Important Quotations Explained
1. “You
ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures!
It's a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I'll break it, for
one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance,
I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can't give a
warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because
they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives,
poor things!” “But, Mary, just listen to me. Your feelings are all
quite right, dear . . . but, then, dear, we mustn't suffer our feelings to
run away with our judgment; you must consider it's not a matter
of private feeling,—there are great public interests involved,—there
is a state of public agitation rising, that we must put aside our
private feelings.” “Now, John, I don't know anything about politics,
but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean
to follow.”
2. “I
looks like gwine to heaven,” said the woman; “an't thar where white
folks is gwine? S'pose they'd have me thar? I'd rather go to torment,
and get away from Mas'r and Missis.”
3. “Mas'r,
if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I'd
give ye my heart's blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in
this poor old body would save your precious soul, I'd give 'em freely,
as the Lord gave his for me. Oh, Mas'r! don't bring this great sin
on your soul! It will hurt you more than't will me! Do the worst
you can, my troubles'll be over soon; but, if ye don't repent, yours
won't never end!”
4. “Witness,
eternal God! Oh, witness that, from this hour, I will do what one
man can to drive out this curse of slavery from my land!”
5. “It
was on his grave, my friends, that I resolved, before God, that
I would never own another slave, while it is possible to free him;
that nobody, through me, should ever run the risk of being parted
from home and friends, and dying on a lonely plantation, as he died.
So, when you rejoice in your freedom, think that you owe it to that
good old soul, and pay it back in kindness to his wife and children.
Think of your freedom, every time you see
uncle tom's
cabin; and let it be a memorial to put you all in mind
to follow in his steps, and be as honest and faithful and Christian
as he was.”
