Marie (1835) by Gustave de Beaumont

Portrait of Beaumont from Representatives of 1848 © AD Sarthe

Introduction

Gustave de Beaumont, a young French lawyer and prison magistrate, travelled throughout the United States with his friend Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831 and 1832. The two men came to the U.S. to learn about the prison system, but each also published a work treating American democracy more broadly: Tocqueville published his famous Democracy in America, discussing American democratic institutions, and Beaumont published the abolitionist novel Marie, or Slavery in the United States, addressing American social customs and attitudes.

 

American Abolitionism

From the founding of the United States, some Americans argued that slavery transgressed the values of the Union, and sought for its abolition. Arguments against slavery were varied, ranging from the economic to the moral, but in Marie Beaumont specifically addresses two strains of American abolitionism, represented by two national organizations (see Chapter 13: The Riot):

- The American Colonization Society--Many Americans opposed slavery as an American institution, either because they saw it as morally reprehensible, or because they recognized that it was not economically advantageous in the long run. However, not everyone believed that integrating free blacks into American society was the best thing, either for free blacks or for American society. The ACS, a predominately white organization, thus advocated "repatriating" free blacks to Africa, an idea that provided the impetus for the founding of a colony in Liberia to which many free black Americans did in fact emigrate. Rev. Robert Finley explained his reasons for founding the Society in 1816.

- The American Anti-Slavery Society--The AASS also argued against slavery in both moral and economic terms, but its primary impetus was moral, and many of its members were free blacks. The Society argued that black Americans should have the same rights and privileges afforded to others with the same qualifications, essentially calling for African Americans to be fully integrated into American society. There were more and less radical factions within the Society, and the more progressive wing of the organization advocated as well for the rights of women. (Many of the key figures of the Women's Suffrage movement were members of the AASS.) In 1832, William Lloyd Garrison summed up the views of the Society in a speech to the National Anti-Slavery Convention.

 

Questions to guide your reading...

- What is the significance of America for "the traveler" and Ludovic, before they get to know it? Why do they come to America? Do they find what they were looking for?

- How does Beaumont explain the differences between the French and Americans? To what kinds of causes does he attribute the particularity of American morality and social mores? What qualities does he seem to admire and which ones does he seem to criticize?

- What is the primary feature of America, according to Ludovic? How does this account help explain the paradox of slavery in a country founded on equality and liberty?

- How does each character understand race and race relations? What is the nature of "coloredness" for George, Marie, and Nelson, in particular? Why does George feel a sense of racial solidarity, while Marie does not?

- What different rationales exist for abolition and slavery in the novel? What position(s) does Beaumont agree with?

- Does Ludovic always speak for Beaumont? How and when does Beaumont distance himself from his character?

- What draws characters to nature in Marie? Is civilization a good thing or a bad thing? Or, rather, when is it a good thing and when a bad thing? On the flip side, is exile from society good or bad?

- What do African Americans and Native Americans have in common in Marie? What separates them? How do their destinies differ within the novel? How are they treated differently by the government, and how do they relate differently to it? 

- What role(s) does religion play in the novel? What kinds of religious homogeneity and diversity exist? What kinds of moral responses to racism and slavery does religion inspire?

 

[African American man giving piano lesson to young American woman (1899 or 1900)]. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.