How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.[Part].Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Don't you see?" he cried. "Don't you see? This whole land, the whole South, is cursed, and all of us who derive from it, whom it ever suckled, white and black both, lie under the curse? Granted that my people brought the curse onto the land: maybe for that reason their descendants alone can—not resist it, not combat it—maybe just endure and outlast it until the curse is lifted." (5.4.113)
Isaac sees the curse of slavery as more than a metaphor. Later, he expresses the idea that the despoliation of the land and destruction of the wilderness is the result of the curse of slavery. Subjugating the land or subjugating people—same thing.
Quote #8
"Fonsiba," he said. "Fonsiba. Are you all right?"
"I'm free," she said. (5.4.124-5)
Fonsiba was born free, but she still hasn't forgotten that she could have been born a slave. Even in the impoverished circumstances Isaac finds her, she's grateful for that.
Quote #9
[…] so that even in escaping he was taking with him more of that evil and regenerate old man who could summon, because she was his property, a human being because she was old enough and female, to his widower's house and get a child on her and then dismiss her because she was of an inferior race. (5.4.148)
Isaac realizes he can never really escape the evil of old Carothers. This is as stark a statement about the horrors of slavery as you'll ever find.