The New Man is unusual in its double perspective: for Bruce’s life was split by servitude and freedom, and his experience gave heightened meaning to both. Bruce provides insights into the slave’s attitudes toward his masters and toward poor white people. He believes that “good blood” (a sense of honor and duty and domestic virtues) will tell, no matter the race, but he appeals to fairness in assessing the situation of emancipated slaves at the end of the Civil War: "They were set free without a dollar, without a foot of land, and without the wherewithal to get the next meal even, and this too by a great Christian Nation."
Overview
The New Man is unusual in its double perspective: for Bruce’s life was ...