FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The curtain rises seven
years after the death of Isabella. During
that interval, Henry, finding that nothing
could induce his mother-in-law to relinquish
her hold on poor little Clotelle, and not
liking to contend with one on whom a future
fortune depended, gradually lost all
interest in the child, and left her to her
fate.
Although Mrs. Miller treated Clotelle with a
degree of harshness scarcely equaled, when
applied to one so tender in years, still the
child grew every day more beautiful, and her
hair, though kept closely cut, seemed to
have improved in its soft, silk like
appearance. Now twelve years of age, and
more than usually well developed, her harsh
old mistress began to view her with a
jealous eye.
Henry and Gertrude had just returned from
Washington, where the husband had been on
his duties as a member of Congress, and
where he had remained during the preceding
three years without returning home. It was
on a beautiful evening, just at twilight,
while seated at his parlor window, that
Henry saw a young woman pass by and go into
the kitchen. Not aware of ever having seen
the person before, he made an errand into
the cook's department to see who the girl
was. He, however, met her in the hall, as
she was about going out.
"Whom did you wish to see?" he inquired.
"Miss Gertrude," was the reply.
"What did you want to see her for?" he again
asked.
"My mistress told me to give her and Master
Henry her compliments, and ask them to come
over and spend the evening."
"Who is your mistress?" he eagerly inquired.
"Mrs. Miller, sir," responded the girl.
"And what's your name?" asked Henry, with a
trembling voice.
"Clotelle, sir," was the reply.
The astonished father stood completely
amazed, looking at the now womanly form of
her who, in his happier days, he had taken
on his knee with so much fondness and
alacrity. It was then that he saw his own
and Isabella's features combined in the
beautiful face that he was then beholding.
It was then that he was carried back to the
days when with a woman's devotion, poor
Isabella hung about his neck and told him
how lonely were the hours in his absence. He
could stand it no longer. Tears rushed to
his eyes, and turning upon his heel, he went
back to his own room. It was then that
Isabella was revenged; and she no doubt
looked smilingly down from her home in the
spirit land on the scene below.
On Gertrude's return from her shopping tour,
she found Henry in a melancholy mood, and
soon learned its cause. As Gertrude had
borne him no children, it was but natural,
that he should now feel his love centering
in Clotelle, and he now intimated to his
wife his determination to remove his
daughter from the hands of his
mother-in-law.
When this news reached Mrs. Miller, through
her daughter, she became furious with rage,
and calling Clotelle into her room, stripped
her shoulders bare and flogged her in the
presence of Gertrude.
It was nearly a week after the poor girl had
been so severely whipped and for no cause
whatever, that her father learned on the
circumstance through one of the servants.
With a degree of boldness unusual for him,
he immediately went to his mother-in-law and
demanded his child. But it was too late, she
was gone. To what place she had been sent no
one could tell, and Mrs. Miller refused to
give any information whatever relative to
the girl.
It was then that Linwood felt deepest the
evil of the institution under which he was
living; for he knew that his daughter would
be exposed to all the vices prevalent in
that part of the country where marriage is
not recognized in connection with that
class.
Clotelle or The Colored Heroine, A tale
of the Southern States
