Marie Or, Slavery in the United States: A Novel of Jacksonian America

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 Native Americans 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.

Author: Gustave de Beaumont
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 01/26/1999
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
Size: 8.86h x 6.11w x 0.62d
ISBN: 9780801860645

About the Author

Gustave de Beaumont (1802-1866) is primarily remembered as Alexis de Tocqueville's travel companion and literary executor. He was co-author, with Tocqueville, of On the Penitentiary System in the United States.

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