The Curse of Caste by Julia C. Collins
"The Curse of Caste: Or, The Slave Bride" by Julia C. Collins is a serialized novel published in 1865, notable for its exploration of race-based prejudice and the institution of slavery during a pivotal time in American history. The story revolves around Lina, a biracial woman who is unaware of her enslaved status, and her daughter Claire, who grapples with her hidden racial heritage. As Lina is purchased by Colonel Frank Tracy, her beauty captures the attention of his son, Richard, which leads to a complex web of love, deception, and familial conflict.
The narrative highlights the struggles of both mother and daughter against societal constraints shaped by their racial and class backgrounds. Central to the plot is the character of Juno Hays, an African American nurse who holds critical secrets and demonstrates the theme of loyalty amidst adversity. The novel is characterized by its sympathetic portrayal of its protagonists, fitting into the antebellum literary trope of the "tragic mulatta."
Despite its unfinished state due to Collins’s untimely death, the novel engages with important issues of identity, social equality, and the critique of racial prejudices. The work is significant as it is recognized as one of the earliest novels published by an African American woman, contributing to ongoing discussions about race and gender in the post-Civil War era. Its publication in an African American newspaper highlights the cultural and literary contributions of Black voices during that time.
The Curse of Caste by Julia C. Collins
First published: 1865 (serial), 2006 (book)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Domestic realism; social realism
Time of work: Mid-nineteenth century
Locale: Louisiana and Connecticut
Principal Characters:
Lina , a biracial slave unaware of her African heritage or her enslavementColonel Frank Tracy , Lina’s ownerRichard Tracy , the colonel’s son, who marries LinaClaire Neville Tracy , the daughter of Lina and RichardJuno Hays , Claire’s African American nurseGeorge Manville , Richard’s false friend and Claire’s benefactorCount Clayburn Sayvord , Claire’s suitorIsabelle Tracy , Claire’s aunt and rival for Sayvord’s affection
The Novel
Julia C. Collins published The Curse of Caste: Or, The Slave Bride as a serialized novel in 1865, but Collins died in that year, leaving the book unfinished. In the novel, race-based prejudice and the institution of slavery threaten the happiness of a biracial mother and her daughter. Lina, a beautiful woman who does not know that she is a slave and one-eighth black, is purchased by Colonel Frank Tracy. His son Richard has already fallen in love with Lina. Richard arranges for his supposed friend George Manville to purchase Lina so Richard can marry her. After six months of living happily in Connecticut, Richard returns to his family home in New Orleans, Louisiana, to try to mend relations with his father, but Colonel Tracy disinherits Richard and shoots him in a violent rage. While recovering, Richard dictates a letter to Lina to explain his absence, but Manville burns the letter.
Lina dies, faithful to the end yet unaware that her husband truly loves her but is unable to return to her. When Manville learns that Lina has died giving birth to Claire, he gives charge of the infant to the African American nurse Juno Hays. Juno never tells Claire the secret of her birth. Manville lies to Richard, claiming that both his wife and daughter are dead. Manville provides funds for Claire to be educated and to develop her vocal talent. At the beginning of the novel, which is not narrated chronologically, Claire is completing her studies at a women’s school and preparing to become a governess. She takes a position at the home of Colonel Tracy, who she does not know is her grandfather. The servants murmur, however, and likenesses between the two are perceived.
Isabelle Tracy resents Claire and competes with her for the attention of a visiting French nobleman, Count Clayburn Sayvord. Richard returns from France to the United States and learns that his daughter is still alive. Count Sayvord learns the truth about Claire’s parentage and racial background, but he remains determined to marry her. While Claire’s father, grandfather, and the man she wants to marry know of her racial heritage, Claire herself does not yet know. The truth would probably have been revealed in the last chapter of the serialized novel, had the author lived long enough to write it.
The Characters
The Curse of Caste focuses on Claire and her romantic prospects. Collins builds sympathetic identification with the mother and daughter. These educated, genteel ladies fit the character type in antebellum literature of the “tragic mulatta,” who is young, innocent, beautiful, light-skinned, raised as a white person, and unaware of her true racial identity. Juno Hays, a wise African American nurse, is a central figure who holds secrets and is loyal to Lina and Claire. Probably a former slave, Juno has a happy marriage to a successful man. Juno says in chapter 25 that she sees no difference between people based on race, because black blood is as good as white blood. Juno gives Claire her mother’s ring, which holds an inscription that helps prove Claire’s identity.
The book’s antagonist characters are George Manville, who may have predatory intentions toward Claire, and Claire’s young aunt Isabelle Tracy. Antagonistic forces include class-and race-based prejudice and the slavery system in antebellum America. In chapter 6, the hero Richard Tracy is outspoken in favor of social equality and in opposition to slavery. In chapter 22, Richard meditates on the injustice and crime of “the curse of caste.” The author implies that distinctions based on race, money, and appearances should be erased. The story was published at the end of the Civil War and participated in ongoing nineteenth century debates about the proper legal and social roles of African Americans.
Critical Context
Collins published her novel in thirty-one weekly installments in the African American newspaper The Christian Recorder between February 25, 1865, and September 23, 1865. She did not write the last chapter before dying of tuberculosis. In addition to the missing ending, four published chapters from the middle of the book have since been lost.
Scholars asserted in 2006 that Collins’s The Curse of Caste was the first novel to be published by an African American woman. Although Harriet Wilson published the book Our Nig in 1859, that work is now believed to be more of a novelized autobiography than a work of fiction. Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative, discovered in manuscript form by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is believed to have been written in the 1850’s, but it was not published until 2002. The identity of the author, moreover, cannot be definitively verified.
Important for the critical context of Collins’s work is author and activist Harriet Jacobs, whose narrative of enslavement was published in 1861 as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Collins was probably also aware of Sojourner Truth’s work and narrative. Authors that Collins herself may have influenced include Frances E. W. Harper, who published novels in serialized form in newspapers including The Christian Recorder. The popular release of Collins’s novel in 2006 demonstrates the contemporary interest in recovering the work of neglected American women authors of the nineteenth century.
Bibliography
Andrews, William L., and Mitch Kachun. “Editors’ Introduction: The Emergence of Julia C. Collins.” In The Curse of the Caste: Or, The Slave Bride. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. This extended introduction to the first publication in book form of Collins’s novel includes a biographical sketch, discussion of the process of rediscovering Collins, analysis of the novel, and commentary on Collins’s journalistic writing, which is reprinted at the end of the book. This edition also contains the two “alternate endings” proposed for the novel.
Bruce, Dickson D., Jr. The Origins of African American Literature, 1680-1865. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001. Interpretive overview of early African American literature and themes; one of very few books published before 2006 that mention Collins or The Curse of Caste.
Carter, Tomeiko Ashford. “The Sentiment of the Christian Serial Novel: The Curse of Caste: Or, The Slave Bride and the AME Christian Recorder.” African American Review 40, no. 4 (Winter, 2006): 717-730. Sees the novel as demonstrating Collins’s spiritual and ethical beliefs as also articulated in her journalism for the newspaper that serialized the novel. Collins used the African American religious press to comment on true Christianity, white social responsibility, abolition, and rights for African Americans.
Foreman, P. Gabrielle. “The Christian Recorder, Broken Families, and Educated Nations in Julia C. Collins’s Civil War Novel The Curse of Caste.” African American Review 40, no. 4 (Winter, 2006): 705-716. One of sixteen articles appearing in a special issue of African American Review devoted to Julia Collins, her work, and her cultural contexts. Foreman describes how the newspaper’s cross-class readership followed the novel’s twists alongside the progress of the Civil War. The chapters appeared in the same pages that printed testimonials by black soldiers, requests for information on missing family members, and reports on military developments.
Tucker, Veta Smith. “A Tale of Disunion: The Racial Politics of Unclaimed Kindred in Julia C. Collins’s The Curse of Caste: Or, The Slave Bride.” African American Review 40, no. 4 (Winter, 2006): 743-754. Addresses what Collins does not do in her novel, such as directly indict the southern slaveholding aristocracy, expose northern racism, or appeal directly for the abolition of slavery. Tucker argues that the novel is nevertheless radical as a revision of the tragic mulatta image, an allegorical reflection of the sectional conflict, and a look ahead to Reconstruction.