Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/419

 firmed — that she was a slave, Mr Gilmore's slave, sold to him by Mr Grip Curtis, to whom she had come by inheritance from his brother and her father!

"And, my dear," said Mr Gilmore, chucking her familiarly under the chin, with the leer of an old reprobate, as he was, "that you may fully comprehend the precise legal condition in which you stand, just hear what the law of Louisiana says upon the subject." Here he took down a book from a shelf. "This, my girl," he continued, "is the Code Noir, or Black Code, of this state, and thus it lays down the law: 'The condition of a slave being merely a passive one, his subordination to his master'? — it reads his, child, but it means her too — 'is not susceptible of any modification or restriction, in such a manner that he owes to his master, and to all his family, a respect without bounds, and an absolute obedience; and he is, consequently, to execute all the orders which he receives from him, his said master, or from them,

"The civil code," so this learned lawyer continued, "Lays it down much in the same way." Here he read from another and a larger book. A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, and acquire nothing but what must belong to his master" That, my girl, is the law of Louisiana, and under that law you are my slave. I hope you will see the necessity of conforming yourself to your condition and to my wishes. We must all submit," he added, with a snuffle, "to the decrees of Providence, and the law of the land."

Many young ladies in Eliza's situation would have screamed; many would have gone into hysterics; many would have fainted; some would have gone mad. She did neither. She merely expressed her fixed determination never, by any act or consent of hers, to give the smallest countenance to any body's pretension to make a slave of her.