"Pete's wife was forcibly taken from him, papa, and then sent
South."
"By whom?"
"By Edwards. And the rest of the hands were in mortal fear of
him; utterly cowed. They dared not move without his pleasure."
"Abuses," papa muttered; - "nothing to do with the system."
"What must the system be where such things are possible? where
one such thing is possible? And oh, papa, they suffer! there
is no such thing as real comfort of life; there is no scope or
liberty for the smallest upward tendency. Nothing is their
own, not their own time; they have no chance to be anything
but inferior."
"They have all the essentials of comfortable living, and they
are comfortable," said my father.
"Papa, they do not think so."
"Few people do think so," said papa. "It is a vice of
humanity."
I was silent a little bit, and then I ventured to say, "Papa, the Lord Jesus loved them well enough to die for them."
"Well," said papa, rather growlingly, "what then?"
"I am thinking, what will He say to us for handling them so."
"What would you do for them, Daisy?"
"All I could, papa," I said softly.
"How much could you, do you suppose?"
"Papa, I would not stop as long as there was anything more to
be done."
"I suppose you would begin by setting them all free?"
"Wouldn't you wish it, papa, for yourself and me, if we were
two of them? - and for mamma and Ransom, if they were two
more?"
"You are mistaken in thinking it is a parallel case. They do
not wish for liberty as we should."
"Then it only shows how much harm the want of liberty has done
them already. But they wish for it quite enough, papa; quite
enough. It breaks my heart to think how much they do wish for
it."
"My child, you do not know what you are talking about!" papa
answered; half worried, I thought, and half impatient. "In the
first place, they would not be better off if they were set
free; though you think they would; and in the second place, do
you know how it would affect our own condition?"
"Papa," I said low, - "it has nothing to do with the question.
I do not care."
"You would care."
"I care for this other more, papa."
"Daisy, understand. Instead of being well off, you would be
poor; you would be poor. The Southern estates would be worth
nothing without hands to cultivate them; and my Northern
estates will go to your brother."
"I should never be rich in the way you think, papa."
"How so?"
"I would never be rich in that way."
"What would you do?"
"I would be poor."
"It is not so easy to do as to talk about," said my father.
"At the present time, Daisy, - I suppose, if you had your
will, you would set at liberty at once all the people on the
Magnolia plantations?"