OCR Text |
Show - -· 144 NOT 1~S ON nothing nigger! Get along off with you!" ~nd could de: libcratcly and systematically set about brea~!n.g down and destroying all " delicacy and sense of sh~me . m one of her own sex, would find herself out of that ctrcle urecovernbly; or rather, such language and such conduct would show that she was never in it. ~1:rs. Stowe is more at home among the Kentucky negroes; but, even here, she cannot help exaggerating. Uncle '11om himself is an exaggeration, though not to such. a. degree .a.s the London 'fimcs would have us suppose : to JUdge from 1ts language, one would suppose that neg~o piety "~as an r in· credible, or, at any rate, a very questiOnable thmg. The 'Times goes as far to the one extreme, as ~Irs. Stowe to the other: the truth lies midwny between them. As to George H arris un(l Eliza., I am inclined to look upon them as true representations : at any rate, there arc close approximations to them. But then they arc few; not more than one in ten thousand: and of them all, George Harris and his wife arc, probably, the only ones that ever got off' into Canada. Certainly, most of the fugitives.thc~o arc of a very different stamp. Says Prof. Ansted m h1s first L etter to the London 'nmes, "Nearly all those runaway slaves who escaped into Can:tda-and the numbc~ is not inconsiderable-arc found to be idle, useless, and ummprovinO' in every sense of the word. Their idea of liberty U at: e.rtcape from labour, and. the ·indulge~we of,~ mere animal existence with as little e.D·o,-t as posszble. lhcy arc bad servants antl bad citizens, n.nd r<~rcly rise above the very lowest position in the soci<d sen 1c. '!'!tis .is matter peJfeetly notoriou.s, anU. we must not be surpnsed 1f b~forc lo~g the people of ·canada refuse to admit a populatiOn winch ha• no value, and frequently becomes a drag on the resources of the country." . Now why did not Mrs. Stowe take negroes of tlus stamp UNCLE 'r O M 'S CABIN. 145 for }l('r runaways? Because they would not answer her purpose. ' Vhercver outr:1gcous cruelties arc to be enacted, such as would excite our indignation even if inflicted on a. beast, there she introduces full-blooded negroes; but when our sympa.thics arc to be enlisted in behalf of fugitives, she takes care to have them not negroes, nor even mulattoes, but quadroons,-men and women all but white, and who, therefore, according to the fitness of tldngs, ought not to be in slavery at al l. !lad it been a strapping negro wench, black as a coal and ugly as sin, that had called with her boy at Senator Bird's, she might have got off as she could: certainly the Senator never would h::wc helped her of[ ':r his, 1\Irs. Stowe very well ]mew, and therefore she took care to have her fugitives all but while. True she has two black ones with thcm,-Jim and his aged mother; but they arc only ueccssory. She tries indeed to make Jim out a. hero, but with poor success. Speaking of one who hnd run similar Yenturcs, she asks, (1·oL ii. p. 298.), My good si,., is this man a hero or " criminal? .1\rot a. hero, J\f 1·s. Stowe; no, not a hero : you yourself have settled that point. Uncle :rom is the hero. l3ut had he run away, instead of staying. to sufl'er martyr· dom, 1\"ould he have been a hero, you yourself being judge ? You know he would not, and therffore you made him a. martyr. NOTE 11.-lNCOXSJS'l'E~ClES AXD L'lPllODAUJI.Il'fES Ok' l'Jie STO!lY. ':rhese 1io at the foundation of the work : the very first chapter is full of them. First we have nfr. Shelby, "an average K entucky gentleman," entertaining at his own table a professional sla\'C·tmdcr, ' ' a. short, thick-set man, with coarse, commonplace features, and that swaggering air of 10 N |