The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-06-03
Thibodaux SfntineI.
IN LOVE WITH HIS SLAVE.

by NV IN o-N -
Romantic Story of a Famous Old Mansion
In Eastern Connecticut
The true story of the beautiful Stat
ford mansion on Groton Heights, New
London, lately dedicated by the Con
necticut Odd Fellows at Fairview reads
like a dream. How the Stafford house
came t. be built; how it was whispered
that Mr.. Stafford, a southern planter
was as rich as Crnsus and had married
one of his slaves: how the magnificent
villa became peopled with a large family
of beautiful and talented young quad.
rooms: and how a few years later the
dreaded malady of consumption (said te
have resulted from the intermarriage OF
the faxen-haired millionaire planter
with his slave) swept away their six chill.
dren almost in their youth, and the name
of Stafford died out quickly, are matters
eastern Connecticut people never get
tired of talking about.
Col. Robert Stafford was one of the
smartest of southern planters who Wis
tied New York in the '4Os and sos. He
was born south. educated north and at
his majority inherited a small fortune
from his father. With this money he
planted larger cotton fields. bought
more slaves and finally began the pur.
chase of estates on Cumberland island
in the Savannah river and began te
raise the famous Sea Island cotton. the
finest fibered cotton ever put on the mar.
ket. In this way he rapidly acquired a
princely fortune and finally became
the owner of nearly all the Cumberland
island.
He was a man of fine presence, court
1y and unfagging industry.
He became infatuated with one of his
slaves, Mary, a mulatto. whose beauty
was of the Persian type, it is said, SC
light was she, and subsequently took
her to be his c~o1nmon-law wife. They
were never married. This woman was
a person of suberb figure and of very
many talents and graces.
While in New York on a business
trip Col. Stafford made the acquaint.
ance of Mr.. Copp's father, who was a
lawyer, and by this means he came to
Groton Heights, a locality with which
he fell deeply in love, and where he de-
termined to locate a home for his grow
ing family and establish them. The
Stafford villa, with all it's barns,
stables, greenhouses and wharves, was
completed in 1854, and there Col. Stat
ford located his family, consisting OF
two boys and four girls. The children
were all as handsome as the hand
soonest specimens of quadroon beauty
49,, ,,a, -
Money vas placed at their command
they were educated at the most ex
pensive schools, the best and most cult.
ured society was sought for them anC
in every way Robert Stafford, it ap
pears. sought to atone for any misdeed:
of his in the past by sending them ou'
into the world under the most favor
able circumstances. But he was foiled
Death and misfortune seemed to haunt
the possessor of millions, although fol
a few years the halls of his beautiful
northern home rang with mirth anc
music, and were filed with the caves
of young people. At the first his TIVE
young sons, Robert and Armand. fel
victims to consumption. and then slow
ly, one by one, the girls, all women O
surprising loneliness, talented ant
sprightly entertainers, sickened ant
died of the same disease. Now, it il
said, al are dead, and is also said tina
Col Stafford, who died in 1887 on Cum
berland island. aged eighty years, no
only outlived the woman who bore hi
children, but his entire family as well
All of the girls married, but the mar
riages. in more than one instance, were
unhappy, and many of the children re
sulting from these marriages have sine,
been swept away by the same diseas'
which haunted Robert Stafford's chill
dren. Now they lie in burying grounds
in other parts of the world.-Bostol
Herald.