How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
In almost no time [Tom's] flowing reasonings carried him to the point of even half believing he was doing Roxy a splendid surreptitious service in selling her 'down the river.' [. . .] Yes, the little deception could do no harm, and everything would come out right and pleasant in the end, anyway. (16.13)
You might want to think twice the next time you're about to tell one of those innocent little white lies. Tom's deception shows how deceiving others can easily lead to deceiving one's self about how harmless a lie actually is.
Quote #8
By agreement, the conversation in Roxy's presence was all about the man's 'up-country' farm, and how pleasant a place it was, and how happy the slaves were there; so poor Roxy was entirely deceived [. . .] (16.13)
Roxy isn't the only one deceived into believing that slavery could be a jolly experience. By the end of the nineteenth century when Pudd'nhead was published, lots of Americans looked back fondly to the good old days of slavery in which they imagined blacks to be perfectly content.
Quote #9
[. . .] [Roxy] was not dreaming that her own son could be guilty of treason to a mother who, in voluntarily going into slavery [. . .] was making a sacrifice for him compared with which death would have been a poor and commonplace one. (16.13)
Hmm, it looks like the people who love you can often be the easiest ones to deceive (now don't go getting any ideas about lying to your parents).