Legree is introduced not for the sake of vilifying2 masters as a class, but for the sake of bringing to the minds of honorable Southern men, who are masters, a very important feature in the system of slavery, upon which, perhaps, they have never reflected. It is this: that no Southern law requires any test of CHARACTER from the man to whom the absolute power of master is granted.
In the second part of this book it will be shown that the legal power of the master amounts to an absolute despotism over body and soul; and that there is no protection for the slave’s life or limb, his family relations, his conscience, nay3, more, his eternal interests, but the CHARACTER of the master.
Rev4. Charles C. Jones, of Georgia, in addressing masters, tells them that they have the power to open the kingdom of heaven or to shut it, to their slaves (Religious Instruction of the Negroes, p. 158), and a South Carolinian, in a recent article in Fraser’s Magazine, apparently6 in a very serious spirit, thus acknowledges the fact of this awful power: “Yes, we would have the whole South to feel that the soul of the slave is in some sense in the master’s keeping, and to be charged against him hereafter.”
Now, it is respectfully submitted to men of this high class, who are the law-makers, whether this awful power to bind8 and to loose, to open and to shut the kingdom of heaven, ought to be intrusted to every man in the community, without any other qualification than that of property to buy. Let this gentleman of South Carolina cast his eyes around the world. Let him travel for one week through any district of country either in the South or the North, and ask himself how many of the men whom he meets are fit to be trusted with this power,—how many are fit to be trusted with their own souls, much less with those of others?
Now, in all the theory of government as it is managed in our country, just in proportion to the extent of power is the strictness with which qualification for the proper exercise of it is demanded. The physician may not meddle9 with the body, to prescribe for its ailments10, without a certificate that he is properly qualified11. The judge may not decide on the laws which relate to property, without a long course of training, and most abundant preparation. It is only this office of MASTER, which contains the power to bind and to loose, and to open and shut the kingdom of heaven, and involves responsibility for the soul as well as the body, that is thrown out to every hand, and committed without inquiry12 to any man of any character. A man may have made all his property by piracy13 upon the high seas, as we have represented in the case of Legree, and there is no law whatever to prevent his investing that property in acquiring this absolute control over the souls and bodies of his fellow-beings. To the half-maniac drunkard, to the man notorious for hardness and cruelty, to the man sunk entirely14 below public opinion, to the bitter infidel and blasphemer, the law confides15 this power, just as freely as to the most honorable and religious man on earth. And yet, men who make and uphold these laws think they are guiltless before God, because individually they do not perpetrate the wrongs which they allow others to perpetrate!
To the pirate Legree the law gives a power which no man of woman born, save One, ever was good enough to exercise.
Are there such men as Legree? Let any one go into the low districts and dens16 of New York, let them go into some of the 40lanes and alleys17 of London, and will they not there see many Legrees? Nay, take the purest district of New England, and let people cast about in their memory and see if there have not been men there, hard, coarse, unfeeling, brutal18, who, if they had possessed19 the absolute power of Legree, would have used it in the same way; and that there should be Legrees in the Southern States, is only saying that human nature is the same there that it is everywhere. The only difference is this,—that in free states Legree is chained and restrained by law; in the slave states, the law makes him an absolute, irresponsible despot.
It is a shocking task to confirm by fact this part of the writer’s story. One may well approach it in fear and trembling. It is so mournful to think that man, made in the image of God, and by his human birth a brother of Jesus Christ, can sink so low, can do such things as the very soul shudders20 to contemplate,—and to think that the very man who thus sinks is our brother,—is capable, like us, of the renewal21 by the Spirit of grace, by which he might be created in the image of Christ and be made equal unto the angels. They who uphold the laws which grant this awful power have another heavy responsibility, of which they little dream. How many souls of masters have been ruined through it! How has this absolute authority provoked and developed wickedness which otherwise might have been suppressed! How many have stumbled into everlasting22 perdition over this stumbling-stone of IRRESPONSIBLE POWER!
What facts do the judicial23 trials of slaveholding states occasionally develop! What horrible records defile24 the pages of the law-book, describing unheard-of scenes of torture and agony, perpetrated in this nineteenth century of the Christian25 era, by the irresponsible despot who owns the body and soul! Let any one read, if they can, the ninety-third page of Weld’s Slavery as It Is, where the Rev. Mr. Dickey gives an account of a trial in Kentucky for a deed of butchery and blood too repulsive26 to humanity to be here described. The culprit was convicted, and sentenced to death. Mr. Dickey’s account of the finale is thus:
The Court sat—Isham was judged to be guilty of a capital crime in the affair of George. He was to be hanged at Salem. The day was set. My good old father visited him in the prison—two or three times talked and prayed with him; I visited him once myself. We fondly hoped that he was a sincere penitent27. Before the day of execution same, by some means, I never knew what, Isham was missing. About two years after, we learned that he had gone down to Natchez, and had married a lady of some refinement28 and piety29. I saw her letters to his sisters, who were worthy30 members of the church of which I was pastor31. The last letter told of his death. He was in Jackson’s army, and fell in the famous battle of New Orleans.
I am, sir, your friend,
Wm. Dickey.
But the reader will have too much reason to know of the possibility of the existence of such men as Legree, when he comes to read the records of the trials and judicial decisions in Part II.
Let not the Southern country be taunted32 as the only country in the world which produces such men;—let us in sorrow and in humility33 concede that such men are found everywhere; but let not the Southern country deny the awful charge that she invests such men with absolute, irresponsible power over both the body and the soul.
With regard to that atrocious system of working up the human being in a given time, on which Legree is represented as conducting his plantation34, there is unfortunately too much reason to know that it has been practised and is still practised.
In Mr. Weld’s book, “Slavery as It Is,” under the head of Labor35, p. 39, are given several extracts from various documents, to show that this system has been pursued on some plantations36 to such an extent as to shorten life, and to prevent the increase of the slave population, so that, unless annually37 renewed, it would of itself die out. Of these documents we quote the following:
The Agricultural Society of Baton38 Rouge39, La., in its report, published in 1829, furnishes a labored40 estimate of the amount of expenditure41 necessarily incurred42 in conducting “a well-regulated sugar estate.” In this estimate, the annual net loss of slaves, over and above the supply by propagation, is set down at TWO AND A HALF PER CENT.! The late Hon. Josiah S. Johnson, a member of Congress from Louisiana, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the United States’ Treasury44, in 1830, containing a similar estimate, apparently made with great care, and going into minute details. Many items in this estimate differ from the preceding; but the estimate of the annual decrease of the slaves on a plantation was the same,—TWO AND A HALF PER CENT.!
In September, 1834, the writer of this had an interview with James G. Birney, Esq., who then resided in Kentucky, having removed, with his family, from Alabama, the year before. A few hours before that interview, and on the morning of the same day, Mr. B. had spent a couple of hours with Hon. Henry Clay, at his residence, near Lexington. Mr. Birney remarked that Mr. Clay had just told him he had lately been led to mistrust certain estimates as to the increase of the slave population in the far South-west,—estimates which he had presented, I think, in a 41speech before the Colonization45 Society. He now believed that the births among the slaves in that quarter were not equal to the deaths; and that, of course, the slave population, independent of immigration from the slave-selling states, was not sustaining itself.
Among other facts stated by Mr. Clay was the following, which we copy verbatim from the original memorandum46 made at the time by Mr. Birney, with which he has kindly47 furnished us.
“Sept. 16, 1834.—Hon. H. Clay, in a conversation at his own house on the subject of slavery, informed me that Hon. Outerbridge Horsey—formerly48 a senator in Congress from the State of Delaware, and the owner of a sugar plantation in Louisiana—declared to him that his overseer worked his hands so closely that one of the women brought forth49 a child whilst engaged in the labors50 of the field.
“Also that, a few years since, he was at a brick-yard in the environs of New Orleans, in which one hundred hands were employed; among them were from twenty to thirty young women, in the prime of life. He was told by the proprietor51 that there had not been a child born among them for the last two or three years, although they all had husbands.”
The late Mr. Samuel Blackwell, a highly-respected citizen of Jersey52 City, opposite the city of New York, and a member of the Presbyterian church, visited many of the sugar plantations in Louisiana a few years since; and having, for many years, been the owner of an extensive sugar refinery53 in England, and subsequently in this country, he had not only every facility afforded him by the planters for personal inspection54 of all parts of the process of sugar-making, but received from them the most unreserved communications as to their management of their slaves. Mr. B., after his return, frequently made the following statement to gentlemen of his acquaintance:—“That the planters generally declared to him that they were obliged so to over-work their slaves, during the sugar-making season (from eight to ten weeks), as to use them up in seven or eight years. For, said they, after the process is commenced, it must be pushed, without cessation, night and day; and we cannot afford to keep a sufficient number of slaves to do the extra work at the time of sugar-making, as we could not profitably employ them the rest of the year.”
Dr. Demming, a gentleman of high respectability, residing in Ashland, Richland County, Ohio, stated to Professor Wright, of New York city,
“That, during a recent tour at the South, while ascending55 the Ohio river, on the steamboat Fame, he had an opportunity of conversing56 with a Mr. Dickinson, a resident of Pittsburg, in company with a number of cotton-planters and slave-dealers from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Mr. Dickinson stated as a fact, that the sugar-planters upon the sugar-coast in Louisiana had ascertained57 that, as it was usually necessary to employ about twice the amount of labor during the boiling season that was required during the season of raising, they could, by excessive driving, day and night, during the boiling season, accomplish the whole labor with one set of hands. By pursuing this plan, they could afford to sacrifice a set of hands once in seven years! He further stated that this horrible system was now practised to a considerable extent! The correctness of this statement was substantially admitted by the slave-holders then on board.”
The following testimony58 of Rev. Dr. Channing, of Boston, who resided some time in Virginia, shows that the over-working of slaves, to such an extent as to abridge59 life, and cause a decrease of population, is not confined to the far South and South-west.
“I heard of an estate managed by an individual who was considered as singularly successful, and who was able to govern the slaves without the use of the whip. I was anxious to see him; and trusted that some discovery had been made favorable to humanity. I asked him how he was able to dispense60 with corporal punishment. He replied to me, with a very determined61 look, ‘The slaves know that the work must be done, and that it is better to do it without punishment than with it.’ In other words, the certainty and dread62 of chastisement63 were so impressed on them that they never incurred it.
“I then found that the slaves on this well-managed estate decreased in number. I asked the cause. He replied, with perfect frankness and ease, ‘The gang is not large enough for the estate.’ In other words, they were not equal to the work of the plantation, and yet were made to do it, though with the certainty of abridging64 life.
“On this plantation the huts were uncommonly65 convenient. There was an unusual air of neatness. A superficial observer would have called the slaves happy. Yet they were living under a severe, subduing66 discipline, and were over-worked to a degree that shortened life.”—Channing on Slavery, page 162, first edition.
A friend of the writer—the Rev. Mr. Barrows, now officiating as teacher of Hebrew in Andover Theological Seminary—stated the following, in conversation with her:—That, while at New Orleans, some time since, he was invited by a planter to visit his estate, as he considered it to be a model one. He found good dwellings67 for the slaves, abundant provision distributed to them, all cruel punishments superseded68 by rational and reasonable ones, and half a day every week allowed to the negroes to cultivate their own grounds. Provision was also made for their moral and religious instruction. Mr. Barrows then asked the planter,
“Do you consider your estate a fair specimen69?” The gentleman replied, “There are two systems pursued among us. One is, to make all we can out of a negro in a few years, and then supply his place with another; and the other is, to treat him as I do. My neighbor on the next plantation pursues the opposite system. His boys are hard worked and scantily70 fed; and I have had them come to me, and get down on their knees to beg me to buy them.”
Mr. Barrows says he subsequently passed by this plantation, and that the woe-struck, dejected aspect of its laborers72 fully7 confirmed 42the account. He also says that the gentleman who managed so benevolently73 told him, “I do not make much money out of my slaves.”
It will be easy to show that such is the nature of slavery, and the temptations of masters, that such well-regulated plantations are and must be infinitely75 in the minority, and exceptional cases.
The Rev. Charles C. Jones, a man of the finest feelings of humanity, and for many years an assiduous laborer71 for the benefit of the slave, himself the owner of a plantation, and qualified, therefore, to judge, both by experience and observation, says, after speaking of the great improvidence76 of the negroes, engendered77 by slavery:
And, indeed, once for all, I will here say that the wastes of the system are so great, as well as the fluctuation78 in prices of the staple79 articles for market, that it is difficult, nay, impossible, to indulge in large expenditures80 on plantations, and make them savingly profitable.—Religious Instruction, p. 116.
If even the religious and benevolent74 master feels the difficulty of uniting any great consideration for the comfort of the slave with prudence81 and economy, how readily must the moral question be solved by minds of the coarse style of thought which we have supposed in Legree!
“I used to, when I first begun, have considerable trouble fussin’ with ‘em, and trying to make ‘em hold out,—doctorin’ on ‘em up when they’s sick, and givin’ on ‘em clothes, and blankets, and what not, trying to keep ‘em all sort o’ decent and comfortable. Law, ‘twant no sort o’ use; I lost money on ‘em, and ‘twas heaps o’ trouble. Now, you see, I just put ‘em straight through, sick or well. When one nigger’s dead, I buy another; and I find it comes cheaper and easier every way.”
Added to this, the peculiar82 mode of labor on the sugar plantation is such that the master, at a certain season of the year, must over-work his slaves, unless he is willing to incur43 great pecuniary83 loss. In that very gracefully84 written apology for slavery, Professor Ingraham’s “Travels in the South-west,” the following description of sugar-making is given. We quote from him in preference to any one else, because he speaks as an apologist, and describes the thing with the grace of a Mr. Skimpole.
When the grinding has once commenced, there is no cessation of labor till it is completed. From beginning to end a busy and cheerful scene continues. The negroes,
“—— Whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week,”
work from eighteen to twenty hours,
“And make the night joint85 laborer with the day;”
though, to lighten the burden as much as possible, the gang is divided into two watches, one taking the first and the other the last part of the night; and, notwithstanding this continued labor, the negroes improve in appearance, and appear fat and flourishing. They drink freely of cane-juice, and the sickly among them revive, and become robust87 and healthy.
After the grinding is finished, the negroes have several holidays, when they are quite at liberty to dance and frolic as much as they please; and the cane-song—which is improvised88 by one of the gang, the rest all joining in a prolonged and unintelligible89 chorus—now breaks, night and day, upon the ear, in notes “most musical, most melancholy90.”
The above is inserted as a specimen of the facility with which the most horrible facts may be told in the genteelest phrase. In a work entitled “Travels in Louisiana in 1802” is the following extract (see Weld’s “Slavery as It Is,” p. 134), from which it appears that this cheerful process of laboring91 night and day lasts three months!
“At the rolling of sugars, an interval92 of from two to three months, they (the slaves in Louisiana) work both night and day. Abridged93 of their sleep, they scarcely retire to rest during the whole period.”
Now, let any one learn the private history of seven hundred blacks,—men and women,—compelled to work day and night, under the lash94 of a driver, for a period of three months.
Possibly, if the gentleman who wrote this account were employed, with his wife and family, in this “cheerful scene” of labor,—if he saw the woman that he loved, the daughter who was dear to him as his own soul, forced on in the general gang, in this toil95 which
“Does not divide the Sabbath from the week,
And makes the night joint laborer with the day,”
—possibly, if he saw all this, he might have another opinion of its cheerfulness; and it might be an eminently96 salutary thing if every apologist for slavery were to enjoy some such privilege for a season, particularly as Mr. Ingraham is careful to tell us that its effect upon the general health is so excellent that the negroes improve in appearance, and appear fat and flourishing, and that the sickly among them revive, and become robust and healthy. One would think it a surprising fact, if working slaves night and day, and giving them cane-juice to drink, really produces such salutary results, that the practice should not be continued the whole year round; though, perhaps, in this case, the negroes would become so fat as to be unable to labor. Possibly, it is because this healthful process is not longer continued that the agricultural societies of Louisiana are obliged to set down an annual loss of slaves on sugar plantations to the amount 43of two and a half per cent. This ought to be looked into by philanthropists. Perhaps working them all night for six months, instead of three, might remedy the evil.
But this periodical pressure is not confined to the making of sugar. There is also a press in the cotton season, as any one can observe by reading the Southern newspapers. At a certain season of the year, the whole interest of the community is engaged in gathering97 in the cotton crop. Concerning this Mr. Weld says (“Slavery as It Is,” page 34):
In the cotton and sugar region there is a fearful amount of desperate gambling98, in which, though money is the ostensible99 stake and forfeit100, human life is the real one. The length to which this rivalry101 is carried at the South and South-west, the multitude of planters who engage in it, and the recklessness of human life exhibited in driving the murderous game to its issue, cannot well be imagined by one who has not lived in the midst of it. Desire of gain is only one of the motives102 that stimulates103 them; the éclat of having made the largest crop with a given number of hands is also a powerful stimulant104; the Southern newspapers, at the crop season, chronicle carefully the “cotton brag105,” and the “crack cotton-picking,” and “unparalleled driving,” &c. Even the editors of professedly religious papers cheer on the mêlée, and sing the triumphs of the victor. Among these we recollect106 the celebrated107 Rev. J. N. Maffit, recently editor of a religious paper at Natchez, Miss., in which he took care to assign a prominent place and capitals to “THE COTTON BRAG.”
As a specimen, of recent date, of this kind of affair, we subjoin the following from the Fairfield Herald108, Winsboro’, S. C., Nov. 4, 1852.
COTTON-PICKING.
We find in many of our southern and western exchanges notices of the amount of cotton picked by hands, and the quantity by each hand; and, as we have received a similar account, which we have not seen excelled, so far as regards the quantity picked by one hand, we with pleasure furnish the statement, with the remark that it is from a citizen of this district, overseeing for Maj. H. W. Parr.
“Broad River, Oct. 12, 1852.
“Messrs. Editors:—By way of contributing something to your variety (provided it meets your approbation), I send you the return of a day’s picking of cotton, not by picked hands, but the fag end of a set of hands on one plantation, the able-bodied hands having been drawn109 out for other purposes. Now for the result of a day’s picking, from sun-up until sun-down, by twenty-two hands,—women, boys, and two men:—four thousand eight hundred and eighty pounds of clean picked cotton, from the stalk.
“The highest, three hundred and fifty pounds, by several; the lowest, one hundred and fifteen pounds. One of the number has picked in the last seven and a half days (Sunday excepted), eleven hours each day, nineteen hundred pounds clean cotton. When any of my agricultural friends beat this, in the same time, and during sunshine, I will try again.
James Steward110.”
It seems that this agriculturist professes111 to have accomplished112 all these extraordinary results with what he very elegantly terms the “fag end” of a set of hands; and, the more to exalt113 his glory in the matter, he distinctly informs the public that there were no “able-bodied” hands employed; that this whole triumphant114 result was worked out of women and children, and two disabled men; in other words, he boasts that out of women and children, and the feeble and sickly, he has extracted four thousand eight hundred and eighty pounds of clean picked cotton in a day; and that one of these same hands has been made to pick nineteen hundred pounds of clean cotton in a week! and adds, complacently115, that, when any of his agricultural friends beat this, in the same time, and during sunshine, he “will try again.”
Will any of our readers now consider the forcing up of the hands on Legree’s plantation an exaggeration? Yet see how complacently this account is quoted by the editor, as a most praiseworthy and laudable thing!
“Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth! and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”
That the representations of the style of dwelling-house, modes of housekeeping, and, in short, the features of life generally, as described on Legree’s plantation, are not wild and fabulous116 drafts on the imagination, or exaggerated pictures of exceptional cases, there is the most abundant testimony before the world, and has been for a long number of years. Let the reader weigh the following testimony with regard to the dwellings of the negroes, which has been for some years before the world, in the work of Mr. Weld. It shows the state of things in this respect, at least up to the year 1838.
Mr. Stephen E. Maltby, Inspector117 of Provisions, Skaneateles, N. Y., who has lived in Alabama.—“The huts where the slaves slept generally contained but one apartment, and that without floor.”
Mr. George A. Avery, elder of the 4th Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y., who lived four years in Virginia.—“Amongst all the negro cabins which I saw in Virginia, I cannot call to mind one in which there was any other floor than the earth; anything that a Northern laborer, or 44mechanic, white or colored, would call a bed, nor a solitary119 partition, to separate the sexes.”
William Ladd, Esq., Minot, Maine, President of the American Peace Society, formerly a slave-holder in Florida.—“The dwellings of the slaves were palmetto huts, built by themselves of stakes and poles, thatched with the palmetto-leaf. The door, when they had any, was generally of the same materials, sometimes boards found on the beach. They had no floors, no separate apartments; except the Guinea negroes had sometimes a small enclosure for their ‘god houses.’ These huts the slaves built themselves after task and on Sundays.”
Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, pastor Presbyterian Church, Castile, Greene Co., N. Y., who lived in Missouri five years previous to 1837.—“The slaves live generally in miserable120 huts, which are without floors; and have a single apartment only, where both sexes are herded121 promiscuously122 together.”
Mr. George W. Westgate, member of the Congregational church in Quincy, Illinois, who has spent a number of years in slave states.—“On old plantations the negro quarters are of frame and clapboards, seldom affording a comfortable shelter from wind or rain; their size varies from eight by ten to ten by twelve feet, and six or eight feet high; sometimes there is a hole cut for a window, but I never saw a sash, or glass, in any. In the new country, and in the woods, the quarters are generally built of logs, of similar dimensions.”
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, a member of a Christian church in Farmington, Ohio. Mr. J. lived in Mississippi in 1837–8.—“Their houses were commonly built of logs; sometimes they were framed, often they had no floor; some of them have two apartments, commonly but one; each of those apartments contained a family. Sometimes these families consisted of a man and his wife and children, while in other instances persons of both sexes were thrown together, without any regard to family relationship.”
The Western Medical Reformer, in an article on the Cachexia Africana, by a Kentucky physician, thus speaks of the huts of the slaves: “They are crowded together in a small hut, and sometimes having an imperfect and sometimes no floor, and seldom raised from the ground, ill ventilated, and surrounded with filth123.”
Mr. William Leftwich, a native of Virginia, but has resided most of his life in Madison Co., Alabama.—“The dwellings of the slaves are log huts, from ten to twelve feet square, often without windows, doors or floors; they have neither chairs, table, or bedstead.”
Reuben L. Macy, of Hudson, N. Y., a member of the religious society of Friends. He lived in South Carolina in 1818–19.—“The houses for the field-slaves were about fourteen feet square, built in the coarsest manner, with one room, without any chimney or flooring, with a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.”
Mr. Lemuel Sapington, of Lancaster, Pa., a native of Maryland, formerly a slave-holder.—“The descriptions generally given of negro quarters are correct; the quarters are without floors, and not sufficient to keep off the inclemency124 of the weather; they are uncomfortable both in summer and winter.”
Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee.—“When they return to their miserable huts at night, they find not there the means of comfortable rest; but on the cold ground they must lie without covering, and shiver while they slumber125.”
Philemon Bliss126, Esq., Elyria, Ohio, who lived in Florida in 1835.—“The dwellings of the slaves are usually small open log huts, with but one apartment, and very generally without floors.”
Slavery as It Is, p. 43.
The Rev. C. C. Jones, to whom we have already alluded127, when taking a survey of the condition of the negroes considered as a field for missionary128 effort, takes into account all the conditions of their external life. He speaks of a part of Georgia where as much attention had been paid to the comfort of the negro as in any part of the United States. He gives the following picture:
Their general mode of living is coarse and vulgar. Many negro houses are small, low to the ground, blackened with smoke, often with dirt floors, and the furniture of the plainest kind. On some estates the houses are framed, weather-boarded, neatly129 white-washed, and made sufficiently130 large and comfortable in every respect. The improvement in the size, material and finish, of negro houses, is extending. Occasionally they may be found constructed of tabby or brick.
Religious Instruction of the Negroes, p. 116.
Now, admitting what Mr. Jones says, to wit, that improvements with regard to the accommodation of the negroes are continually making among enlightened and Christian people, still, if we take into account how many people there are who are neither enlightened nor Christian, how unproductive of any benefit to the master all these improvements are, and how entirely, therefore, they must be the result either of native generosity131 or of Christian sentiment, the reader may fairly conclude that such improvements are the exception, rather than the rule.
A friend of the writer, travelling in Georgia during the last month, thus writes:
Upon the long line of rice and cotton plantations extending along the railroad from Savannah to this city, the negro quarters contain scarcely a single hut which a Northern farmer would deem fit shelter for his cattle. They are all built of poles, with the ends so slightly notched132 that they are almost as open as children’s cob-houses (which they very much resemble), without a single glazed133 window, and with only one mud chimney to each cluster of from four to eight cabins. And yet our fellow-travellers were quietly expatiating134 upon the negro’s strange inability to endure cold weather!
Let this modern picture be compared with the account given by the Rev. Horace Moulton, who spent five years in Georgia between 1817 and 1824, and it will be seen, in that state at least, there is some resemblance between the more remote and more recent
45The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poorest kind. They are not as good as those temporary shanties135 which are thrown up beside railroads. They are erected136 with posts and crotches, with but little or no frame-work about them. They have no stoves or chimneys; some of them have something like a fireplace at one end, and a board or two off at that side, or on the roof, to let off the smoke. Others have nothing like a fireplace in them; in these the fire is sometimes made in the middle of the hut. These buildings have but one apartment in them; the places where they pass in and out serve both for doors and windows; the sides and roofs are covered with coarse, and in many instances with refuse boards. In warm weather, especially in the spring, the slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke, all night, to drive away the gnats137 and mosquitos, which are very troublesome in all the low country of the South; so much so that the whites sleep under frames with nets over them, knit so fine that the mosquitos cannot fly through them.
Slavery as It Is, p. 19.
The same Mr. Moulton gives the following account of the food of the slaves, and the mode of procedure on the plantation on which he was engaged. It may be here mentioned that at the time he was at the South he was engaged in certain business relations which caused him frequently to visit different plantations, and to have under his control many of the slaves. His opportunities for observation, therefore, were quite intimate. There is a homely138 matter-of-fact distinctness in the style that forbids the idea of its being a fancy sketch139:
It was a general custom, wherever I have been, for the master to give each of his slaves, male and female, one peck of corn per week for their food. This, at fifty cents per bushel, which was all that it was worth when I was there, would amount to twelve and a half cents per week for board per head.
It cost me, upon an average, when at the South, one dollar per day for board;—the price of fourteen bushels of corn per week. This would make my board equal in amount to the board of forty-six slaves! This is all that good or bad masters allow their slaves, round about Savannah, on the plantations. One peck of gourd-seed corn is to be measured out to each slave once every week. One man with whom I labored, however, being desirous to get all the work out of his hands he could, before I left (about fifty in number), bought for them every week, or twice a week, a beef’s head from market. With this they made a soup in a large iron kettle, around which the hands came at meal-time, and dipping out the soup, would mix it with their hominy, and eat it as though it were a feast. This man permitted his slaves to eat twice a day while I was doing a job for him. He promised me a beaver140 hat, and as good a suit of clothes as could be bought in the city, if I would accomplish so much for him before I returned to the North; giving me the entire control over his slaves. Thus you may see the temptations overseers sometimes have, to get all the work they can out of the poor slaves. The above is an exception to the general rule of feeding. For, in all other places where I worked and visited, the slaves had nothing from their masters but the corn, or its equivalent in potatoes or rice; and to this they were not permitted to come but once a day. The custom was to blow the horn early in the morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go to work. When commenced, they continue work until about eleven o’clock A. M., when, at the signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts, made their fires, made their corn-meal into hominy or cake, ate it, and went to work again at the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or until their tasks were done. Some cooked their breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he has done his work at night. There is generally one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of the slaves.
Some of the planters have no corn; others often get out. The substitute for it is the equivalent of one peck of corn, either in rice or sweet potatoes, neither of which is as good for the slaves as corn. They complain more of being faint when fed on rice or potatoes than when fed on corn. I was with one man a few weeks who gave me his hands to do a job of work, and, to save time, one cooked for all the rest. The following course was taken:—Two crotched sticks were driven down at one end of the yard, and, a small pole being laid on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on the middle of the pole; then made up a fire under the kettle, and boiled the hominy; when ready, the hands were called around this kettle with their wooden plates and spoons. They dipped out and ate standing86 around the kettle, or sitting upon the ground, as best suited their convenience. When they had potatoes, they took them out with their hands, and ate them.
Slavery as It Is, p. 18.
Thomas Clay, Esq., a slave-holder of Georgia, and a most benevolent man, and who interested himself very successfully in endeavoring to promote the improvement of the negroes, in his address before the Georgia Presbytery, 1833, says of their food, “The quantity allowed by custom is a peck of corn a week.”
The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, May 30, 1788, says, “A single peck of corn, or the same measure of rice, is the ordinary provision for a hard-working slave, to which a small quantity of meat is occasionally, though rarely, added.”
Captain William Ladd, of Minot, Maine, formerly a slave-holder in Florida, says, “The usual allowance of food was a quart of corn a day to a full-task hand, with a modicum141 of salt; kind masters allowed a peck of corn a week.”
The law of North Carolina provides that the master shall give his slave a quart of corn a day, which is less than a peck a week by one quart.—Haywood’s Manual, 525; Slavery as It Is, p. 29. The master, therefore, who gave a peck a week would feel that he was going beyond the law, and giving a quart for generosity.
46This condition of things will appear far more probable in the section of country where the scene of the story is laid. It is in the south-western states, where no provision is raised on the plantations, but the supply for the slaves is all purchased from the more northern states.
Let the reader now imagine the various temptations which might occur to retrench142 the allowance of the slaves, under these circumstances;—scarcity143 of money, financial embarrassment144, high price of provisions, and various causes of the kind, bring a great influence upon the master or overseer.
At the time when it was discussed whether the State of Missouri should be admitted as a slave state, the measure, like all measures for the advancement145 of this horrible system, was advocated on the good old plea of humanity to the negroes; thus Mr. Alexander Smyth, in his speech on the slavery question, Jan. 21, 1820, says:
By confining the slaves to the Southern States, where crops are raised for exportation, and bread and meat are purchased, you doom146 them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem5 in the blacks where they are ILL FED.
Slavery as It Is, p. 28.
This is a simple recognition of the state of things we have adverted147 to. To the same purport148, Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, who resided near Natchez, Miss., in 1834–5, says:
On almost every plantation, the hands suffer more or less from hunger at some seasons of almost every year. There is always a good deal of suffering from hunger. On many plantations, and particularly in Louisiana, the slaves are in a condition of almost utter famishment, during a great portion of the year.—Ibid.
Mr. Tobias Baudinot, St. Albans, Ohio, a member of the Methodist Church, who for some years was a navigator on the Mississippi, says:
The slaves down the Mississippi are half-starved. The boats, when they stop at night, are constantly boarded by slaves, begging for something to eat.
Ibid.
On the whole, while it is freely and cheerfully admitted that many individuals have made most commendable149 advances in regard to the provision for the physical comfort of the slave, still it is to be feared that the picture of the accommodations on Legree’s plantation has as yet too many counterparts. Lest, however, the author should be suspected of keeping back anything which might serve to throw light on the subject, she will insert in full the following incidents on the other side, from the pen of the accomplished Professor Ingraham. How far these may be regarded as exceptional cases, or as pictures of the general mode of providing for slaves, may safely be left to the good sense of the reader. The professor’s anecdotes150 are as follows:
“What can you do with so much tobacco?” said a gentleman,—who related the circumstance to me,—on hearing a planter, whom he was visiting, give an order to his teamster to bring two hogsheads of tobacco out to the estate from the “Landing.”
“I purchase it for my negroes; it is a harmless indulgence, which it gives me pleasure to afford them.”
“Why are you at the trouble and expense of having high-post bedsteads for your negroes?” said a gentleman from the North, while walking through the handsome “quarters,” or village, for the slaves, then in progress on a plantation near Natchez—addressing the proprietor.
“To suspend their ‘bars’ from, that they may not be troubled with mosquitos.”
“Master, me would like, if you please, a little bit gallery front my house.”
“For what, Peter?”
“‘Cause, master, the sun too hot [an odd reason for a negro to give] that side, and when he rain we no able to keep de door open.”
“Well, well, when a carpenter gets a little leisure, you shall have one.”
A few weeks after, I was at the plantation, and riding past the quarters one Sabbath morning, beheld151 Peter, his wife and children, with his old father, all sunning themselves in the new gallery.
“Missus, you promise me a Chrismus gif’.”
“Well, Jane, there is a new calico frock for you.”
“It werry pretty, Missus,” said Jane, eying it at a distance without touching152 it, “but me prefer muslin, if you please: muslin de fashion dis Chrismus.”
“Very well, Jane, call to-morrow, and you shall have a muslin.”
The writer would not think of controverting153 the truth of these anecdotes. Any probable amount of high-post bedsteads and mosquito “bars,” of tobacco distributed as gratuity154, and verandas155 constructed by leisurely156 carpenters for the sunning of fastidious negroes, may be conceded, and they do in no whit118 impair157 the truth of the other facts. When the reader remembers that the “gang” of some opulent owners amounts to from five to seven hundred working hands, besides children, he can judge how extensively these accommodations are likely to be provided. Let them be safely thrown into the account, for what they are worth.
At all events, it is pleasing to end off so disagreeable a chapter with some more agreeable images.
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profaneness
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| n.渎神，污秽 | |
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vilifying
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| v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的现在分词 ) | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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meddle
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ailments
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| 疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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piracy
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| n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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confides
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的第三人称单数 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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dens
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| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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shudders
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| n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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baton
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| n.乐队用指挥杖 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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refinery
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| n.精炼厂，提炼厂 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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abridge
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| v.删减，删节，节略，缩短 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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abridging
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| 节略( abridge的现在分词 )； 减少； 缩短； 剥夺（某人的）权利（或特权等） | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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subduing
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| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
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dwellings
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superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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laborer
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| n.劳动者，劳工 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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benevolently
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| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
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benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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improvidence
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| n.目光短浅 | |
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engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fluctuation
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| n.(物价的)波动，涨落；周期性变动；脉动 | |
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staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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92
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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93
abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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94
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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95
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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96
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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97
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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98
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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99
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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100
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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101
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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102
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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103
stimulates
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| v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 )；激励；使兴奋；起兴奋作用，起刺激作用，起促进作用 | |
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104
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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105
brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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106
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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107
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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108
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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109
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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110
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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111
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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112
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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113
exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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114
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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115
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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116
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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117
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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118
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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119
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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121
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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122
promiscuously
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| adv.杂乱地，混杂地 | |
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123
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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124
inclemency
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| n.险恶，严酷 | |
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125
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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126
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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127
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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128
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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129
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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130
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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131
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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132
notched
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| a.有凹口的，有缺口的 | |
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133
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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134
expatiating
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| v.详述，细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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135
shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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136
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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137
gnats
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| n.叮人小虫( gnat的名词复数 ) | |
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138
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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139
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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140
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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141
modicum
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| n.少量，一小份 | |
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142
retrench
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| v.节省，削减 | |
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143
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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144
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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145
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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146
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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147
adverted
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| 引起注意（advert的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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148
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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149
commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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150
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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151
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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152
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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153
controverting
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| v.争论，反驳，否定( controvert的现在分词 ) | |
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154
gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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155
verandas
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| 阳台，走廊( veranda的名词复数 ) | |
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156
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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157
impair
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| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
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