So  he  reasons,  because,  as  I  said,  he  is  born  an  aristocrat ;  —  so
I  don't  believe,  because  I  was  born  a  democrat."

"  How  in  the  world  can  the  two  things  be  compared  ?  "  said
Miss  Ophelia.  "  The  English  laborer  is  not  sold,  traded,  parted
from  his  family,  whipped."

"  He  is  as  much  at  the  will  of  his  employer  as  if  he  were
sold  to  him.  The  slave-owner  can  whip  his  refractory  slave
to  death,  —  the  capitalist  can  starve  him  to  death.  As  to
family  security,  it  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the  worst,  —  to  have
one's  children  sold,  or  see  them  starve  to  death  at  home."

"  But  it 's  no  kind  of  apology  for  slavery,  to  prove  that  it
is  n't  worse  than  some  other  bad  thing."

"  I  did  n't  give  it  for  one,  —  nay,  I  'U  say,  besides,  that  ours
is  the  more  bold  and  palpable  infringement  of  human  rights ;
actually  buying  a  man  up,  like  a  horse,  —  looking  at  his  teeth,
cracking  his  joints,  and  trying  his  paces,  and  then  paying  dowi


LIFE  AMONG  THE  LOWLY.  255

for  him,  — havflig  speculators,  breeders,  traders,  and  brokers  in
human  bodies  and  souls,  —  sets  the  thing  before  the  eyes  of  the
eiyUized  world  in  a  more  tangible  form,  though  the  thing  done
be,  after  all,  in  its  nature,  the  same  ;  that  is,  appropriating  one
Bet  of  human  beings  to  the  use  and  improvement  of  another^
without  any  regard  to  their  own."

"  I  never  thought  of  the  matter  m  this  light,"  said  Miss
Ophelia.
