[Minor heiresses of color appear with other Britons in these selections from late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century long prose fictions. The mere suspicion of being ‘a girl of colour’ could jeopardize a female student’s standing at school, as Musgrave’s Alicia Sleigh finds out; that is, unless a school was built around a girl of color, as it is with Austen’s Miss Lambe and Marshall’s Alicia Seldon. For marriageable women of color, Negroes, like Bissett’s Mrs. Dulman, are disparaged for over-stepping societal boundaries, as when Mrs. Dulman marries a white man and aspires to ascend into a ‘white,’ cultured society; Britons are more enamored of emotionally unsophisticated ingenues such as Mrs. Mathews’ mulatto, Miranda Vanderparcke, whose desire to marry emerges from pure love rather than racial, social, cultural, or material aspiration. With the exception of Alicia Sleigh, (who is, technically, not colored), the theme of‘improvement’ affects each of these women of color, making them a stark contrast to the figure of perfection that Olivia makes in The Woman of Colour.]
1. From Agnes Musgrave, Solemn Injunction, vol. I (London: Minerva Press, 1798), Chap. XI, 182-87
As our heroine is again at school, again subjected to the insults of a few illiberal minded girls, I think it is needful to explain to my readers from whence arose the cruel and unmerited treatment she received.
When Mrs. Dalrymple consigned her lovely charge to the care of Mrs. Selden, she had informed her, Miss Sleigh was an orphan, both her parents having died in Jamaica. This soon was known in the school, where there were a number ofWest Indian girls, on which account it was a rule, strictly adhered to, that no child of colour, (that is no child of mixed blood whose ancestors within the fourth degree of descent were negroes) were admitted there, however exalted her fortune, or future rank in life might be; conscious a girl so situated would, from the creole young ladies, meet with many slights, and that it would prove a certain source of trouble, as in the West Indies the distinction is kept up by the women with so scrupulous an exactness, as never to mix, on equal terms, with people so descended.
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The abilities of Alicia excited envy in the hearts of some of the young ladies at Mrs. Selden’s, whose junior she was, yet excelled them in every thing she was taught; and sorry am I to add, the amiable dispositions of our youthful heroine served but to add fuel to the fire her talents had kindled.
At the head of the party was Miss Aislabie, a creole of Jamaica, whose father possessed large estates in that island. This girl, finding it out of her power to render Alicia disliked, or to make her the object of ridicule to her companions, after making various efforts, at length insinuated she was a girl of colour. As none of the young ladies belonging to Jamaica could remember any person of consequence whose name was Sleigh, therefore, “it might be, as Miss Aislabie said, she might be a girl of colour; and what a strange thing it was of Mrs. Selden to take such a girl into the school; they all agreed their papas and mammas would be highly offended.”
Yet, notwithstanding Miss Aislabie’s arts, our heroine had a powerful party who espoused her cause, consisting chiefly of the younger and middle classes of girls, whose hearts felt the full force of her numberless amiable and engaging qualities; by these was she considered as deeply injured, and the spirit of party ran as high in the youthful society of Edgecumbe house, as it can do in a more august assembly; or, as it can do in electing the members of that honorable house.
Sometimes, in the bitterness of her soul, Alicia meditated applying to Mr. Meynell for a removal from her present situation.—But no; she thought, by quitting Mrs. Selden’s, where, from its owner, she had received repeated proofs of regard, she would but give cause of triumph to the malicious Miss Aislabie, and her party.—Shrink not, had Mr. Kirby said, from danger or difficulty; it is but by such trials I shall obtain that fortitude I have been told is so needful I should acquire; it is but by exercising them the faculties of the mind attain strength.
Such were the reasons Alicia confessed to herself, as actuating her conduct; but a latent, though perhaps not altogether improper pride, urged her stay, checked all complains, and taught her to overlook, with an air of conscious superiority, the indignities her adversaries meanly stooped to practice: destituted all studied revenge, tho’ unyielding, she steered a course, which in a more extended circle might serve as a model for prudent conduct. Vainly the little party who looked up to her, as the model of all perfection, entreated leave to speak of the persecu
2 1 6 appendix c
tion raised against their favorite, and oft had she to restrain their ardour in her cause.
Returned to school, noticed by Lady Bertram, protected by Mr. Meynell, laden with presents of various elegant trifles, Alicia no longer appeared the same being. Miss Aislabie’s party decreased, every day was some one of Alicia’s persecutors begging to be received into her favour, so that at the commencement of the midsummer holidays scarce a girl in the school, except Miss Aislabie and her sister, but what believed and declared Miss Sleigh had an equal right with themselves to the very brilliant complexion she possessed.
2. From Jane Austen, Fragment of a Novel January
March 1817. Now first published from the Manuscript , ed. R.W. Chapman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925) Chap. 11, 151-55
Mrs. G. was a very well-behaved, genteel kind of Woman, who supported herself by receiving such great girls & young Ladies, as wanted either Masters for finishing their Education, or a home for beginning their Displays.—She had several more under her care than the three who were now come to Sanditon, but the others all happened to be absent.—Of these three, & indeed of all, Miss Lambe was beyond comparison the most important & precious, as she had paid in proportion to her fortune.—She was about 17, half Mulatto, chilly and tender, had a maid of her own, was to have the best room in the Lodgings, & was always of the first consequence in every plan of Mrs. G.—The other Girls, two Miss Beauforts were just such young Ladies as may be met with, in at least one family out of three, throughout the Kingdom; they had tolerable complexions, shewey figures, an upright decided carriage & an assured Look;—they were very accomplished & very Ignorant, their time being divided between such pursuits as might attract admiration, & those Labours & Expedients of dexterous Ingenuity, by which they could dress in a stile much beyond what they ought to have afforded; they were some of the first in every change of fashion—& the object of all, was to captivate some Man of much better fortune than their own.—Mrs. G. had preferred a small, retired place like Sanditon, on Miss Lambe’s account—and the Miss Bs—, though naturally preferring any thing to Smallness & Retirement, yet having in the course of the Spring been involved in the inevitable expence of
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six new Dresses each for a three days visit, were constrained to be satisfied with Sanditon also, till their circumstances were retrieved ...The particular introduction of Mrs G. to Miss Diana Parker, secured them immediately an acquaintance with the Trafalgar house family, & with the Denhams;—and the Miss Beauforts were soon satisfied with “the Circle in which they moved in Sanditon” to use a proper phrase, for every body must now “move in a Circle,”—to the prevalence of which rototory Motion, is perhaps to be attributed the Giddiness & false steps of many. Lady Denham had other motives for calling on Mrs G. besides attention to the Parkers.—In Miss Lambe, here was the very young Lady, sickly and rich, whom she had been asking for;
& she made the acquaintance for Sir Edward’s sake, & the sake of her Milch asses. How it might answer with regard to the Baronet, remained to be proved, but as to the Animals, she soon found that all her calculations of Profit wd be vain. Mrs. G. would not allow Miss L. to have the smallest symptom of a Decline, or any complain which Asses milk cd possibly relieve. “Miss L. was under the constant care of a physician;—and his prescriptions must be their rule”—and except in favour of some Tonic Pills, which a Cousin of her own had a Property in, Mrs. G did never deviate from the strict Medecinal page.
3. From Edmund Marshall, Edmund and Eleonora: or Memoirs of the Houses of Summerfield and Gretton. A Novel, in Two Volumes, vol. I (London: John Stockdale, 1797) 93-103, 108-10, 144-48
CHAPTER XV
The summer of the year 17—had been passed by the worthy baronet and his family in the most delightful, and in the most benevolent and useful manner imaginable; Sir Gregory employed very many labourers and workmen in his improvements at the Dale; his own and the benignity of Lady Gretton went hand in hand with that of their excellent neighbours, the doctor and Mrs. Summerfield, and as the baronet had taken out his dedimus, 1 he acted in the commission of the peace, and gave the same unusual satisfaction in his magisterial capacity, that he so firmly exhibited in his private character, closely imitating the example of his *
worthy predecessor, and the practice of his surviving brother, the respectable rector of the two parishes of Summerfield and Hawthorn-Dale.
The summer had now, for some time, given place to autumn; the year was in its decline, and the days were shortening a pace: it was towards the latter end of the month of October, when the doctor, whose custom it was alternately to officiate at his church of Hawthorn-Dale, when it was Mr. Adamson’s turn of duty at Summerfield, was returning home in the evening after the service of the day; he had been detained rather longer than usual by a vestry and some justice business which had been the consequence of it; the moon was already risen; his postchaise was slowly passing through a watery lane; when his nephew, the young Edmund, who accompanied him, suddenly exclaimed— “Look, look, uncle! what is that white figure reclining against that old willow tree upon the right hand of the road? It is something alive, and it has surely much the appearance of a young woman dressed all in white.” The doctor called to the postillion to stop, and he desired William his groom, who was on horseback, to ride up to the tree, and inform himself what the object was which had so forcibly attracted the notice of his nephew. William presently returned, leading in his hand a tall, slender young girl, who appeared almost fainting through fatigue and the want of necessary refreshment. The doctor and Edmund instantly alighted from their carriage; they could then perceive by the light of the moon, which shone out remarkably clear and brilliant, that the young creature whom William was supporting, was a tall, elegant Mulatto girl, dressed in a white muslin jacket and petticoat; she was so nearly exhausted, that had it not been for the recovering assistance of a cordial, which, for benevolent purposes, the doctor generally carried in one of the pockets of the chaise, she would, probably, have sunk lifeless by its side.—She was recovered by its application, and the doctor and his nephew, with great gentleness, placed her with them in the carriage.
She was now able to relate her story:—She told them she was a native of the island of Jamaica—that her name was Alicia Seldon—that her father was a wealthy planter in the parish of Westmoreland, and that some months since she had been •entrusted to the care of the captain of a West Indiaman, who, together with his wife, were returning to England—that her father had, as she was informed, placed a considerable sum of money in the hands of the captain for her use, and to pay the expences of her passage and her education at an English board
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ing school—that she had been attended by a maid-servant, in whom her father placed great confidence—that on their passage the captain’s wife had died of a violent fever, after which, she said, his behaviour to her grew extremely offensive—that he had made no scruple to make love to her, and she could perceive he had found means to bribe her servant to assist him in his vile designs upon her honour. She added, that when they arrived at Portsmouth, the captain obliged her to go ashore with him, under the pretence of making a visit to a lady of his acquaintance: in this house she was no sooner arrived, than he renewed his attempts—the doors were locked upon her—her maidservant had been left on board, and she had now every thing to apprehend from the wretched woman whom the captain had called his friend: she had thought her fate to be inevitable, when, owing to the kind assistance of the young woman of the house, who pitied her situation, she had been enabled to make her escape through a window, and had wandered, how far she could not tell, till she had been thus fortunately met with, and relieved by the doctor and his nephew.
Alicia had told her tale with so artless a simplicity, as to entitle it to full credence; there was a bare possibility that she might be an impostor, but it was scarcely probable that so young a creature could possess so wicked a spirit of invention. The doctor desired her to be comforted, and to be assured he would give her protection; “you have escaped,” said he, “my poor child, from very bad hands, and you shall find a refuge in very good ones; my wife shall be your protectress, I will myself write to your father, and I will instantly see the vile captain properly taken care of.”
The carriage now stopped at the parsonage; the doctor handed out of it, his young female traveler, and to the no small surprize of Mrs. Summerfield and the baronet’s family, who had just taken their tea at the doctor’s, introduced to them the young beautiful Mulatto girl. Her story was again recited; it was believed, and the baronet readily consented to join his signature to that of the doctor’s, in a warrant to be backed by the Lord Mayor of London, for the apprehension of the West India captain, upon the double charge of an assault and a robbery.
The warrant was duly executed upon this base betrayed of a friendly confidence, on his arrival at the port of London; Alicia ' recovered all her clothes, and the greatest part of her property, and the vile wretch, the captain, gave bail to answer the heavy charges against him, in a court of justice.
220 appendix c
CHAPTER XVI
The houses of Summerfield and Gretton were now amply convinced by the apprehension of the villainous captain, his surrender of Alicia s elfects, and the elopement of the infamous accomplice of his crimes, that the story told by the young beautiful Mulatto girl, was, in all its circumstances, strictly true. It only now remained, to make Mr. Seldon, her father, acquainted with the providential escape of his child, and to put in execution his design in sending her to England for the completion of her education.—The doctor and his lady had great and reasonable objections to the placing of a young lady of Alicia’s age at any of the fashionable boarding-schools; it was, therefore, proposed to her, to reside at the parsonage, under Mrs. Summerfield’s protection, and to receive lessons in dancing, drawing, and music, from Mr. Adderley, and that Mr. Walter Rosemary should instruct her in geography and arithmetic.
Mr. Adamson undertook to give her lectures in Lowth’s English Grammar 1 and Mrs. Tomlyn offered herself to be her instructor in the French Language, if the doctor thought the acquisition of another language necessary to this their amiable protegee.
It was with the utmost gratitude that Miss Seldon consented to this arrangement; she kissed the hands of Mrs. Summerfield again and again for her extreme goodness to her, declaring, with an effusion of joyful tears, which evinced the gentleness and sensibility of her heart, that, to have left her present situation, would have so utterly depressed her spirits, as to have rendered her unfit for any tuition; but that she now felt herself so relieved by the good Mrs. Summerfield’s resolution in her favour, that she would apply herself with such diligence, in acquiring whatever it might be thought proper to teach her, as to convince her protectors that she was not entirely unworthy of their favour.
The amiableness of this young creature’s manners and disposition, had so engaged the affections of the ladies of both families, that it was difficult to say, whether Alicia was a greater favourite with Mrs. Summerfield, Lady Gretton, the venerable Mrs. Williamson, or the worthy governess of Eleonora, Mrs.
Tomlyn; as to the little Eleonora, she was so devotedly fond of her dear Brunette, as she called her, that, by her own choice, she never would have been a moment absent from her;—but Alicia not only stood high in the good graces of the heads of the two houses, but she had so recommended herself to every domestic, both at the castle and the parsonage, by her affability, condescension, and generosity, that it was with the most cheerful alacrity she was waited upon by the men and women-servants, both at the castle and the parsonage; indeed, she gave the least trouble possible, and had modestly declined accepting any particular servant on her own account, which the doctor, who now had a considerable sum appropriated to her use, in his hands, had offered her, Saying, whenever it was proposed, “that, the doctor’s and Lady Gretton’s maid-servants were all so good to her, that she had no sort of occasion for any such distinction.”
Mr. Adderley now visited the parsonage three days in the week, instead of two, which had been his customary allotment; the philosopher of Hawthorn-Dale did the same, and such was Alicia’s diligence and application to. the several branches of her education, that the former gentleman declared, she had the greatest genius for music, drawing, and dancing, that he had ever met with; and Mr. Walter Rosemary would profess, rubbing his hands together, as was his custom when he was pleased, that the young Jamaica lady would, he believed, soon become a very complete geographer and arithmetician, and that with the doctor’s and Mrs. Summerfield’s consent, he had no doubt of making her an adept in astronomy and electricity; the doctor and Mr. Adamson were no less satisfied with their pupil in the progress she made in a grammatical knowledge of her own language —Alicia and our young Edmund wrote their exercises together, and she was soon capable of composing with great correctness and propriety of expression....
CHAPTER XVIII
“And pray Sir,”—said Humphrey Claggett, who was attending Dr. Summerfield upon certain parish business, the next day after the ball at the parsonage—“Pray Sir,” said honest Humphrey, “if I may be so bold, is it usual for these Tawney-moor youngladies to dance so well, as I saw the young Jamaica lady dance last night? I declare she danced as well, if not better, than the best Christian dancer of them all; I could not have believed, unless my own eyes had beheld it, that any young creature, who had never been baptized, could foot it so nimbly and so genteely; for I am
222 appendix c
told, in Miss Seldon’s country, they never christen yourTawneymoors and your Black-amoors, but I dare say, if I may be so bold, you intend to have Miss christened before she is much older.”
Friend Humphrey,” replied the worthy doctor, “you are totally mistaken concerning Alicia; she was baptized long since in her own country; her father pays a clergyman very handsomely, who resides upon his estate, not only for christening and reading prayers in his own, that is Mr. Seldon’s immediate family, but every negro upon his plantation, both the men and the women, have received baptism from the chaplain, Mr. Devayne, and every child is christened as soon as it is born; and, to the very great honour of this humane planter, he has liberally given freedom to every slave upon the plantation. These poor blacks are become as free, Humphrey, as you, or I; and to remove your surprize at Miss Seldon’s dancing, you are to understand, that she had learned to dance before she left Jamaica, though her master was by no means equal in skill to Mr. Adderley, under whose superior instruction she has been very greatly improved.”
It was no easy matter to stop the tongue of honest Humphrey, when it was once set a going; he proceeded, as the doctor had not ordered him silence—“And God bless him, (Mr. Seldon) say I, for his goodness to these poor creatures, who, for ought I know, may have as good souls as ourselves, though the cases which contain them are of a different colour....
CHAPTER XXIII.
Though the hunting season was now pretty far advanced, yet did the baronet’s beagles continue to meet twice a week at the Summerfield Arms. They had recently had an extra, or volunteer dinner, at honest Humphrey Claggett’s; at which it was agreed, in honour of Lady Gretton, who had more than once graced the field with her presence, to adopt an uniform of her ladyship’s selection—it was a garter blue frock with a buff velvet cape, a kerseymere waistcoat striped buff and blue, a jockey cap, and the gold buttons of the coat, in compliment to the lady of the castle, had the letters L.G.H. inferred upon them, intimating that the hunt wished to have the title of Lady Gretton’s Hunt.
Alicia, from almost the first month of her residence at the parsonage, had been indulged in riding a very gentle bay galloway which had long been in the habit of carrying the doctor in his rides about his two parishes; he had now resigned it to Alicia, who was the frequent companion of Edmund when he rode out with Mr. Adamson. Mr. Adderley had been sometimes of the
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party, and, as he was almost as good a horseman as he was a fencer and musician, he had so well instructed the beautiful young Mulatto in the art of riding, that she by this time rode very gracefully; and under the peculiar escort of the young Edmund and Mr. Adderley, Lady Gretton had permitted Alicia to accompany them to the field; and with the consent of Mrs. Summerfield she assumed the uniform, and was allowed, to her very great joy, to consider herself as a member of Lady Gretton’s Hunt.
Nothing could exceed the joy of our good baronet at his Eleonora’s growing attachment to the country; it gave him the most sincere pleasure that as he took delight in a little gentle hare-hunting; his French-horns always attended her ladyship, and in compliment to the baronet and his lady, no less than for their own gratification, there was generally a very respectable field.
The month of March was already commenced; it was the last day of hunting for the present season; they had had a remarkable good day’s sport, and Sir Gregory had invited the company, which had that day included besides the family at the parsonage and the constant members of the hunt, several of the neighbouring gentlemen to dine with him at the castle when the sport of the day should be over.
The horns and clarionets had, as usual, given their firm flourish; they had sounded the preparation for dinner, when a servant announced that a post-chaise and four had driven into the courtyard of the castle, and that it contained a black gentleman in a very singular dress—In an instant it occurred to Sir Gregory that the stranger could be no other than the uncle of Alicia, and he immediately was at the door of the chaise to receive him.
The fact was, that he had arrived at Summerfield some hours before the letter he had written to acquaint Dr. Summerfield with his arrival in England, and the postillions had, by mistake, conducted him to the castle instead of the parsonage.
The Maraboo of Senegal (for such he was) was attended by one black servant who rode with him in the carriage, and one other on horseback: he was himself a remarkable fine figure—in height upwards of six feet, of a very placid countenance, and formed very differently from the Africans that we have dually seen, for he was most exactly proportioned: his dress was a turban, a quilted robe of spotted gold muslin, and a caftan, or vest, of purple satin richly embroidered with silver flowers—his whole appearance and demeanour was calculated to inspire respect.
224 appendix c
Sir Gregory Gretton received the African Prince with great cordiality; he conducted him to his library, and having given orders for suspending the dinner for half an hour, Dr. Summerfield, his Lady, and his niece Alicia, were introduced to the Maraboo by Lady Gretton herself; he embraced his niece, and he made acknowledgments in good English, and in very handsome terms to the families of the castle and the parsonage, for the protection they had given Alicia—“The gratitude,” he said, “of his brother and sister Seldon, as well as his own, was more than he could express; that Mr. and Mrs. Seldon had deferred their intended visit to England till the sailing of one of their own ships, but that they had intrusted to his care (a vessel from Senegal, freighted on his account, having arrived at Jamaica in order to convey himself to England) their two sons and their tutor, who would present themselves at Summerfield in a few days—That he had thus preceded them being desirous, as quickly as possible, to embrace his niece, and to pay his respects to her protectors.”
It was submitted to the worthy Maraboo, whether he would have a separate dinner served to himself and Alicia in the library? the doctor and Mrs. Summerfield offering themselves to attend him, or would join the rest of the company, who were by this time assembled in the dining-parlour?—he chose the latter.
4. From Robert Bissett, Douglas; or, The Highlander. A
Novel. In Four Volumes, vol. I (London: Anti-Jacobin
Press, 1800) Chap. X, 311-12
Our hero being asked now, by his aunt, to take a turn round the room, they were presently joined by the Doctors and other gentlemen. Mrs. Lighthorse observing our hero cast his eyes on a very vulgar couple, bedizened out with a most profuse finery, asked him, “Well Charles, what do you think of that lady with the mutton fist?”
“What,” said he, “the vulgar dowdy, with the broad shoulders, large face, thick lips, pug nose, and wide nostrils?”
“The same.”
“I suppose she is some rich tradesman’s wife, from Shoreditch.”
“Your conjecture is natural, I allow,” said she, “but not just. Her maiden name was Dutchsquab, she is a negro-driver’s frow, fresh from Demarara; she had married Monsieur Heureux, but he dying, and leaving her very rich, she married the person with her, John Dulman, Esquire, as he now styles himself, who wanted
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dame Heureux’s money, in order to pay debts he had incurred to a very expensive mistress, and to be able to indulge her extravagance. John Dulman and his dame taking a fine house in London, tried to become people of fashion; gave concerts, parties, routes. The dame endeavoured to learn drawing, music, and all fine accomplishments, but nothing could whitewash the negro. Negro driving itself has no great tendency to liberalize the mind, and Dutch minds are not the most easily liberalized any more than the Dutch manners are the most easily refined. She is a strange compound of French vanity and ostentation, with Dutch vulgarity and avarice. Dulman himself is a poor, mean, pliant creature, one of those trifling characters that defy analysis. He has, now and then, tried to be a rogue, but the stupidity and confusion of his head prevented success. Whoever gives sumptuous entertainments will not want visitants. They have a numerous set of acquaintance, some of them very low, who fancy the Dulmans elegant people, while the genteel part laugh at them.”