"Daisy, you are talking the most unspeakable nonsense," said Preston, quite put beyond himself now. "Don't you know any better than that? These people are our servants—they are our property—we are to do what we like with them; and of course the law must see that we are protected, or the blacks and the whites could not live together."
"A man may be your servant, but he cannot be your property," I said.
"Yes he can! They are our property, just as much as the land is; our goods to do as we like with. Didn't you know that?"
"Property is something that you can buy and sell," I answered.
"And we sell the people, and buy them too, as fast as we like."
"Sell them!" I echoed, thinking of Darry.
"Certainly."
"And who would buy them?"
"Why all the world; everybody. There has been nobody sold off the Magnolia estate, I believe, in a long time; but no
thing is more common, Daisy; everybody is doing it everywhere, when he has got too many servants, or when he has got too few."