woman, as a representative of the African race. Standing on the average level of moral perceptions she would have maintained a virtuous character in an ordinary community, and that she could not do so here, added to her souse of degradation and rendered her indifferent to anything higher.
The brunette was still there, now the presiding mistress of the house, exciting both the hatred and contempt of the other slaves, by her assumed superiority over them, as if a free white woman. Mrs. Carleton had long since dispensed with her attendance, since which time she had maintained a more independent position than before. She followed her business as seamstress, subject to the control of no one, not even of her master, over whom she had obtained such unlimited sway that every desire was granted, and her wardrobe equalled that of her mistress in beauty and richness.
The time came at length when Chrissy volunteered an account of herself. Mrs. Carleton had gained strength rapidly for a few days, having nerved herself to bear her fate with becoming resignation, and resolved that her happiness for the future should be centered in her two children, a son and daughter, both of whom closely resembled their mother. She intended to preserve them as much as possible from the demoralizing influences by which they were surrounded, and instil into their minds northern ideas and the precepts that had formed the basis of her own education. Not yet fully awake to the crippling nature of slave institutions, it had not occurred to her that they could interpose a barrier between the
