CLOTELLE; OR, THE COLORED HEROINE. A TALE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.
By William Wells Brown





CLOTELLE





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," the "silken curls," the "dark
and brilliant eyes," the "splendid forms," the "fascinating smiles,"
and "accomplished manners" of these impassioned and voluptuous daughters
of the two races,--the unlawful product of the crime of human bondage.
When we take into consideration the fact that no safeguard was ever
thrown around virtue, and no inducement held out to slave-women to be
pure and chaste, we will not be surprised when told that immorality
pervades the domestic circle in the cities and towns of the South
to an extent unknown in the Northern States. Many a planter's wife
has dragged out a miserable existence, with an aching heart, at seeing