How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"It is easy for dreamers to speak of abolishing slavery," said Mr. Sharpe. "It is easy for women of leisure to sit in their mansions, singing harpsichord-tunes about slave-girls and reading sentimental novels of injustice. They have no knowledge of common realities—how the market works. They give no thought to the Africans themselves —- to the chaos and riots which should ensue, the starvation, the burning of public buildings, the invasion of Indian tribes, if the people of your nations—"
"What nations is that?"
"Perhaps you should tell me."
"Am I not an American?"
"Are you not? To what nation do you belong, then?"
"I belong," I answered in a voice shrill and tight, "to the nation of whosoever—without profit—pursues the good and the right." (4.12.42-47)
There you have it: the two core competing visions of what America should be about in this book. For Mr. Sharpe, America has to run according to its capitalist principles, which means that—yeah—slaves are American, but only insofar as they are part of the cogs in the wheel of a prosperous American economy. Octavian, on the other hand, presents a vision of America that history textbooks try to present: an idealist's hope for America.
The only thing is, Octavian's smart—and bitter enough about his enslavement—that he doesn't name America as that nation.
Quote #8
"We have labored too long under a government that has sought to curtail exchange; such interference is unnatural. We shall see a brave new day, Octavian, when the rights of liberty and property are exercised, and when all men are free to operate in their own self-interest. And as each individual expresses his self-interested will, so does the democratically voice speak, the will of the common people, not kings or ministers; and when the self-interest of every citizen speaks together, then and only then does benevolence arise." (4.12.64)
How does America's people "speak" democratically? If you're Mr. Sharpe, it's all about money. Money—or the "exchange" of it, the pure pursuit of "self-interest"—is what allows people to show their will.
Another way to think about it: Mr. Sharpe's gesturing toward consumer capitalism—the freedom to buy and own what you want, and in that buying, you reveal what you want out of your nation. If that's a BMW or the latest H&M dress, then that's what the nation is supposed to help you pursue. Anyone who gets in the way of that? Watch out. (You've seen what Black Friday at Walmart is like, right? Expand that to a global level.)
Quote #9
"Look about you, Octavian. We are all part of a web of finance and exchange from which we cannot extricate ourselves. Consider the most pleasant scene of pastoral repose. It is nothing but a vision of consumption." (4.12.65)
Mr. Sharpe may be the main bad guy of the book, but that doesn't mean he's completely wrong. He has a point about that "pastoral" scene because it's true—consumption goes on even in the most natural settings, especially when human beings are involved.