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.