". . . an Eden of domestic felicity,
was converted into a Pandora's box of evil."

The Ebony Idol

I haven't been able to learn anything about Mrs. G. M. Flanders. Her novel is set in a New England village called Minton, where "not one in twenty [of the inhabitants] had ever before beheld a negro." But when the Rev. Mr. Cary is converted to the cause of abolitionism, the villagers arrange to bring a fugitive slave named Caesar into their midst and set him up as "an ebony idol" for their sympathy and respect. According to the narrative, nothing but trouble follows from this experiment. Caesar becomes an increasingly threatening presence in the Rev. Cary's own home, and when a marriage is planned between him and a white girl named Mary, only a mob (and the actions of the visiting son of a Southern slave-owner) rescue her and the village.
The Ebony Idol, By Mrs. G. M. Flanders
(New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1860)
283 pages, illustrated.

Digital text prepared with the help of the
Wright American Fiction Project, Indiana University Library.


Frontispiece
Frontispiece: "The Reception"
Clifton Waller Barrett Collection
  • CHAPTER I.
  • CHAPTER II.
  • CHAPTER III.
  • CHAPTER IV.
  • CHAPTER V.
  • CHAPTER VI.
  • CHAPTER VII.
  • CHAPTER VIII.
  • CHAPTER IX.
  • CHAPTER X.
  • CHAPTER XI.
  • CHAPTER XII.
  • CHAPTER XIII.
  • CHAPTER XIV.
  • CHAPTER XV.
  • CHAPTER XVI.
  • CHAPTER XVII.
  • CHAPTER XVIII.
  • CHAPTER XIX.
  • CHAPTER XX.
  • CHAPTER XXI.
  • CHAPTER XXII.
  • CHAPTER XXIII.
  • CHAPTER XXIV.
  • CHAPTER XXV.
  • CHAPTER XXVI.
  • CHAPTER XXVII.
    		•

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