“Congressman Bocock, you can’t just dismiss the claims,” Master says.

I slink back into my corner. I don’t know what feels heavier, my arms or my eyelids.

Master holds his glass out for more and I know I’m going to be here a while. With a drink in his hand, Master can go on all night enjoying the sound of his own voice and the cleverness of his own thoughts.

“The critics are getting louder,” he says, “and what they say has merit.”

“No, it don’t,” shoots in Clayton Ridgemore. “You sound like my Boston brother-in-law, not a Southern planter, born and bred.”

Master frowns. He don’t like to be interrupted once he gets himself going. “The way some plantations are run is simply not Christian.” Master looks at Mister Gantly when he says that, ’cause everyone knows at least five of his slaves are his own children.

“But why should we let Yankees have a say in the way we run things when they have no vested interest in the livelihood of the South.” Congressman Bocock drinks down the rest of his glass and holds his hand out for me to come by again.

“Here, here,” a few of them call out, and all dozen men nod their heads.

Master heaves himself up from his low-slung chair and steps into the center of the parlor. I can tell by his swagger that he’s fixing to give a speech, so I risk leaning back against the wall to ease the tightness in my legs.

“Friends.” He holds up his hand for quiet. “Forget the abolitionists for a moment. We are God-fearing Christian men. Southern landowners. Gentlemen. We have standards of acceptable behavior in our business dealings and in our society, and, I tell you, we must have clear standards in the way we deal with our property, especially our slaves.” As he speaks, he catches the eye of each man, making sure he’s got every one of them hooked on his words. “Now, our Yankee abolitionist countrymen have been making a lot of noise about the mistreatment of the Negro slave. We cannot ignore them as their cries grow louder. I say now is the time for legislation to silence them. We cannot count on President Taylor to side with the South, even if he is a Southerner. We must act, gentlemen. Before more territories become free states, and we’re outnumbered in Washington. Am I right, Senator Hunter?”

A plump man with a long nose and angry eyes nods. “Maintaining a congressional voting balance is crucial for Southern concerns.”

“That’s why we need legislation that assures the righteous Christian treatment of slaves. With these laws, new territories cannot be prevented from becoming slave states on moral grounds. The other side will have nothing to complain about.”

“They will always find something to complain about.”

“And I’m not letting some Yankee get me to shackle myself with a lot of rules and regulations that will decrease production and profitability on my own plantation.”