shape), without
washing, till they receive the next suit. Under these circumstances I
think it is unphilosophical, to say the least of it, to speak of the
negroes as a race whose unfragrance is heaven-ordained, and the result of
special organisation.

I must tell you that I have been delighted, surprised, and the very least
perplexed, by the sudden petition on the part of our young waiter, Aleck,
that I will teach him to read. He is a very intelligent lad of about
sixteen, and preferred his request with an urgent humility that was very
touching. I told him I would think about it. I mean to do it. I will do
it,--and yet, it is simply breaking the laws of the government under which
I am living. Unrighteous laws are made to be broken,--_perhaps_,--but
then, you see, I am a woman, and Mr. ---- stands between me and the
penalty. If I were a man, I would do that and many a thing besides, and
doubtless should be shot some fine day from behind a tree by some good
neighbour, who would do the community a service by quietly getting rid of
a mischievous incendiary; and I promise you in such a case no questions
would be asked, and my lessons would come to a speedy and silent end; but
teaching slaves to read is a fineable offence, and I am _feme couverte_,
and my fines must be paid by my legal owner, and the first offence of the
sort is heavily fined, and the second more heavily fined, and for the
third, one is sent to prison. What a pity it is I can't begin with
Aleck's third lesson, because going to prison can't be done by proxy, and
that penalty would light upon the right shoulders! I certainly intend to
teach Aleck to read. I certainly won't tell Mr. ---- anything about it.
I'll leave him to find it out, as slaves, and servants and children, and
all oppressed, and ignorant, and uneducated and unprincipled people do;
then, if he forbids me I can stop--perhaps before then the lad may have
learnt his letters. I begin to perceive one most admirable circumstance in
this slavery: you are absolute on your own plantation. No slaves'
testimony avails against you, and no white testimony exists but such as
you choose to admit. Some owners have a fancy for maiming their slaves,
some brand them, some pull out their teeth, some shoot them a little here
and there (all details gathered from advertisements of runaway slaves in
southern papers); now they do all this on their plantations, where nobody
comes to see, and I'll teach Aleck to read, for