had scarcely been
committed to its mother earth before new and unforeseen difficulties
appeared to them. By the laws of the Slave States, the children follow
the condition of their mother. If the mother is free, the children are
free; if a slave, the children are slaves. Being unacquainted with the
Southern code, and no one presuming that Marion had any negro blood in
her veins, Dr. Morton had not given the subject a single thought. The
woman whom he loved and regarded as his wife was, after all, nothing
more than a slave by the laws of the State. What would have been his
feelings had he known that at his death his wife and children would be
considered as his property? Yet such was the case. Like most men of
means at that time, Dr. Morton was deeply engaged in speculation, and
though generally considered wealthy, was very much involved in his
business affairs.

After the disease with which Dr. Morton had so suddenly died had to
some extent subsided, Mr. James Morton, a brother of the deceased, went
to New Orleans to settle up the estate. On his arrival there, he was
pleased with and felt proud of his nieces, and invited them to return
with him to Vermont, little dreaming that his brother had married a
slave, and that his widow and daughters would be claimed as such. The
girls themselves had never heard that their mother had been a slave,
and therefore knew nothing of the danger hanging over their heads.

An inventory of the property of the deceased was made out by Mr.
Morton, and placed in the hands of the creditors. These preliminaries
being arranged, the ladies, with their relative, concluded to leave the
city and reside for a few days on the banks of Lake Ponchartrain, where
they could enjoy a fresh air that the city did not afford. As they were
about taking the cars, however, an officer arrested the whole
party--the ladies as slaves, and the gentleman upon the charge of
attempting to conceal the property of his deceased brother. Mr. Morton
was overwhelmed with horror at the idea of his nieces being claimed as
slaves, and asked for time, that he might save them from such a fate.
He even offered to mortgage his little farm in Vermont for the amount
which young slave-women of their ages would fetch. But the creditors
pleaded that they were an "extra article," and would sell for more than
common slaves, and must therefore be sold at auction.

The uncle was therefore compelled to give them up to the officers of
the l