“Patriotic? That means loving your country and being willing to give up things for it and help save it. Everybody should be patriotic.”
“But s’posin’ yer ain’t got no country?”
“Why, Chloe, everybody has a country, either the place where you were born or the place where you have been living long enough to love and feel that it is yours.”
“But niggers is been livin’ here foreveraneveramen, an’ still they ain’t ter say got no country.”
“Why, you have! Don’t you think Uncle Sam would look after you and fight for you if you needed his help?”
“I ain’t got no Uncle Sam, but I hear tell that he wouldn’t raise his han’ ter save a nigger, but yit if’n they’s a war that he’ll ’spec’ the niggers ter go git shot up fer him.”
“Why, Chloe! How can you say such a thing?”
“I ain’t er sayin’ it—I’s jes’ a-sayin’ I hears tell.”
“Who told it to you?”
“Nobody ain’t tol’ it ter me. I jes’ hearn it.”