An Accursed Race

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About this book

An Accursed Race is by Elizabeth Gaskell. The text says there yet remains a remnant of the miserable people called Cagots in the valleys of the Pyrenees. The text says the country-folk unwillingly called in the services of the Cagots as carpenters, or tilers, or slaters.

The authorities of the commune came round at Martinmas and counted over the stock of each Cagot. Dr. Guyon, the medical man of the last century who has left the clearest report on the health of the Cagots, speaks of the vigorous old age they attain to. The Cagots pleaded that they were healthy and able-bodied, with no taint of leprosy near them. The text says leprosy was of two kinds, perceptible and imperceptible.

About the author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist and biographer whose fiction ranged across Victorian society from mill towns to country parishes. Remembered for Mary Barton, Cranford, and North and South, she wrote with sympathy for the poor and for women, and produced the first major life of her friend Charlotte Bronte.