He had invented a machine for the cleaning of the hemp, which, considering the education and circumstances of the inventor, displayed quite as much mechanical genius as Whitney's cotton-gin.* * A machine of this description was really the invention of a young colored man in Kentucky.

[Mrs.Stowe's note.] He was possessed of a handsome person and pleasing manners, and was a general favorite in the factory.

Nevertheless, as this young man was in the eye of the law not a man, but a thing, all these superior qualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master.

This same gentleman, having heard of the fame of George's invention, took a ride over to the factory, to see what this intelligent chattel had been about.

He was received with great enthusiasm by the employer, who congratulated him on possessing so valuable a slave.
He was waited upon over the factory, shown the machinery by George, who, in high spirits, talked so fluently, held himself so erect, looked so handsome and manly, that his master began to feel an uneasy consciousness of inferiority.