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28]
Content or not?
“ Have you ever been at the
North?”
I asked.
The eye that had looked frivolous but a moment before, now suddenly-flashed with earnestness — it paid, I thought, a very eloquent eulogium on the institutions of the
North.
“ No, massa, no!”
he responded in a sad tone of voice, “neber, and I neber ‘specks to be dar.”
“ You would like to go there?”
I remarked.
It is very easy to ascertain the opinions of simple people, from the peculiar expression of their eyes: I saw at once that my colored companion was struggling with the suspicion that he might be speaking to a spy.
“ You come from
de North?”
he asked cautiously.
“I am a Northern abolitionist: do you know what that means?”
“ Oh, yes, massa,” said Sambo, “you's for the slave.
Do you tink, massa, dat we'll all get out of bondage yet?”
“I hope you will, my boy — very soon.”
“Dunno, massa; I's feared not. I's allus heerd dem talking ‘bout freedom comina, but it amn't comed yet.”
“
You wish you were free?”
“ Oh, yes, massa--
we all does.”
“ Do all the colored people you know wish to be free?”
“
Yes, massa, they all does indeed.”
I spoke with him a little longer; looked into the barn where about a dozen persons, of both sexes, were thrashing rice with cudgels, and then I addressed another man of color.
