| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: only second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and
child. This representation is doubtless believed by many
northern people; and this may account, in part, for the lack of
interest which we find among persons whom we are bound to believe
to be honest and humane. What, then, are the facts? Here I will
not quote my own experience in slavery; for this you might call
one-sided testimony. I will not cite the declarations of
abolitionists; for these you might pronounce exaggerations. I
will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; for these
you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to the laws
adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: very terms applying to the struggle which Louis XVI. encouraged. While
making their "independences" and "poverties," the players kept an eye
on the countess, who had fallen asleep, overcome by fatigue, with a
singular smile on her lips, her last waking thought having been of the
terror two words could inspire in the minds of the peaceful company by
informing the d'Hauteserres that their sons had passed the preceding
night under that roof. What young girl of twenty-three would not have
been, as Laurence was, proud to play the part of Destiny? and who
would not have felt, as she did, a sense of compassion for those whom
she felt to be so far below her in loyalty?
"She sleeps," said the abbe. "I have never seen her so wearied."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: wooing, we found ourselves still more bewildered by lack of
tradition of matrimony.
And here again, I have to draw on later experience, and as
deep an acquaintance with their culture as I could achieve, to
explain the gulfs of difference between us.
Two thousand years of one continuous culture with no men.
Back of that, only traditions of the harem. They had no exact
analogue for our word HOME, any more than they had for our
Roman-based FAMILY.
They loved one another with a practically universal affection,
rising to exquisite and unbroken friendships, and broadening to
Herland |
