Victor Sejour

I think "The Mulatto" by Victor Séjour is one of the most interesting stories we have read so far. I thought the relationships between characters was very relevant to ideas that we have talked about in class. In the readings we have seen many types of relationships between slaves their masters; in "Our Nig", although Frado is not a slave, she is still treated like one in some of the relationships she has with her care takers. For example, in this story we see that Frado has formed a close relationship with Mr. Bellmont by her reaction when he died. On the contrary, Frado's relationship with Mrs. Bellmont is clearly more like a "typical" relationship between a slave and their master, where Mrs. Bellmont physically and emotionally abuses Frado. The relationship between Georges and Alfred is similar to Frado and Mr. Bellmonts, because of the close relationship they have. The twisted part of the relationship between Alfred and Georges is that Alfred is actually Georges father, but Georges does not know. I think it is really interesting how because Georges didn't know Alfred was his father he was able to trust and learn to care for him. I think if he had known, he would have hated and resented Alfred for raping and abusing his mother, therefore he would not have had a close loving relationship with Alfred. But I think Sejour uses this relationship to show how dysfunctional the relationships between slaves and their masters could be during that time. Clearly Laïsa, Georges mother, didn't want Georges to know who his father was so that he would be safe from Alfred, but because she refused to tell him it resulted in Alfred's gruesome death.