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Show 146 :r;OTES ON pretension which marks a low man who is t~·yi~1g to elbow his way upward in the world." (Sec his dc.scnptJon at large, in the second paragraph of the clwpter.) Now I can ~ss~re ~Irs. Stowe tlmt no Southern gentleman would ever lnVlle such a pcrson::~gc to his table; it is moraJly, I had almost said, physically, impossible: I sho~l~l as soon c~pcct to see the Duchess of Sutherland cntcrtammg the public hangman at Stafl'ord llousc, or :i\lrs. Stowe nwrrying l10r children to l'unaway negroes. . .. nut even supposing l\Ir. Shelby couhl, by any po!-isltnhty, have so far forgotten him8clf as to invite lluJcy to his table, tho utmost stretch of lLis compluisancc could ha\'C gone no farther than a cold unU constrained civility. And yet we have him, here, setting a fu..vorite little quadroon sla.vc-boy to playing oiT " monkey-shines" for the amusement of his guest! . . However, all thi~ is nothing compared With the next lffiprobability,- thc sale of Uncle ~rom; an improbability so improbable that the allegation of it as a fact is simply ludicrous. I challenge l\lt s. Stowe to bring forwanl. a single instance in which such a slave as Uncle Tom .is here represented to have boon, was eve1: :;olU by his master to :1 slavedealer. Servants like Undo Tom are known tltrougltout the community, (sec vo1. i. p. 1-!8.), and valueU, t.oo; or rather they arc justly con:,idereJ invaluable; and Mr. Shelby haJ' only tu let it be kno1m that he""' obliged to part with 1l 1om, to have had a dozen of l1is neighbors in competition for the purchase, and at a higher pricC', too, than any prutlcnt dealer would be willing to ofl'cr; for they would know what they were purchasing, :mel the dealer, whatever his own knowlctlgc, would find it llO easy matter to transfer that knowledge to his customer. But what need of selling Uncle ~l'om n,t all? There were plenty of ot.Lcr ul'groe~ on the estate, if we may UNCI, E T 0 :\I' R C A H l N, 147 bclie,·c Aunt Chloe:-" 'Yhy, laws me, i\fissis! other folks hires out their niggcrs and makes money on 'em! Don't keep sucl1 a tribe catin 'em out of house flncl home.'' (Vol. ii. p. 57.) Why not sell some of thesc?-Anrly and Black Sam, for instance, \\ ho would have gone ofl' with thci1· hands in their pockets, whistling as they went, and congratulating tltemsciYeS on the chance they h[Ld of rising in the world. llut this would have spoiled the story. Absurd as all this is, it is not the only absurdity: not only must Uncle 'l'om go, but little Harry must go with l1im ;-little Uany the on ly child of Mrs. Shelby's favorite wa.iting maid. 1\fr. Shelby deliberately agrees to sell the clJild, though he knows it will spoil the value of the mother as a servaut. But then :Mr. Sltelby is not like other men: other men take care of tl1eir own property; .Mr. Shelby deliberately sets about ruining his. I say, ruining; for be must have known that it would ruin it: Eliza, we arc told, had lost "two infant c!Jildrcn, to whom she was passionately attached, ::tnd whom she moumcd with a grief so intense as to call for gent le remonstrance from her mistress, who sought, with maternal anxiety, to direct her naturally passionate feelings within the bounds of reason and religion. After the birth of little Harry, howe\·cr, she l1ad gradua lly become tra.nquillized ami settled; :md crcry bleeding tic :md throbbing nene, once more entwined with that little life, seemed to become sound and hca,lthf'ul." (Vol. i. p. ~0 . )- 0f course the loss of little Harry, in suclt a way,* would * 'J'ho!lO who nrc rcpreMnted ns sep:trn.ting mother nnrl child, nrc represrutcd us doing it onlinn1·ily ns n. ])u..,inrss trnn~adion, n. simple matter of doll:lrs and cent~: tlwy arc rcp1·csentcd, moreorer, as slu·~\\'d busine.'<S men, and lllHfit thcrcfurc know the cfil•ct of the scparnbon on the mother. Now, one of two things must be true: either the separation i11jurcs the mother as pl'operty, or it docs not; in other words, either tl1c mother easily gets over the scpn.rntion, or she docs |