How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Was [Roxy] bad? Was she worse than the general run of her race? No. They had an unfair show in the battle of life, and they held it no sin to take military advantage of the enemy—in a small way; in a small way, but not in a large one. They would smouch provisions from the pantry whenever they got a chance; or a brass thimble, or a cake of wax [. . .] (2.33)
As usual, our wise old narrator hesitates to jump to conclusions, encouraging us to consider a person's circumstances before judging whether their actions are good or bad.
Quote #2
[. . .] a drowsy hen would step onto the comfortable board, softly clucking her gratitude, and the prowler would dump her into his bag, and later into his stomach, perfectly sure that in taking this trifle from the man who daily robbed him of an inestimable treasure—his liberty—he was not committing any sin that God would remember against him in the Last Great Day. (2.33)
Back in the day, one argument in favor of slavery was that blacks' thefts were proof that they were inherently immoral and thus undeserving of liberty. This depiction of a slave justifying his theft of a hen (hey, it's a lot better than enslaving an entire race) points out how slavery itself was more likely the culprit for many of blacks' moral slip-ups.
Quote #3
"Oh I got to do it, yo' po' mammy's got to kill you to save you, honey"—[Roxy] gathered her baby to her bosom now, and began to smother it with caresses [. . .] (3.3)
So we don't usually associate moral heroism with murder. But Roxy seems convinced that drowning her baby to spare him a life of servitude is the right thing to do, suggesting just how strongly the institution of slavery could mess with one's moral sensibility.
Quote #4
[Roxy] put the heir of the house in her own child's unpainted pine cradle and said, contemplating its slumbering form uneasily:
"I's sorry for you, honey; I's sorry, God knows I is,—but what kin I do, what could I do? Yo' pappy would sell him to somebody, some time, en den he'd go down de river, sho', en I couldn't stan' it." (3.16-17)
Sometimes doing the right thing means harming someone else, making this morality stuff a tricky business. Roxy does what she thinks is the right thing for her son by switching the kid's place with the heir of the house who, as a result, winds up becoming a slave.
Quote #5
Tom relished this tune less than any that had preceded it, for it began to wake up a sort of echo in his conscience; so he interrupted and said with decision, though without asperity, that he was not in a situation to help [Roxy], and wasn't going to do it. (8.49)
Breaking News: It's just been discovered that Tom Driscoll has a conscience! More at eleven.
Quote #6
A gigantic eruption, like that of Krakatoa a few years ago, with the accompanying earthquakes, tidal waves, and clouds of volcanic dust, changes the face of the surrounding landscape beyond recognition, bringing down the high lands, elevating the low, making fair lakes where deserts had been, and deserts where green prairies had smiled before. The tremendous catastrophe which had befallen Tom had changed his moral landscape in much the same way. (10.6)
As this apt metaphor suggests, Tom's world is completely rocked by Roxy's seismic revelation. How exactly does his "moral landscape" change as a result?
Quote #7
Under the influence of a great mental and moral upheaval [Tom's] character and habits had taken on the appearance of complete change, but after a while with the subsidence of the storm both began to settle toward their former place. (10.11)
Sigh. Well, that was nice while it lasted. Sometimes moral change can be awfully short-lived.
Quote #8
[Tom] whirled off another dead huzza, and said, "I'm reformed, and this time I'll stay so, sure!" (14.24)
Ha! Why do you think it's so difficult for Tom to maintain his vow to change his ways for the better?
Quote #9
For a whole week [Tom] was not able to sleep well, so much the villainy which he had played upon his trusting mother preyed upon his rag of a conscience; but after that he began to get comfortable again, and was presently able to sleep like any other miscreant. (16.14)
On top of his criminal activities, Tom's willingness to sell his mother down the river puts him squarely in the Bad Guy literary hall of fame. But the scariest thing about this bad guy may be that, despite his awareness of his evil ways, he's not capable of changing them.
Quote #10
"Sell a pusson down de river—down de river!—for de bes! I wouldn't treat a dog so!" (18.9)
Given that so-called scientific theories of the nineteenth century proposed that blacks were between man and animal in the grand hierarchy of species, Roxy's complaint really says a lot about how dehumanizing the conditions "down the river" were.