Beadle's Dime Novels No. 93: The Creole Sisters

About this issue

This issue comprises two distinct works. "The Mad Skipper: A Cruise After the Maelstrom" by Roger Starbuck (author of Coast Away and On the Deep) is advertised as a maritime romance featuring a sea captain determined to navigate his ship into the Maelstrom, a ship's doctor, his daughter, a young sailor, and a mixed crew of New Zealanders and Nantucket whalemen. The primary content is "The Creole Sisters; or, The Mystery of the Perrys," a tale set thirty years prior, by Mrs. Anna E. Porter. The narrative follows Mary Perry, recently married to Sidney, who encounters a mysterious mixed-race woman at the village post office seeking assistance with a French letter. Maurice Perry, Sidney's wealthy widower brother, soon departs unexpectedly to Florida on uncertain business during Seminole hostilities. The story details village life, domestic arrangements including Maurice's housekeeper Miss Hannah Price, and introduces Aunt Posey, a Florida-origin woman living with her free Black husband on a nearby farm.