Eliza had been brought up by her mistress, from girlhood, as a pettedand indulged favorite.

The traveller in the south must often have remarked that peculiar air ofrefinement, that softness of voice and manner, which seems in many casesto be a particular gift to the quadroon and mulatto women. These naturalgraces in the quadroon are often united with beauty of the most dazzlingkind, and in almost every case with a personal appearance prepossessingand agreeable. Eliza, such as we have described her, is not a fancysketch, but taken from remembrance, as we saw her, years ago, inKentucky. Safe under the protecting care of her mistress, Eliza hadreached maturity without those temptations which make beauty so fatalan inheritance to a slave. She had been married to a bright and talentedyoung mulatto man, who was a slave on a neighboring estate, and bore thename of George Harris.

This young man had been hired out by his master to work in a baggingfactory, where his adroitness and ingenuity caused him to be consideredthe first hand in the place. He had invented a machine for the cleaningof the hemp, which, considering the education and circumstances ofthe inventor, displayed quite as much mechanical genius as Whitney'scotton-gin.*

* A machine of this description was really the invention of a young colored man in Kentucky. [Mrs. Stowe's note.]

He was possessed of a handsome person and pleasing manners, and was ageneral favorite in the factory. Nevertheless, as this young man wasin the eye of the law not a man, but a thing, all these superiorqualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded,tyrannical master. This same gentleman, having heard of the fame ofGeorge's invention, took a ride over to the factory, to see whatthis intelligent chattel had been about. He was received with greatenthusiasm by the employer, who congratulated him on possessing sovaluable a slave.

He was waited upon over the factory, shown the machinery by George, who,in high spirits, talked so fluently, held himself so erect, lookedso handsome and manly, that his master began to feel an uneasyconsciousness of inferiority. What business had his slave to be marchinground the country, inventing machines, and holding up his head amonggentlemen? He'd soon put a stop to it. He'd take him back, and puthim to hoeing and digging, and "see if he'd step about so smart."Accordingly, the manufacturer and all hands concerned were astoundedwhen he suddenly demanded George's wages, and announced his intention oftaking him home.

"But, Mr. Harris," remonstrated the manufacturer, "isn't this rathersudden?"

"What if it is?--isn't the man _mine_?"

"We would be willing, sir, to increase the rate of compensation."

"No object at all, sir. I don't need to hire any of my hands out, unlessI've a mind to."

"But, sir, he seems peculiarly adapted to this business."

"Dare say he may be; never was much adapted to anything that I set himabout, I'll be bound."

"But only think of his inventing this machine," interposed one of theworkmen, rather unluckily.

"O yes! a machine for saving work, is it? He'd invent that, I'll bebound; let a nigger alone for that, any time. They are all labor-savingmachines themselves, every one of 'em. No, he shall tramp!"

George had stood like one transfixed, at hearing his doom thus suddenlypronounced by a power that he knew was irresistible. He folded his arms,tightly pressed in his lips, but a whole volcano of bitter feelingsburned in his bosom, and sent streams of fire through his veins. Hebreathed short, and his large dark eyes flashed like live coals; and hemight have broken out into some dangerous ebullition, had not the kindlymanufacturer touched him on the arm, and said, in a low tone,

"Give way, George; go with him for the present. We'll try to help you,yet."

The tyrant observed the whisper, and conjectured its import, though hecould not hear what was said; and he inwardly strengthened himself inhis determination to keep the power he possessed over his victim.

George was taken home, and put to the meanest drudgery of the farm. Hehad been able to repress every disrespectful word; but the flashing eye,the gloomy and troubled brow, were part of a natural language that couldnot be repressed,--indubitable signs, which showed too plainly that theman could not become a thing.

It was during the happy period of his employment in the factory thatGeorge had seen and married his wife. During that period,--being muchtrusted and favored by his employer,--he had free liberty to come and goat discretion. The marriage was highly approved of by Mrs. Shelby, who,with a little womanly complacency in match-making, felt pleased to uniteher handsome favorite with one of her own class who seemed in every waysuited to her; and so they were married in her mistress' great parlor,and her mistress herself adorned the bride's beautiful hair withorange-blossoms, and threw over it the bridal veil, which certainlycould scarce have rested on a fairer head; and there was no lack ofwhite gloves, and cake and wine,--of admiring guests to praise thebride's beauty, and her mistress' indulgence and liberality. For ayear or two Eliza saw her husband frequently, and there was nothing tointerrupt their happiness, except the loss of two infant children, towhom she was passionately attached, and whom she mourned with a griefso intense as to call for gentle remonstrance from her mistress, whosought, with maternal anxiety, to direct her naturally passionatefeelings within the bounds of reason and religion.

After the birth of little Harry, however, she had gradually becometranquillized and settled; and every bleeding tie and throbbing nerve,once more entwined with that little life, seemed to become sound andhealthful, and Eliza was a happy woman up to the time that her husbandwas rudely torn from his kind employer, and brought under the iron swayof his legal owner.

The manufacturer, true to his word, visited Mr. Harris a week or twoafter George had been taken away, when, as he hoped, the heat of theoccasion had passed away, and tried every possible inducement to leadhim to restore him to his former employment.

"You needn't trouble yourself to talk any longer," said he, doggedly; "Iknow my own business, sir."

"I did not presume to interfere with it, sir. I only thought that youmight think it for your interest to let your man to us on the termsproposed."

"O, I understand the matter well enough. I saw your winking andwhispering, the day I took him out of the factory; but you don't come itover me that way. It's a free country, sir; the man's _mine_, and I dowhat I please with him,--that's it!"

And so fell George's last hope;--nothing before him but a life of toiland drudgery, rendered more bitter by every little smarting vexation andindignity which tyrannical ingenuity could devise.

A very humane jurist once said, The worst use you can put a man to isto hang him. No; there is another use that a man can be put to that isWORSE!