How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"When he does, and you read them to me, maybe I'll believe him. I'm tellin' you, he uses those children just the way you use a bit on a horse." (5.12.38)
Alice isn't convinced that Rufus will ever live up to his word and set his children free. That's because he uses the children as leverage to get Alice to do whatever he wants. The moment he frees them, he'll lose his power over her.
Quote #8
Alice had already told me she meant to ask for the boy's freedom. (5.11.41)
Alice wants more than anything for her children to be free from a life of slavery. But Rufus keeps putting her off because he likes holding power over her. How's that for a healthy father-mother relationship?
Quote #9
He had spent his life watching his father ignore, even sell the children he had had with black women. (5.11.26)
Rufus takes his cue from his father when it comes to how he treats black women. His father only ever used black women as cooks and sex slaves, and it looks like Rufus is going to go down the same path.