Read Harriet Beecher Stowe : Three Novels Online

Authors: Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Harriet Beecher Stowe : Three Novels (89 page)

 

Page 518
"K. Full black; dealer in real estate; worth thirty thousand dollars; about forty years old; free six years; paid eighteen hundred dollars for his family; member of the Baptist church; received a legacy from his master, which he has taken good care of, and increased.
"G. Full black; coal dealer; about thirty years old; worth eighteen thousand dollars; paid for himself twice, being once defrauded to the amount of sixteen hundred dollars; made all his money by his own effortsmuch of it while a slave, hiring his time of his master, and doing business for himself; a fine, gentlemanly fellow.
"W. Three-fourths black; barber and waiter; from Kentucky; nineteen years free; paid for self and family over three thousand dollars; deacon in the Baptist church.
"G. D. Three-fourths black; white-washer; from Kentucky; nine years free; paid fifteen hundred dollars for self and family; recently died, aged sixty; worth six thousand dollars."
Professor Stowe says, "With all these, except G, I have been, for some years, personally acquainted, and make my statements from my own knowledge."
The writer well remembers an aged colored woman, who was employed as a washerwoman in her father's family. The daughter of this woman married a slave. She was a remarkably active and capable young woman, and, by her industry and thrift, and the most persevering self-denial, raised nine hundred dollars for her husband's freedom, which she paid, as she raised it, into the hands of his master. She yet wanted a hundred dollars of the price, when he died. She never recovered any of the money.
These are but few facts, among multitudes which might be adduced, to show the self-denial, energy, patience, and honesty, which the slave has exhibited in a state of freedom.
And let it be remembered that these individuals have thus bravely succeeded in conquering for themselves comparative wealth and social position, in the face of every disadvantage and discouragement. The colored man, by the law of Ohio, cannot be a voter, and, till within a few years, was even denied the right of testimony in legal suits with the white. Nor are these instances confined to the State of Ohio. In all states of the Union we see men, but yesterday burst from the shack-

 

Page 519
les of slavery, who, by a self-educating force, which cannot be too much admired, have risen to highly respectable stations in society. Pennington, among clergymen, Douglas and Ward, among editors, are well known instances.
If this persecuted race, with every discouragement and disadvantage, have done thus much, how much more they might do, if the Christian church would act towards them in the spirit of her Lord!
This is an age of the world when nations are trembling and convulsed. A mighty influence is abroad, surging and heaving the world, as with an earthquake. And is America safe? Every nation that carries in its bosom great and unredressed injustice has in it the elements of this last convulsion.
For what is this mighty influence thus rousing in all nations and languages those groanings that cannot be uttered, for man's freedom and equality?
O, Church of Christ, read the signs of the times! Is not this power the spirit of H
IM
whose kingdom is yet to come, and whose will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
But who may abide the day of his appearing? "for that day shall burn as an oven: and he shall appear as a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that
turn aside the stranger in his right:
and he shall break in pieces the oppressor."
Are not these dread words for a nation bearing in her bosom so mighty an injustice? Christians! every time that you pray that the kingdom of Christ may come, can you forget that prophecy associates, in dread fellowship, the
day of vengeance
with the year of his redeemed?
A day of grace is yet held out to us. Both North and South have been guilty before God; and the
Christian church
has a heavy account to answer. Not by combining together, to protect injustice and cruelty, and making a common capital of sin, is this Union to be saved,but by repentance, justice and mercy; for, not surer is the eternal law by which the millstone sinks in the ocean, than that stronger law, by which injustice and cruelty shall bring on nations the wrath of Almighty God!

 

Page 521
THE MINISTER'S WOOING

 

Page 523
Contents
Chapter I. Pre-Railroad Times
527
Chapter II. The Kitchen
535
Chapter III. The Interview
544
Chapter IV. Theological Tea
552
Chapter V. The Letter
567
Chapter VI. The Doctor
578
Chapter VII. The Friends and Relations of James
587
Chapter VIII. Which Treats of Romance
598
Chapter IX. Which Treats of Things Seen
609
Chapter X. The Test of Theology
618
Chapter XI. The Practical Test
628
Chapter XII. Miss Prissy
636
Chapter XIII. The Party
652
Chapter XIV. Aaron Burr
656
Chapter XV. The Sermon
669
Chapter XVI. The Garret-Boudoir
676

 

 

Page 524
Chapter XVII. Polemics in the Kitchen
693
Chapter XVIII. Evidences
700
Chapter XIX. Madame de Frontignac
706
Chapter XX. Tidings from Over Sea
714
Chapter XXI. The Bruised Flax-Flower
720
Chapter XXII. The House of Mourning
722
Chapter XXIII. Views of Divine Government
727
Chapter XXIV. Mysteries
739
Chapter XXV. A Guest at the Cottage
753
Chapter XXVI. The Declaration
769
Chapter XXVII. Surprises
774
Chapter XXVIII. The Betrothed
782
Chapter XXIX. Bustle in the Parish
787
Chapter XXX. The Quilting
793
Chapter XXXI. An Adventure
805
Chapter XXXII. Plain Talk
812
Chapter XXXIII. New England in French Eyes
818

 

 

Page 525
Chapter XXXIV. Consultations and Confidences
823
Chapter XXXV. Old Love and New Duty
832
Chapter XXXVI. Jacob's Vow
838
Chapter XXXVII. The Question of Duty
843
Chapter XXXVIII. The Transfigured
852
Chapter XXXIX. The Ice Broken
855
Chapter XL. The Sacrifice
860
Chapter XLI. The Wedding
864
Chapter XLII. Last Words
870

 

 

Page 527
I.
Pre-Railroad Times
Mrs. Katy Scudder had invited Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Jones, and Deacon Twitchel's wife to take tea with her on the afternoon of June second,
A. D.
17
When one has a story to tell, one is always puzzled which end of it to begin at. You have a whole corps of people to introduce that
you
know and your reader doesn't; and one thing so presupposes another, that, whichever way you turn your patchwork, the figures still seem ill-arranged. The small item which I have given will do as well as any other to begin with, as it certainly will lead you to ask, "Pray, who was Mrs. Katy Scudder?"and this will start me systematically on my story.
You must understand that in the then small seaport-town of Newport, at that time unconscious of its present fashion and fame, there lived nobody in those days who did not know "the Widow Scudder."
In New England settlements a custom has obtained, which is wholesome and touching, of ennobling the woman whom God has made desolate, by a sort of brevet rank which continually speaks for her as a claim on the respect and consideration of the community. The Widow Jones, or Brown, or Smith, is one of the fixed institutions of every New England village,and doubtless the designation acts as a continual plea for one whom bereavement, like the lightning of heaven, has made sacred.
The Widow Scudder, however, was one of the sort of women who reign queens in whatever society they move; nobody was more quoted, more deferred to, or enjoyed more unquestioned position than she. She was not rich,a small farm, with a modest, "gambrel-roofed," one-story cottage, was her sole domain; but she was one of the much-admired class who, in the speech of New England, are said to have "faculty,"a gift which, among that shrewd people, com-

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