"As I said, this yard is a negro village—for whom taxes are paid—and doctors' bills. They earn their daily bread and their large families' food and clothes and house rent by 'waiting in the house.'
They rapidly increase and never diminish in numbers. Maria's three children in two years bear witness to their powers that way and is a suggestive fact.
And her free husband—'as good as white, but not quite,' as [slave] Rachel says. 'No wonder Jeems Whitaker deserted her—and lef' ole Missis to support her.'"
