Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  "How long have you lived with your master and mistress?"

  "Dun no, Missis."

  "Is it a year, or more, or less?"

  "Dun no, Missis."

  "Laws, Missis, those low negroes,-they can't tell; they don't know anything about time," said Jane; "they don't know what a year is; they don't know their own ages.

  "Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?"

  The child looked bewildered, but grinned as usual.

  "Do you know who made you?"

  "Nobody, as I knows on," said the child, with a short laugh.

  The idea appeared to amuse her considerably; for her eyes twinkled, and she added,

  "I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me."

  "Do you know how to sew?" said Miss Ophelia, who thought she would turn her inquiries to something more tangible.

  "No, Missis."

  "What can you do?-what did you do for your master and mistress?"

  "Fetch water, and wash dishes, and rub knives, and wait on folks."

  "Were they good to you?"

  "Spect they was," said the child, scanning Miss Ophelia cunningly.

  Miss Ophelia rose from this encouraging colloquy; St. Clare was leaning over the back of her chair.

  "You find virgin soil there, Cousin; put in your own ideas,-you won't find many to pull up."

  Miss Ophelia's ideas of education, like all her other ideas, were very set and definite; and of the kind that prevailed in New England a century ago, and which are still preserved in some very retired and unsophisticated parts, where there are no railroads. As nearly as could be expressed, they could be comprised in very few words: to teach them to mind when they were spoken to; to teach them the catechism, sewing, and reading; and to whip them if they told lies. And though, of course, in the flood of light that is now poured on education, these are left far away in the rear, yet it is an undisputed fact that our grandmothers raised some tolerably fair men and women under this regime, as many of us can remember and testify. At all events, Miss Ophelia knew of nothing else to do; and, therefore, applied her mind to her heathen with the best diligence she could command.

  The child was announced and considered in the family as Miss Ophelia's girl; and, as she was looked upon with no gracious eye in the kitchen, Miss Ophelia resolved to confine her sphere of operation and instruction chiefly to her own chamber. With a self-sacrifice which some of our readers will appreciate, she resolved, instead of comfortably making her own bed, sweeping and dusting her own chamber,-which she had hitherto done, in utter scorn of all offers of help from the chambermaid of the establishment,-to condemn herself to the martyrdom of instructing Topsy to perform these operations,-ah, woe the day! Did any of our readers ever do the same, they will appreciate the amount of her self-sacrifice.

  Miss Ophelia began with Topsy by taking her into her chamber, the first morning, and solemnly commencing a course of instruction in the art and mystery of bed-making.

  Behold, then, Topsy, washed and shorn of all the little braided tails wherein her heart had delighted, arrayed in a clean gown, with well-starched apron, standing reverently before Miss Ophelia, with an expression of solemnity well befitting a funeral.

  "Now, Topsy, I'm going to show you just how my bed is to be made. I am very particular about my bed. You must learn exactly how to do it."

  "Yes, ma'am," says Topsy, with a deep sigh, and a face of woful earnestness.

  "Now, Topsy, look here;-this is the hem of the sheet,-this is the right side of the sheet, and this is the wrong;-will you remember?"

  "Yes, ma'am," says Topsy, with another sigh.

  "Well, now, the under sheet you must bring over the bolster,-so-and tuck it clear down under the mattress nice and smooth,-so,-do you see?"

  "Yes, ma'am," said Topsy, with profound attention.

  "But the upper sheet," said Miss Ophelia, "must be brought down in this way, and tucked under firm and smooth at the foot,-so,-the narrow hem at the foot."

  "Yes, ma'am," said Topsy, as before;-but we will add, what Miss Ophelia did not see, that, during the time when the good lady's back was turned in the zeal of her manipulations, the young disciple had contrived to snatch a pair of gloves and a ribbon, which she had adroitly slipped into her sleeves, and stood with her hands dutifully folded, as before.

  "Now, Topsy, let's see you do this," said Miss Ophelia, pulling off the clothes, and seating herself.

  Topsy, with great gravity and adroitness, went through the exercise completely to Miss Ophelia's satisfaction; smoothing the sheets, patting out every wrinkle, and exhibiting, through the whole process, a gravity and seriousness with which her instructress was greatly edified. By an unlucky slip, however, a fluttering fragment of the ribbon hung out of one of her sleeves, just as she was finishing, and caught Miss Ophelia's attention. Instantly, she pounced upon it. "What's this? You naughty, wicked child,-you've been stealing this!"

  The ribbon was pulled out of Topsy's own sleeve, yet was she not in the least disconcerted; she only looked at it with an air of the most surprised and unconscious innocence.

  "Laws! why, that ar's Miss Feely's ribbon, an't it? How could it a got caught in my sleeve?

  "Topsy, you naughty girl, don't you tell me a lie,-you stole that ribbon!"

  "Missis, I declar for 't, I didn't;-never seed it till dis yer blessed minnit."

  "Topsy," said Miss Ophelia, "don't you now it's wicked to tell lies?"

  "I never tell no lies, Miss Feely," said Topsy, with virtuous gravity; "it's jist the truth I've been a tellin now, and an't nothin else."

  "Topsy, I shall have to whip you, if you tell lies so."

  "Laws, Missis, if you's to whip all day, couldn't say no other way," said Topsy, beginning to blubber. "I never seed dat ar,-it must a got caught in my sleeve. Miss Feeley must have left it on the bed, and it got caught in the clothes, and so got in my sleeve."

  Miss Ophelia was so indignant at the barefaced lie, that she caught the child and shook her.

  "Don't you tell me that again!"

  The shake brought the glove on to the floor, from the other sleeve.

  "There, you!" said Miss Ophelia, "will you tell me now, you didn't steal the ribbon?"

  Topsy now confessed to the gloves, but still persisted in denying the ribbon.

  "Now, Topsy," said Miss Ophelia, "if you'll confess all about it, I won't whip you this time." Thus adjured, Topsy confessed to the ribbon and gloves, with woful protestations of penitence.

  "Well, now, tell me. I know you must have taken other things since you have been in the house, for I let you run about all day yesterday. Now, tell me if you took anything, and I shan't whip you."

  "Laws, Missis! I took Miss Eva's red thing she wars on her neck."

  "You did, you naughty child!-Well, what else?"

  "I took Rosa's yer-rings,-them red ones."

  "Go bring them to me this minute, both of 'em."

  "Laws, Missis! I can't,-they 's burnt up!"

  "Burnt up!-what a story! Go get 'em, or I'll whip you."

  Topsy, with loud protestations, and tears, and groans, declared that she could not. "They 's burnt up,-they was."

  "What did you burn 'em for?" said Miss Ophelia.

  "Cause I 's wicked,-I is. I 's mighty wicked, any how. I can't help it."

  Just at this moment, Eva came innocently into the room, with the identical coral necklace on her neck.

  "Why, Eva, where did you get your necklace?" said Miss Ophelia.

  "Get it? Why, I've had it on all day," said Eva.

  "Did you have it on yesterday?"

  "Yes; and what is funny, Aunty, I had it on all night. I forgot to take it off when I went to bed."

  Miss Ophelia looked perfectly bewildered; the more so, as Rosa, at that instant, came into the room, with a basket of newly-ironed linen poised on her head, and the coral ear-drops shaking in her ears!

  "I'm sure I can't tell anything what to do with such a child!" she said, in despair. "Wha
t in the world did you tell me you took those things for, Topsy?"

  "Why, Missis said I must 'fess; and I couldn't think of nothin' else to 'fess," said Topsy, rubbing her eyes.

  "But, of course, I didn't want you to confess things you didn't do," said Miss Ophelia; "that's telling a lie, just as much as the other."

  "Laws, now, is it?" said Topsy, with an air of innocent wonder.

  "La, there an't any such thing as truth in that limb," said Rosa, looking indignantly at Topsy. "If I was Mas'r St. Clare, I'd whip her till the blood run. I would,-I'd let her catch it!"

  "No, no Rosa," said Eva, with an air of command, which the child could assume at times; "you mustn't talk so, Rosa. I can't bear to hear it."

  "La sakes! Miss Eva, you 's so good, you don't know nothing how to get along with niggers. There's no way but to cut 'em well up, I tell ye."

  "Rosa!" said Eva, "hush! Don't you say another word of that sort!" and the eye of the child flashed, and her cheek deepened its color.

  Rosa was cowed in a moment.

  "Miss Eva has got the St. Clare blood in her, that's plain. She can speak, for all the world, just like her papa," she said, as she passed out of the room.

  Eva stood looking at Topsy.

  There stood the two children representatives of the two extremes of society. The fair, high-bred child, with her golden head, her deep eyes, her spiritual, noble brow, and prince-like movements; and her black, keen, subtle, cringing, yet acute neighbor. They stood the representatives of their races. The Saxon, born of ages of cultivation, command, education, physical and moral eminence; the Afric, born of ages of oppression, submission, ignorance, toil and vice!

  Something, perhaps, of such thoughts struggled through Eva's mind. But a child's thoughts are rather dim, undefined instincts; and in Eva's noble nature many such were yearning and working, for which she had no power of utterance. When Miss Ophelia expatiated on Topsy's naughty, wicked conduct, the child looked perplexed and sorrowful, but said, sweetly.

  "Poor Topsy, why need you steal? You're going to be taken good care of now. I'm sure I'd rather give you anything of mine, than have you steal it."

  It was the first word of kindness the child had ever heard in her life; and the sweet tone and manner struck strangely on the wild, rude heart, and a sparkle of something like a tear shone in the keen, round, glittering eye; but it was followed by the short laugh and habitual grin. No! the ear that has never heard anything but abuse is strangely incredulous of anything so heavenly as kindness; and Topsy only thought Eva's speech something funny and inexplicable,-she did not believe it.

  But what was to be done with Topsy? Miss Ophelia found the case a puzzler; her rules for bringing up didn't seem to apply. She thought she would take time to think of it; and, by the way of gaining time, and in hopes of some indefinite moral virtues supposed to be inherent in dark closets, Miss Ophelia shut Topsy up in one till she had arranged her ideas further on the subject.

  "I don't see," said Miss Ophelia to St. Clare, "how I'm going to manage that child, without whipping her."

  "Well, whip her, then, to your heart's content; I'll give you full power to do what you like."

  "Children always have to be whipped," said Miss Ophelia; "I never heard of bringing them up without."

  "O, well, certainly," said St. Clare; "do as you think best. Only I'll make one suggestion: I've seen this child whipped with a poker, knocked down with the shovel or tongs, whichever came handiest, &c.; and, seeing that she is used to that style of operation, I think your whippings will have to be pretty energetic, to make much impression."

  "What is to be done with her, then?" said Miss Ophelia.

  "You have started a serious question," said St. Clare; "I wish you'd answer it. What is to be done with a human being that can be governed only by the lash,-that fails,-it's a very common state of things down here!"

  "I'm sure I don't know; I never saw such a child as this."

  "Such children are very common among us, and such men and women, too. How are they to be governed?" said St. Clare.

  "I'm sure it's more than I can say," said Miss Ophelia.

  "Or I either," said St. Clare. "The horrid cruelties and outrages that once and a while find their way into the papers,-such cases as Prue's, for example,-what do they come from? In many cases, it is a gradual hardening process on both sides,-the owner growing more and more cruel, as the servant more and more callous. Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline. I saw this very early when I became an owner; and I resolved never to begin, because I did not know when I should stop,-and I resolved, at least, to protect my own moral nature. The consequence is, that my servants act like spoiled children; but I think that better than for us both to be brutalized together. You have talked a great deal about our responsibilities in educating, Cousin. I really wanted you to try with one child, who is a specimen of thousands among us."

  "It is your system makes such children," said Miss Ophelia.

  "I know it; but they are made,-they exist,-and what is to be done with them?"

  "Well, I can't say I thank you for the experiment. But, then, as it appears to be a duty, I shall persevere and try, and do the best I can," said Miss Ophelia; and Miss Ophelia, after this, did labor, with a commendable degree of zeal and energy, on her new subject. She instituted regular hours and employments for her, and undertook to teach her to read and sew.

  In the former art, the child was quick enough. She learned her letters as if by magic, and was very soon able to read plain reading; but the sewing was a more difficult matter. The creature was as lithe as a cat, and as active as a monkey, and the confinement of sewing was her abomination; so she broke her needles, threw them slyly out of the window, or down in chinks of the walls; she tangled, broke, and dirtied her thread, or, with a sly movement, would throw a spool away altogether. Her motions were almost as quick as those of a practised conjurer, and her command of her face quite as great; and though Miss Ophelia could not help feeling that so many accidents could not possibly happen in succession, yet she could not, without a watchfulness which would leave her no time for anything else, detect her.

  Topsy was soon a noted character in the establishment. Her talent for every species of drollery, grimace, and mimicry,-for dancing, tumbling, climbing, singing, whistling, imitating every sound that hit her fancy,-seemed inexhaustible. In her play-hours, she invariably had every child in the establishment at her heels, open-mouthed with admiration and wonder,-not excepting Miss Eva, who appeared to be fascinated by her wild diablerie, as a dove is sometimes charmed by a glittering serpent. Miss Ophelia was uneasy that Eva should fancy Topsy's society so much, and implored St. Clare to forbid it.

  "Poh! let the child alone," said St. Clare. "Topsy will do her good."

  "But so depraved a child,-are you not afraid she will teach her some mischief?"

  "She can't teach her mischief; she might teach it to some children, but evil rolls off Eva's mind like dew off a cabbage-leaf,-not a drop sinks in."

  "Don't be too sure," said Miss Ophelia. "I know I'd never let a child of mine play with Topsy."

  "Well, your children needn't," said St. Clare, "but mine may; if Eva could have been spoiled, it would have been done years ago."

  Topsy was at first despised and contemned by the upper servants. They soon found reason to alter their opinion. It was very soon discovered that whoever cast an indignity on Topsy was sure to meet with some inconvenient accident shortly after;-either a pair of ear-rings or some cherished trinket would be missing, or an article of dress would be suddenly found utterly ruined, or the person would stumble accidently into a pail of hot water, or a libation of dirty slop would unaccountably deluge them from above when in full gala dress;-and on all these occasions, when investigation was made, there was nobody found to stand sponsor for the indignity. Topsy was cited, and had up before all the domestic judicatories, time and again; but always sustained her examinations with most ed
ifying innocence and gravity of appearance. Nobody in the world ever doubted who did the things; but not a scrap of any direct evidence could be found to establish the suppositions, and Miss Ophelia was too just to feel at liberty to proceed to any length without it.

  The mischiefs done were always so nicely timed, also, as further to shelter the aggressor. Thus, the times for revenge on Rosa and Jane, the two chamber maids, were always chosen in those seasons when (as not unfrequently happened) they were in disgrace with their mistress, when any complaint from them would of course meet with no sympathy. In short, Topsy soon made the household understand the propriety of letting her alone; and she was let alone, accordingly.

  Topsy was smart and energetic in all manual operations, learning everything that was taught her with surprising quickness. With a few lessons, she had learned to do the proprieties of Miss Ophelia's chamber in a way with which even that particular lady could find no fault. Mortal hands could not lay spread smoother, adjust pillows more accurately, sweep and dust and arrange more perfectly, than Topsy, when she chose,-but she didn't very often choose. If Miss Ophelia, after three or four days of careful patient supervision, was so sanguine as to suppose that Topsy had at last fallen into her way, could do without over-looking, and so go off and busy herself about something else, Topsy would hold a perfect carnival of confusion, for some one or two hours. Instead of making the bed, she would amuse herself with pulling off the pillowcases, butting her woolly head among the pillows, till it would sometimes be grotesquely ornamented with feathers sticking out in various directions; she would climb the posts, and hang head downward from the tops; flourish the sheets and spreads all over the apartment; dress the bolster up in Miss Ophelia's night-clothes, and enact various performances with that,-singing and whistling, and making grimaces at herself in the looking-glass; in short, as Miss Ophelia phrased it, "raising Cain" generally.

  On one occasion, Miss Ophelia found Topsy with her very best scarlet India Canton crape shawl wound round her head for a turban, going on with her rehearsals before the glass in great style,-Miss Ophelia having, with carelessness most unheard-of in her, left the key for once in her drawer.