The Captain watched her with mingled feelings, and would fain have
said, "Good God! and why art thou a slave?"
The history of that unfortunate beauty may be comprehended in a few
words, leaving the reader to draw the details from his imagination.
Her mother was a fine mulatto slave, with about a quarter Indian
blood. She was the mistress of a celebrated gentleman in Charleston,
who ranked among the first families, to whom she bore three
beautiful children, the second of which is the one before us. Her
father, although he could not acknowledge her, prized her highly,
and unquestionably never intended that she should be considered a
slave. Alice, for such was her name, felt the shame of her position.
She knew her father, and was proud to descant upon his honor and
rank, yet must either associate with negroes or nobody, for it would
be the death of caste for a white woman, however mean, to associate
with her. At the age of sixteen she became attached to a young
gentleman of high standing but moderate means, and lived with him as
his mistress. Her father, whose death is well known, died suddenly
away from home. On administering on his estate, it proved that
instead of being wealthy, as was supposed, he was insolvent, and the
creditors insisting upon the children being sold. Alice was
purchased by compromise with the administrator, and retained by her
lord under a mortgage, the interest and premium on which he had
regularly paid for more than four years.
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