The magic of the real presence of distress,--the imploring human
eye, the frail, trembling human hand, the despairing appeal of helpless
agony,--these he had never tried. He had never thought that a fugitive
might be a hapless mother, a defenceless child...."
In chapters of intense dramatic power, Mrs. Stowe shows a slave mother and
her child escaping on the floating ice across the Ohio. They come for
refuge to the home of Senator Bird.
"'Were you a slave?' said Mr. Bird.
"'Yes, sir; I belonged to a man in Kentucky.'
"'Was he unkind to you?'
"'No, sir; he was a good master.'
"'And was your mistress unkind to you?'
"'No, sir,--no! my mistress was always good to me.'"
Senator Bird learned that the master and mistress were in debt, and that a
creditor had a claim which could be discharged only by the sale of the
child. "Then it was," said the slave mother, "I took him and left my home
and came away."
Mrs. Stowe's knowledge of psychological values is shown in the means taken
to make it appear to Senator John Bird that it would be the natural thing
for him to defeat his own law, by driving the woman and her child seven
miles in the dead of night to a place of greater safety.
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