Looking at Brinkerhoff, Alfred asked: “You white folks have easy times, don’t you?” “Why so, Alfred?” I asked. “You have liberty to come and go as you will,” he replied. I soon found that he was full of discontent with his lot, and I thought it wise to turn his attention to the brighter side.… I showed him how freedom had its burdens as well as slavery; that God had so constituted human life that every one in every station had a load to carry, and that he was the wisest and the happiest who contentedly did his duty, and looked to a world beyond, where all inequalities would be made even.
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