to pass away the hours before breakfast-time. While thu...

19. CHAPTER XIX. THE TRUE HEROINE

IN vain did Georgiana try to console Clotelle, when the latter heard, through one of the other slaves, that Mr. Wilson had started with the dogs in pursuit of Jerome. The poor g...

12. CHAPTER XII. THE MOTHER-IN-LAW

WHEN Harry returned home, he found his wife seated at the window, awaiting his approach. Secret grief was gnawing at her heart. Her sad, pale cheeks and swollen eyes showed too...

15. CHAPTER XV. THE ARREST

IT was late in the evening when the coach arrived at Richmond, and Isabella once more alighted in her native city. She had intended to seek lodgings somewhere in the outskirts o...

21. CHAPTER XXI. SELF-SACRIFICE

NOW in her seventeenth year, Clotelle's personal appearance presented a great contrast to the time when she lived with old Mrs. Miller. Her tall and well-developed figure; her l...

30. CHAPTER XXX. NEW FRIENDS

BROKEN down in health, after ten years of close confinement in his situation, Jerome resolved to give it up, and thereby release himself from an employment which seemed calculat...

25. CHAPTER XXV. THE FLIGHT

ON once gaining the wharf, Devenant and Clotelle found no difficulty in securing an immediate passage to France. The fine packet-ship Utica lay down the bay, and only awaited th...

37. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE ANGEL OF MERCY

The sad intelligence of Jerome's death was brought to Clotelle while she was giving her personal attention to the sick and wounded that filled the hospitals of New Orleans. For...

22. CHAPTER XXII. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT AND WHAT FOLLOWED

IT was a beautiful Sunday in September, with a cloudless sky, and the rays of the sun parching the already thirsty earth, that Clotelle stood at an upper window in Slater's slav...

1. CHAPTER I. THE SOUTHERN SOCIAL CIRCLE

FOR many years the South has been noted for its beautiful Quadroon women. Bottles of ink, and reams of paper, have been used to portray the “finely-cut and well-moulded features...

3. CHAPTER III. THE SLAVE-SPECULATOR

DICK JENNINGS the slave-speculator, was one of the few Northern men, who go to the South and throw aside their honest mode of obtaining a living and resort to trading in human b...

7. CHAPTER VII. THE SLAVE-HOLDING PARSON

THE Rev. James Wilson was a native of the State of Connecticut, where he was educated for the ministry in the Methodist persuasion. His father was a strict follower of John Wesl...

2. CHAPTER II. THE NEGRO SALE

AS might have been expected, the day of sale brought an unusually large number together to compete for the property to be sold. Farmers, who make a business of raising slaves fo...

4. CHAPTER IV. THE BOAT-RACE

AT eight o'clock, on the evening of the third day of the passage, the lights of another steamer were seen in the distance, and apparently coming up very fast. This was the signa...

10. CHAPTER X. THE QUADROON'S HOME

A FEW miles out of Richmond is a pleasant place, with here and there a beautiful cottage surrounded by trees so as scarcely to be seen. Among these was one far retired from the...

24. CHAPTER XXIV. THE LAW AND ITS VICTIM

THE death of Dr. Morton, on the third day of his illness, came like a shock upon his wife and daughters. The corpse had scarcely been committed to its mother earth before new an...

6. CHAPTER VI. THE SLAVE-MARKET.

NOT far from Canal Street, in the city of New Orleans, stands a large two-story, flat building, surrounded by a stone wall some twelve feet high, the top of which is covered wit...

26. CHAPTER XXVI. THE HERO OF A NIGHT

MOUNTED on a fast horse, with the Quaker's son for a guide, Jerome pressed forward while Uncle Joseph was detaining the slave-catchers at the barn-door, through which the fugiti...

16. CHAPTER XVI. DEATH IS FREEDOM

ON receiving intelligence of the arrest of Isabella, Mr. Gordon authorized the sheriff to sell her to the highest bidder. She was, therefore, sold; the purchaser being the noted...

29. CHAPTER XXIX. A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

THE rain was falling on the dirty pavements of Liverpool as Jerome left the vessel after her arrival. Passing the custom-house, he took a cab, and proceeded to Brown's Hotel, Cl...

36. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE RETURN HOME

THE first gun fired at the American Flag, on the 12th of April, 1861, at Fort Sumter, reverberated all over Europe, and was hailed with joy by the crowned heads of the Old World...

31. CHAPTER XXXI. THE MYSTERIOUS MEETING

It was toward sunset, on a warm day in October, shortly after his arrival in France, that, after strolling some distance from the Hotel de Leon, in the old and picturesque town...

33. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE HAPPY DAY

IT was a bright day in the latter part of October that Jerome and Clotelle set out for the church, where the marriage ceremony was to be performed. The clear, bracing air added...

38. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE GREAT TUNNEL AND THE MISTAKE

FOR several weeks, some ten or fifteen of the most able-bodied of the prisoners had been nightly at work; and the great tunnel, the [largest] ever projected by men for their esc...

17. CHAPTER XVII. CLOTELLE

THE curtain rises seven years after the death of Isabella. During that interval, Henry, finding that nothing could induce his mother-in-law to relinquish her hold on poor little...

35. CHAPTER XXXV. THE FATHER'S RESOLVE

AWARE that her father was still a slave-owner, Clotelle determined to use all her persuasive power to induce him to set them free, and in this effort she found a substantial sup...

9. CHAPTER IX. THE MAN OF HONOR

AUGUSTINE CARDINAY, the purchaser of Marion, was from the Green Mountains of Vermont, and his feelings were opposed to the holding of slaves; but his young wife persuaded him in...

5. CHAPTER V. THE YOUNG MOTHER

ON the fourth morning, the Patriot landed at Grand Gulf, a beautiful town on the left bank of the Mississippi. Among the numerous passengers who came on board at Rodney was anot...

28. CHAPTER XXVIII. FAREWELL TO AMERICA

THREE months had elapsed, from the time the fugitive commenced work for Mr. Streeter, when that gentleman returned from his Southern research, and informed Jerome that Parson Wi...

27. CHAPTER XXVII. TRUE FREEDOM

THE history of the African race is God's illuminated clock, set in the dark steeple of time. The negro has been made the hewer of wood and the drawer of water for nearly all oth...