02-CHAPTER II The Mother-mt

CHAPTER II

The Mother

Eliza had beenbrought up by her mistress, from girlhood, as a petted and indulged favorite.

The traveller inthe south must often have remarked that peculiar air of refinement, thatsoftness of voice and manner, which seems in many cases to be a particular giftto the quadroon and mulatto women. These natural graces in the quadroon areoften united with beauty of the most dazzling kind, and in almost every casewith a personal appearance prepossessing and agreeable. Eliza, such as we havedescribed her, is not a fancy sketch, but taken from remembrance, as we sawher, years ago, in Kentucky. Safe under the protecting care of her mistress, Elizahad reached maturity without those temptations which make beauty so fatal aninheritance to a slave. She had been married to a bright and talented youngmulatto man, who was a slave on a neighboring estate, and bore the name ofGeorge Harris.

This young man hadbeen hired out by his master to work in a bagging factory, where his adroitnessand ingenuity caused him to be considered the first hand in the place. He hadinvented a machine for the cleaning of the hemp, which, considering theeducation and circumstances of the inventor, displayed quite as much mechanicalgenius as Whitney's cotton-gin.*

* A machine of thisdescription was really the invention of
a young colored man in Kentucky. [Mrs. Stowe's note.]

He was possessed ofa handsome person and pleasing manners, and was a general favorite in thefactory. Nevertheless, as this young man was in the eye of the law not a man,but a thing, all these superior qualifications were subject to the control of avulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master. This same gentleman, having heard ofthe fame of George's invention, took a ride over to the factory, to see whatthis intelligent chattel had been about. He was received with great enthusiasmby the employer, who congratulated him on possessing so valuable a slave.

He was waited uponover the factory, shown the machinery by George, who, in high spirits, talkedso fluently, held himself so erect, looked so handsome and manly, that hismaster began to feel an uneasy consciousness of inferiority. What business hadhis slave to be marching round the country, inventing machines, and holding uphis head among gentlemen? He'd soon put a stop to it. He'd take him back, andput him to hoeing and digging, and "see if he'd step about so smart."Accordingly, the manufacturer and all hands concerned were astounded when hesuddenly demanded George's wages, and announced his intention of taking himhome.

"But, Mr.Harris," remonstrated the manufacturer, "isn't this rathersudden?"

"What if itis?—isn'tthe man mine ?"

"We would bewilling, sir, to increase the rate of compensation."

"No object atall, sir. I don't need to hire any of my hands out, unless I've a mindto."

"But, sir, heseems peculiarly adapted to this business."

"Dare say hemay be; never was much adapted to anything that I set him about, I'll bebound."

"But onlythink of his inventing this machine," interposed one of the workmen,rather unluckily.

"O yes! amachine for saving work, is it? He'd invent that, I'll be bound; let a niggeralone for that, any time. They are all labor-saving machines themselves, everyone of 'em. No, he shall tramp!"

George had stoodlike one transfixed, at hearing his doom thus suddenly pronounced by a powerthat he knew was irresistible. He folded his arms, tightly pressed in his lips,but a whole volcano of bitter feelings burned in his bosom, and sent streams offire through his veins. He breathed short, and his large dark eyes flashed likelive coals; and he might have broken out into some dangerous ebullition, hadnot the kindly manufacturer touched him on the arm, and said, in a low tone,

"Give way,George; go with him for the present. We'll try to help you, yet."

The tyrant observedthe whisper, and conjectured its import, though he could not hear what wassaid; and he inwardly strengthened himself in his determination to keep thepower he possessed over his victim.

George was takenhome, and put to the meanest drudgery of the farm. He had been able to repressevery disrespectful word; but the flashing eye, the gloomy and troubled brow,were part of a natural language that could not be repressed,—indubitable signs,which showed too plainly that the man could not become a thing.

It was during thehappy period of his employment in the factory that George had seen and marriedhis wife. During that period,—being much trusted and favored by his employer,—he had free liberty to come and go at discretion. The marriage washighly approved of by Mrs. Shelby, who, with a little womanly complacency inmatch-making, felt pleased to unite her handsome favorite with one of her ownclass who seemed in every way suited to her; and so they were married in hermistress' great parlor, and her mistress herself adorned the bride's beautifulhair with orange-blossoms, and threw over it the bridal veil, which certainlycould scarce have rested on a fairer head; and there was no lack of whitegloves, and cake and wine,—of admiring guests to praisethe bride's beauty, and her mistress' indulgence and liberality. For a year ortwo Eliza saw her husband frequently, and there was nothing to interrupt theirhappiness, except the loss of two infant children, to whom she was passionatelyattached, and whom she mourned with a grief so intense as to call for gentleremonstrance from her mistress, who sought, with maternal anxiety, to directher naturally passionate feelings within the bounds of reason and religion.

After the birth oflittle Harry, however, she had gradually become tranquillized and settled; andevery bleeding tie and throbbing nerve, once more entwined with that littlelife, seemed to become sound and healthful, and Eliza was a happy woman up tothe time that her husband was rudely torn from his kind employer, and broughtunder the iron sway of his legal owner.

The manufacturer,true to his word, visited Mr. Harris a week or two after George had been takenaway, when, as he hoped, the heat of the occasion had passed away, and triedevery possible inducement to lead him to restore him to his former employment.

"You needn'ttrouble yourself to talk any longer," said he, doggedly; "I know myown business, sir."

"I did notpresume to interfere with it, sir. I only thought that you might think it foryour interest to let your man to us on the terms proposed."

"O, Iunderstand the matter well enough. I saw your winking and whispering, the day Itook him out of the factory; but you don't come it over me that way. It's afree country, sir; the man's mine , and I do what I pleasewith him,—that'sit!"

And so fellGeorge's last hope;—nothingbefore him but a life of toil and drudgery, rendered more bitter by everylittle smarting vexation and indignity which tyrannical ingenuity could devise.

A very humanejurist once said, The worst use you can put a man to is to hang him. No; thereis another use that a man can be put to that is WORSE!