Shadows on the Bayou
In New Orleans of the early 1800s, few options were open to free women of color. They could work as domestics or seamstresses with long hours and low pay. But another choice, and one that evolved as an acceptable way of life, was to become the mistress of a wealthy Creole man.  Such women, known asplacees, were given homes and kept in luxury, and, to many, such a lifestyle was infinitely preferable to a life of poverty and labor. InShadows on the Bayou, Patricia Vaughn tells the story of Sylvia Dupont, the beautiful and well-educated daughter of aplaceewhose lover discarded her when he married, a common occurrence. Sylvia has been raised and educated for the purpose of becoming aplaceeherself, and she returns from school in France to the fate that awaits her, a contract set up between her mother and a wealthy Creole planter who will become her lover. En route, however, she meets Justin Reynaud, a free man of color and a wealthy businessman in his own right. Although she has been taught all her life to look down on men of color, Sylvia finds herself drawn to the handsome and proud Justin, who points out that the life to which she is destined is as much a form of slavery as the life of any shackled field hand. Resigned to her fate, Sylvia refuses to accept Justin's words, but can't get them--or the man himself--out of her mind.  When they meet again, both realize their attraction to one another, and eventually Sylvia is forced to choose between the life she has been raised for and the man who loves her.Shadows on the Bayouprovides an interesting perspective on the lives of free people of color in the South, and a unique view of a culture that has rarely been explored in romantic fiction.