“D — d bosh!” said Tom Gordon.
Aunt Nesbit looked across the table as if she were going to faint. But Mr. Jekyl’s composure was not in the slightest degree interrupted.
“I can tell you,” he said, “that, in a business, practical view, — for I am used to investments, — that, since the publishing of those catechisms, and the missionaries’ work among the niggers, the value of that kind of property has risen ten per cent. They are better contented. They don’t run away, as they used to. Just that simple idea that their master stands in God’s place to them. Why, you see, it cuts its way.”
“I have a radical objection to all that kind of instruction,” said Clayton.
Aunt Nesbit opened her eyes, as if she could hardly believe her hearing.
“And pray what is your objection?” said Mr. Jekyl, with an unmoved countenance.
“My objection is that it is all a lie,” said Clayton in such a positive tone that everybody looked at him with a start.
Clayton was one of those silent men who are seldom roused to talk, but who go with a rush when they are. Not seeming to notice the startled looks of the company, he went on: “It’s a worse lie, because it’s told to bewilder a simple, ignorant, confiding creature. I never could conceive how a decent man could ever look another man in the face and say such things. I remember reading, in one of the missionary reports, that when this doctrine was first propounded in an assembly of negroes somewhere, all the most intelligent of them got up and walked deliberately out of the house; and I honor them for it.”
“Good for them!” said Tom Gordon. “I can keep my niggers down without any such stuff as that!”
“I have no doubt,” said Clayton, “that these missionaries are well-intending, good men, and that they actually think the only way to get access to the negroes at all is to be very positive in what will please the masters. But I think they fall into the same error that the Jesuits did when they adulterated Christianity with idolatry in order to get admission in Japan. A lie never works well in religion, nor in morals.”
“That’s what I believe,” said Nina warmly.
“But then, if you can’t teach them this, what can you teach them?” said Mr. Jekyl.
“Confound it all!” said Tom Gordon, “teach them that you’ve got the power! — teach them the weight of your fist! That’s enough for them. I am bad enough, I know; but I can’t bear hypocrisy. I show a fellow my pistol. I say to him, You see that, sir! I tell him, You do so and so, and you shall have a good time with me. But you do that, and I’ll thrash you within an inch of your life! That’s my short method with niggers, and poor whites, too. When one of these canting fellows comes round to my plantation, let him see what he’ll get, that’s all!”
Mr. Jekyl appeared properly shocked at this declaration. Aunt Nesbit looked as if it was just what she had expected, and went on eating her potato with a mournful air, as if nothing could surprise her. Nina looked excessively annoyed, and turned a sort of appealing glance upon Clayton.
“For my part,” said Clayton, “I base my religious instruction to my people on the ground that every man and every woman must give an account of themselves to God alone; and that God is to be obeyed first, and before me.”
“Why,” said Mr. Jekyl, “that would be destructive of all discipline. If you are going to allow every fellow to judge for himself, among a parcel of ignorant, selfish wretches, what the will of God is, one will think it’s one thing, another will think it’s another; and there will be an end of all order. It would be absolutely impossible to govern a place in that way.”
“They must not be left an ignorant set,” said Clayton. “They must be taught to read the Scriptures for themselves, and be able to see that my authority accords with it. If I command anything contrary to it, they ought to oppose it!”
“Ah! I should like to see a plantation managed in that way!” said Tom Gordon scornfully.
“Please God, you shall see such an one, if you’ll come to mine,” said Clayton, “where I should be very happy to see you, sir.”
The tone in which this was said was so frank and sincere that Tom was silenced, and could not help a rather sullen acknowledgment.
“I think,” said Mr. Jekyl, “that you’ll find such a course, however well it may work at first, will fail at last. You begin to let people think, and they won’t stop where you want them to; they’ll go too far; it’s human nature. The more you give, the more you may give. You once get your fellows to thinking, and asking all sorts of questions, and they get discontented at once. I’ve seen that thing tried in one or two instances, and it didn’t turn out well. Fellows got restless and discontented. The more was given to them, the more dissatisfied they grew, till finally they put for the free states.”
“Very well,” said Clayton; “if that’s to be the result, they may all ‘put’ as soon as they can get ready. If my title to them won’t bear an intelligent investigation, I don’t wish to keep them. But I never will consent to keep them by making false statements to them in the name of religion, and presuming to put myself as an object of obedience before my Maker.”
“I think,” said Mr. Carson, “Mr. Clayton shows an excellent spirit — excellent spirit! On my word, I think so. I wish some of our northern agitators, who make such a fuss on the subject, could hear him. I’m always disgusted with these Abolitionists producing such an unpleasantness between the North and the South, interrupting trade, and friendship, and all that sort of thing.”
“He shows an excellent spirit,” said Mr. Jekyl; “but I must think he is mistaken if he thinks that he can bring up people in that way, under our institutions, and not do them more harm than good. It’s a notorious fact that the worst insurrections have arisen from the reading of the Bible by these ignorant fellows. That was the case with Nat Turner, in Virginia. That was the case with Denmark Vesey, and his crew, in South Carolina. I tell you, sir, it will never do, this turning out a set of ignorant people to pasture in the Bible! That blessed book is a savor of life unto life when it’s used right; but it’s a savor of death unto death when ignorant people take hold of it. The proper way is this: administer such portions only as these creatures are capable of understanding. This admirable system of religious instruction keeps the matter in our own hands, by allowing us to select for them such portions of the word as are best fitted to keep them quiet, dutiful, and obedient; and I venture to predict that whoever undertakes to manage a plantation on any other system will soon find it getting out of his hands.”
“So you are afraid to trust the Lord’s word without holding the bridle!” said Tom, with a sneer. “That’s pretty well for you!”
“I am not!” said Clayton. “I’m willing to resign any rights to any one that I am not able to defend in God’s word — any that I cannot make apparent to any man’s cultivated reason. I scorn the idea that I must dwarf a man’s mind, and keep him ignorant and childish, in order to make him believe any lie I choose to tell him about my rights over him! I intend to have an educated, intelligent people, who shall submit to me because they think it clearly for their best interests to do so; because they shall feel that what I command is right in the sight of God.”
“It’s my opinion,” said Tom, “that both these ways of managing are humbugs. One way makes hypocrites, and the other makes rebels. The best way of educating is, to show folks that they can’t help themselves. All the fussing and arguing in the world isn’t worth one dose of certainty on that point. Just let them know that there are no two ways about it, and you’ll have all still enough.”
From this point the conversation was pursued with considerable warmth, till Nina and Aunt Nesbit rose and retired to the drawing-room. Perhaps it did not materially discourage Clayton, in the position he had taken, that Nina, with the frankness usual to her, expressed the most eager and undisguised admiration of all that he said.
“Didn’t he talk beautifully? Wasn’t it noble?” she said to Aunt Nesbit, as she came in the drawing-room. “And
that hateful Jekyl! isn’t he mean?”
“Child!” said Aunt Nesbit, “I’m surprised to hear you speak so! Mr. Jekyl is a very respectable lawyer, an elder in the church, and a very pious man. He has given me some most excellent advice about my affairs; and he is going to take Milly with him, and find her a good place. He’s been making some investigations, Nina, and he’s going to talk to you about them, after dinner. He’s discovered that there’s an estate in Mississippi worth a hundred thousand dollars, that ought properly to come to you!”
“I don’t believe a word of it!” said Nina. “Don’t like the man! — think he is hateful! — don’t want to hear anything he has to say! — don’t believe in him!”
“Nina, how often have I warned you against such sudden prejudices — against such a good man, too!”
“You won’t make me believe he is good, not if he were elder in twenty churches!”
“Well, but, child, at any rate you must listen to what he has got to say. Your brother will be very angry if you don’t, and it’s really very important. At any rate, you ought not to offend Tom, when you can help it.”
“That’s true enough,” said Nina; “and I’ll hear, and try and behave as well as I can. I hope the man will go, some time or other! I don’t know why, but his talk makes me feel worse than Tom’s swearing! That’s certain.”
Aunt Nesbit looked at Nina as if she considered her in a most hopeless condition.
CHAPTER XV
MR. JEKYL’S OPINIONS
AFTER the return of the gentlemen to the drawingroom, Nina, at the request of Tom, followed him and Mr. Jekyl into the library.
“Mr. Jekyl is going to make some statements to us, Nina, about our property in Mississippi, which, if they turn out as he expects, will set us up in the world,” said Tom.
Nina threw herself carelessly into the leather armchair by the window, and looked out of it.
“You see,” said Mr. Jekyl, also seating himself, and pulling out the stiff points of his collar, “having done law business for your father, and known, in that way, a good deal about the family property, I have naturally always felt a good deal of interest in it; and you remember your father’s sister, Mrs. Stewart, inherited, on the death of her husband, a fine estate in Mississippi.”
“I remember,” said Tom,—”well, go on.”
“Well, she died, and left it all to her son. Well, he, it seems like some other young men, lived in a very reprehensible union with a handsome quadroon girl, who was his mother’s maid; and she, being an artful creature, I suppose, as a great many of them are, got such an ascendency over him that he took her up to Ohio, and married her, and lived there with her some years, and had two children by her. Well, you see, he had a deed of emancipation recorded for her in Mississippi, and just taking her into Ohio, set her free by the laws of that state. Well, you see, he thought he’d fixed it so that the thing couldn’t be undone, and she thought so too; and I understand she’s a pretty shrewd woman — has a considerable share of character, or else she wouldn’t have done just what she has; for, you see, he died about six months ago, and left the plantation and all the property to her and her children, and she has been so secure that she has actually gone and taken possession. You see, she is so near white, you must know that there isn’t one in twenty would think what she was, — and the people round there, actually, some of them, had forgotten all about it, and didn’t know but what she was a white woman from Ohio; and so, you see, the thing never would have been looked into at all, if I hadn’t happened to have been down there. But, you see, she turned off an overseer that had managed the place, because the people complained of him; and I happened to fall in with the man, and he began telling me his story, and after a little inquiry, I found who these people were. Well, sir, I just went to one of the first lawyers, for I suspected there was false play; and we looked over the emancipation laws together, and we found out that, as the law stood, the deed of emancipation was no more than so much waste paper. And so, you see, she and her children are just as much slaves as any on her plantation; and the whole property, which is worth a hundred thousand dollars, belongs to your family. I rode out with him, and looked over the place, and got introduced to her and her children, and looked them over. Considered as property, I should call them a valuable lot. She is past forty, but she don’t look older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I should say. She is a very good-looking woman, and then, I’m told, a very capable woman. Well, her price in the market might range between one thousand and fifteen hundred dollars. Smalley said he had seen no better article sold for two thousand dollars; but then, he said, they had to give a false certificate as to the age, — and that I couldn’t hear of, for I never countenance anything like untruth. Then, the woman’s children: she has got two fine-looking children as I have ever seen — almost white. The boy is about ten years old; the little girl, about four. You may be sure I was pretty careful not to let on, because I consider the woman and children are an important part of the property, and, of course, nothing had better be said about it, lest she should be off before we are ready to come down on them. Now, you see, you Gordons are the proper owners of this whole property; there isn’t the slightest doubt in my mind that you ought to put in your claim immediately. The act of emancipation was contrary to law, and though the man meant well, yet it amounted to a robbery of the heirs. I declare, it rather raised my indignation to see that creature so easy in the possession of property which of right belongs to you. Now, if I have only the consent of the heirs, I can go on and commence operations immediately.”
Nina had been sitting regarding Mr. Jekyl with a fixed and determined expression of countenance. When he had finished, she said to him, —
“Mr. Jekyl, I understand you are an elder in the church; is that true?”
“Yes, Miss Gordon, I have that privilege,” said Mr. Jekyl, his sharp, business tone subsiding into a sigh.
“Because,” said Nina, “I am a wild young girl, and don’t profess to know much about religion; but I want you to tell me, as a Christian, if you think it would be right to take this woman and children, and her property.”
“Why, certainly, my dear Miss Gordon; isn’t it right that every one should have his own property? I view things simply with the eye of the law; and in the eye of the law that woman and her children are as much your property as the shoe on your foot; there is no manner of doubt of it.”
“I should think,” said Nina, “that you might see with the eye of the gospel, sometimes! Do you think, Mr. Jekyl, that doing this is doing as I should wish to be done by, if I were in the place of this woman?”
“My dear Miss Gordon, young ladies of fine feeling, at your time of life, are often confused on this subject by a wrong application of the Scripture language. Suppose I were a robber, and had possession of your property? Of course, I shouldn’t wish to be made to give it up. But would it follow that the golden rule obliged the lawful possessor not to take it from me? This woman is your property; this estate is your property, and she is holding it as unlawfully as a robber. Of course, she won’t want to give it up; but right is right, notwithstanding.”
Like many other young persons, Nina could feel her way out of sophistry much sooner than she could think it out; and she answered to all this reasoning, —
“After all, I can’t think it would be right.”
“Oh, confound the humbug!” said Tom; “who cares whether it is right or not? The fact is, Nin, to speak plain sense to you, you and I both are deuced hard up for money, and want all we can get; and what’s the use of being more religious than the very saints themselves at our time of day? Mr. Jekyl is a pious man — one of the tallest kind! He thinks this is all right, and why need we set ourselves all up? He has talked with Uncle John, and he goes in for it. As for my part, I am free to own I don’t care whether it’s right or not! I’ll do it if I can. Might makes right, — that’s my doctrine!”
“Why,” said Mr. Jekyl, “I have examined the subject, and I haven�
��t the slightest doubt that slavery is a divinely appointed institution, and that the rights of the masters are sanctioned by God; so however much I may naturally feel for this woman, whose position is, I must say, an unfortunate one, still it is my duty to see that the law is properly administered in the case.”
“All I have to say, Mr. Jekyl,” said Nina, “is just this: that I won’t have anything to do with this matter; for, if I can’t prove it’s wrong, I shall always feel it is.”
“Nina, how ridiculous!” said Tom.
“I have said my say,” said Nina, as she rose and left the room.
“Very natural, — fine feelings, but uninstructed,” said Mr. Jekyl.
“Certainly, we pious folks know a trick worth two of that, don’t we?” said Tom. “I say, Jekyl, this sister of mine is a pretty rapid little case, I can tell you, as you saw by the way she circumvented us this morning. She is quite capable of upsetting the whole dish, unless we go about it immediately. You see, her pet nigger, this Harry, is this woman’s brother; and if she gave him the word, he’d write at once, and put her on the alarm. You and I had better start off to-morrow, before this Harry comes back. I believe he is to be gone a few days. It’s no matter whether she consents to the suit or not. She don’t need to know anything about it.”
“Well,” said Jekyl, “I advise you to go right on, and have the woman and children secured. It’s a perfectly fair, legal proceeding. There has been an evident evasion of the law of the state, by means of which your family are defrauded of an immense sum. At all events, it will be tried in an open court of justice, and she will be allowed to appear by her counsel. It’s a perfectly plain, aboveboard proceeding; and as the young lady has shown such fine feelings, there’s the best reason to suppose that the fate of this woman would be as good in her hands as in her own.”
Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe Page 81