An Immigrant American Chapter Summary

Chapter One February 23, 1843, 10 years before the events of An Immigrant American.
Suddenly, the door of the carriage flung open, as it pulled up to the doors of the Mannheim Palace on an early and cold February morning in 1843.
“Karolina, I am so glad you are here!” The young woman said frantically as she burst into tears. “I thought you would never get here.” “I don’t know what to do with my hair, and my mother needs help with the wedding preparations, and they will be here any moment”.
She continued. “Please hurry and come with me!” The young woman gestured to them and turned toward the doors of the palace.
Karolina Sorg and her mother startled at the sudden stop of the carriage and the young woman’s outburst quickly recovered. They stepped
The carriage began to pick up speed traveling through the streets of the city while shaking Karolina and Theresia back and forth inside. The driver promised an extra fare from Princess Marie and her mother to bring their guests to the palace as soon as possible drove the carriage and horses as fast as he could. The Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess of Baden and the other wedding guests would be arriving at the palace later that day and all of the wedding preparations needed to be complete before they
Karolina and her mother followed Princess Marie as she ran up the palace staircase into the Knight’s Hall, the largest room in the palace. The Princess kept urging them to hurry and told the waiting servants to gather their belongings from the carriage and bring them into the palace without stopping as she crossed the room.
The Mannheim Palace was an imposing structure, originally built in the 1700’s to house the Palatinate Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. After the Napoleonic wars, the city of Mannheim become part of the Grand Duchy of Baden and the palace, as large as the French Palace of Versailles, was no longer used as the royal court and quickly fell into disrepair.
The only royal residents remaining in the palace, Princess Marie’s mother, the Dowager Duchess Stéphanie de Beauharnais, had moved permanently into the palace, after the death of Princess Marie’s father and her husband the Grand Duke Karl Ludwig Friedrich of Baden. The Dowager Duchess was the adopted daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, the former Emperor of France, and moved to the Grand Duchy of Baden after her marriage to the Grand Duke in the Emperor’s effort to cement an alliance with Baden, over 25 years