HATCHIE

THE GUARDIAN SLAVE;

OR

THE HEIRESS OF BELLEVUE.

A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west

BY WARREN T. ASHTON.

Boston:
B. B. Mussey and Company,
and
R. B. Fitts and Company.

1853

CONTENTS

Reprinted 1972 from a copy in the
Fisk University Library Negro Collection

New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Hallandale, Florida 33009

INTRODUCTION.

In the summer of 1848 the author of the following tale was a passenger on board a steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati. During the passage—one of the most prolonged and uncomfortable in the annals of western river navigation—the plot of this story was arranged. Many of its incidents, and all its descriptions of steamboat life, will be recognized by the voyager of the Mississippi.

The tale was written before the appearance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"—before negro literature had become a mania in the community. It was not designed to illustrate the evils or the blessings of slavery. It is, as its title-page