Tom Weylin Quotes

Tom Weylin and his wife, Margaret, both resent Dana because she is an educated black woman with proper dialect. The wife even goes as far as throwing coffee on her and slapping her, while the husband sends flirtatious signs her way and even tries to buy her, but Dana refuses. Dana tells Kevin of these experiences on the plantation, and he tells her she needs to leave, but she only agrees to leave when Rufus’s leg has fully healed. Nigel, who is a thirteen year old slave on Weylin’s plantation asks Dana to teach him how to read and write, and she agrees to, but makes sure he understand the dangerous consequences of their wrong-doing. Tom Weylin, although rare, walks in the cook-house and discovers Dana burning one of Nigel’s spelling tests. Weylin drags and whips Dana because she has already been warned to stay away from books and reading unless it has to do with his son.
Although seen as an enemy to other slaves, Dana treats him with the upmost kindness and compassion. She feels as if she must be here for Rufus because of the little attention his father and his mother show him. Each time He’s in trouble, he calls not on his parents, but on Dana, and each time they interact, their relationship grows fonder and stronger. “I moved his hands away and as gently as I could, pulled his pants leg up…The best way for him to go home is flat on his back-the least painful way, anyhow” (Butler 59-60). This exemplifies the care she has for Rufus because even if she is highly doubtful that she can fix his leg, she still tries to, and uses her proper judgment so that he doesn’t feel much pain from his