shows that our laborers fare better than
your slaves."

"I am not sure of that. I _am_ sure, however, that our slaves are more
contented than the run of laboring men at the North."

"That proves nothing. Your blacks have no hope, no chance to rise; and
they submit--though I judge not cheerfully--to an iron necessity. The
Northern laborer, if very poor, may be discontented; but discontent
urges him to effort, and leads to the bettering of his condition. I tell
you, my friend, slavery is an expensive luxury. You Southern nabobs
_will_ have it; and you have to _pay for it_."

"Well, we don't complain. But, seriously, my good fellow, I feel that I
am carrying out the design of the Almighty in holding my niggers. I
think he made the black to serve the white."

"_I_ think," I replied, "that whatever He designs works perfectly. Your
institution certainly does not. It keeps the producer, who, in every
society, is the really valuable citizen, in the lowest poverty, while it
allows those who do nothing to be 'clad in fine linen, and to fare
sumptuously every day.'"

"It does more than that, sir," said Madam P----, with animation; "it
brutalizes and degrades the _master_ and the _slave_; it separates
husband and wife, parent and child; it sacrifices virtuous women to the
lust of brutal men; and it shuts millions out from the knowledge of
their duty and their destiny. A good and just God could not have
designed it; and it _must_ come to an end."

If lightning had struck in the room I could not have been more startled
than I was by the abrupt utterance of such language in a planter's
house, in his very presence, and _by his slave_. The Colonel, however,
expressed no surprise and no disapprobation. It was evidently no new
thing to him.

"It is rare, madam," I said, "to hear such sentiments from a Southern
lady--one reared among slaves."

Before she could reply, the Colonel laughingly said:

"Bless you, Mr. K----, madam is an out-and-out abolitionist, worse by
fifty per cent. than Garrison or Wendell Phillips. If she were at the
North she would take to pantaloons, and 'stump' the entire free States;
wouldn't you, Alice?"

"I have no doubt of it," rejoined the lady, smiling. "But I fear I
should have poor success. I've tried for ten years to convert _you_, and
Mr. K---- can see the result."

It had grown late; and with my head full of working niggers and white
slave-women, I went to my apartment.

The next day was Sunda