- Eva Beadle: Solomon?
- Solomon Henry: Yes, ma'am?
- Eva Beadle: Can you think of something that you dislike?
- Solomon Henry: Being a nigger.
- Solomon Henry: You answer me something, Sir. Would you like to live to be a hundred?
- Charles Ingalls: I'm sure. It's not very likely, but I guess all of us want to live to be a right-old age.
- Solomon Henry: Would you rather be black and live to be a hundred, or white and live to be fifty?
- Harriet Oleson: I am a member of the school board, Mr. Ingalls, and I want to remind you that no child can attend this school unless is family is a member of this Township.
- Charles Ingalls: Oh, I understand that, Mrs. Olsen.
- Harriet Oleson: Oh. Well, but the boy said that his family doesn't live here.
- Charles Ingalls: Oh, I know he said that, but he was just saying that to make things easier on me.
- Harriet Oleson: Oh?
- Charles Ingalls: Yeah, you see Solomon is my son by former marriage. I know you'd understand, but a lot of people in this town wouldn't. Good day.
- Solomon Henry: I want learnin', Mama! I wanna read! I wanna go to school like all them other children!
- Mrs. Henry: That's a white man's school, Honey! You can't go there!
- Solomon Henry: Why? If we free, why can't I?
- Mrs. Henry: You're free to be what the white folks want you to be...
- Solomon Henry: If I have to be what the white folks want me to be, than I'm a slave as much as Papa was.
- Dr. Hiram Baker: I just don't understand why the government doesn't send proper medical supplies to the reservation.
- Dr. Tane: [laughs sarcastically] Why should they? It's just for Indians.
- [Mary and Laura are walking home, Miss Beadle having kept Laura after school for daydreaming in class]
- Mary Ingalls: Well, what'd she say?
- Laura Ingalls: I have to memorize a mile-long poem for Parent's Night.
- Mary Ingalls: Well, that's not so bad.
- Laura Ingalls: She also gave me a note to bring home.
- Mary Ingalls: *That's* bad.
- Laura Ingalls: I know.
- Charles Ingalls: Well Solomon, this paper is dated 1854. That's a long time ago. Folks can't sell themselves anymore.
- Solomon Henry: Who says?
- Charles Ingalls: Well, I know that Walnut Grove must seem like the end of the world, but even we have heard of the Emancipation Proclamation.