CARLISLE.
Mrs. Beecher Stowe.
MOMMA CHARLOTTE.
“Slavery is merely an idea!” said Mr. S——; “the slaves are, in reality, better off than we are, if they had sense enough to know it. They are taken care of—(they must be, you know, because it is the master’s interest to keep them in good condition, and a man will always do what is for his interest). They get rid of all responsibility,—which is what we are groaning under; and if they were only let alone, they would be happy enough,—happier than their masters, I dare say.”
“You think it, then, anything but kindness to urge their emancipation?”
“To be sure I do! and I would have every one that teaches them to be discontented hung up without judge or jury.”
“You seem particularly interested for the slave,—”
“Interested! I would have every one of them sent beyond the Rocky Mountains, if I could,—or into ‘kingdom come,’ for that matter. They are the curse of the country; but as long as they are property, I would shoot any man that put bad ideas in their heads or that interfered with my management of them, as I would shoot a dog that killed my sheep.”
“But do they never get what you call ‘bad ideas’ from any but white people?”
“O, there is no knowing where they get them,—but they are full of ’em. No matter how kind you are to them, they are never satisfied!”