9. CHAPTER IX.
THE MAN OF HONOR.
Augustine Cardinay, the purchaser of Marion, was from the Green
Mountains of Vermont, and his feelings were opposed to the holding of
slaves; but his young wife persuaded him into the idea that it was no
worse to own a slave than to hire one and pay the money to another.
Hence it was that he had been induced to purchase Marion.
Adolphus Morton, a young physician from the same State, and who
had just commenced the practice of his profession in New Orleans, was
boarding with Cardinay when Marion was brought home. The young
physician had been in New Orleans but a very few weeks, and had seen
but little of slavery. In his own mountain-home, he had been taught
that the slaves of the Southern States were negroes, and if not from the
coast of Africa, the descendants of those who had been imported. He
was unprepared to behold with composure a beautiful white girl of sixteen
in the degraded position of a chattel slave.
The blood chilled in his young heart as he heard Cardinay tell how,
by bantering with the trader, he had bought her two hundred dollars
less than he first asked. His very looks showed that she had the deepest
sympathies of his heart.
Marion had been brought up by her mother to look after the domestic
concerns of her cottage in Virginia, and well knew how to perform the
duties imposed upon her. Mrs. Cardinay was much pleased with her
new servant, and often mentioned her good qualities in the presence of
Mr. Morton.
After eight months acquaintance with Marion, Morton's sympathies
ripened into love, which was most cordially reciprocated by the friendless
and injured child of sorrow. There was but one course which the
young man could honorably pursue, and that was to purchase Marion
and make her his lawful wife; and this he did immediately, for he
found Mr. and Mrs. Cardinay willing to second his liberal intentions.
The young man, after purchasing Marion from Cardinay, and marrying
her, took lodgings in another part of the city. A private teacher
was called in, and the young wife was taught some of those accomplishments
so necessary for one taking a high position in good society.
Dr. Morton soon obtained a large and influential practice in his profession,
and with it increased in wealth; but with all his wealth he
never owned a slave. Probably the fact that he had raised his wife
from that condition kept the hydra-headed system continually before
him. To the credit of Marion be it said, she used every means to obtain
the freedom of her mother, who had been sold to Parson Wilson, at
Natchez. Her efforts, however, had come too late; for Agnes had died
of a fever before the arrival of Dr. Morton's agent.
Marion found in Adolphus Morton a kind and affectionate husband;
and his wish to purchase her mother, although unsuccessful, had doubly
endeared him to her. Ere a year had elapsed from the time of their
marriage, Mrs. Morton presented her husband with a lovely daughter,
who seemed to knit their hearts still closer together. This child they
named Jane; and before the expiration of the second year, they were
blessed with another daughter, whom they named Adrika.
These children grew up to the ages of ten and eleven, and were then
sent to the North to finish their education, and receive that refinement
which young ladies cannot obtain in the Slave States.
