At the end of "Desiree's Baby," Armand discovers a letter from
his mother to his father. She writes,
"But above all . . . night and day, I thank the good God
for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores
him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of
slavery."
From the letter, Armand
realizes that his mother is part black and that he has expelled his wife and child from his home
for something that is connected to him, not to Desiree. Armand's reason for forcing Desiree to
leave would have been socially acceptable during the pre-Civil War time period--a truth that his
mother had realized and taken precautions against. This is why she chose to live in France, a
more forward-thinking country at that time, where she and Armand's father could maintain their
relationship in peace; for in the United States, mixed-race marriages were not simply socially
unacceptable, they were dangerous and illegal for their
participants.
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