The American Prejudice Against Color | Page 3

have been made her, it is not for me to say. At the
close of the second term, however, she left the school and the village;
and then, for the first time, the fact became known (previously known
only to her own room-mate) that she was slightly of African blood.
Reader,--the consternation and horror which succeeded this "new
development," are, without exaggeration, perfectly indescribable. The
people drew long breaths, as though they had escaped from the fangs of
a boa constrictor; the old ladies charged their daughters, that should
Miss ---- be seen in that village again, by no means to permit
themselves to be seen in the street with her; and many other charges
were delivered by said mothers, equally absurd, and equally foolish.
And yet this same young lady, according to their own previous showing,
was not only one of the most beautiful in person and manners who had
ever graced their circle, but was also of fine education; and in
complexion as white as the whitest in the village. Truly, this, our
human nature, is extremely strange and vastly inconsistent!
Confessedly, as a class, the quadroon women of New Orleans are the
most beautiful in America. Their personal attractions are not only

irresistible, but they have, in general, the best blood of America in their
veins. They are mostly white in complexion, and are, many of them,
highly educated and accomplished; and yet, by the law of Louisiana, no
man may marry a quadroon woman, unless he can prove that he, too,
has African blood in his veins. A law involving a greater outrage on
propriety, a more blasphemous trifling with the heart's affections, and
evincing a more contemptible tyranny, those who will look at the
matter from the beginning to the end, will agree with me, could not
possibly have been enacted.
Colonel Fuller, of the "New York Mirror," writing from New Orleans,
gives some melancholy descriptions--and some amusing ones too--of
the operations of this most barbarous law.
One I especially remember. A planter, it seems, had fallen deeply in
love with a charming quadroon girl. He desired to marry her; but the
law forbade. What was he to do? To tarnish her honour was out of the
question; he had too much himself to seek to tarnish hers. Here was a
dilemma. But he was not to be foiled. What true heart will be, if there
be any virtue in expedients?
"----In love, His thoughts came down like a rushing stream."
At last he got it. A capital thought, which could have crept out of no
one's brain, save that of a most desperate lover. He hit upon the
expedient of extracting a little African blood from the veins of one of
his slaves, and injecting it into his own. The deed done, the letter of the
law was answered. He made proposals, was accepted, and they were
married,--he being willing to risk his caste in obedience to a love
higher and holier than any conventionalism which men have ever
contrived to establish.
O, Cupid, thou art a singular God! and a most amazing philosopher!
Thou goest shooting about with thy electrically charged arrows,
bringing to one common level human hearts, however diverse in clime,
caste, or color.
Let not the reader suppose, however, that the white people of America

are in the habit of exercising such honor towards the people of color, as
is here ascribed to this planter. Far from it. The laws of the Southern
States, on the one hand, (I allude not now to any particular law of
Louisiana, but to the laws of the Slave States in general), have
deliberately, and in cold blood, withheld their protection from every
woman within their borders, in whose veins may flow but half a drop of
African blood; while the prejudice against color of the Northern States,
on the other hand, is so cruel and contemptuous of the rights and
feelings of colored people, that no white man would lose his caste in
debauching the best educated, most accomplished, virtuous and
wealthy colored woman in the community, but would be mobbed from
Maine to Delaware, should he with that same woman attempt
honorable marriage. Henry Ward Beecher, (brother of Mrs. Stowe) in
reference to prejudice against color, has truly said of the Northern
people--and the truth in this case in startling and melancholy--that,
"with them it is less sinful to break the whole decalogue towards the
colored people, than to keep a single commandment in their favour."
But to return to the narrative. Miss King, previously to the
consummation of our engagement, consulted her father, who at once
gave his consent. Her sister not only consented, but, thanks to her kind
heart, warmly approved the match. Her brothers, of whom there were
many, were bitterly