The book is somewhat unclear about the status of the Black members of Bertram’s household. Iwan refers to them as if they’re enslaved, though it seems that Bertram has actually freed them from bondage and now technically employs them. Yet there is still a racist undertone in Bertram’s implication that as long as they adhere to the white household members’ standards of behavior, they will be treated as full members of the family—it implies that if they
don’t meet those standards, Bertram might regard them as inferior or even subhuman.