The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1838-07-31
MISCELLANEOUS
SOCIETY IN NEW ORLEANS.

lows: The offspring of white man and a pure
negress is what we call a muLatt0, or mulattress,
according to the sex. The offspring of the mu-
latto and pure white is meStizoe, pronounced
mustlfe. and in this class have seen blue eyes
and light hair, albeit the complexion might have
been somewhat Objectionable. The offspring
of the mestzoe and pure white, is termed
uuadroon, ql,dtre-lG1e, being four parts white,
with one part (the blood of the original African
progenitor,) black. by these four removes the
African blood is become nearly extinct, and the
quadroon shares the characteristic traits common
to the European race The fifth and sixth re-
moves are also called quadroons; indeed the term
is applied so long as there remains the least trace
of the slavish blood. BY the sixth generation,
however, it entirely disappears. know some
beautiful quadroons in the fifth descent, who,
save certain indescribahe expression in the CEN
tire of the pupils Of their fine eyes, have the APP
pearance Of lovely Italian women.
This singular expression interrupted the
baron, sstruck me in the eyes of this superb crea-
ture. What it was l could not tell, but it had a
strange effect upon me-
ut is the mark of the quadroon even to the
sixth generation, when all other signs of her At
rican descent are lost. have tre1 to analyze
it, but like the peculiar and undesirable express
sion that stamps the Jewish physiognomy, it de-
fies all explanation or analysis. We often speak
of the fine eye of a spirited woman, as having
little devil in it. In the eye of the quadroon
there turks the devil, but it is wicked one.
do not mean in the playful sense of the term, but
i'm it's worst. Yet they show none OF it in their
dispositions They warm hearted and full
of passion and fire, but it is difficult to rouse them
10 anger. They are, on the contrary, universally
affectionate, good natured and remarkable for
their chldhke simplicity of manners, in which
much of their fascination lies. These quadroons
of both sexes present. perhaps, the finest sPecl-
mems of the human race. The young men are
p1 - fnponlpS-hut have
seen one of them and judge for yourself
Notwithstanding all this, such is the prejudice
where Africans are held as slaves, against ad-
uniting any of the blood Of this degraded race to
an equality with ourselves, that however accom-
pished they may be, they are not only intertict-
ed from society, but the law against the inter
nJ rage OF the white with the blacks, extends
equally to these. Many of them are the daugh-
tiers of gentlemen of fortune, who lavish money
on them in the lep of luxury, and sometimes send
them to Paris to be educated. Abroad, some Of
them have married rank & wealth. Last summer
met driving on the Prater of Vienna, the Count
ess -, whom l knew as a quadroon in this
city, till her thirteenth year, when her father sent
her to Paris, where she completed her education,
and as his legitimate daughter married the Count
-, her present husband. She is called the
most handsome woman in Austria.
Prohibited from society here, and detarred
marriage, (for reared and educated as they are,
of course they will not marry the young qua
droons, who are lower in the social circle than
even themselves, whose own eqnivocal elevation
IS owing to causes easily divined), their matern-
al education consists in adjoining their persons;
and, by their still lovely mothers they are taught
to regard beauty of person and the arts of blan-
dishment, as the highest qualifications of their
sex, and look forward the station of mistress
with the same hopes, fears and sensations that a
viruously educated maiden contemplates that of
wife. In fact to their perverted minds, illicit love
is Invested of guilt and is connected neither with
shame nor moral degradation
But the fathers? Have they no voice in this
matter"
In this climate sixteen seventeen years,
when their daughters ara in market, q speak
plainly,) make great changes in regard TO most
of these. Death, travel, matrimony, gives the
quadroon mother, while yet young, to choose an
other protector and dictate her daughter az she
pleases. When at the age have mentioned, the
mother, who has kept her till now in great Sc
clusion, begins to cast about for protector for
her. She allows her, with this object in view, to
attend balls and masguerades, frequent public
walks, and 60 to mass, but always attended by
confidential slave or herself in person;-whe
her eye is ever watchful, and the reigns Of ma
ternal vigilance drawn with careful hand, lest
the daughter, from feeling, should form an I'M
profitable liason. 1t will not be long before she
attracts several admirers, and proposals are made
In due form to the quadroon mother-tor the
system, as you Will discover, is as regularly Or
ganiZed and understood here as that for the buy
ing and selling Circassian girls In the choice
of suitors, three things especially considered,
VIZ: the wealth. the responsibility of the individ-
ual, and inclinations of the ghter II there
are prepossessions her side, that are not in
compatible with the other two considerations,
her wishes decide the choice; for it is the man
aging mothers desire, not only to get her daugh-
ter well established, but happily also.
When the sutton is fixed upon, the others are
notified that Mademoiselle is not at liberty to
Aorm engagements. Then come the preliminary
settlements, previously agreed on between buyer
md seller. Some of these scenes were it not for
he moral degradation with which they are as
ISOLATED, doubt not, would be extremely anus
ing. The two are cIosetted together with pen,
Ink i,i! and paper. The mother who has the con-
"'aons drawn up on piece of paper she