Mr. Bruce’s second wife, whom he marries after the death of the first Mrs. Bruce. Linda returns to nurse her young baby and finds that, like her predecessor, she is a kind and generous employer as well as a fierce opponent of slavery. She helps Linda hide from Dr. Flint twice, and eventually makes arrangements to buy her freedom. The independence Mrs. Bruce demonstrates contrasts sharply with the lack of agency Linda observes in Southern wives like Mrs. Flint. The contrast between these two marriages suggests that the abolition of slavery increases white women’s moral and practical status within their own marriages.