Minnie's Sacrifice by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
page 34 of 117 (29%)
page 34 of 117 (29%)
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was amused, however, about one thing; for the young man who gave up his
seat was compelled to ride about a mile standing." "Served him right," said Thomas Carpenter; "it was a very contemptible action, to attempt to punish the hardihood of the young lady by attempting to soil her mother's dress; and yet little souls who feel a morbid satisfaction in trampling on the weak, always sink themselves in the scale of manhood." While this conversation was going on, the tea bell rang, and Josiah and his little charge sat down to a well supplied table; for the Friends, though plain and economical, are no enemies to good living. Anna had brought the high-chair in which their own darling had sat a few months before, when she had made gladness and sunshine around her parent's path. There was a tender light in the eye of the Quakeress as she dusted the chair, and sat Minnie at the table. "Do you think," said Thomas, addressing Josiah, "that we will ever outgrow this wicked, miserable prejudice?" "Oh, yes, but it must be the work of time. Both races have their work to do. The colored man must outgrow his old condition of things, and thus create around him a new class of associations. This generation has known him as a being landless, poor, and ignorant. One of the most important things for him to do is to acquire land. He will never gain his full measure of strength until (like Anteus) he touches the earth. And I think here is the great fault, or misfortune of the race; they seem to me to |
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