meanness or viciousness in him. The point was that Michael had been
trained, from his first dawn of consciousness, to differentiate between
black men and white men. Black men were always the servants of white
men--or such had been his experience; and always they were objects of
suspicion, ever bent on wreaking mischief and requiring careful watching.
The cardinal duty of a dog was to serve his white god by keeping a
vigilant eye on all blacks that came about.

Yet Michael permitted Kwaque to serve him in matters of food, water, and
other offices, at first in the absence of Steward attending to his ship
duties, and, later, at any time. For he realized, without thinking about
it at all, that whatever Kwaque did for him, whatever food Kwaque spread
for him, really proceeded, not from Kwaque, but from Kwaque's master who
was also his master. Yet Kwaque bore no grudge against Michael, and was
himself so interested in his lord's welfare and comfort--this lord who
had saved his life that terrible day on King William Island from the two
grief-stricken pig-owners--that he cherished Michael for his lord's sake.
Seeing the dog growing into his master's affection, Kwaque himself
developed a genuine affection for Michael--much in the same way that he
worshipped anything of the steward's, whether the shoes he polished for
him, the clothes he brushed and cleaned for him, or the six bottles of
beer he put into the ice-chest each day for him.

In truth, there was nothing of the master-quality in Kwaque, while
Michael was a natural aristocrat. Michael, out of love, would serve
Steward, but Michael lorded it over the kinky-head. Kwaque possessed
overwhelmingly the slave-nature, while in Michael there was little more
of the slave-nature than was found in the North American Indians when the
vain attempt was made to make them into slaves on the plantations of
Cuba. All of which was no personal vice of Kwaque or virtue of Michael.