noon
They were always greeted with fulsome cordiality , and there was always surprise that persons of their rank and consequence should travel unaccompanied by a retinue of servants . He found things the same wherever he stopped . None of the farms were producing more than a quarter of the potential yield per acre , and all depleting the soil outrageously . Ten slaves -- he did n't bother to think of them as freedmen -- doing the work of one , and a hundred of them taking all day to do what one robot would have done before noon . White-gowned chief-slaves lording it over green and orange gowned supervisors and clerks ; overseers still carrying and frequently using whips and knouts and sandbag flails . Once or twice , when a Masterly back was turned , he caught a look of murderous hatred flickering into the eyes of some upper-slave . Once or twice , when a Master thought his was turned , he caught the same look in Masterly eyes , directed at him or at Lanze .