They were slaves, inasmuch as
they disdained to be emancipated, and "free niggers" they looked down on
with contempt. They belonged to the Van Der Zee place and the place
belonged to them, and not to belong to anybody or to any place was, to
their apprehension, very like being a houseless and homeless pauper. As
I was John Van Zee the younger, according to their genealogy the natural
successor of Baas Hans, they extended to me assurances of their most
distinguished consideration. My father, Charles Sears, was not in the
line of succession, he being English or in other words a foreigner. They
tolerated him, partly because he spoke to them in Dutch, the only
language they knew or cared anything about, and partly because he was,
after all, a member of the family by marriage. As he always brought a
book in hand when visiting the farm, they made sure he was a
drukker--that is, a printer or bookseller or something of that vain and
frivolous description. Cleo attained great age, overrunning the century
mark.
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