Of all the atrocities, man has endured; none has caused more misery and destruction to the soul than human bondage, also identified as slavery. It is illustrated in Louisa May Alcott's story: "My Contraband," originally published "The Brothers." The Civil War was fought over slavery. It pitted brother against brother, but this did not kill these brothers, it was the deep and festering hatred they had for each other that sent them to their early graves. The story these individuals create is complex and depressing; the main character, Robert is a contraband (a slave who has come to the North to seek freedom). Instead of finding freedom, he finds his half brother Ned and his wife Lucy. After the death of his master, Robert arrives from the South to freedom in the North to work in a hospital caring for wounded men of the war. His assignment is to help Miss Dane, a nurse, tend to a dying Rebel.
             Miss Dane appears to be the narrator in the story She is aware of Robert's troubled existence and observes despair from the moment their encounter. Upon their first meeting, she sensed sadness from deep within him she remarked, "I had seen colored people in what they call "the black sulks" when, for days, they neither smiled nor spoke, and scarcely ate. But, this was something more than that" (528). Miss Dane appears to be a compassionate person; nursing comes easy to her and she lacks intolerance regarding Robert's color. She had wanted "to know and comfort him; and following the impulse of the moment I went in and touched him on the shoulder"(529). This is an example of her compassionate view of the contraband. She believed that "black boys are far more faithful and handy than some of the white scamps" (528).
             Robert is content to stay with the rebel even though he has typhoid. When Miss Dane informs Robert that since he himself has never contracted this disease, he ma...