Which excerpt from the story contains a reference to slavery? None of the social issues of 1957 had a chance of catching my attention that year Years later when I visited West Africa and learned of the poisonous, spiny fish that inhabit most of the coastal waters, I understood why swimming was not the local sport there that it was in New England. The magnitude of that “peculiar institution” was almost beyond my comprehension. And now when I take to the surf, I think of those ancestors and of Lydia.