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Show 22 UNCJ~E TOM 'S CAlliX: OH, "'Ye11, I 'vc travelled in England some, and I 'vc looked over a. good many documents as to the state of their lower classes; and I really think there is no denying Alfred, when he says that his slaves arc better off than a large class of the population of England. You sec, you must not infer, from what I have told you, that Alfred is what is called a Lard master; for he isn't. He is despotic, and unmerciful to insubordination; he would shoot a fellow down with as little remorse as he would shoot a buck, if he opposed him. nut in general, he takes a sort of pride in having his slave~ comfortably fed and accommodated. " When I was with him, I insisted that he should do something for their instruction ; and, to please me, he did get a chaplain, and used to have them catechized Sunday, thouO'h, I believe, in his heart, that he thought it would do about0 as much good to set a chaplain over his dogs and horses. And the fact is, that a mind stupefied and animalizcd by every bad mfiucnce from the hour of birth, spending the whole of every week-day in unreflecting toil, cannot be done much with by a few hours on Sunday. The teachers of Sunday-schools among the manufacturing population of England, ind amonO" plantation-hands in our country, could perhaps testify to u,: sn.mc result, there and ltere. Yet some striking exceptions there .arc mn~ng us, from the fact that the negro is naturally more nnprcss1ble to religious sentiment than the white." "Well," said Miss Ophelia, "how came you to give up your plantation life 1 '' "Well, we jogged on together some time till Alfred saw plainly that I was no planter. He thought 'it absurd, after he. had refo~mcd, and altered, and improved everywhere, to smt my notions, that I still remained unsatisfied. 'The fact was, it was, after all, the TIID'O that I lw.ted,- the using UFE AMONG TilE LOWLY. 23 tltesc men :.:mel women, the perpetuation of all this ignorance, brutality and vice,- just to make money for me ! "Besides, I was always interfering in the details. Being myself one of the laziest of mortals I ha<l alto"cthcr too much fellow-feeling for tho lazy; a~d when poo~, shiftless clogs put stones at the bottom of their cotton-baskets to mako them weigh heavier, or filled their sacks with dirt, with cotton at the top, it seemed so exactly like what I should do if I were they, I couldn't and wouldn't have them flogged for it. 'Vell, of course, there was an end of plantation discipline; and Alf and I came to about the same point that I and my respected father did, years before. So he told me that I was n. womanish sentimentalist, and would never do for business life; and advised me to take the bank-stock and the New Orleans family mansion, ami go to writing poetry, and let hill\ manage the plantation. So we parted, and I came here.'' u But why didn't you free your slaves?" "Well, I wasn't up to that. To hold them as tools for money-making, I could not;-have them to help spend money, you know, didn't look quite so ugly to me. Some of them were old house-servants, to whom I was much attached; and the younger ones were children to the old. All were 'fell s.tisfied to be as they were." He paused, and walked rcflccti vel y up and dowu the room. "There was," said St. Clare, "a. time in my life when I had plans and hopes of doing something in this world, more than to float and drift. I lmd vague, indistinct yearnings to be a sort of emancipator,- to free my native land from this spot and stain. All young men have had such fever-fits, I suppose, some t.ime,- but then-" |