Marie, or, Slavery in the United States
Subtitle: a novel of Jacksonian America
By: Gustave de Beaumont ; translated from the French by Barbara Chapman ; with a new introduction by Gerard Fergerson.
Edition: Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed.
Series: Race in the Americas
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
Subjects: Slavery -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Slaves -- United States -- Social conditions.; Women slaves -- United States -- Social conditions.; Slavery -- Fiction.; Slaves -- Fiction.; Race relations -- Fiction.; Women slaves -- Fiction.; United States -- Race relations.
Other titles: Marie; Slavery in the United States
Description: Gustave de Beaumont's 1835 work, Marie: or, Slavery in the United States, is structured as a fascinating essay on race interwoven with a novel. It is the story of socially forbidden love between an idealistic young Frenchman and an apparently white American woman with African ancestry. The couple's idealism fades as they repeatedly face racial prejudice and violence and are eventually forced to seek shelter among exiled Cherokee people.

Notable as the first abolitionist novel to focus on racial prejudice rather than bondage as a social evil, Beaumont's work was also the first to link prejudice against American Indians to prejudice against blacks. This translation, with a new introduction by Gerard Fergerson, provides modern readers with interesting insights into the inconsistencies and injustices of democratic Jacksonian society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Originally published: Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 1958.