This was Antoine Devenant and Clotelle.
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 and unforeseen
difficulties appeared to them. By the laws of the Slave States,
the children follow the condition of their mother. If the mother
is free, the children are free; if a slave, the children are
slaves. Being unacquainted with the Southern code, and no one
presuming that Marion had any negro blood in her veins, Dr. Morton
had not given the subject a single thought. The woman whom he
loved and regarded as his wife was, after all, nothing more than a
slave by the laws of the State. What would have been his feelings
had he known that at his death his wife and children would be
considered as his property? Yet such was the case. Like most men of
means at that time, Dr. Morton was deeply engaged in speculation,
and though generally considered wealthy, was very much involved in
his business affairs.
After the disease with which Dr. Morton had so suddenly died had to
some extent subsided, Mr. James Morton, a brother of the deceased,
went to New Orleans to settle up the estate. On his arrival there,
he was pleased with and felt proud of his nieces, and invited them
to return with him to Vermont, little dreaming that his brother
had married a slave, and that his widow and daughters would be
claimed as such.
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