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Now, the rest of the story. This July 12, next week, minus precisely 130 years, Dr. Andrew Dernford died at the age of 60 on his Louisiana sugar plantation, St. Rosalie. New Orleans news media carried his obituary the following day, revealing that Dr. Durnford had died at 4:30 the morning of the 12th, that he had practiced medicine in Plaquemine Parish for more than 30 years. For it was in 1828 that the good doctor purchased St. Rosalie for $77,500. And at the time of his death, Dunford's slaves alone were worth nearly that much. Saint Rosalie was a beautiful piece of property, apparently named for the bend in the Mississippi river which served as the plantation's eastern border. But shortly after Dr. Dernford's death, his last will and testament was read. Among other things, it directed that a certain slave was to be freed, a slave named Albert. Well, that gave rise to considerable gossip, and that led us to the rest of the story. Like a great many Southern slaveholders of his time, Andrew Durnford, concerning the issue of slavery, was tormented by his own ambivalence. He did not really believe that holding slaves was right, but as he once wrote, quote, self interest is fashionable, and he was not prepared to give up everything, which is exactly what freeing his own slaves would have meant. To run his plantation profitably, he required slaves. That was that. However, it's intriguing to note that within a year of purchasing Saint Rosalie, Dr. Dernford had acquired 19 slaves, which, it seems, served his purposes more than adequately. And yet he continued to buy additional slaves over the years until, at his death, he owned 77, one in particular named Albert. Well, historians now conclude with all but absolute certainty that Albert the slave was Dr. Dernford's own son, born to him by a black house servant, his slave mistress, 27 years his junior. It's not surprising then that Albert, as well as his freedom was awarded in Durnford's will enough money to become educated, $2,000, which was a considerable sum in those days. We know little of Dernford's treatment of the other slaves except that he fed them poorly, often complained of their prices on the auction block. To his credit, now, he did free four of them during his lifetime and was, it is said, worried over the issue of slavery in general. But his conscience never quite eclipsed the system in which he freely participated and which he rationalized until the day he died. For Dr. Andrew Durnford, how shall I say this? He was in that era of our nation's history. Mr. In between secretly wishing for a world in which all men were free and yet intent upon success in his society, even though that success meant enslaving his fellow man. Slavery, you see, was not a white problem. It was a people problem. A cultural commentary on how basically good men sometimes compromise their ideals and even their own kind in a basically hard world. For Dr. Andrew Durnford, the wealthy, prestigious exploiter of black men and women was himself a black man. And now you know the rest of the story.