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surprised you take this line, Hampton. You are a northerner by birth. Most of your life has been spent in New York, where for the most part slavery is considered an institution of grave reproach. How is it that you fight so fervently for slavery?”
    “I may be a northerner by birth, but I’m not stupid. It is the ignorant man who looks upon the slaves and says, ‘Free them.’ There is no hope for this race of people outside the protection afforded them under the plantation system. Even you have said on many occasions that these people need to be cared and provided for.”
    “Yes, because we’ve allowed them no other position to be in,” Joseph countered. “We give them no education, no training except that which suits our needs, and we degrade them by giving them no say in their lives. Believe me, I’ve long thought on this matter. I have been raised to hold slaves and to believe that the institution of slavery is in their best interests, given the circumstances surrounding their lives. I’ve stood my ground to defend my right to maintain slave labor, even spoken out about the good treatment I afforded my people, but honestly, Hampton, I see this entire slave issue as one that will someday destroy us. Already there are lecturers who do nothing but travel the country, stirring anti-slave sentiment. The country is restless, and I’m of a firm belief that this issue will not merely fade away.”
    “So a few imbeciles are stirring up conflict and strife. It has been that way down through history,” Hampton said, his expression hard. “You are talking about Oakbridge and the life given you by your father. You took over the running of this plantation as an obligation to your family. I’ve heard the stories myself. You didn’t want to run Oakbridge, never had planned to even stick around, but when your father and older brother were killed in a boating accident, you had no choice. Your heart and mind told you that the honorable thing to do was to take the reins of Oakbridge and run it as your father would have. Would you now throw that away? Would you destroy this plantation, and your father’s dream, simply because you fear some future reprisal from a group of idiots?”
    Hampton drew himself up and sneered down at Joseph as if he were considering someone of lesser social standing. “You aren’t the man I thought you were, Joseph Adams, if you would deny your children and grandchildren their rightful heritage.” With that he crossed the room, slamming the library door loudly behind him.
    Joseph sat momentarily stunned by Hampton’s outrage. There was some merit in what his son-in-law had said. Oakbridge was the ancestral home and it would be a pity to deny his family their right to it. On the other hand, Hampton could not begin to understand the future that Joseph saw in his nightmares. A future of devastating conflict as the slave issue threatened to unhinge every secret cabinet and closed room that southern gentility had quietly hidden from view.
    Hampton felt the blood boiling in his veins. He couldn’t contain his anger at Joseph’s stupidity. To lose Oakbridge would be the ruin of all of Hampton’s plans. Plans for power and social standing. Plans for financial empires that would stretch hungry fingers across the continent and even the ocean in order to plunder the vast wealth that awaited him.
    Hampton stormed down the stairs in such a rage that he paid little attention to anyone or anything. BOOM! He struck his fist against the wall. “I won’t let that old man cheat me out of my plans.”
    “Hampton?” Virginia, with their infant son in tow, stood just beyond the steps in the downstairs foyer.
    Hampton met the questioning stare of his wife. How he despised her! She whined at him from dawn to dusk and even into the night when he would seek his pleasure with her. A very little pleasure, at that.
    “What do you want? And where was the tray I told you to send up?”
    Virginia edged back a single