The Quadroons

The beginning appears to be a romantic relationship with Rosalie and Edward and you immediately see that they have an interracial relationship. Edward and Rosalie seemed to be so in love regardless of their race. “The tenderness of Rosalie's conscience required an outward form of marriage; though she well knew that a union with her proscribed race was unrecognized by law, and therefore the ceremony gave her no legal hold of Edward's constancy.”  It continues to say that they spent 10 happy years together making the reader think that he was commited to Rosalie and their daughter Xarifa. At this time African American people both male and female were frowned upon and whether your father was white or not, if you looked African American you were treated like one. Edward is torn between a white woman and an African American woman but after a while his love for Rosalie diminished and he chose the white woman. Throughout the story you see Edward’s love for both women mentally distress him. “Once or twice she heard him murmur, "dear Rosalie," in his sleep” Edward at one point also told Rosalie that their marriage couldn’t be real and I believe that he did marry the white woman because of class. “At that moment he would have given worlds to have disengaged himself from Charlotte; but he had gone so far” The reader can see his distress between the two races when he sees Rosalie with his daughter after his wife made a comment about how beautiful Xarifa was. I feel as if it almost took Rosalie’s death for him to finally realize his love for Xarifa and the family he once had, it’s like she was the only part of Rosalie left that he wanted to hold on to but he never did because of her race. Another person who definitely suffers to find herself between the two races is Xarifa. She has a white father and a slave mother. It didn’t matter to anyone in society that she was half white to everyone she was still looked down upon because she was of African American decent. When she first began growing up in her home she didn’t see the discrimination because she was raised in a loving home by her white father and African American mother. “Xarifa learned no lessons of humility or shame, within her own happy home; for she grew up in the warm atmosphere of father's and mother's love” Unfortunately in the end though she is treated poorly and put up for auction and bought. She never really saw herself like the rest of society did but when her only family was all gone she got treated poorly and the harsh reality of the real world fell upon her. Even Rosalie can be portrayed as being caught between cultures because she loves a white man even though she knows its not acceptable in her society and then he leaves her for a white woman. It almost makes her feel degraded and betrayed. Each character is definitely caught between the culture because of their love for each other regardless of their race. It is sad to see both Rosalie and Xarifa suffer. Especially Xarifa instead of going from a bad life to good she goes from a good life with lots of love to a bad life without her family and sold at a public auction.