Before anyone could answer, the classroom door swung open. In walked her only other black student, Braden. Victoria glanced at her watch. He was forty-five minutes late. Braden ambled slowly to the empty seat near the front and sat down. He kept his backpack and coat on, and his earbuds in.

Victoria took a deep breath and tried to keep her momentum, but she absolutely abhorred tardiness. Ignore it and continue. “Harriet Beecher Stowe’s audience. White women of the North. How did she reach them?”

The momentum was gone.

Everyone knew Braden’s track record of lateness. He varied from day to day, but always managed to miss most of the discussion. The class wasn’t that large, so his entrances were always noted. Interestingly enough, his lack of in-class participation didn’t show in his papers or midterm exam. Braden was getting a B+ in her class and somehow it made Victoria furious.

Finally, a student saved her from her stewing. Nina raised her hand before stating, “I think her chapter about the elderly woman and her son, Albert, being separated was awful. Aunt Hagar couldn’t convince Mr. Haley to buy them together.”

“And then after that, on the boat,” added another student, Jeremy. “The woman, Lucy, didn’t know that she and her baby were sold to Mr. Haley. And then the asshole turned around and sold her baby off to someone else.”

Victoria nodded. “Exactly, Stowe uses this entire chapter to address the dangers of motherhood for female slaves. Motherhood is temporary and cannot be promised. At any point, the human being you created can be wrenched away from you. That kind of pain can be felt by any woman regardless of race, don’t you think?

“Stowe doesn’t just stop at telling these stories,” Victoria continued. “She includes an important conversation on the boat that shouldn’t escape your notice. Remember the group of white women who debate slavery? One woman is clearly upset by the practice, while another one counters with what?”

Pages flip to that spot in the textbook. As she waited for her students to find it, she snuck a glance at Braden, who propped his head against his fist and appeared quite bored by the discussion.

Izzy found the passage and called out: “‘O, there’s a great deal to be said on both sides of the subject... I’ve been south, and I must say I think the negroes are better off than they would be free.’”

Victoria’s gaze flew back to her students. “Yes, Izzy. And the woman asks her to imagine if her own children were taken from her. This forced the reader to ask themselves the terrible question: What if it were my children? And when that wasn’t enough, Stowe actually breaks the fourth wall and addresses her audience directly. Upon learning of her and her child’s fate, Lucy becomes desperate and tosses herself overboard. She’d rather choose death over another plantation. Stowe takes the time to inform the reader that the trader isn’t surprised because ‘as we said before; he was used to a great many things that you are not used to.’ The reader has no choice to take part in his dark world, because in many ways, they’re already a part of it in real life.”