d told. As now judged, the novel has
some serious imperfections as a picture of slavery. Probably the most
important of these was expressed by Judge Tourgee, para-phrasing the
proverb about the Russian and the Tartar: "Scratch one of Mrs. Stowe's
negroes, and you will find a white man." She failed adequately to
differentiate the two races, and described the negro too much from such
specimens as Uncle Tom and George and Eliza Harris. She had never lived
in the South, and her knowledge was obtained from observation in the
border town of Cincinnati, from acquaintance with fugitives, and from
the reports of Northern travelers--all interpreted with the insight of
genius and the impulse of philanthropy. Her avowed purpose was not to
make a literal or merely artistic picture, but to show the actual wrongs
and legalized possibilities of wrong which called for redress. It did
not lessen the justice of her plea, that the mass of negroes were more
degraded than she knew, or that their average treatment was kinder than
her portrayal showed.

But a true historical judgment of slavery must rest on a comparison of
documents. The story told from the master's standpoint should be heard.
Among the faithful and graphic narrations of this sort may be named Mrs.
Burton Harrison's _Flower de Hundred_,--a volume of personal
reminiscences of Virginia before the war. It is a charming story,
without motive other than the pleasure of recalling happy memories, and
it describes a society of various and vivid charm. The mention of the
slaves is occasional and incidental; but the description of the
plantation hands, and especially the household servants, trusted and
beloved, gives a sunny and doubtless a real side of slavery. Another
book is fuller and more impressive in its treatment. It might be said
that every American ought to read _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ as a part of his
education, and to follow it with two other books of real life. One of
these is _A Southern Planter_,--a biography of Thomas Dabney, of
Virginia and later of Mississippi, written by his daughter. It is a
story amply worth reading for its human interest, and for its
presentation of a man of noble and beautiful character. One is enriched
by the acquaintance, even through a book, of a man like Thomas Dabney.
And it is most desirable for the Northerner to vivify his impression of
the South by the knowledge of men like him. We are misled by general and
geographical terms: "an Englishman"