“‘Don’t argue with white folks,’ [Luke] had said. ‘Don’t tell them ‘no.’ Don’t let them see you mad. Just say ‘yes, sir.’ Then go ’head and do what you want to do. Might have to take a whippin’ for it later on, but if you want it bad enough, the whippin’ won’t matter much.” (96)

This quote is said by Luke to his son, Nigel, advising him on how to interact with white people. He teaches Nigel how to disobey whites’ orders without outwardly  contradicting them. Weylin, Luke’s slave owner, think that Luke does a very good job and makes him overseer. Dana, the narrator of the novel, finds Luke to be very inspiring. Luke shows her how to hide his internal hate and rebelliousness while externally showing servility. However, Luke’s kind behavior and respect he shows to his owner was not enough. Luke was sold by Weylin for supposedly thinking of himself as a white man. One of the important things that I took out of this quote is that the salves behavior is not important. Whether you are good or bad to your owner doesn’t change a thing, you can still be sold. The slaves are not in charge of their lives and have no say in it. Even if you are very careful on how you treat your owner, it doesn’t make a difference. The slave owners make their decisions based on the mood they are in, so pretty much the slaves have to always hope that their owner is always in a good mood. Luke may have been a very inspiring person, but that ended up leading to him being sold by his owner.