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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59500 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NARRATIVE
+OF
+WILLIAM W. BROWN,
+A
+FUGITIVE SLAVE.
+
+WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
+
+
+     ------------Is there not some chosen curse,
+     Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
+     Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man
+     Who gains his fortune from the blood of souls?
+
+     COWPER.
+
+
+SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED.
+
+BOSTON:
+PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, No. 21 Cornhill.
+1848
+
+
+[Illustration: Wm. W. Brown.
+
+Eng.d at 66 State St. from a Dag.tp of Chase
+
+R. Andrews Print.]
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,
+BY WILLIAM W. BROWN,
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
+
+Stereotyped by
+GEORGE A. CURTIS;
+NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY.
+
+
+
+
+TO WELLS BROWN, OF OHIO.
+
+
+Thirteen years ago, I came to your door, a weary fugitive from chains
+and stripes. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was hungry, and
+you fed me. Naked was I, and you clothed me. Even a name by which to be
+known among men, slavery had denied me. You bestowed upon me your own.
+Base, indeed, should I be, if I ever forget what I owe to you, or do
+anything to disgrace that honored name!
+
+As a slight testimony of my gratitude to my earliest benefactor, I take
+the liberty to inscribe to you this little narrative of the sufferings
+from which I was fleeing when you had compassion upon me. In the
+multitude that you have succored, it is very possible that you may not
+remember me; but until I forget God and myself, I can never forget you.
+
+Your grateful friend,
+WILLIAM WELLS BROWN.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+The first edition, of three thousand copies, of this little work
+was sold in less than six months from the time of its publication.
+Encouraged by the rapid sale of the first, and by a demand for a
+second, edition, the author has been led to enlarge the work by the
+addition of matter which, he thinks, will add materially to its value.
+
+And if it shall be instrumental in helping to undo the heavy burdens,
+and letting the oppressed go free, he will have accomplished the great
+desire of his heart in publishing this work.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER
+
+FROM
+
+EDMUND QUINCY, ESQ.
+
+
+DEDHAM, JULY 1, 1847.
+
+TO WILLIAM W. BROWN.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND:--I heartily thank you for the privilege of
+reading the manuscript of your Narrative. I have read it with deep
+interest and strong emotion. I am much mistaken if it be not greatly
+successful and eminently useful. It presents a different phase of the
+infernal slave-system from that portrayed in the admirable story of
+Mr. Douglass, and gives us a glimpse of its hideous cruelties in other
+portions of its domain.
+
+Your opportunities of observing the workings of this accursed system
+have been singularly great. Your experiences in the Field, in the
+House, and especially on the River in the service of the slave-trader,
+Walker, have been such as few individuals have had;--no one, certainly,
+who has been competent to describe them. What I have admired, and
+marvelled at, in your Narrative, is the simplicity and calmness with
+which you describe scenes and actions which might well "move the very
+stones to rise and mutiny" against the National Institution which makes
+them possible.
+
+You will perceive that I have made very sparing use of your flattering
+permission to alter what you had written. To correct a few errors,
+which appeared to be merely clerical ones, committed in the hurry
+of composition under unfavorable circumstances, and to suggest a
+few curtailments, is all that I have ventured to do. I should be a
+bold man, as well as a vain one, if I should attempt to improve your
+descriptions of what you have seen and suffered. Some of the scenes are
+not unworthy of De Foe himself.
+
+I trust and believe that your Narrative will have a wide circulation. I
+am sure it deserves it. At least, a man must be differently constituted
+from me, who can rise from the perusal of your Narrative without
+feeling that he understands slavery better, and hates it worse, than he
+ever did before.
+
+I am, very faithfully and respectfully,
+Your friend,
+EDMUND QUINCY.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The friends of freedom may well congratulate each other on the
+appearance of the following Narrative. It adds another volume to the
+rapidly increasing anti-slavery literature of the age. It has been
+remarked by a close observer of human nature, "Let me make the songs
+of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws;" and it may with equal
+truth be said, that, among a reading people like our own, their books
+will at least give character to their laws. It is an influence which
+goes forth noiselessly upon its mission, but fails not to find its
+way to many a warm heart, to kindle on the altar thereof the fires of
+freedom, which will one day break forth in a living flame to consume
+oppression.
+
+This little book is a voice from the prison-house, unfolding the
+deeds of darkness which are there perpetrated. Our cause has received
+efficient aid from this source. The names of those who have come from
+thence, and battled manfully for the right, need not to be recorded
+here. The works of some of them are an enduring monument of praise, and
+their perpetual record shall be found in the grateful hearts of the
+redeemed bondman.
+
+Few persons have had greater facilities for becoming acquainted with
+slavery, in all its horrible aspects, than WILLIAM W. BROWN. He has
+been behind the curtain. He has visited its secret chambers. Its iron
+has entered his own soul. The dearest ties of nature have been riven
+in his own person. A mother has been cruelly scourged before his own
+eyes. A father--alas! slaves have no father. A brother has been made
+the subject of its tender mercies. A sister has been given up to the
+irresponsible control of the pale-faced oppressor. This nation looks on
+approvingly. The American Union sanctions the deed. The constitution
+shields the criminals. American religion sanctifies the crime. But the
+tide is turning. Already, a mighty under-current is sweeping onward.
+The voice of warning, of remonstrance, of rebuke, of entreaty, has gone
+forth. Hand is linked in hand, and heart mingles with heart, in this
+great work of the slave's deliverance.
+
+The convulsive throes of the monster, even now, give evidence of deep
+wounds.
+
+The writer of this Narrative was hired by his master to a
+"_soul-driver_," and has witnessed all the horrors of the traffic,
+from the buying up of human cattle in the slave-breeding states, which
+produced a constant scene of separating the victims from all those whom
+they loved, to their final sale in the southern market, to be worked
+up in seven years, or given over to minister to the lust of southern
+_Christians_.
+
+Many harrowing scenes are graphically portrayed; and yet with that
+simplicity and ingenuousness which carries with it a conviction of the
+truthfulness of the picture.
+
+This book will do much to unmask those who have "clothed themselves in
+the livery of the court of heaven" to cover up the enormity of their
+deeds.
+
+During the past three years, the author has devoted his entire energies
+to the anti-slavery cause. Laboring under all the disabilities and
+disadvantages growing out of his education in slavery--subjected, as he
+had been from his birth, to all the wrongs and deprivations incident
+to his condition--he yet went forth, impelled to the work by a love of
+liberty--stimulated by the remembrance of his own sufferings--urged
+on by the consideration that a mother, brothers, and sister, were
+still grinding in the prison-house of bondage, in common with three
+millions of our Father's children--sustained by an unfaltering faith
+in the omnipotence of truth and the final triumph of justice--to plead
+the cause of the slave; and by the eloquence of earnestness carried
+conviction to many minds, and enlisted the sympathy and secured the
+coöperation of many to the cause.
+
+His labors have been chiefly confined to Western New York, where he has
+secured many warm friends, by his untiring zeal, persevering energy,
+continued fidelity, and universal kindness.
+
+Reader, are you an Abolitionist? What have you done for the slave?
+What are you doing in his behalf? What do you purpose to do? There is
+a great work before us! Who will be an idler now? This is the great
+humanitary movement of the age, swallowing up, for the time being, all
+other questions, comparatively speaking. The course of human events, in
+obedience to the unchangeable laws of our being, is fast hastening the
+final crisis, and
+
+
+     "Have ye chosen, O my people, on whose party ye shall stand,
+     Ere the Doom from its worn sandal shakes the dust against our land?"
+
+
+Are you a Christian? This is the carrying out of practical
+Christianity; and there is no other. Christianity is _practical_ in
+its very nature and essence. It is a life, springing out of a soul
+imbued with its spirit. Are you a friend of the missionary cause? This
+is the greatest missionary enterprise of the day. Three millions of
+_Christian_, law-manufactured heathen are longing for the glad tidings
+of the gospel of freedom. Are you a friend of the Bible? Come, then,
+and help us to restore to these millions, whose eyes have been bored
+out by slavery, their sight, that they may see to read the Bible.
+Do you love God whom you have not seen? Then manifest that love, by
+restoring to your brother whom you have seen his rightful inheritance,
+of which he has been so long and so cruelly deprived.
+
+It is not for a single generation alone, numbering three
+millions--sublime as would be that effort--that we are working. It is
+for HUMANITY, the wide world over, not only now, but for all
+coming time, and all future generations:--
+
+
+     "For he who settles Freedom's principles,
+     Writes the death-warrant of all tyranny."
+
+
+It is a vast work--a glorious enterprise--worthy the unswerving
+devotion of the entire life-time of the great and the good.
+
+Slaveholding and slaveholders must be rendered disreputable and odious.
+They must be stripped of their respectability and Christian reputation.
+They must be treated as "MEN-STEALERS--guilty of the highest kind of
+theft, and sinners of the first rank." Their more guilty accomplices in
+the persons of _northern apologists_, both in Church and State, must
+be placed in the same category. Honest men must be made to look upon
+their crimes with the same abhorrence and loathing with which they
+regard the less guilty robber and assassin, until
+
+
+     "The common damned shun their society,
+     And look upon themselves as fiends less foul."
+
+
+When a just estimate is placed upon the crime of slave-holding, the
+work will have been accomplished, and the glorious day ushered in--
+
+
+     "When man nor woman in all our wide domain,
+     Shall buy, or sell, or hold, or be a slave."
+
+
+J. C. HATHAWAY.
+_Farmington, N. Y., 1847._
+
+
+[Illustration: The author caught by the bloodhounds. (See p. 21.)]
+
+
+
+
+NARRATIVE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+I was born in Lexington, Ky. The man who stole me as soon as I was
+born, recorded the births of all the infants which he claimed to
+be born his property, in a book which he kept for that purpose. My
+mother's name was Elizabeth. She had seven children, viz.: Solomon,
+Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Millford, Elizabeth, and myself. No two of
+us were children of the same father. My father's name, as I learned
+from my mother, was George Higgins. He was a white man, a relative of
+my master, and connected with some of the first families in Kentucky.
+
+My master owned about forty slaves, twenty-five of whom were field
+hands. He removed from Kentucky to Missouri when I was quite young,
+and settled thirty or forty miles above St. Charles, on the Missouri,
+where, in addition to his practice as a physician, he carried on
+milling, merchandizing and farming. He had a large farm, the principal
+productions of which were tobacco and hemp. The slave cabins were
+situated on the back part of the farm, with the house of the overseer,
+whose name was Grove Cook, in their midst. He had the entire charge of
+the farm, and having no family, was allowed a woman to keep house for
+him, whose business it was to deal out the provisions for the hands.
+
+A woman was also kept at the quarters to do the cooking for the field
+hands, who were summoned to their unrequited toil every morning at four
+o'clock, by the ringing of a bell, hung on a post near the house of the
+overseer. They were allowed half an hour to eat their breakfast, and
+get to the field. At half past four a horn was blown by the overseer,
+which was the signal to commence work; and every one that was not on
+the spot at the time, had to receive ten lashes from the negro-whip,
+with which the overseer always went armed. The handle was about three
+feet long, with the butt-end filled with lead, and the lash, six or
+seven feet in length, made of cow-hide, with platted wire on the end
+of it. This whip was put in requisition very frequently and freely,
+and a small offence on the part of a slave furnished an occasion for
+its use. During the time that Mr. Cook was overseer, I was a house
+servant--a situation preferable to that of a field hand, as I was
+better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of
+the bell, but about half an hour after. I have often laid and heard the
+crack of the whip, and the screams of the slave. My mother was a field
+hand, and one morning was ten or fifteen minutes behind the others in
+getting into the field. As soon as she reached the spot where they were
+at work, the overseer commenced whipping her. She cried, "Oh! pray--Oh!
+pray--Oh! pray"--these are generally the words of slaves, when
+imploring mercy at the hands of their oppressors. I heard her voice,
+and knew it, and jumped out of my bunk, and went to the door. Though
+the field was some distance from the house, I could hear every crack of
+the whip, and every groan and cry of my poor mother. I remained at the
+door, not daring to venture any further. The cold chills ran over me,
+and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip
+ceased, and I returned to my bed, and found no consolation but in my
+tears. Experience has taught me that nothing can be more heart-rending
+than for one to see a dear and beloved mother or sister tortured, and
+to hear their cries, and not be able to render them assistance. But
+such is the position which an American slave occupies.
+
+My master, being a politician, soon found those who were ready to
+put him into office, for the favors he could render them; and a few
+years after his arrival in Missouri he was elected to a seat in the
+legislature. In his absence from home everything was left in charge of
+Mr. Cook, the overseer, and he soon became more tyrannical and cruel.
+Among the slaves on the plantation was one by the name of Randall.
+He was a man about six feet high, and well-proportioned, and known
+as a man of great strength and power. He was considered the most
+valuable and able-bodied slave on the plantation; but no matter how
+good or useful a slave may be, he seldom escapes the lash. But it was
+not so with Randall. He had been on the plantation since my earliest
+recollection, and I had never known of his being flogged. No thanks
+were due to the master or overseer for this. I have often heard him
+declare that no white man should ever whip him--that he would die first.
+
+Cook, from the time that he came upon the plantation, had frequently
+declared that he could and would flog any nigger that was put into
+the field to work under him. My master had repeatedly told him not to
+attempt to whip Randall, but he was determined to try it. As soon as
+he was left sole dictator, he thought the time had come to put his
+threats into execution. He soon began to find fault with Randall, and
+threatened to whip him if he did not do better. One day he gave him
+a very hard task--more than he could possibly do; and at night, the
+task not being performed, he told Randall that he should remember him
+the next morning. On the following morning, after the hands had taken
+breakfast, Cook called out to Randall, and told him that he intended to
+whip him, and ordered him to cross his hands and be tied. Randall asked
+why he wished to whip him. He answered, because he had not finished his
+task the day before. Randall said that the task was too great, or he
+should have done it. Cook said it made no difference--he should whip
+him. Randall stood silent for a moment, and then said, "Mr. Cook, I
+have always tried to please you since you have been on the plantation,
+and I find you are determined not to be satisfied with my work, let me
+do as well as I may. No man has laid hands on me, to whip me, for the
+last ten years, and I have long since come to the conclusion not to
+be whipped by any man living." Cook, finding by Randall's determined
+look and gestures, that he would resist, called three of the hands
+from their work, and commanded them to seize Randall, and tie him. The
+hands stood still;--they knew Randall--and they also knew him to be a
+powerful man, and were afraid to grapple with him. As soon as Cook had
+ordered the men to seize him, Randall turned to them, and said--"Boys,
+you all know me; you know that I can handle any three of you, and the
+man that lays hands on me shall die. This white man can't whip me
+himself, and therefore he has called you to help him." The overseer was
+unable to prevail upon them to seize and secure Randall, and finally
+ordered them all to go to their work together.
+
+Nothing was said to Randall by the overseer for more than a week. One
+morning, however, while the hands were at work in the field, he came
+into it, accompanied by three friends of his, Thompson, Woodbridge and
+Jones. They came up to where Randall was at work, and Cook ordered him
+to leave his work, and go with them to the barn. He refused to go;
+whereupon he was attacked by the overseer and his companions, when he
+turned upon them, and laid them, one after another, prostrate on the
+ground. Woodbridge drew out his pistol, and fired at him, and brought
+him to the ground by a pistol ball. The others rushed upon him with
+their clubs, and beat him over the head and face, until they succeeded
+in tying him. He was then taken to the barn, and tied to a beam. Cook
+gave him over one hundred lashes with a heavy cow-hide, had him washed
+with salt and water, and left him tied during the day. The next day
+he was untied, and taken to a blacksmith's shop, and had a ball and
+chain attached to his leg. He was compelled to labor in the field, and
+perform the same amount of work that the other hands did. When his
+master returned home, he was much pleased to find that Randall had been
+subdued in his absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Soon afterwards, my master removed to the city of St. Louis, and
+purchased a farm four miles from there, which he placed under the
+charge of an overseer by the name of Friend Haskell. He was a regular
+Yankee from New England. The Yankees are noted for making the most
+cruel overseers.
+
+My mother was hired out in the city, and I was also hired out there to
+Major Freeland, who kept a public house. He was formerly from Virginia,
+and was a horse-racer, cock-fighter, gambler, and withal an inveterate
+drunkard. There were ten or twelve servants in the house, and when he
+was present, it was cut and slash--knock down and drag out. In his fits
+of anger, he would take up a chair, and throw it at a servant; and in
+his more rational moments, when he wished to chastise one, he would tie
+them up in the smoke-house, and whip them; after which, he would cause
+a fire to be made of tobacco stems, and smoke them. This he called
+"_Virginia play_."
+
+I complained to my master of the treatment which I received from Major
+Freeland; but it made no difference. He cared nothing about it, so
+long as he received the money for my labor. After living with Major
+Freeland five or six months, I ran away, and went into the woods back
+of the city; and when night came on, I made my way to my master's farm,
+but was afraid to be seen, knowing that if Mr. Haskell, the overseer,
+should discover me, I should be again carried back to Major Freeland;
+so I kept in the woods. One day, while in the woods, I heard the
+barking and howling of dogs, and in a short time they came so near that
+I knew them to be the bloodhounds of Major Benjamin O'Fallon. He kept
+five or six, to hunt runaway slaves with.
+
+As soon as I was convinced that it was them, I knew there was no
+chance of escape. I took refuge in the top of a tree, and the hounds
+were soon at its base, and there remained until the hunters came up
+in a half or three quarters of an hour afterwards. There were two men
+with the dogs, who, as soon as they came up, ordered me to descend. I
+came down, was tied, and taken to St. Louis jail. Major Freeland soon
+made his appearance, and took me out, and ordered me to follow him,
+which I did. After we returned home. I was tied up in the smoke-house,
+and was very severely whipped. After the major had flogged me to his
+satisfaction, he sent out his son Robert, a young man eighteen or
+twenty years of age, to see that I was well smoked. He made a fire of
+tobacco stems, which soon set me to coughing and sneezing. This, Robert
+told me, was the way his father used to do to his slaves in Virginia.
+After giving me what they conceived to be a decent smoking, I was
+untied and again set to work.
+
+Robert Freeland was a "chip of the old block." Though quite young, it
+was not unfrequently that he came home in a state of intoxication.
+He is now, I believe, a popular commander of a steamboat on the
+Mississippi river. Major Freeland soon after failed in business, and I
+was put on board the steamboat Missouri, which plied between St. Louis
+and Galena. The commander of the boat was William B. Culver. I remained
+on her during the sailing season, which was the most pleasant time for
+me that I had ever experienced. At the close of navigation I was hired
+to Mr. John Colburn, keeper of the Missouri Hotel. He was from one
+of the free states; but a more inveterate hater of the negro I do not
+believe ever walked God's green earth. This hotel was at that time one
+of the largest in the city, and there were employed in it twenty or
+thirty servants, mostly slaves.
+
+Mr. Colburn was very abusive, not only to the servants, but to his
+wife also, who was an excellent woman, and one from whom I never knew
+a servant to receive a harsh word; but never did I know a kind one to
+a servant from her husband. Among the slaves employed in the hotel
+was one by the name of Aaron, who belonged to Mr. John F. Darby, a
+lawyer. Aaron was the knife-cleaner. One day, one of the knives was
+put on the table, not as clean as it might have been. Mr. Colburn, for
+this offence, tied Aaron up in the wood-house, and gave him over fifty
+lashes on the bare back with a cow-hide, after which, he made me wash
+him down with rum. This seemed to put him into more agony than the
+whipping. After being untied he went home to his master, and complained
+of the treatment which he had received. Mr. Darby would give no heed to
+anything he had to say, but sent him directly back. Colburn, learning
+that he had been to his master with complaints, tied him up again, and
+gave him a more severe whipping than before. The poor fellow's back was
+literally cut to pieces; so much so, that he was not able to work for
+ten or twelve days.
+
+There was, also, among the servants, a girl whose master resided in
+the country. Her name was Patsey. Mr. Colburn tied her up one evening,
+and whipped her until several of the boarders came out and begged him
+to desist. The reason for whipping her was this. She was engaged to be
+married to a man belonging to Major William Christy, who resided four
+or five miles north of the city. Mr. Colburn had forbid her to see John
+Christy. The reason of this was said to be the regard which he himself
+had for Patsey. She went to meeting that evening, and John returned
+home with her. Mr. Colburn had intended to flog John, if he came within
+the inclosure; but John knew too well the temper of his rival, and kept
+at a safe distance:--so he took vengeance on the poor girl. If all the
+slave-drivers had been called together, I do not think a more cruel man
+than John Colburn--and he too a northern man--could have been found
+among them.
+
+While living at the Missouri hotel, a circumstance occurred which
+caused me great unhappiness. My master sold my mother, and all her
+children, except myself. They were sold to different persons in the
+city of St. Louis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+I was soon after taken from Mr. Colburn's, and hired to Elijah P.
+Lovejoy, who was at that time publisher and editor of the "St. Louis
+Times." My work, while with him, was mainly in the printing office,
+waiting on the hands, working the press, &c. Mr. Lovejoy was a very
+good man, and decidedly the best master that I had ever had. I am
+chiefly indebted to him, and to my employment in the printing office,
+for what little learning I obtained while in slavery.
+
+Though slavery is thought, by some, to be mild in Missouri, when
+compared with the cotton, sugar and rice growing states, yet no part
+of our slave-holding country is more noted for the barbarity of its
+inhabitants than St. Louis. It was here that Col. Harney, a United
+States officer, whipped a slave woman to death. It was here that
+Francis McIntosh, a free colored man from Pittsburg, was taken from the
+steamboat Flora and burned at the stake. During a residence of eight
+years in this city, numerous cases of extreme cruelty came under my
+own observation;--to record them all would occupy more space than could
+possibly be allowed in this little volume. I shall, therefore, give but
+a few more in addition to what I have already related.
+
+Capt. J. B. Brant, who resided near my master, had a slave named John.
+He was his body servant, carriage driver, &c. On one occasion, while
+driving his master through the city--the streets being very muddy, and
+the horses going at a rapid rate--some mud spattered upon a gentleman
+by the name of Robert More. More was determined to be revenged. Some
+three or four months after this occurrence, he purchased John, for the
+express purpose, as he said, "to tame the d----d nigger." After the
+purchase he took him to a blacksmith's shop, and had a ball and chain
+fastened to his leg, and then put him to driving a yoke of oxen, and
+kept him at hard labor, until the iron around his leg was so worn into
+the flesh, that it was thought mortification would ensue. In addition
+to this, John told me that his master whipped him regularly three times
+a week for the first two months:--and all this to "_tame him_." A more
+noble-looking man than he was not to be found in all St. Louis, before
+he fell into the hands of More; and a more degraded and spirit-crushed
+looking being was never seen on a southern plantation, after he had
+been subjected to this "_taming_" process for three months. The last
+time that I saw him, he had nearly lost the entire use of his limbs.
+
+While living with Mr. Lovejoy, I was often sent on errands to the
+office of the "Missouri Republican," published by Mr. Edward Charless.
+Once, while returning to the office with type, I was attacked by
+several large boys, sons of slave-holders, who pelted me with
+snow-balls. Having the heavy form of type in my hands, I could not make
+my escape by running; so I laid down the type and gave them battle.
+They gathered around me, pelting me with stones and sticks, until they
+overpowered me, and would have captured me, if I had not resorted to
+my heels. Upon my retreat they took possession of the type; and what
+to do to regain it I could not devise. Knowing Mr. Lovejoy to be a
+very humane man, I went to the office and laid the case before him. He
+told me to remain in the office. He took one of the apprentices with
+him and went after the type, and soon returned with it; but on his
+return informed me that Samuel McKinney had told him he would whip me,
+because I had hurt his boy. Soon after, McKinney was seen making his
+way to the office by one of the printers, who informed me of the fact,
+and I made my escape through the back door.
+
+McKinney not being able to find me on his arrival, left the office
+in a great rage, swearing that he would whip me to death. A few days
+after, as I was walking along Main street, he seized me by the collar,
+and struck me over the head five or six times with a large cane, which
+caused the blood to gush from my nose and ears in such a manner that my
+clothes were completely saturated with blood. After beating me to his
+satisfaction he let me go, and I returned to the office so weak from
+the loss of blood that Mr. Lovejoy sent me home to my master. It was
+five weeks before I was able to walk again. During this time it was
+necessary to have some one to supply my place at the office, and I lost
+the situation.
+
+After my recovery, I was hired to Capt. Otis Reynolds, as a waiter on
+board the steamboat Enterprise, owned by Messrs. John and Edward Walsh,
+commission merchants at St. Louis. This boat was then running on the
+upper Mississippi. My employment on board was to wait on gentlemen,
+and the captain being a good man, the situation was a pleasant one
+to me;--but in passing from place to place, and seeing new faces
+every day, and knowing that they could go where they pleased, I soon
+became unhappy, and several times thought of leaving the boat at some
+landing-place, and trying to make my escape to Canada, which I had
+heard much about as a place where the slave might live, be free, and be
+protected.
+
+But whenever such thoughts would come into my mind, my resolution would
+soon be shaken by the remembrance that my dear mother was a slave
+in St. Louis, and I could not bear the idea of leaving her in that
+condition. She had often taken me upon her knee, and told me how she
+had carried me upon her back to the field when I was an infant--how
+often she had been whipped for leaving her work to nurse me--and how
+happy I would appear when she would take me into her arms. When these
+thoughts came over me, I would resolve never to leave the land of
+slavery without my mother. I thought that to leave her in slavery,
+after she had undergone and suffered, so much for me, would be proving
+recreant to the duty which I owed to her. Besides this, I had three
+brothers and a sister there--two of my brothers having died.
+
+My mother, my brothers Joseph and Millford, and my sister Elizabeth,
+belonged to Mr. Isaac Mansfield, formerly from one of the free states,
+(Massachusetts, I believe.) He was a tinner by trade, and carried on
+a large manufacturing establishment. Of all my relatives, mother was
+first, and sister next. One evening, while visiting them, I made some
+allusion to a proposed journey to Canada, and sister took her seat by
+my side, and taking my hand in hers, said, with tears in her eyes--
+
+"Brother, you are not going to leave mother and your dear sister here
+without a friend, are you?"
+
+I looked into her face, as the tears coursed swiftly down her cheeks,
+and bursting into tears myself, said--
+
+"No, I will never desert you and mother!"
+
+She clasped my hand in hers, and said--
+
+"Brother, you have often declared that you would not end your days in
+slavery. I see no possible way in which you can escape with us; and
+now, brother, you are on a steamboat where there is some chance for you
+to escape to a land of liberty. I beseech you not to let us hinder you.
+If we cannot get our liberty, we do not wish to be the means of keeping
+you from a land of freedom."
+
+I could restrain my feelings no longer, and an outburst of my own
+feelings caused her to cease speaking upon that subject. In opposition
+to their wishes, I pledged myself not to leave them in the hand of the
+oppressor. I took leave of them, and returned to the boat, and laid
+down in my bunk; but "sleep departed from mine eyes, and slumber from
+mine eyelids."
+
+A few weeks after, on our downward passage, the boat took on board, at
+Hannibal, a drove of slaves, bound for the New Orleans market. They
+numbered from fifty to sixty, consisting of men and women from eighteen
+to forty years of age. A drove of slaves on a southern steamboat, bound
+for the cotton or sugar regions, is an occurrence so common, that no
+one, not even the passengers, appear to notice it, though they clank
+their chains at every step. There was, however, one in this gang that
+attracted the attention of the passengers and crew. It was a beautiful
+girl, apparently about twenty years of age, perfectly white, with
+straight light hair and blue eyes. But it was not the whiteness of her
+skin that created such a sensation among those who gazed upon her--it
+was her almost unparalleled beauty. She had been on the boat but a
+short time, before the attention of all the passengers, including the
+ladies, had been called to her, and the common topic of conversation
+was about the beautiful slave-girl. She was not in chains. The man
+who claimed this article of human merchandise was a Mr. Walker--a
+well known slave-trader, residing in St. Louis. There was a general
+anxiety among the passengers and crew to learn the history of the girl.
+Her master kept close by her side, and it would have been considered
+impudent for any of the passengers to have spoken to her, and the crew
+were not allowed to have any conversation with them. When we reached
+St. Louis, the slaves were removed to a boat bound for New Orleans, and
+the history of the beautiful slave-girl remained a mystery.
+
+I remained on the boat during the season, and it was not an unfrequent
+occurrence to have on board gangs of slaves on their way to the cotton,
+sugar and rice plantations of the south.
+
+Toward the latter part of the summer Captain Reynolds left the boat,
+and I was sent home. I was then placed on the farm, under Mr. Haskell,
+the overseer. As I had been some time out of the field, and not
+accustomed to work in the burning sun, it was very hard; but I was
+compelled to keep up with the best of the hands.
+
+I found a great difference between the work in a steamboat cabin and
+that in a corn-field.
+
+My master, who was then living in the city, soon after removed to the
+farm, when I was taken out of the field to work in the house as a
+waiter. Though his wife was very peevish, and hard to please, I much
+preferred to be under her control than the overseer's. They brought
+with them Mr. Sloane, a Presbyterian minister; Miss Martha Tulley, a
+niece of theirs from Kentucky; and their nephew William. The latter had
+been in the family a number of years, but the others were all newcomers.
+
+Mr. Sloane was a young minister, who had been at the South but a short
+time, and it seemed as if his whole aim was to please the slaveholders,
+especially my master and mistress. He was intending to make a visit
+during the winter, and he not only tried to please them, but I think
+he succeeded admirably. When they wanted singing, he sung; when they
+wanted praying, he prayed; when they wanted a story told, he told a
+story. Instead of his teaching my master theology, my master taught
+theology to him. While I was with Captain Reynolds my master "got
+religion," and new laws were made on the plantation. Formerly we had
+the privilege of hunting, fishing, making splint brooms, baskets, &c.,
+on Sunday; but this was all stopped. Every Sunday we were all compelled
+to attend meeting. Master was so religious that he induced some others
+to join him in hiring a preacher to preach to the slaves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+My master had family worship, night and morning. At night the slaves
+were called in to attend; but in the mornings they had to be at their
+work, and master did all the praying. My master and mistress were great
+lovers of mint julep, and every morning, a pitcher-full was made, of
+which they all partook freely, not excepting little master William.
+After drinking freely all round, they would have family worship, and
+then breakfast. I cannot say but I loved the julep as well as any of
+them, and during prayer was always careful to seat myself close to
+the table where it stood, so as to help myself when they were all
+busily engaged in their devotions. By the time prayer was over, I was
+about as happy as any of them. A sad accident happened one morning. In
+helping myself, and at the same time keeping an eye on my old mistress,
+I accidentally let the pitcher fall upon the floor, breaking it in
+pieces, and spilling the contents. This was a bad affair for me; for as
+soon as prayer was over, I was taken and severely chastised.
+
+My master's family consisted of himself, his wife, and their nephew,
+William Moore. He was taken into the family when only a few weeks of
+age. His name being that of my own, mine was changed for the purpose
+of giving precedence to his, though I was his senior by ten or twelve
+years. The plantation being four miles from the city, I had to drive
+the family to church. I always dreaded the approach of the Sabbath;
+for, during service, I was obliged to stand by the horses in the hot,
+broiling sun, or in the rain, just as it happened.
+
+One Sabbath, as we were driving past the house of D. D. Page, a
+gentleman who owned a large baking establishment, as I was sitting upon
+the box of the carriage, which was very much elevated, I saw Mr. Page
+pursuing a slave around the yard with a long whip, cutting him at every
+jump. The man soon escaped from the yard, and was followed by Mr. Page.
+They came running past us, and the slave, perceiving that he would be
+overtaken, stopped suddenly, and Page stumbled over him, and falling on
+the stone pavement, fractured one of his legs, which crippled him for
+life. The same gentleman, but a short time previous, tied up a woman
+of his, by the name of Delphia, and whipped her nearly to death; yet he
+was a deacon in the Baptist church, in good and regular standing. Poor
+Delphia! I was well acquainted with her, and called to see her while
+upon her sick bed; and I shall never forget her appearance. She was a
+member of the same church with her master.
+
+Soon after this, I was hired out to Mr. Walker, the same man whom I
+have mentioned as having carried a gang of slaves down the river on
+the steamboat Enterprise. Seeing me in the capacity of a steward on
+the boat, and thinking that I would make a good hand to take care of
+slaves, he determined to have me for that purpose; and finding that my
+master would not sell me, he hired me for the term of one year.
+
+When I learned the fact of my having been hired to a negro speculator,
+or a "soul driver," as they are generally called among slaves, no one
+can tell my emotions. Mr. Walker had offered a high price for me, as
+I afterwards learned, but I suppose my master was restrained from
+selling me by the fact that I was a near relative of his. On entering
+the service of Mr. Walker, I found that my opportunity of getting to
+a land of liberty was gone, at least for the time being. He had a gang
+of slaves in readiness to start for New Orleans, and in a few days we
+were on our journey. I am at a loss for language to express my feelings
+on that occasion. Although my master had told me that he had not sold
+me, and Mr. Walker had told me that he had not purchased me, I did not
+believe them; and not until I had been to New Orleans, and was on my
+return, did I believe that I was not sold.
+
+There was on the boat a large room on the lower deck, in which the
+slaves were kept, men and women, promiscuously--all chained two and
+two, and a strict watch kept that they did not get loose; for cases
+have occurred in which slaves have got off their chains, and made their
+escape at landing-places, while the boats were taking in wood;--and
+with all our care, we lost one woman who had been taken from her
+husband and children, and having no desire to live without them, in the
+agony of her soul jumped overboard, and drowned herself. She was not
+chained.
+
+It was almost impossible to keep that part of the boat clean.
+
+On landing at Natchez, the slaves were all carried to the slave-pen,
+and there kept one week, during which time several of them were sold.
+Mr. Walker fed his slaves well. We took on board at St. Louis several
+hundred pounds of bacon (smoked meat) and corn-meal, and his slaves
+were better fed than slaves generally were in Natchez, so far as my
+observation extended.
+
+At the end of a week, we left for New Orleans, the place of our final
+destination, which we reached in two days. Here the slaves were placed
+in a negro-pen, where those who wished to purchase could call and
+examine them. The negro-pen is a small yard, surrounded by buildings,
+from fifteen to twenty feet wide, with the exception of a large gate
+with iron bars. The slaves are kept in the buildings during the night,
+and turned out into the yard during the day. After the best of the
+stock was sold at private sale at the pen, the balance were taken to
+the Exchange Coffee-House Auction Rooms, kept by Isaac L. McCoy, and
+sold at public auction. After the sale of this lot of slaves, we left
+New Orleans for St. Louis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+On our arrival at St. Louis I went to Dr. Young, and told him that I
+did not wish to live with Mr. Walker any longer. I was heart-sick at
+seeing my fellow-creatures bought and sold. But the Dr. had hired me
+for the year, and stay I must. Mr. Walker again commenced purchasing
+another gang of slaves. He bought a man of Colonel John O'Fallon, who
+resided in the suburbs of the city. This man had a wife and three
+children. As soon as the purchase was made, he was put in jail for safe
+keeping, until we should be ready to start for New Orleans. His wife
+visited him while there, several times, and several times when she went
+for that purpose was refused admittance.
+
+In the course of eight or nine weeks Mr. Walker had his cargo of human
+flesh made up. There was in this lot a number of old men and women,
+some of them with gray locks. We left St. Louis in the steamboat
+Carlton, Captain Swan, bound for New Orleans. On our way down, and
+before we reached Rodney, the place where we made our first stop, I
+had to prepare the old slaves for market. I was ordered to have the old
+men's whiskers shaved off, and the grey hairs plucked out where they
+were not too numerous, in which case he had a preparation of blacking
+to color it, and with a blacking brush we would put it on. This was new
+business to me, and was performed in a room where the passengers could
+not see us. These slaves were also taught how old they were by Mr.
+Walker, and after going through the blacking process they looked ten or
+fifteen years younger; and I am sure that some of those who purchased
+slaves of Mr. Walker were dreadfully cheated, especially in the ages of
+the slaves which they bought.
+
+We landed at Rodney, and the slaves were driven to the pen in the back
+part of the village. Several were sold at this place, during our stay
+of four or five days, when we proceeded to Natchez. There we landed at
+night, and the gang were put in the warehouse until morning, when they
+were driven to the pen. As soon as the slaves are put in these pens,
+swarms of planters may be seen in and about them. They knew when Walker
+was expected, as he always had the time advertised beforehand when he
+would be in Rodney, Natchez, and New Orleans. These were the principal
+places where he offered his slaves for sale.
+
+When at Natchez the second time, I saw a slave very cruelly whipped. He
+belonged to a Mr. Broadwell, a merchant who kept a store on the wharf.
+The slave's name was Lewis. I had known him several years, as he was
+formerly from St. Louis. We were expecting a steamboat down the river,
+in which we were to take passage for New Orleans. Mr. Walker sent me
+to the landing to watch for the boat, ordering me to inform him on its
+arrival. While there I went into the store to see Lewis. I saw a slave
+in the store, and asked him where Lewis was. Said he, "They have got
+Lewis hanging between the heavens and the earth." I asked him what he
+meant by that. He told me to go into the warehouse and see. I went in,
+and found Lewis there. He was tied up to a beam, with his toes just
+touching the floor. As there was no one in the warehouse but himself,
+I inquired the reason of his being in that situation. He said Mr.
+Broadwell had sold his wife to a planter six miles from the city, and
+that he had been to visit her--that he went in the night, expecting to
+return before daylight, and went without his master's permission. The
+patrol had taken him up before he reached his wife. He was put in jail,
+and his master had to pay for his catching and keeping, and that was
+what he was tied up for.
+
+Just as he finished his story, Mr. Broadwell came in, and inquired what
+I was doing there. I knew not what to say, and while I was thinking
+what reply to make he struck me over the head with the cowhide, the
+end of which struck me over my right eye, sinking deep into the flesh,
+leaving a scar which I carry to this day. Before I visited Lewis he had
+received fifty lashes. Mr. Broadwell gave him fifty lashes more after I
+came out, as I was afterwards informed by Lewis himself.
+
+The next day we proceeded to New Orleans, and put the gang in the
+same negro-pen which we occupied before. In a short time the planters
+came flocking to the pen to purchase slaves. Before the slaves were
+exhibited for sale, they were dressed and driven out into the yard.
+Some were set to dancing, some to jumping, some to singing, and some to
+playing cards. This was done to make them appear cheerful and happy. My
+business was to see that they were placed in those situations before
+the arrival of the purchasers, and I have often set them to dancing
+when their cheeks were wet with tears. As slaves were in good demand at
+that time, they were all soon disposed of, and we again set out for St.
+Louis.
+
+On our arrival, Mr. Walker purchased a farm five or six miles from the
+city. He had no family, but made a housekeeper of one of his female
+slaves. Poor Cynthia! I knew her well. She was a quadroon, and one of
+the most beautiful women I ever saw. She was a native of St. Louis, and
+bore an irreproachable character for virtue and propriety of conduct.
+Mr. Walker bought her for the New Orleans market, and took her down
+with him on one of the trips that I made with him. Never shall I forget
+the circumstances of that voyage! On the first night that we were on
+board the steamboat, he directed me to put her into a state-room he
+had provided for her, apart from the other slaves. I had seen too much
+of the workings of slavery not to know what this meant. I accordingly
+watched him into the state-room, and listened to hear what passed
+between them. I heard him make his base offers, and her reject them. He
+told her that if she would accept his vile proposals, he would take
+her back with him to St. Louis, and establish her as his housekeeper on
+his farm. But if she persisted in rejecting them, he would sell her as
+a field hand on the worst plantation on the river. Neither threats nor
+bribes prevailed, however, and he retired, disappointed of his prey.
+
+The next morning poor Cynthia told me what had passed, and bewailed
+her sad fate with floods of tears. I comforted and encouraged her all
+I could; but I foresaw but too well what the result must be. Without
+entering into any further particulars, suffice it to say that Walker
+performed his part of the contract at that time. He took her back to
+St. Louis, established her as his mistress and housekeeper at his farm,
+and before I left, he had two children by her. But, mark the end! Since
+I have been at the North, I have been credibly informed that Walker has
+been married, and, as a previous measure, sold poor Cynthia and her
+four children (she having had two more since I came away) into hopeless
+bondage!
+
+He soon commenced purchasing to make up the third gang. We took
+steamboat, and went to Jefferson City, a town on the Missouri river.
+Here we landed, and took stage for the interior of the state. He
+bought a number of slaves as he passed the different farms and
+villages. After getting twenty-two or twenty-three men and women, we
+arrived at St. Charles, a village on the banks of the Missouri. Here he
+purchased a woman who had a child in her arms, appearing to be four or
+five weeks old.
+
+We had been travelling by land for some days, and were in hopes to have
+found a boat at this place for St. Louis, but were disappointed. As
+no boat was expected for some days, we started for St. Louis by land.
+Mr. Walker had purchased two horses. He rode one, and I the other. The
+slaves were chained together, and we took up our line of march, Mr.
+Walker taking the lead, and I bringing up the rear. Though the distance
+was not more than twenty miles, we did not reach it the first day. The
+road was worse than any that I have ever travelled.
+
+[Illustration: The slave-trader Walker and the author driving a gang of
+slaves to the southern market.]
+
+Soon after we left St. Charles the young child grew very cross,
+and kept up a noise during the greater part of the day. Mr. Walker
+complained of its crying several times, and told the mother to stop the
+child's d----d noise, or he would. The woman tried to keep the child
+from crying, but could not. We put up at night with an acquaintance of
+Mr. Walker, and in the morning, just as we were about to start, the
+child again commenced crying. Walker stepped up to her, and told her to
+give the child to him. The mother tremblingly obeyed. He took the child
+by one arm, as you would a cat by the leg, walked into the house, and
+said to the lady,
+
+"Madam, I will make you a present of this little nigger; it keeps such
+a noise that I can't bear it."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said the lady.
+
+The mother, as soon as she saw that her child was to be left, ran up to
+Mr. Walker, and falling upon her knees, begged him to let her have her
+child; she clung around his legs, and cried, "Oh, my child! my child!
+master, do let me have my child! oh, do, do, do! I will stop its crying
+if you will only let me have it again. "When I saw this woman crying
+for her child so piteously, a shudder--a feeling akin to horror--shot
+through my frame. I have often since in imagination heard her crying
+for her child:--
+
+
+     "O, master, let me stay to catch
+       My baby's sobbing breath,
+     His little glassy eye to watch,
+       And smooth his limbs in death,
+
+     And cover him with grass and leaf,
+       Beneath the large oak tree:
+     It is not sullenness, but grief--
+       O, master, pity me!
+
+     The morn was chill--I spoke no word,
+       But feared my babe might die,
+     And heard all day, or thought I heard,
+       My little baby cry.
+
+     At noon, oh, how I ran and took
+       My baby to my breast!
+     I lingered--and the long lash broke
+       My sleeping infant's rest.
+
+     I worked till night--till darkest night,
+       In torture and disgrace;
+     Went home and watched till morning light,
+       To see my baby's face.
+
+     Then give me but one little hour--
+       O! do not lash me so!
+     One little hour--one little hour--
+       And gratefully I'll go."
+
+
+Mr. Walker commanded her to return into the ranks with the other
+slaves. Women who had children were not chained, but those that had
+none were. As soon as her child was disposed of she was chained in the
+gang.
+
+The following song I have often heard the slaves sing, when about to
+be carried to the far south. It is said to have been composed by a
+slave.
+
+
+     "See these poor souls from Africa
+     Transported to America;
+     We are stolen, and sold to Georgia--
+     Will you go along with me?
+     We are stolen, and sold to Georgia--
+     Come sound the jubilee!
+
+     See wives and husbands sold apart,
+     Their children's screams will break my heart;--
+     There's a better day a coming--
+     Will you go along with me?
+     There's a better day a coming,
+     Go sound the jubilee!
+
+     O, gracious Lord! when shall it be,
+     That we poor souls shall all be free?
+     Lord, break them slavery powers--
+     Will you go along with me?
+     Lord, break them slavery powers,
+     Go sound the jubilee!
+
+     Dear Lord, dear Lord, when slavery'll cease,
+     Then we poor souls will have our peace;--
+     There's a better day a coming--
+     Will you go along with me?
+     There's a better day a coming,
+     Go sound the jubilee!"
+
+
+We finally arrived at Mr. Walker's farm. He had a house built during
+our absence to put slaves in. It was a kind of domestic jail. The
+slaves were put in the jail at night, and worked on the farm during
+the day. They were kept here until the gang was completed, when we
+again started for New Orleans, on board the steamboat North America,
+Capt. Alexander Scott. We had a large number of slaves in this gang.
+One, by the name of Joe, Mr. Walker was training up to take my place,
+as my time was nearly out, and glad was I. We made our first stop at
+Vicksburg, where we remained one week and sold several slaves.
+
+Mr. Walker, though not a good master, had not flogged a slave since I
+had been with him, though he had threatened me. The slaves were kept in
+the pen, and he always put up at the best hotel, and kept his wines in
+his room, for the accommodation of those who called to negotiate with
+him for the purchase of slaves. One day, while we were at Vicksburg,
+several gentlemen came to see him for that purpose, and as usual the
+wine was called for. I took the tray and started around with it, and
+having accidentally filled some of the glasses too full, the gentlemen
+spilled the wine on their clothes as they went to drink. Mr. Walker
+apologized to them for my carelessness, but looked at me as though he
+would see me again on this subject.
+
+After the gentlemen had left the room, he asked me what I meant by my
+carelessness, and said that he would attend to me. The next morning he
+gave me a note to carry to the jailer, and a dollar in money to give
+to him. I suspected that all was not right, so I went down near the
+landing, where I met with a sailor, and, walking up to him, asked him
+if he would be so kind as to read the note for me. He read it over, and
+then looked at me. I asked him to tell me what was in it. Said he,
+
+"They are going to give you hell."
+
+"Why?" said I.
+
+He said, "This is a note to have you whipped, and says that you have a
+dollar to pay for it."
+
+He handed me back the note, and off I started. I knew not what to do,
+but was determined not to be whipped. I went up to the jail--took a
+look at it, and walked off again. As Mr. Walker was acquainted with the
+jailer, I feared that I should be found out if I did not go, and be
+treated in consequence of it still worse.
+
+While I was meditating on the subject, I saw a colored man about my
+size walk up, and the thought struck me in a moment to send him with
+my note. I walked up to him, and asked him who he belonged to. He said
+he was a free man, and had been in the city but a short time. I told
+him I had a note to go into the jail, and get a trunk to carry to one
+of the steamboats; but was so busily engaged that I could not do it,
+although I had a dollar to pay for it. He asked me if I would not give
+him the job. I handed him the note and the dollar, and off he started
+for the jail.
+
+I watched to see that he went in, and as soon as I saw the door close
+behind him, I walked around the corner, and took my station, intending
+to see how my friend looked when he came out. I had been there but a
+short time, when a colored man came around the corner, and said to
+another colored man with whom he was acquainted--
+
+"They are giving a nigger scissors in the jail."
+
+"What for?" said the other. The man continued,
+
+"A nigger came into the jail, and asked for the jailer. The jailer came
+out, and he handed him a note, and said he wanted to get a trunk. The
+jailer told him to go with him, and he would give him the trunk. So he
+took him into the room, and told the nigger to give up the dollar. He
+said a man had given him the dollar to pay for getting the trunk. But
+that lie would not answer. So they made him strip himself, and then
+they tied him down, and are now whipping him."
+
+I stood by all the while listening to their talk, and soon found out
+that the person alluded to was my customer. I went into the street
+opposite the jail, and concealed myself in such a manner that I could
+not be seen by any one coming out. I had been there but a short time,
+when the young man made his appearance, and looked around for me. I,
+unobserved, came forth from my hiding-place, behind a pile of brick,
+and he pretty soon saw me, and came up to me complaining bitterly,
+saying that I had played a trick upon him. I denied any knowledge of
+what the note contained, and asked him what they had done to him. He
+told me in substance what I heard the man tell who had come out of the
+jail.
+
+"Yes," said he, "they whipped me and took my dollar, and gave me this
+note."
+
+He showed me the note which the jailer had given him, telling him
+to give it to his master. I told him I would give him fifty cents
+for it--that being all the money I had. He gave it to me and took
+his money. He had received twenty lashes on his bare back, with the
+negro-whip.
+
+I took the note and started for the hotel where I had left Mr. Walker.
+Upon reaching the hotel, I handed it to a stranger whom I had not seen
+before, and requested him to read it to me. As near as I can recollect,
+it was as follows:--
+
+
+     "DEAR SIR:--By your direction, I have given your boy twenty lashes.
+     He is a very saucy boy, and tried to make me believe that he did
+     not belong to you, and I put it on to him well for lying to me.
+
+     "I remain
+     "Your obedient servant."
+
+
+It is true that in most of the slave-holding cities, when a gentleman
+wishes his servants whipped, he can send him to the jail and have it
+done. Before I went in where Mr. Walker was, I wet my cheeks a little,
+as though I had been crying. He looked at me, and inquired what was the
+matter. I told him that I had never had such a whipping in my life, and
+handed him the note. He looked at it and laughed;--"And so you told him
+that you did not belong to me?" "Yes, sir," said I. "I did not know
+that there was any harm in that." He told me I must behave myself, if
+I did not want to be whipped again.
+
+This incident shows how it is that slavery makes its victims lying and
+mean; for which vices it afterwards reproaches them, and uses them as
+arguments to prove that they deserve no better fate. Had I entertained
+the same views of right and wrong which I now do, I am sure I should
+never have practised the deception upon that poor fellow which I did. I
+know of no act committed by me while in slavery which I have regretted
+more than that; and I heartily desire that it may be at some time or
+other in my power to make him amends for his vicarious sufferings in my
+behalf.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+In a few days we reached New Orleans, and arriving there in the night,
+remained on board until morning. While at New Orleans this time, I saw
+a slave killed; an account of which has been published by Theodore D.
+Weld, in his book entitled "Slavery as it is." The circumstances were
+as follows. In the evening, between seven and eight o'clock, a slave
+came running down the levee, followed by several men and boys. The
+whites were crying out, "Stop that nigger! stop that nigger!" while the
+poor panting slave, in almost breathless accents, was repeating, "I did
+not steal the meat--I did not steal the meat." The poor man at last
+took refuge in the river. The whites who were in pursuit of him, run
+on board of one of the boats to see if they could discover him. They
+finally espied him under the bow of the steamboat Trenton. They got
+a pike-pole, and tried to drive him from his hiding place. When they
+would strike at him he would dive under the water. The water was so
+cold, that it soon became evident that he must come out or be drowned.
+
+While they were trying to drive him from under the bow of the boat or
+drown him, he would in broken and imploring accents say, "I did not
+steal the meat; I did not steal the meat. My master lives up the river.
+I want to see my master. I did not steal the meat. Do let me go home to
+master." After punching him, and striking him over the head for some
+time, he at last sunk in the water, to rise no more alive.
+
+On the end of the pike-pole with which they were striking him was a
+hook, which caught in his clothing, and they hauled him up on the
+bow of the boat. Some said he was dead; others said he was "_playing
+possum_;" while others kicked him to make him get up; but it was of no
+use--he was dead.
+
+As soon as they became satisfied of this, they commenced leaving, one
+after another. One of the hands on the boat informed the captain that
+they had killed the man, and that the dead body was lying on the deck.
+The captain came on deck, and said to those who were remaining, "You
+have killed this nigger; now take him off of my boat." The captain's
+name was Hart. The dead body was dragged on shore and left there. I
+went on board of the boat where our gang of slaves were, and during the
+whole night my mind was occupied with what I had seen. Early in the
+morning I went on shore to see if the dead body remained there. I found
+it in the same position that it was left the night before. I watched to
+see what they would do with it. It was left there until between eight
+and nine o'clock, when a cart, which takes up the trash out of the
+streets, came along, and the body was thrown in, and in a few minutes
+more was covered over with dirt which they were removing from the
+streets. During the whole time, I did not see more than six or seven
+persons around it, who, from their manner, evidently regarded it as no
+uncommon occurrence.
+
+During our stay in the city I met with a young white man with whom I
+was well acquainted in St. Louis. He had been sold into slavery, under
+the following circumstances. His father was a drunkard, and very poor,
+with a family of five or six children. The father died, and left the
+mother to take care of and provide for the children as best she might.
+The eldest was a boy, named Burrill, about thirteen years of age,
+who did chores in a store kept by Mr. Riley, to assist his mother in
+procuring a living for the family. After working with him two years,
+Mr. Riley took him to New Orleans to wait on him while in that city
+on a visit, and when he returned to St. Louis, he told the mother of
+the boy that he had died with the yellow fever. Nothing more was heard
+from him, no one supposing him to be alive. I was much astonished when
+Burrill told me his story. Though I sympathized with him I could not
+assist him. We were both slaves. He was poor, uneducated, and without
+friends; and, if living, is, I presume, still held as a slave.
+
+After selling out this cargo of human flesh, we returned to St. Louis,
+and my time was up with Mr. Walker. I had served him one year, and it
+was the longest year I ever lived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+I was sent home, and was glad enough to leave the service of one who
+was tearing the husband from the wife, the child from the mother, and
+the sister from the brother--but a trial more severe and heart-rending
+than any which I had yet met with awaited me. My dear sister had been
+sold to a man who was going to Natchez, and was lying in jail awaiting
+the hour of his departure. She had expressed her determination to
+die, rather than go to the far south, and she was put in jail for
+safekeeping. I went to the jail the same day that I arrived, but as the
+jailer was not in I could not see her.
+
+I went home to my master, in the country, and the first day after my
+return he came where I was at work, and spoke to me very politely. I
+knew from his appearance that something was the matter. After talking
+to me about my several journeys to New Orleans with Mr. Walker, he told
+me that he was hard pressed for money, and as he had sold my mother
+and all her children except me, he thought it would be better to sell
+me than any other one, and that as I had been used to living in the
+city, he thought it probable that I would prefer it to a country life.
+I raised up my head, and looked him full in the face. When my eyes
+caught his he immediately looked to the ground. After a short pause, I
+said,
+
+"Master, mother has often told me that you are a near relative of mine,
+and I have often heard you admit the fact; and after you have hired me
+out, and received, as I once heard you say, nine hundred dollars for
+my services--after receiving this large sum, will you sell me to be
+carried to New Orleans or some other place?"
+
+"No," said he, "I do not intend to sell you to a negro trader. If I
+had wished to have done that, I might have sold you to Mr. Walker for
+a large sum, but I would not sell you to a negro trader. You may go to
+the city, and find you a good master."
+
+"But," said I, "I cannot find a good master in the whole city of St.
+Louis."
+
+"Why?" said he.
+
+"Because there are no good masters in the state."
+
+"Do you not call me a good master?"
+
+"If you were you would not sell me."
+
+"Now I will give you one week to find a master in, and surely you can
+do it in that time."
+
+The price set by my evangelical master upon my soul and body was the
+trifling sum of five hundred dollars. I tried to enter into some
+arrangement by which I might purchase my freedom; but he would enter
+into no such arrangement.
+
+I set out for the city with the understanding that I was to return in
+a week with some one to become my new master. Soon after reaching the
+city, I went to the jail, to learn if I could once more see my sister;
+but could not gain admission. I then went to mother, and learned from
+her that the owner of my sister intended to start for Natchez in a few
+days.
+
+I went to the jail again the next day, and Mr. Simonds, the keeper,
+allowed me to see my sister for the last time. I cannot give a just
+description of the scene at that parting interview. Never, never can
+be erased from my heart the occurrences of that day! When I entered
+the room where she was, she was seated in one corner, alone. There
+were four other women in the same room, belonging to the same man. He
+had purchased them, he said, for his own use. She was seated with her
+face towards the door where I entered, yet she did not look up until
+I walked up to her. As soon as she observed me she sprung up, threw
+her arms around my neck, leaned her head upon my breast, and, without
+uttering a word, burst into tears. As soon as she recovered herself
+sufficiently to speak, she advised me to take mother, and try to get
+out of slavery. She said there was no hope for herself--that she must
+live and die a slave. After giving her some advice, and taking from my
+finger a ring and placing it upon hers, I bade her farewell forever,
+and returned to my mother, and then and there made up my mind to leave
+for Canada as soon as possible.
+
+I had been in the city nearly two days, and as I was to be absent only
+a week, I thought best to get on my journey as soon as possible. In
+conversing with mother, I found her unwilling to make the attempt to
+reach a land of liberty, but she counselled me to get my liberty if I
+could. She said, as all her children were in slavery, she did not wish
+to leave them. I could not bear the idea of leaving her among those
+pirates, when there was a prospect of being able to get away from them.
+After much persuasion I succeeded in inducing her to make the attempt
+to get away.
+
+The time fixed for our departure was the next night. I had with me a
+little money that I had received, from time to time, from gentlemen
+for whom I had done errands. I took my scanty means and purchased some
+dried beef, crackers and cheese, which I carried to mother, who had
+provided herself with a bag to carry it in. I occasionally thought
+of my old master, and of my mission to the city to find a new one. I
+waited with the most intense anxiety for the appointed time to leave
+the land of slavery, in search of a land of liberty.
+
+The time at length arrived, and we left the city just as the clock
+struck nine. We proceeded to the upper part of the city, where I had
+been two or three times during the day, and selected a skiff to carry
+us across the river. The boat was not mine, nor did I know to whom it
+did belong; neither did I care. The boat was fastened with a small
+pole, which, with the aid of a rail, I soon loosened from its moorings.
+After hunting round and finding a board to use as an oar, I turned
+to the city, and bidding it a long farewell, pushed off my boat. The
+current running very swift, we had not reached the middle of the stream
+before we were directly opposite the city.
+
+We were soon upon the Illinois shore, and, leaping from the boat,
+turned it adrift, and the last I saw of it it was going down the river
+at good speed. We took the main road to Alton, and passed through just
+at daylight, when we made for the woods, where we remained during the
+day. Our reason for going into the woods was, that we expected that Mr.
+Mansfield (the man who owned my mother) would start in pursuit of her
+as soon as he discovered that she was missing. He also knew that I had
+been in the city looking for a new master, and we thought probably he
+would go out to my masters to see if he could find my mother, and in so
+doing, Dr. Young might be led to suspect that I had gone to Canada to
+find a purchaser.
+
+We remained in the woods during the day, and as soon as darkness
+overshadowed the earth, we started again on our gloomy way, having
+no guide but the NORTH STAR. We continued to travel by night, and
+secrete ourselves in the woods by day; and every night, before emerging
+from our hiding-place, we would anxiously look for our friend and
+leader--the NORTH STAR. And in the language of Pierpont we might have
+exclaimed,
+
+
+     "Star of the North! while blazing day
+     Pours round me its full tide of light,
+     And hides thy pale but faithful ray,
+     I, too, lie hid, and long for night.
+     For night;--I dare not walk at noon,
+     Nor dare I trust the faithless moon,
+     Nor faithless man, whose burning lust
+     For gold hath riveted my chain;
+     No other leader can I trust
+     But thee, of even the starry train;
+     For, all the host around thee burning,
+     Like faithless man, keep turning, turning.
+
+     In the dark top of southern pines
+     I nestled, when the driver's horn
+     Called to the field, in lengthening lines,
+     My fellows, at the break of morn.
+     And there I lay, till thy sweet face
+     Looked in upon my 'hiding place,'
+     Star of the North!
+     Thy light, that no poor slave deceiveth,
+     Shall set me free."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+As we travelled towards a land of liberty, my heart would at times
+leap for joy. At other times, being, as I was, almost constantly on my
+feet, I felt as though I could travel no further. But when I thought
+of slavery, with its democratic whips--its republican chains--its
+evangelical blood-hounds, and its religious slave-holders--when I
+thought of all this paraphernalia of American democracy and religion
+behind me, and the prospect of liberty before me, I was encouraged to
+press forward, my heart was strengthened, and I forgot that I was tired
+or hungry.
+
+On the eighth day of our journey, we had a very heavy rain, and in a
+few hours after it commenced we had not a dry thread upon our bodies.
+This made our journey still more unpleasant. On the tenth day, we found
+ourselves entirely destitute of provisions, and how to obtain any we
+could not tell. We finally resolved to stop at some farm-house, and try
+to get something to eat. We had no sooner determined to do this, than
+we went to a house, and asked them for some food. We were treated with
+great kindness, and they not only gave us something to eat, but gave us
+provisions to carry with us. They advised us to travel by day and lie
+by at night. Finding ourselves about one hundred and fifty miles from
+St. Louis, we concluded that it would be safe to travel by daylight,
+and did not leave the house until the next morning. We travelled on
+that day through a thickly settled country, and through one small
+village. Though we were fleeing from a land of oppression, our hearts
+were still there. My dear sister and two beloved brothers were behind
+us, and the idea of giving them up, and leaving them forever, made us
+feel sad. But with all this depression of heart, the thought that I
+should one day be free, and call my body my own, buoyed me up, and made
+my heart leap for joy. I had just been telling my mother how I should
+try to get employment as soon as we reached Canada, and how I intended
+to purchase us a little farm, and how I would earn money enough to buy
+sister and brothers, and how happy we would be in our own FREE
+HOME--when three men came up on horseback, and ordered us to stop.
+
+I turned to the one who appeared to be the principal man, and asked
+him what he wanted. He said he had a warrant to take us up. The three
+immediately dismounted, and one took from his pocket a handbill,
+advertising us as runaways, and offering a reward of two hundred
+dollars for our apprehension and delivery in the city of St. Louis. The
+advertisement had been put out by Isaac Mansfield and John Young.
+
+While they were reading the advertisement, mother looked me in the
+face, and burst into tears. A cold chill ran over me, and such a
+sensation I never experienced before, and I hope never to again. They
+took out a rope and tied me, and we were taken back about six miles,
+to the house of the individual who appeared to be the leader. We
+reached there about seven o'clock in the evening, had supper, and were
+separated for the night. Two men remained in the room during the night.
+Before the family retired to rest, they were all called together to
+attend prayers. The man who but a few hours before had bound my hands
+together with a strong cord, read a chapter from the Bible, and then
+offered up prayer, just as though God had sanctioned the act he had
+just committed upon a poor, panting, fugitive slave.
+
+[Illustration: The author and his mother arrested and carried back into
+slavery.]
+
+The next morning a blacksmith came in, and put a pair of handcuffs on
+me, and we started on our journey back to the land of whips, chains and
+Bibles. Mother was not tied, but was closely watched at night. We were
+carried back in a wagon, and after four days' travel, we came in sight
+of St. Louis. I cannot describe my feelings upon approaching the city.
+
+As we were crossing the ferry, Mr. Wiggins, the owner of the ferry,
+came up to me, and inquired what I had been doing that I was in chains.
+He had not heard that I had run away. In a few minutes we were on the
+Missouri side, and were taken directly to the jail. On the way thither,
+I saw several of my friends, who gave me a nod of recognition as I
+passed them. After reaching the jail, we were locked up in different
+apartments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+I had been in jail but a short time when I heard that my master was
+sick, and nothing brought more joy to my heart than that intelligence.
+I prayed fervently for him--not for his recovery, but for his death.
+I knew he would be exasperated at having to pay for my apprehension,
+and knowing his cruelty, I feared him. While in jail, I learned that
+my sister Elizabeth, who was in prison when we left the city, had been
+carried off four days before our arrival.
+
+I had been in jail but a few hours when three negro-traders, learning
+that I was secured thus for running away, came to my prison-house
+and looked at me, expecting that I would be offered for sale. Mr.
+Mansfield, the man who owned mother, came into the jail as soon as Mr.
+Jones, the man who arrested us, informed him that he had brought her
+back. He told her that he would not whip her, but would sell her to a
+negro-trader, or take her to New Orleans himself. After being in jail
+about one week, master sent a man to take me out of jail, and send me
+home. I was taken out and carried home, and the old man was well enough
+to sit up. He had me brought into the room where he was, and as I
+entered, he asked me where I had been? I told him I had acted according
+to his orders. He had told me to look for a master, and I had been to
+look for one. He answered that he did not tell me to go to Canada to
+look for a master. I told him that as I had served him faithfully, and
+had been the means of putting a number of hundreds of dollars into his
+pocket, I thought I had a right to my liberty. He said he had promised
+my father that I should not be sold to supply the New Orleans market,
+or he would sell me to a negro-trader.
+
+I was ordered to go into the field to work, and was closely watched
+by the overseer during the day, and locked up at night. The overseer
+gave me a severe whipping on the second day that I was in the field. I
+had been at home but a short time, when master was able to ride to the
+city; and on his return he informed me that he had sold me to Samuel
+Willi, a merchant tailor. I knew Mr. Willi. I had lived with him three
+or four months some years before, when he hired me of my master.
+
+Mr. Willi was not considered by his servants as a very bad man, nor
+was he the best of masters. I went to my new home, and found my new
+mistress very glad to see me. Mr. Willi owned two servants before
+he purchased me--Robert and Charlotte. Robert was an excellent
+white-washer, and hired his time from his master, paying him one dollar
+per day, besides taking care of himself. He was known in the city by
+the name of Bob Music. Charlotte was an old woman, who attended to the
+cooking, washing, &c. Mr. Willi was not a wealthy man, and did not feel
+able to keep many servants around his house; so he soon decided to hire
+me out, and as I had been accustomed to service in steamboats, he gave
+me the privilege of finding such employment.
+
+I soon secured a situation on board the steamer Otto, Capt. J. B.
+Hill, which sailed from St. Louis to Independence, Missouri. My former
+master, Dr. Young, did not let Mr. Willi know that I had run away, or
+he would not have permitted me to go on board a steamboat. The boat was
+not quite ready to commence running, and therefore I had to remain
+with Mr. Willi. But during this time, I had to undergo a trial for
+which I was entirely unprepared. My mother, who had been in jail since
+her return until the present time, was now about being carried to New
+Orleans, to die on a cotton, sugar, or rice plantation!
+
+I had been several times to the jail, but could obtain no interview
+with her. I ascertained, however, the time the boat in which she was to
+embark would sail, and as I had not seen mother since her being thrown
+into prison, I felt anxious for the hour of sailing to come. At last,
+the day arrived when I was to see her for the first time after our
+painful separation, and, for aught that I knew, for the last time in
+this world!
+
+At about ten o'clock in the morning I went on board of the boat, and
+found her there in company with fifty or sixty other slaves. She was
+chained to another woman. On seeing me, she immediately dropped her
+head upon her heaving bosom. She moved not, neither did she weep. Her
+emotions were too deep for tears. I approached, threw my arms around
+her neck, kissed her, and fell upon my knees, begging her forgiveness,
+for I thought myself to blame for her sad condition; for if I had not
+persuaded her to accompany me, she would not then have been in chains.
+
+She finally raised her head, looked me in the face, (and such a look
+none but an angel can give!) and said, "_My dear son, you are not to
+blame for my being here. You have done nothing more nor less than your
+duty. Do not, I pray you, weep for me. I cannot last long upon a cotton
+plantation. I feel that my heavenly Master will soon call me home, and
+then I shall be out of the hands of the slave-holders!_"
+
+I could bear no more--my heart struggled to free itself from the human
+form. In a moment she saw Mr. Mansfield coming toward that part of the
+boat, and she whispered into my ear, "_My child, we must soon part to
+meet no more this side of the grave. You have ever said that you would
+not die a slave; that you would be a freeman. Now try to get your
+liberty! You will soon have no one to look after but yourself!_" and
+just as she whispered the last sentence into my ear, Mansfield came up
+to me, and with an oath, said, "Leave here this instant; you have been
+the means of my losing one hundred dollars to get this wench back"--at
+the same time kicking me with a heavy pair of boots. As I left her,
+she gave one shriek, saying, "God be with you!" It was the last time
+that I saw her, and the last word I heard her utter.
+
+I walked on shore. The bell was tolling. The boat was about to start.
+I stood with a heavy heart, waiting to see her leave the wharf. As I
+thought of my mother, I could but feel that I had lost
+
+
+     "------the glory of my life,
+     My blessing and my pride!
+     I half forgot the name of slave,
+     When she was by my side."
+
+
+The love of liberty that had been burning in my bosom had well-nigh
+gone out. I felt as though I was ready to die. The boat moved gently
+from the wharf, and while she glided down the river, I realized that my
+mother was indeed
+
+
+     "Gone--gone--sold and gone,
+     To the rice swamp, dank and lone!"
+
+
+After the boat was out of sight I returned home; but my thoughts were
+so absorbed in what I had witnessed, that I knew not what I was about
+half of the time. Night came, but it brought no sleep to my eyes.
+
+In a few days, the boat upon which I was to work being ready, I went
+on board to commence. This employment suited me better than living
+in the city, and I remained until the close of navigation; though it
+proved anything but pleasant. The captain was a drunken, profligate,
+hardhearted creature, not knowing how to treat himself, or any other
+person.
+
+The boat, on its second trip, brought down Mr. Walker, the man of whom
+I have spoken in a previous chapter, as hiring my time. He had between
+one and two hundred slaves, chained and manacled. Among them was a man
+that formerly belonged to my old master's brother, Aaron Young. His
+name was Solomon. He was a preacher, and belonged to the same church
+with his master. I was glad to see the old man. He wept like a child
+when he told me how he had been sold from his wife and children.
+
+The boat carried down, while I remained on board, four or five gangs
+of slaves. Missouri, though a comparatively new state, is very
+much engaged in raising slaves to supply the southern market. In a
+former chapter, I have mentioned that I was once in the employ of
+a slave-trader, or driver, as he is called at the south. For fear
+that some may think that I have misrepresented a slave-driver, I will
+here give an extract from a paper published in a slave-holding state,
+Tennessee, called the "Millennial Trumpeter."
+
+"Droves of negroes, chained together in dozens and scores, and
+hand-cuffed, have been driven through our country in numbers far
+surpassing any previous year, and these vile slave-drivers and dealers
+are swarming like buzzards around a carrion. Through this county, you
+cannot pass a few miles in the great roads without having every feeling
+of humanity insulted and lacerated by this spectacle, nor can you
+go into any county or any neighborhood, scarcely, without seeing or
+hearing of some of these despicable creatures, called negro-drivers.
+
+"Who is a negro-driver? One whose eyes dwell with delight on lacerated
+bodies of helpless men, women and children; whose soul feels diabolical
+raptures at the chains, and hand-cuffs, and cart-whips, for inflicting
+tortures on weeping mothers torn from helpless babes, and on husbands
+and wives torn asunder forever!"
+
+Dark and revolting as is the picture here drawn, it is from the pen of
+one living in the midst of slavery. But though these men may cant about
+negro-drivers, and tell what despicable creatures they are, who is it,
+I ask, that supplies them with the human beings that they are tearing
+asunder? I answer, as far as I have any knowledge of the state where I
+came from, that those who raise slaves for the market are to be found
+among all classes, from Thomas H. Benton down to the lowest political
+demagogue who may be able to purchase a woman for the purpose of
+raising stock, and from the doctor of divinity down to the most humble
+lay member in the church.
+
+It was not uncommon in St. Louis to pass by an auction-stand, and
+behold a woman upon the auction-block, and hear the seller crying
+out, "_How much is offered for this woman? She is a good cook, good
+washer, a good obedient servant. She has got religion!_" Why should
+this man tell the purchasers that she has religion? I answer, because
+in Missouri, and as far as I have any knowledge of slavery in the other
+states, the religious teaching consists in teaching the slave that he
+must never strike a white man; that God made him for a slave; and that,
+when whipped, he must not find fault--for the Bible says, "He that
+knoweth his master's will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many
+stripes!" And slaveholders find such religion very profitable to them.
+
+After leaving the steamer Otto, I resided at home, in Mr. Willi's
+family, and again began to lay my plans for making my escape from
+slavery. The anxiety to be a freeman would not let me rest day or
+night. I would think of the northern cities that I had heard so much
+about;--of Canada, where so many of my acquaintances had found a
+refuge. I would dream at night that I was in Canada, a freeman, and on
+waking in the morning, weep to find myself so sadly mistaken.
+
+
+     "I would think of Victoria's domain,
+       And in a moment I seemed to be there!
+     But the fear of being taken again,
+       Soon hurried me back to despair."
+
+
+Mr. Willi treated me better than Dr. Young ever had; but instead of
+making me contented and happy, it only rendered me the more miserable,
+for it enabled me better to appreciate liberty. Mr. Willi was a man who
+loved money as most men do, and without looking for an opportunity to
+sell me, he found one in the offer of Captain Enoch Price, a steamboat
+owner and commission merchant, living in the city of St. Louis. Captain
+Price tendered seven hundred dollars, which was two hundred more than
+Mr. Willi had paid. He therefore thought best to accept the offer. I
+was wanted for a carriage driver, and Mrs. Price was very much pleased
+with the captain's bargain. His family consisted besides of one child.
+He had three servants besides myself--one man and two women.
+
+Mrs. Price was very proud of her servants, always keeping them well
+dressed, and as soon as I had been purchased, she resolved to have a
+new carriage. And soon one was procured, and all preparations were made
+for a turn-out in grand style, I being the driver.
+
+One of the female servants was a girl some eighteen or twenty years
+of age, named Maria. Mrs. Price was very soon determined to have us
+united, if she could so arrange matters. She would often urge upon me
+the necessity of having a wife, saying that it would be so pleasant
+for me to take one in the same family! But getting married, while in
+slavery, was the last of my thoughts; and had I been ever so inclined,
+I should not have married Maria, as my love had already gone in
+another quarter. Mrs. Price soon found out that her efforts at this
+match-making between Maria and myself would not prove successful. She
+also discovered (or thought she had) that I was rather partial to a
+girl named Eliza, who was owned by Dr. Mills. This induced her at once
+to endeavor the purchase of Eliza, so great was her desire to get me a
+wife!
+
+Before making the attempt, however, she deemed it best to talk to me a
+little upon the subject of love, courtship, and marriage. Accordingly,
+one afternoon she called me into her room--telling me to take a chair
+and sit down. I did so, thinking it rather strange, for servants are
+not very often asked thus to sit down in the same room with the master
+or mistress. She said that she had found out that I did not care enough
+about Maria to marry her. I told her that was true. She then asked me
+if there was not a girl in the city that I loved. Well, now, this was
+coming into too close quarters with me! People, generally, don't like
+to tell their love stories to everybody that may think fit to ask about
+them, and it was so with me. But, after blushing a while and recovering
+myself, I told her that I did not want a wife. She then asked me if I
+did not think something of Eliza. I told her that I did. She then said
+that if I wished to marry Eliza, she would purchase her if she could.
+
+I gave but little encouragement to this proposition, as I was
+determined to make another trial to get my liberty, and I knew that
+if I should have a wife, I should not be willing to leave her behind;
+and if I should attempt to bring her with me, the chances would be
+difficult for success. However, Eliza was purchased, and brought into
+the family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+But the more I thought of the trap laid by Mrs. Price to make me
+satisfied with my new home, by getting me a wife, the more I determined
+never to marry any woman on earth until I should get my liberty. But
+this secret I was compelled to keep to myself, which placed me in a
+very critical position. I must keep upon good terms with Mrs. Price and
+Eliza. I therefore promised Mrs. Price that I would marry Eliza; but
+said that I was not then ready. And I had to keep upon good terms with
+Eliza, for fear that Mrs. Price would find out that I did not intend to
+get married.
+
+I have here spoken of marriage, and it is very common among slaves
+themselves to talk of it. And it is common for slaves to be married;
+or at least to have the marriage ceremony performed. But there is no
+such thing as slaves being lawfully married. There has never yet a case
+occurred where a slave has been tried for bigamy. The man may have as
+many women as he wishes, and the women as many men; and the law takes
+no cognizance of such acts among slaves. And in fact some masters, when
+they have sold the husband from the wife, compel her to take another.
+
+There lived opposite Captain Price's, Doctor Farrar, well known in St.
+Louis. He sold a man named Ben, to one of the traders. He also owned
+Ben's wife, and in a few days he compelled Sally (that was her name)
+to marry Peter, another man belonging to him. I asked Sally "why she
+married Peter so soon after Ben was sold." She said, "because master
+made her do it."
+
+Mr. John Calvert, who resided near our place, had a woman named
+Lavinia. She was quite young, and a man to whom she was about to be
+married was sold, and carried into the country near St. Charles, about
+twenty miles from St. Louis. Mr. Calvert wanted her to get a husband;
+but she had resolved not to marry any other man, and she refused. Mr.
+Calvert whipped her in such a manner that it was thought she would die.
+Some of the citizens had him arrested, but it was soon hushed up. And
+that was the last of it. The woman did not die, but it would have been
+the same if she had.
+
+Captain Price purchased me in the month of October, and I remained with
+him until December, when the family made a voyage to New Orleans, in a
+boat owned by himself, and named the "Chester." I served on board as
+one of the stewards. On arriving at New Orleans, about the middle of
+the month, the boat took in freight for Cincinnati; and it was decided
+that the family should go up the river in her, and what was of more
+interest to me, I was to accompany them.
+
+The long looked for opportunity to make my escape from slavery was near
+at hand.
+
+Captain Price had some fears as to the propriety of taking me near a
+free state, or a place where it was likely I could run away, with a
+prospect of liberty. He asked me if I had ever been in a free state.
+"Oh yes," said I, "I have been in Ohio; my master carried me into that
+state once, but I never liked a free state."
+
+It was soon decided that it would be safe to take me with them, and
+what made it more safe, Eliza was on the boat with us, and Mrs. Price,
+to try me, asked if I thought as much as ever of Eliza. I told her
+that Eliza was very dear to me indeed, and that nothing but death
+should part us. It was the same as if we were married. This had the
+desired effect. The boat left New Orleans, and proceeded up the river.
+
+I had at different times obtained little sums of money, which I had
+reserved for a "rainy day." I procured some cotton cloth, and made me
+a bag to carry provisions in. The trials of the past were all lost
+in hopes for the future. The love of liberty, that had been burning
+in my bosom for years, and had been well-nigh extinguished, was now
+resuscitated. At night, when all around was peaceful, I would walk the
+decks, meditating upon my happy prospects.
+
+I should have stated, that, before leaving St. Louis, I went to an
+old man named Frank, a slave, owned by a Mr. Sarpee. This old man was
+very distinguished (not only among the slave population, but also
+the whites) as a fortune-teller. He was about seventy years of age,
+something over six feet high, and very slender. Indeed, he was so small
+around his body, that it looked as though it was not strong enough to
+hold up his head.
+
+Uncle Frank was a very great favorite with the young ladies, who would
+go to him in great numbers to get their fortunes told. And it was
+generally believed that he could really penetrate into the mysteries
+of futurity. Whether true or not, he had the _name_, and that is about
+half of what one needs in this gullible age. I found Uncle Frank
+seated in the chimney corner, about ten o'clock at night. As soon as I
+entered, the old man left his seat. I watched his movement as well as
+I could by the dim light of the fire. He soon lit a lamp, and coming
+up, looked me full in the face, saying, "Well, my son, you have come
+to get uncle to tell your fortune, have you?" "Yes," said I. But how
+the old man should know what I came for, I could not tell. However, I
+paid the fee of twenty-five cents, and he commenced by looking into a
+gourd, filled with water. Whether the old man was a prophet, or the son
+of a prophet, I cannot say; but there is one thing certain, many of his
+predictions were verified.
+
+I am no believer in soothsaying; yet I am sometimes at a loss to know
+how Uncle Frank could tell so accurately what would occur in the
+future. Among the many things he told was one which was enough to pay
+me for all the trouble of hunting him up. It was that I _should be
+free_! He further said, that in trying to get my liberty I would meet
+with many severe trials. I thought to myself any fool could tell me
+that!
+
+The first place in which we landed in a free state was Cairo, a small
+village at the mouth of the Ohio river. We remained here but a few
+hours, when we proceeded to Louisville. After unloading some of the
+cargo, the boat started on her upward trip. The next day was the first
+of January. I had looked forward to New Year's day as the commencement
+of a new era in the history of my life. I had decided upon leaving the
+peculiar institution that day.
+
+During the last night that I served in slavery I did not close my
+eyes a single moment. When not thinking of the future, my mind dwelt
+on the past. The love of a dear mother, a dear sister, and three dear
+brothers, yet living, caused me to shed many tears. If I could only
+have been assured of their being dead, I should have felt satisfied;
+but I imagined I saw my dear mother in the cotton-field, followed by a
+merciless taskmaster, and no one to speak a consoling word to her! I
+beheld my dear sister in the hands of a slave-driver, and compelled to
+submit to his cruelty! None but one placed in such a situation can for
+a moment imagine the intense agony to which these reflections subjected
+me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+At last the time for action arrived. The boat landed at a point which
+appeared to me the place of all others to start from. I found that it
+would be impossible to carry anything with me but what was upon my
+person. I had some provisions, and a single suit of clothes, about
+half worn. When the boat was discharging her cargo, and the passengers
+engaged carrying their baggage on and off shore, I improved the
+opportunity to convey myself with my little effects on land. Taking up
+a trunk, I went up the wharf, and was soon out of the crowd. I made
+directly for the woods, where I remained until night, knowing well that
+I could not travel, even in the state of Ohio, during the day, without
+danger of being arrested.
+
+I had long since made up my mind that I would not trust myself in the
+hands of any man, white or colored. The slave is brought up to look
+upon every white man as an enemy to him and his race; and twenty-one
+years in slavery had taught me that there were traitors, even among
+colored people. After dark, I emerged from the woods into a narrow
+path, which led me into the main travelled road. But I knew not which
+way to go. I did not know north from south, east from west. I looked in
+vain for the North Star; a heavy cloud hid it from my view. I walked up
+and down the road until near midnight, when the clouds disappeared, and
+I welcomed the sight of my friend--truly the slave's friend--the North
+Star!
+
+As soon as I saw it, I knew my course, and before daylight I travelled
+twenty or twenty-five miles. It being in the winter, I suffered
+intensely from the cold; being without an overcoat, and my other
+clothes rather thin for the season. I was provided with a tinder-box,
+so that I could make up a fire when necessary. And but for this, I
+should certainly have frozen to death; for I was determined not to go
+to any house for shelter. I knew of a man belonging to Gen. Ashly, of
+St. Louis, who had run away near Cincinnati, on the way to Washington,
+but had been caught and carried back into slavery; and I felt that a
+similar fate awaited me, should I be seen by any one. I travelled at
+night, and lay by during the day.
+
+On the fourth day my provisions gave out, and then what to do I could
+not tell. Have something to eat I must; but how to get it was the
+question! On the first night after my food was gone, I went to a barn
+on the road-side and there found some ears of corn. I took ten or
+twelve of them, and kept on my journey. During the next day, while in
+the woods, I roasted my corn and feasted upon it, thanking God that I
+was so well provided for.
+
+My escape to a land of freedom now appeared certain, and the prospects
+of the future occupied a great part of my thoughts. What should be my
+occupation, was a subject of much anxiety to me; and the next thing
+what should be my name? I have before stated that my old master, Dr.
+Young, had no children of his own, but had with him a nephew, the son
+of his brother, Benjamin Young. When this boy was brought to Dr. Young,
+his name being William, the same as mine, my mother was ordered to
+change mine to something else. This, at the time, I thought to be one
+of the most cruel acts that could be committed upon my rights; and I
+received several very severe whippings for telling people that my name
+was William, after orders were given to change it. Though young, I was
+old enough to place a high appreciation upon my name. It was decided,
+however, to call me "Sandford," and this name I was known by, not only
+upon my master's plantation, but up to the time that I made my escape.
+I was sold under the name of Sandford.
+
+But as soon as the subject came to my mind, I resolved on adopting my
+old name of William, and let Sandford go by the board, for I always
+hated it. Not because there was anything peculiar in the name; but
+because it had been forced upon me. It is sometimes common, at the
+south, for slaves to take the name of their masters. Some have a
+legitimate right to do so. But I always detested the idea of being
+called by the name of either of my masters. And as for my father, I
+would rather have adopted the name of "Friday," and been known as the
+servant of some Robinson Crusoe, than to have taken his name. So I was
+not only hunting for my liberty, but also hunting for a name; though I
+regarded the latter as of little consequence, if I could but gain the
+former. Travelling along the road, I would sometimes speak to myself,
+sounding my name over, by way of getting used to it, before I should
+arrive among civilized human beings. On the fifth or six day, it rained
+very fast, and froze about as fast as it fell, so that my clothes were
+one glare of ice. I travelled on at night until I became so chilled and
+benumbed--the wind blowing into my face--that I found it impossible to
+go any further, and accordingly took shelter in a barn, where I was
+obliged to walk about to keep from freezing.
+
+I have ever looked upon that night as the most eventful part of my
+escape from slavery. Nothing but the providence of God, and that old
+barn, saved me from freezing to death. I received a very severe cold,
+which settled upon my lungs, and from time to time my feet had been
+frostbitten, so that it was with difficulty I could walk. In this
+situation I travelled two days, when I found that I must seek shelter
+somewhere, or die.
+
+The thought of death was nothing frightful to me, compared with that
+of being caught, and again carried back into slavery. Nothing but the
+prospect of enjoying liberty could have induced me to undergo such
+trials, for
+
+
+     "Behind I left the whips and chains,
+     Before me were sweet Freedom's plains!"
+
+
+This, and this alone, cheered me onward. But I at last resolved to seek
+protection from the inclemency of the weather, and therefore I secured
+myself behind some logs and brush, intending to wait there until some
+one should pass by; for I thought it probable that I might see some
+colored person, or, if not, some one who was not a slaveholder; for I
+had an idea that I should know a slaveholder as far as I could see him.
+
+The first person that passed was a man in a buggy-wagon. He looked too
+genteel for me to hail him. Very soon another passed by on horseback.
+I attempted to speak to him, but fear made my voice fail me. As he
+passed, I left my hiding-place, and was approaching the road, when I
+observed an old man walking towards me, leading a white horse. He had
+on a broad-brimmed hat and a very long coat, and was evidently walking
+for exercise. As soon as I saw him, and observed his dress, I thought
+to myself, "You are the man that I have been looking for!" Nor was I
+mistaken. He was the very man!
+
+On approaching me, he asked me, "if I was not a slave." I looked at him
+some time, and then asked him "if he knew of any one who would help
+me, as I was sick." He answered that he would; but again asked, if I
+was not a slave. I told him I was. He then said that I was in a very
+pro-slavery neighborhood, and if I would wait until he went home, he
+would get a covered wagon for me. I promised to remain. He mounted his
+horse, and was soon out of sight.
+
+After he was gone, I meditated whether to wait or not; being
+apprehensive that he had gone for some one to arrest me. But I finally
+concluded to remain until he should return; removing some few rods to
+watch his movements. After a suspense of an hour and a half or more, he
+returned with a two-horse covered wagon, such as are usually seen under
+the shed of a Quaker meeting-house on Sundays and Thursdays; for the
+old man proved to be a Quaker of the George Fox stamp.
+
+He took me to his house, but it was some time before I could be induced
+to enter it; not until the old lady came out, did I venture into the
+house. I thought I saw something in the old lady's cap that told me
+I was not only safe, but welcome, in her house. I was not, however,
+prepared to receive their hospitalities. The only fault I found with
+them was their being too kind. I had never had a white man to treat me
+as an equal, and the idea of a white lady waiting on me at the table
+was still worse! Though the table was loaded with the good things of
+this life, I could not eat. I thought if I could only be allowed the
+privilege of eating in the kitchen I should be more than satisfied!
+
+Finding that I could not eat, the old lady, who was a "Thompsonian,"
+made me a cup of "composition," or "number six;" but it was so strong
+and hot, that I called it "_number seven_!" However, I soon found
+myself at home in this family. On different occasions, when telling
+these facts, I have been asked how I felt upon finding myself regarded
+as a man by a white family; especially just having run away from one. I
+cannot say that I have ever answered the question yet.
+
+The fact that I was in all probability a freeman, sounded in my ears
+like a charm. I am satisfied that none but a slave could place such
+an appreciation upon liberty as I did at that time. I wanted to see
+mother and sister, that I might tell them "I was free!" I wanted to
+see my fellow-slaves in St. Louis, and let them know that the chains
+were no longer upon my limbs. I wanted to see Captain Price, and let
+him learn from my own lips that I was no more a chattel, but a man! I
+was anxious, too, thus to inform Mrs. Price that she must get another
+coachman. And I wanted to see Eliza more than I did either Mr. or Mrs.
+Price!
+
+The fact that I was a freeman--could walk, talk, eat and sleep, as a
+man, and no one to stand over me with the blood-clotted cow-hide--all
+this made me feel that I was not myself.
+
+The kind friend that had taken me in was named Wells Brown. He was a
+devoted friend of the slave; but was very old, and not in the enjoyment
+of good health. After being by the fire awhile, I found that my feet
+had been very much frozen. I was seized with a fever, which threatened
+to confine me to my bed. But my Thompsonian friends soon raised me,
+treating me as kindly as if I had been one of their own children. I
+remained with them twelve or fifteen days, during which time they made
+me some clothing, and the old gentleman purchased me a pair of boots.
+
+I found that I was about fifty or sixty miles from Dayton, in the State
+of Ohio, and between one and two hundred miles from Cleaveland, on
+Lake Erie, a place I was desirous of reaching on my way to Canada. This
+I know will sound strangely to the ears of people in foreign lands,
+but it is nevertheless true. An American citizen was fleeing from a
+democratic, republican, Christian government, to receive protection
+under the monarchy of Great Britain. While the people of the United
+States boast of their freedom, they at the same time keep three
+millions of their own citizens in chains; and while I am seated here in
+sight of Bunker Hill Monument, writing this narrative, I am a slave,
+and no law, not even in Massachusetts, can protect me from the hands of
+the slaveholder!
+
+Before leaving this good Quaker friend, he inquired what my name was
+besides William. I told him that I had no other name. "Well," said he,
+"thee must have another name. Since thee has got out of slavery, thee
+has become a man, and men always have two names."
+
+I told him that he was the first man to extend the hand of friendship
+to me, and I would give him the privilege of naming me.
+
+"If I name thee," said he, "I shall call thee Wells Brown, after
+myself."
+
+"But," said I, "I am not willing to lose my name of William. As it was
+taken from me once against my will, I am not willing to part with it
+again upon any terms."
+
+"Then," said he, "I will call thee William Wells Brown."
+
+"So be it," said I; and I have been known by that name ever since I
+left the house of my first white friend, Wells Brown.
+
+After giving me some little change, I again started for Canada. In four
+days I reached a public house, and went in to warm myself. I there
+learned that some fugitive slaves had just passed through the place.
+The men in the bar-room were talking about it, and I thought that it
+must have been myself they referred to, and I was therefore afraid to
+start, fearing they would seize me; but I finally mustered courage
+enough, and took my leave. As soon as I was out of sight, I went into
+the woods, and remained there until night, when I again regained the
+road, and travelled on until next day.
+
+Not having had any food for nearly two days, I was faint with hunger,
+and was in a dilemma what to do, as the little cash supplied me by my
+adopted father, and which had contributed to my comfort, was now all
+gone. I however concluded to go to a farm-house, and, ask for something
+to eat. On approaching the door of the first one presenting itself, I
+knocked, and was soon met by a man who asked me what I wanted. I told
+him that I would like something to eat. He asked me where I was from,
+and where I was going. I replied that I had come some way, and was
+going to Cleaveland.
+
+After hesitating a moment or two, he told me that he could give me
+nothing to eat, adding, "that if I would work, I could get something to
+eat."
+
+I felt bad, being thus refused something to sustain nature, but did not
+dare tell him that I was a slave.
+
+Just as I was leaving the door, with a heavy heart, a woman, who
+proved to be the wife of this gentleman, came to the door, and asked
+her husband what I wanted. He did not seem inclined to inform her. She
+therefore asked me herself. I told her that I had asked for something
+to eat. After a few other questions, she told me to come in, and that
+she would give me something to eat.
+
+I walked up to the door, but the husband remained in the passage, as if
+unwilling to let me enter.
+
+She asked him two or three times to get out of the way, and let me in.
+But as he did not move, she pushed him on one side, bidding me walk in!
+I was never before so glad to see a woman push a man aside! Ever since
+that act; I have been in favor of "woman's rights!"
+
+After giving me as much food as I could eat, she presented me with ten
+cents, all the money then at her disposal, accompanied with a note
+to a friend, a few miles further on the road. Thanking this angel of
+mercy from an overflowing heart, I pushed on my way, and in three days
+arrived at Cleaveland, Ohio.
+
+Being an entire stranger in this place, it was difficult for me to find
+where to stop. I had no money, and the lake being frozen, I saw that
+I must remain until the opening of the navigation, or go to Canada by
+way of Buffalo. But believing myself to be somewhat out of danger,
+I secured an engagement at the Mansion House, as a table waiter, in
+payment for my board. The proprietor, however, whose name was E. M.
+Segur, in a short time, hired me for twelve dollars a month; on which
+terms I remained until spring, when I found good employment on board a
+lake steamboat.
+
+I purchased some books, and at leisure moments perused them with
+considerable advantage to myself. While at Cleaveland, I saw, for the
+first time, an anti-slavery newspaper. It was the "_Genius of Universal
+Emancipation_," published by Benjamin Lundy; and though I had no home,
+I subscribed for the paper. It was my great desire, being out of
+slavery myself, to do what I could for the emancipation of my brethren
+yet in chains, and while on Lake Erie, I found many opportunities of
+"helping their cause along."
+
+It is well known that a great number of fugitives make their escape to
+Canada, by way of Cleaveland; and while on the lakes, I always made
+arrangement to carry them on the boat to Buffalo or Detroit, and thus
+effect their escape to the "promised land." The friends of the slave,
+knowing that I would transport them without charge, never failed to
+have a delegation when the boat arrived at Cleaveland. I have sometimes
+had four or five on board at one time.
+
+In the year 1842, I conveyed, from the first of May to the first of
+December, sixty-nine fugitives over Lake Erie to Canada. In 1843,
+I visited Malden, in Upper Canada, and counted seventeen in that
+small village, whom I had assisted in reaching Canada. Soon after
+coming north I subscribed for the Liberator, edited by that champion
+of freedom, William Lloyd Garrison. I had heard nothing of the
+anti-slavery movement while in slavery, and as soon as I found that my
+enslaved countrymen had friends who were laboring for their liberation,
+I felt anxious to join them, and give what aid I could to the cause.
+
+I early embraced the temperance cause, and found that a temperance
+reformation was needed among my colored brethren. In company with a
+few friends, I commenced a temperance reformation among the colored
+people in the city of Buffalo, and labored three years, in which time a
+society was built up, numbering over five hundred out of a population
+of less than seven hundred.
+
+In the autumn, 1843, impressed with the importance of spreading
+anti-slavery truth, as a means to bring about the abolition of slavery,
+I commenced lecturing as an agent of the western New York Anti-Slavery
+Society, and have ever since devoted my time to the cause of my
+enslaved countrymen.
+
+
+
+
+From the Liberty Bell of 1848.
+
+
+THE AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
+
+BY WILLIAM WELLS BROWN.
+
+Of the many features which American slavery presents, the most cruel
+is that of the slave-trade. A traffic in the bodies and souls of
+native-born Americans is carried on in the slave-holding states to
+an extent little dreamed of by the great mass of the people in the
+non-slave-holding states. The precise number of slaves carried from
+the slave-raising to the slave-consuming states we have no means of
+knowing. But it must be very great, as forty thousand were sold and
+carried out of the State of Virginia in one single year!
+
+This heart-rending and cruel traffic is not confined to any particular
+class of persons. No person forfeits his or her character or standing
+in society by being engaged in raising and selling slaves to supply
+the cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the south. Few persons who
+have visited the slave states have not, on their return, told of the
+gangs of slaves they had seen on their way to the southern market. This
+trade presents some of the most revolting and atrocious scenes which
+can be imagined. Slave-prisons, slave-auctions, hand-cuffs, whips,
+chains, bloodhounds, and other instruments of cruelty, are part of the
+furniture which belongs to the American slave-trade. It is enough to
+make humanity bleed at every pore, to see these implements of torture.
+
+Known to God only is the amount of human agony and suffering which
+sends its cry from these slave-prisons, unheard or unheeded by man,
+up to His ear; mothers weeping for their children--breaking the
+night-silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts. We wish no
+human being to experience emotions of needless pain, but we do wish
+that every man, woman, and child in New England, could visit a southern
+slave-prison and auction-stand.
+
+I shall never forget a scene which took place in the city of St. Louis,
+while I was in slavery. A man and his wife, both slaves, were brought
+from the country to the city, for sale. They were taken to the rooms of
+AUSTIN & SAVAGE, auctioneers. Several slave-speculators, who
+are always to be found at auctions where slaves are to be sold, were
+present. The man was first put up, and sold to the highest bidder. The
+wife was next ordered to ascend the platform. I was present. She slowly
+obeyed the order. The auctioneer commenced, and soon several hundred
+dollars were bid. My eyes were intensely fixed on the face of the
+woman, whose cheeks were wet with tears. But a conversation between the
+slave and his new master attracted my attention. I drew near them to
+listen. The slave was begging his new master to purchase his wife. Said
+he, "Master, if you will only buy Fanny, I know you will get the worth
+of your money. She is a good cook, a good washer, and her last mistress
+liked her very much. If you will only buy her how happy I shall be."
+The new master replied that he did not want her, but if she sold cheap
+he would purchase her. I watched the countenance of the man while the
+different persons were bidding on his wife. When his new master bid on
+his wife you could see the smile upon his countenance, and the tears
+stop; but as soon as another would bid, you could see the countenance
+change and the tears start afresh. From this change of countenance one
+could see the workings of the inmost soul. But this suspense did not
+last long; the wife was struck off to the highest bidder, who proved
+not to be the owner of her husband. As soon as they became aware that
+they were to be separated, they both burst into tears; and as she
+descended from the auction-stand, the husband, walking up to her and
+taking her by the hand, said, "Well, Fanny, we are to part forever, on
+earth; you have been a good wife to me. I did all that I could to get
+my new master to buy you; but he did not want you, and all I have to
+say is, I hope you will try to meet me in heaven. I shall try to meet
+you there." The wife made no reply, but her sobs and cries told, too
+well, her own feelings. I saw the countenances of a number of whites
+who were present, and whose eyes were dim with tears at hearing the man
+bid his wife farewell.
+
+Such are but common occurrences in the slave states. At these
+auction-stands, bones, muscles, sinews, blood and nerves, of human
+beings, are sold with as much indifference as a farmer in the north
+sells a horse or sheep. And this great American nation is, at the
+present time, engaged in the slave-trade. I have before me now the
+Washington "UNION," the organ of the government, in which I
+find an advertisement of several slaves to be sold for the benefit of
+the government. They will, in all human probability, find homes among
+the rice-swamps of Georgia, or the cane-brakes of Mississippi.
+
+With every disposition on the part of those who are engaged in it to
+veil the truth, certain facts have, from time to time, transpired,
+sufficient to show, if not the full amount of the evil, at least that
+it is one of prodigious magnitude. And what is more to be wondered
+at, is the fact that the greatest slave-market is to be found at the
+capital of the country! The American slave-trader marches by the
+capitol with his "coffle-gang,"--the stars and stripes waving over
+their heads, and the constitution of the United States in his pocket!
+
+The Alexandria Gazette, speaking of the slave-trade at the capital,
+says, "Here you may behold fathers and brothers leaving behind them
+the dearest objects of affection, and moving slowly along in the mute
+agony of despair; there, the young mother, sobbing over the infant
+whose innocent smile seems but to increase her misery. From some you
+will hear the burst of bitter lamentation, while from others, the loud
+hysteric laugh breaks forth, denoting still deeper agony. Such is but a
+faint picture of the American slave-trade."
+
+_Boston, Massachusetts._
+
+
+
+
+THE BLIND SLAVE BOY.
+
+BY MRS. BAILEY.
+
+
+     Come back to me mother! why linger away
+     From thy poor little blind boy the long weary day!
+     I mark every footstep, I list to each tone,
+     And wonder my mother should leave me alone!
+     There are voices of sorrow, and voices of glee,
+     But there's no one to joy or to sorrow with me;
+     For each hath of pleasure and trouble his share,
+     And none for the poor little blind boy will care.
+
+     My mother, come back to me! close to thy breast
+     Once more let thy poor little blind boy be pressed;
+     Once more let me feel thy warm breath on my cheek,
+     And hear thee in accents of tenderness speak.
+     O mother! I've no one to love me--no heart
+     Can bear like thine own in my sorrows a part,
+     No hand is so gentle, no voice is so kind,
+     Oh! none like a mother can cherish the blind!
+
+     Poor blind one! No mother thy wailing can hear,
+     No mother can hasten to banish thy fear;
+     For the slave-owner drives her o'er mountain and wild,
+     And for one paltry dollar hath sold thee, poor child;
+     Ah, who can in language of mortals reveal
+     The anguish that none but a mother can feel.
+     When man in his vile lust of mammon hath trod
+     On her child, who is stricken or smitten of God!
+
+     Blind, helpless, forsaken, with strangers alone,
+     She hears in her anguish his piteous moan;
+     As he eagerly listens--but listens in vain--
+     To catch the loved tones of his mother again!
+     The curse of the broken in spirit shall fall
+     On the wretch who hath mingled this wormwood and gall,
+     And his gain like a mildew shall blight and destroy,
+     Who hath torn from his mother the little blind boy!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+In giving a history of my own sufferings in slavery, as well as the
+sufferings of others with which I was acquainted, or which came under
+my immediate observation, I have spoken harshly of slaveholders, in
+church and state.
+
+Nor am I inclined to apologize for anything which I have said. There
+are exceptions among slaveholders, as well as among other sinners;
+and the fact that a slaveholder feeds his slaves better, clothes them
+better, than another, does not alter the case; he is a slaveholder.
+I do not ask the slaveholder to feed, clothe, or to treat his victim
+better as a slave. I am not waging a warfare against the collateral
+evils, or what are sometimes called the abuses, of slavery. I wage a
+war against slavery itself, because it takes man down from the lofty
+position which God intended he should occupy, and places him upon a
+level with the beasts of the field. It decrees that the slave shall
+not worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; it
+denies him the word of God; it makes him a chattel, and sells him in
+the market to the highest bidder; it decrees that he shall not protect
+the wife of his bosom; it takes from him every right which God gave
+him. Clothing and food are as nothing compared with liberty. What
+care I for clothing or food, while I am the slave of another? You may
+take me and put cloth upon my back, boots upon my feet, a hat upon my
+head, and cram a beef-steak down my throat, and all of this will not
+satisfy me as long as I know that you have the power to tear me from
+my dearest relatives. All I ask of the slaveholder is to give the
+slave his liberty. It is freedom I ask for the _slave_. And that the
+American slave will eventually get his freedom, no one can doubt. You
+cannot keep the human mind forever locked up in darkness. A ray of
+light, a spark from freedom's altar, the idea of inherent right, each,
+all, will become fixed in the soul; and that moment his "limbs swell
+beyond the measure of his chains," that moment he is free; then it is
+that the slave dies to become a freeman; then it is felt that one hour
+of virtuous liberty is worth an eternity of bondage; then it is, in the
+madness and fury of his blood, that the excited soul exclaims,
+
+
+     "From life without freedom, oh! who would not fly;
+     For one day of freedom, oh! who would not die?"
+
+
+The rising of the slaves in Southampton, Virginia, in 1831, has not
+been forgotten by the American people. Nat Turner, a slave for life,--a
+Baptist minister,--entertained the idea that he was another Moses,
+whose duty it was to lead his people out of bondage. His soul was fired
+with the love of liberty, and he declared to his fellow-slaves that the
+time had arrived, and that "They who would be free, themselves must
+strike the blow." He knew that it would be "liberty or death" with
+his little band of patriots, numbering less than three hundred. He
+commenced the struggle for liberty; he knew his cause was just, and he
+loved liberty more than he feared death. He did not wish to take the
+lives of the whites; he only demanded that himself and brethren might
+be free. The slaveholders found that men whose souls were burning for
+liberty, however small their numbers, could not be put down at their
+pleasure; that something more than water was wanted to extinguish the
+flame. They trembled at the idea of meeting men in open combat, whose
+backs they had lacerated, whose wives and daughters they had torn from
+their bosoms, whose hearts were bleeding from the wounds inflicted by
+them. They appealed to the United States government for assistance. A
+company of United States troops was sent into Virginia to put down men
+whose only offence was, that they wanted to be free. Yes! northern men,
+men born and brought up in the free states, at the demand of slavery,
+marched to its rescue. They succeeded in reducing the poor slave again
+to his chains; but they did not succeed in crushing his spirit.
+
+Not the combined powers of the American Union, not the slaveholders,
+with all their northern allies, can extinguish that burning desire
+of freedom in the slave's soul! Northern men may stand by as the
+body-guard of slaveholders. They may succeed for the time being in
+keeping the slave in his chains; but unless the slaveholders liberate
+their victims, and that, too, speedily, some modern Hannibal will
+make his appearance in the southern states, who will trouble the
+slaveholders as the noble Carthaginian did the Romans. Abolitionists
+deprecate the shedding of blood; they have warned the slaveholders
+again and again. Yet they will not give heed, but still persist in
+robbing the slave of liberty.
+
+"But for the fear of northern bayonets, pledged for the master's
+protection, the slaves would long since have wrung a peaceful
+emancipation from the fears of their oppressors, or sealed their
+own redemption in blood." To the shame of the northern people, the
+slaveholders confess that to them they are "indebted for a permanent
+safe-guard against insurrection;" that "a million of their slaves stand
+ready to strike for liberty at the first tap of the drum;" and but
+for the aid of the north they would be too weak to keep them in their
+chains. I ask in the language of the slave's poet,
+
+
+     "What! shall ye guard your neighbor still,
+     While woman shrieks beneath his rod,
+     And while he tramples down at will
+     The image of a common God?
+     Shall watch and ward be 'round him set,
+     Of northern nerve and bayonet?"
+
+
+The countenance of the people at the north has quieted the fears of
+the slaveholders, especially the countenance which they receive from
+northern churches. "But for the countenance of the northern church, the
+southern conscience would have long since awakened to its guilt: and
+the impious sight of a church made up of slaveholders, and called the
+church of Christ, been scouted from the world." So says a distinguished
+writer.
+
+Slaveholders hide themselves behind the church. A more praying,
+preaching, psalm-singing people cannot be found than the slaveholders
+at the south. The religion of the south is referred to every day,
+to prove that slaveholders are good, pious men. But with all their
+pretensions, and all the aid which they get from the northern church,
+they cannot succeed in deceiving the Christian portion of the world.
+Their child-robbing, man-stealing, woman-whipping, chain-forging,
+marriage-destroying, slave-manufacturing, man-slaying religion,
+will not be received as genuine; and the people of the free states
+cannot expect to live in union with slaveholders, without becoming
+contaminated with slavery. They are looked upon as one people; they
+_are_ one people; the people in the free and slave states form the
+"American Union." Slavery is a national institution. The nation
+licenses men to traffic in the bodies and souls of men; it supplies
+them with public buildings at the capital of the country to keep their
+victims in. For a paltry sum it gives the auctioneer a license to sell
+American men, women, and children, upon the auction-stand. The American
+slave-trader, with the constitution in his hat and his license in
+his pocket, marches his gang of chained men and women under the very
+eaves of the nation's capitol. And this, too, in a country professing
+to be the freest nation in the world. They profess to be democrats,
+republicans, and to believe in the natural equality of men; that they
+are "all created with certain inalienable rights, among which are
+life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They call themselves a
+Christian nation; they rob three millions of their countrymen of their
+liberties, and then talk of their piety, their democracy, and their
+love of liberty; and, in the language of Shakspeare, say,
+
+
+     "And thus I clothe my naked villany,
+     And seem a saint when most I play the devil."
+
+
+The people of the United States, with all their high professions, are
+forging chains for unborn millions, in their wars for slavery. With
+all their democracy, there is not a foot of land over which the "stars
+and stripes" fly, upon which the American slave can stand and claim
+protection. Wherever the United States constitution has jurisdiction,
+and the American flag is seen flying, they point out the slave as a
+chattel, a thing, a piece of property. But I thank God there is one
+spot in America upon which the slave can stand and be a man. No matter
+whether the claimant be a United States president, or a doctor of
+divinity; no matter with what solemnities some American court may have
+pronounced him a slave; the moment he makes his escape from under the
+"stars and stripes," and sets foot upon the soil of CANADA,
+"the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad
+in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains,
+that burst from around him; and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and
+disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation."
+
+But slavery must and will be banished from the United States soil:
+
+
+     "Let tyrants scorn, while tyrants dare,
+     The shrieks and writhings of despair;
+     The end will come, it will not wait,
+     Bonds, yokes, and scourges have their date;
+     Slavery itself must pass away,
+     And be a tale of yesterday."
+
+
+But I will now stop, and let the slaveholders speak for themselves. I
+shall here present some evidences of the treatment which slaves receive
+from their masters; after which I will present a few of the slave-laws.
+And it has been said, and I believe truly, that no people were ever
+found to be better than their laws. And, as an American slave,--as one
+who is identified with the slaves of the south by the scars which I
+carry on my back,--as one identified with them by the tenderest ties
+of nature,--as one whose highest aspirations are to serve the cause
+of truth and freedom,--I beg of the reader not to lay this book down
+until he or she has read every page it contains. I ask it not for my
+own sake, but for the sake of three millions who cannot speak for
+themselves.
+
+
+     From the Livingston County (Alabama) Whig of Nov. 16, 1845.
+
+     "NEGRO DOGS.--The undersigned having bought the entire pack of
+     Negro Dogs, (of the Hays & Allen stock,) he now proposesto catch
+     runaway Negroes. His charge will be three dollars per day for
+     hunting, and fifteen dollars for catching a runaway. He resides
+     three and a half miles north of Livingston, near the lower Jones'
+     Bluff road.
+
+     "WILLIAM GAMBREL.
+
+     "Nov. 6, 1845."
+
+
+The Wilmington [North Carolina] Advertiser of July 13, 1838, contains
+the following advertisement:
+
+     "Ranaway, my Negro man Richard. A reward of $25 will be paid for
+     his apprehension, DEAD or ALIVE. Satisfactory proof will only be
+     required of his being killed. He has with him, in all probability,
+     his wife Eliza, who ran away from Col. Thompson, now a resident of
+     Alabama, about the time he commenced his journey to that state.
+
+     "D. H. RHODES."
+
+
+The St. Louis Gazette says--
+
+"A wealthy man here had a boy named Reuben, almost white, whom he
+caused to be branded in the face with the words 'A slave for life.'"
+
+
+     From the N. C. Standard, July 28, 1838.
+
+     "TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.--Ranaway from the subscriber, a
+     negro woman and two children; the woman is tall and black, and _a
+     few days before she went off_ I BURNT HER ON THE LEFT SIDE OF HER
+     FACE: I TRIED TO MAKE THE LETTER M, _and she kept a cloth over her
+     head and face, and a fly bonnet over her head, so as to cover the
+     burn_; her children are both boys, the oldest is in his seventh
+     year; he is a _mulatto_ and has blue eyes; the youngest is a black,
+     and is in his fifth year.
+
+     "MICAJAH RICKS, Nash County."
+
+
+     "One of my neighbors sold to a speculator a negro boy, about 14
+     years old. It was more than his poor mother could bear. Her reason
+     fled, and she became a perfect _maniac_, and had to be kept in
+     close confinement. She would occasionally get out and run off to
+     the neighbors. On one of these occasions she came to my house.
+     With tears rolling down her cheeks, and her frame shaking with
+     agony, she would cry out, '_Don't you hear him--they are whipping
+     him now, and he is calling for me!_' This neighbor of mine, who
+     tore the boy away from his poor mother, and thus broke her heart,
+     was a _member of the Presbyterian church_."--_Rev. Francis Hawley,
+     Baptist minister, Colebrook, Ct._
+
+
+A colored man in the city of St. Louis was taken by a mob, and burnt
+alive at the stake. A bystander gives the following account of the
+scene:--
+
+     "After the flames had surrounded their prey, and when his clothes
+     were in a blaze all over him, his eyes burnt out of his head, and
+     his mouth seemingly parched to a cinder, some one in the _crowd_,
+     more compassionate than the rest, proposed to put an end to his
+     misery by shooting him, when it was replied, that it would be
+     of no use, since he was already out of his pain. 'No,' said the
+     wretch, 'I am not, I am suffering as much as ever,--shoot me,
+     shoot me.' 'No, no,' said one of the fiends, who was standing
+     about the sacrifice they were roasting, 'he shall not be shot; I
+     would sooner slacken the fire, if that would increase his misery;'
+     and the man who said this was, we understand, an _officer of
+     justice_."--_Alton Telegraph._
+
+
+     "We have been informed that the slave William, who murdered his
+     master (Huskey) some weeks since, was taken by a party a few days
+     since _from the sheriff_ of Hot Spring, and _burned alive_! yes,
+     tied up to the limb of a tree and a fire built under him, and
+     consumed in a slow lingering torture."--_Arkansas Gazette, Oct.
+     29, 1836._
+
+
+_The Natchez Free Trader_, 16th June, 1842, gives a horrible account of
+the execution of the negro Joseph on the 5th of that month for murder.
+
+     "The body," says that paper, "was taken and chained to a tree
+     immediately on the bank of the Mississippi, on what is called
+     Union Point. The torches were lighted and placed in the pile.
+     He watched unmoved the curling flame as it grew, until it began
+     to entwine itself around and feed upon his body; then he sent
+     forth cries of agony painful to the ear, begging some one to blow
+     his brains out; at the same time surging with almost superhuman
+     strength, until the staple with which the chain was fastened to
+     the tree, not being well secured, drew out, and he leaped from the
+     burning pile. At that moment the sharp ring of several rifles was
+     heard, and the body of the negro fell a corpse to the ground. He
+     was picked up by two or three, and again thrown into the fire and
+     consumed."
+
+
+     "ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED.--We learn from the clerk of the Highlander,
+     that, while wooding a short distance below the mouth of Red river,
+     they were _invited to stop a short time and see another negro
+     burned_."--_New Orleans Bulletin._
+
+
+     "We can assure the Bostonians, one and all, who have embarked in
+     the nefarious scheme of abolishing slavery at the south, that
+     lashes will hereafter be spared the backs of their emissaries.
+     Let them send out their men to Louisiana; they will never return
+     to tell their sufferings, but they shall expiate the crime of
+     interfering in our domestic institutions by being BURNED AT THE
+     STAKE."--_New Orleans True American._
+
+
+     "The cry of the whole south should be death, instant death, to the
+     abolitionist, wherever he is caught."--_Augusta (Geo.) Chronicle._
+
+
+     "Let us declare through the public journals of our country,
+     that the question of slavery is not and shall not be open for
+     discussion: that the system is too deep-rooted among us, and
+     must remain forever; that the very moment any private individual
+     attempts to lecture us upon its evils and immorality, and the
+     necessity of putting means in operation to secure us from them,
+     in the same moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon the
+     dunghill."--_Columbia (S. C.) Telescope._
+
+
+     From the St. Louis Republican.
+
+     "On Friday last the coroner held an inquest at the house of Judge
+     Dunica, a few miles south of the city, over the body of a negro
+     girl, about 8 years of age, belonging to Mr. Cordell. The body
+     exhibited evidence of the most cruel whipping and beating we have
+     ever heard of. The flesh on the back and limbs was beaten to a
+     jelly--one shoulder-bone was laid bare--there were several cuts,
+     apparently from a club, on the head--and around the neck was
+     the indentation of a cord, by which it is supposed she had been
+     confined to a tree. She had been hired by a man by the name of
+     Tanner, residing in the neighborhood, and was sent home in this
+     condition. After coming home, her constant request, until her
+     death, was for bread, by which it would seem that she had been
+     starved as well as unmercifully whipped. The jury returned a
+     verdict that she came to her death by the blows inflicted by some
+     persons unknown whilst she was in the employ of Mr. Tanner. Mrs.
+     Tanner has been tried and acquitted."
+
+
+A correspondent of the N. Y. Herald writes from St. Louis, Oct. 19:
+
+     "I yesterday visited the cell of Cornelia, the slave charged with
+     being the accomplice of Mrs. Ann Tanner (recently acquitted) in
+     the murder of a little negro girl, by whipping and starvation. She
+     admits her participancy, but says she was compelled to take the
+     part she did in the affair. On one occasion she says the child was
+     tied to a tree from Monday morning till Friday night, exposed by
+     day to the scorching rays of the sun, and by night to the stinging
+     of myriads of musquitoes; and that during all this time the child
+     had nothing to eat, but was whipped daily. The child told the same
+     story to Dr. McDowell."
+
+
+     From the Carroll County Mississippian, May 4th, 1844.
+
+     "Committed to jail in this place, on the 29th of April last,
+     a runaway slave named Creesy, and says she belongs to William
+     Barrow, of Carroll county, Mississippi. Said woman is stout built,
+     five feet four inches high, and appears to be about twenty years
+     of age; she has a band of iron on each ankle, and a trace chain
+     around her neck, fastened with a common padlock.
+
+     "J. N. SPENCER, Jailer.
+
+     "May 15, 1844."
+
+
+The Savannah, Ga., Republican of the 13th of March, 1845, contains an
+advertisement, one item of which is as follows:--
+
+     "Also, at the same time and place, the following negro slaves, to
+     wit: Charles, Peggy, Antonnett, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny,
+     and Isaac--levied on as the property of Henry T. Hall, to satisfy
+     a mortgage fi. fia. issued out of McIntosh Superior Court, in
+     favor of the board of directors of the _Theological Seminary of
+     the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia_, vs. said Henry T. Hall.
+     Conditions, cash.
+
+     "C. O'NEAL, Deputy Sheriff, M. C."
+
+
+In the "Macon (Georgia) Telegraph," May 28, is the following:
+
+     "About the first of March last, the negro man RANSOM
+     left me, without the least provocation whatever. I will give a
+     reward of $20 dollars for said negro, if taken DEAD or
+     ALIVE,--and if killed in any attempt an advance of $5
+     will be paid.
+
+     "BRYANT JOHNSON.
+
+     "Crawford Co., Ga."
+
+
+     From the Apalachicola Gazette, May 9.
+
+     "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD.--Ranaway from
+     my plantation on the 6th inst., three negro men, all of dark
+     complexion.
+
+     "BILL is about five feet four inches high, aged about
+     twenty-six, _a scar on his upper lip_, also _one on his shoulder_,
+     and has been _badly cut on his arm_; speaks quick and broken, and
+     a venomous look.
+
+     "DANIEL is about the same height, chunky and well set,
+     broad, flat mouth, with a pleasing countenance, rather inclined to
+     show his teeth when talking, no particular marks recollected, aged
+     about twenty-three.
+
+     "NOAH is about six feet three or four inches high,
+     twenty-eight years old, with rather a down, impudent look,
+     insolent in his discourse, with a large mark on his breast, _a
+     good many large scars_, caused by the whip, on his back--_has
+     been shot in the back of his arm_ with small shot. The above
+     reward will be paid to any one who will KILL the three,
+     or fifty for either one, or twenty dollars apiece for them
+     delivered to me at my plantation alive, on Chattahoochie, Early
+     county.
+
+     "J. MCDONALD."
+
+
+     From the Alabama Beacon, June 11, 1845.
+
+     "Ranaway, on the 15th of May, from me, a negro woman named Fanny.
+     Said woman is twenty years old; is rather tall, can read and
+     write, and so forge passes for herself. Carried away with her a
+     pair of ear-rings, a Bible with a red cover, is very pious. She
+     prays a great deal, and was, as supposed, contented and happy. She
+     is as white as most white women, with straight light hair, and
+     blue eyes, and can pass herself for a white woman. I will give
+     five hundred dollars for her apprehension and delivery to me. She
+     is very intelligent.
+
+     "JOHN BALCH.
+
+     "Tuscaloosa, May, 29, 1845."
+
+
+     From the N. O. Commercial Bulletin, Sept. 30.
+
+     "TEN DOLLARS REWARD.--Ranaway from the subscribers, on
+     the 15th of last month, the negro man Charles, about 45 years of
+     age, 5 feet 6 inches high; red complexion, has had the _upper
+     lid of his right eye torn_, and _a scar on his forehead_; speaks
+     English only, and stutters when spoken to; he had on when he
+     left, _an iron collar, the prongs of which he broke off before
+     absconding_. The above reward will be paid for the arrest of said
+     slave.
+
+     W. E. & R. MURPHY,
+
+     "132 Old Raisin."
+
+
+     From the N. O. Bee, Oct. 5.
+
+     "Ranaway from the residence of Messrs. F. Duncom & Co., the negro
+     Francois, aged from 25 to 30 years, about 5 feet 1 inch in height;
+     the _upper front teeth are missing_; he had _chains on both of
+     his legs_, dressed with a kind of blouse made of sackcloth. A
+     proportionate reward will be given to whoever will bring him back
+     to the bakery, No. 74, Bourbon street."
+
+
+     From the N. O. Picayune of Sunday, Dec. 17.
+
+     "COCK-PIT.--_Benefit of Fire Company No. 1,
+     Lafayette._--A cock-fight will take place on Sunday, the 17th
+     inst., at the well-known house of the subscriber. As the entire
+     proceeds are for the benefit of the fire company, a full
+     attendance is respectfully solicited.
+
+     ADAM ISRANG.
+
+     "_Corner of Josephine and Tchoupitolas streets, Lafayette._"
+
+
+     From the N. O. Picayune.
+
+     "TURKEY SHOOTING.--This day, Dec. 17, from 10 o'clock, A. M., until
+     6 o'clock, P. M., and the following Sundays, at M'Donoughville,
+     opposite the Second Municipality Ferry."
+
+
+The next is an advertisement from the New Orleans Bee, an equally
+popular paper.
+
+     "A BULL FIGHT, between a ferocious bull and a number of dogs, will
+     take place on Sunday next, at 4¼ o'clock, P. M., on the other side
+     of the river, at Algiers, opposite Canal street. After the bull
+     fight, a fight will take place between a bear and some dogs. The
+     whole to conclude by a combatbetween an ass and several dogs.
+
+     "Amateurs bringing dogs to participate in the fight will be
+     admitted gratis. Admittance--Boxes, 50 cts.; Pit, 30 cts. The
+     spectacle will be repeated every Sunday, weather permitting.
+
+     "PEPE LLULLA."
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM THE AMERICAN SLAVE CODE.
+
+The following are mostly abridged selections from the statutes of the
+slave status and of the United States. They give but a faint view of
+the cruel oppression to which the slaves are subject, but a strong
+one enough, it is thought, to fill every honest heart with a deep
+abhorrence of the atrocious system. Most of the important provisions
+here cited, though placed under the name of only one state, prevail
+in nearly all the states, with slight variations in language, and
+some diversity in the penalties. The extracts have been made in part
+from Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws, but chiefly from authorized
+editions of the statute books referred to, found in the Philadelphia
+Law Library. As the compiler has not had access to many of the later
+enactments of the several states, nearly all he has cited are acts of
+an earlier date than that of the present anti-slavery movement, so that
+their severity cannot be ascribed to its influence.
+
+The cardinal principle of slavery, that the slave is not to be
+ranked among _sentient beings_, but among things--is an article of
+property, a chattel personal--obtains as undoubted law in all the slave
+states.[1]--_Stroud's Sketch_, p. 22.
+
+The dominion of the master is as unlimited as is that which is
+tolerated by the laws of any civilized country in relation to brute
+animals--to _quadrupeds_; to use the words of the civil law.--_Ib._ 24.
+
+Slaves cannot even contract matrimony.[2]--_Ib._ 61.
+
+LOUISIANA.--A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to
+whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his
+industry and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire
+anything, but what must belong to his master.--_Civil Code_, Art. 35.
+
+Slaves are incapable of inheriting or transmitting property.--_Civil
+Code_, Art. 945; also Art. 175, and _Code of Practice_, Art. 103.
+
+_Martin's Digest_, Act of June 7, 1806.--Slaves shall always be reputed
+and considered real estate; shall be as such subject to be mortgaged,
+according to the rules prescribed by law, and they shall be seized and
+sold as real estate.--_Vol. I._, p. 612.
+
+_Dig. Stat._ Sec 13.--No owner of slaves shall hire his slaves
+to themselves, under a penalty of twenty-five dollars for each
+offence.--_Vol. I._, p. 102.
+
+Sec. 15.--No slave can possess anything in his own right, or dispose of
+the produce of his own industry, without the consent of his master.--p.
+103.
+
+Sec. 16.--No slave can be party in a civil suit, or witness in a civil
+or criminal matter, against any white person.--p. 103. _See also Civil
+Code_, Art. 117, p. 28.
+
+Sec. 18.--A slave's subordination to his master is susceptible of no
+restriction, (except in what incites to crime,) and he owes to him and
+all his family, respect without bounds, and absolute obedience.--p. 103.
+
+Sec. 25.--Every slave found on horseback, without a written permission
+from his master, shall receive twenty-five lashes.--p. 105.
+
+Sec. 32.--Any freeholder may seize and correct any slave found absent
+from his usual place of work or residence, without some white person,
+and if the slave resist or try to escape, he may use arms, and if the
+slave _assault_[3] and strike him, he may _kill_ the slave.--p. 109.
+
+Sec. 35.--It is lawful to fire upon runaway negroes who are armed, and
+upon those who, when pursued, refuse to surrender.--p. 109.
+
+Sec. 38.--No slave may buy, sell, or exchange any kind of goods, or
+hold any boat, or bring up for his own use any horses or cattle, under
+a penalty of forfeiting the whole.--p. 110.
+
+Sec. 7.--Slaves or free colored persons are punished with _death_,
+for wilfully burning or destroying any stack of produce or any
+building.--p. 115.
+
+Sec. 15.--The punishment of a slave for striking a white person, shall
+be for the first and second offences at the discretion of the court,[4]
+but not extending to life or limb, and for the third offence _death_;
+but for grievously wounding or mutilating a white person, _death_ for
+the first offence; provided, if the blow or wound is given in defence
+of the person or _property of his master_, or the person having charge
+of him, he is entirely justified.
+
+_Act of Feb. 22, 1824_, Sec. 2.--A slave for wilfully striking his
+master or mistress, or the child of either, or his white overseer, so
+as to cause a bruise or shedding of blood, _shall be punished with
+death_.--p. 125.
+
+_Act of March 6, 1819._--Any person cutting or breaking any iron chain
+or collar used to prevent the escape of slaves, shall be fined not less
+than two hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, and be
+imprisoned not more than two years nor less than six months.--p. 64 of
+the session.
+
+_Law of January 8, 1813_, Sec. 71.--All slaves sentenced to death or
+perpetual imprisonment, in virtue of existing laws, shall be paid for
+out of the public treasury, provided the sum paid shall not exceed $300
+for each slave.
+
+_Law of March 16, 1830_, Sec. 93.--The state treasurer shall pay the
+owners the value of all slaves whose punishment has been commuted from
+that of death to that of imprisonment for life, &c.
+
+If any slave shall _happen_ to be slain for refusing to surrender him
+or herself, contrary to law, or in unlawfully resisting any officer or
+_other person_, who shall apprehend, or endeavor to apprehend, such
+slave or slaves, &c., such officer or _other person so killing such
+slave as aforesaid_, making resistance, shall be, and he is by this
+act, _indemnified_, from any prosecution for such killing aforesaid,
+&c.--_Maryland Laws, act of 1751, chap_ xiv., § 9.
+
+And by the negro act of 1740, of South Carolina, it is declared:
+
+If any slave, who shall be out of the house or plantation where such
+slave shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white
+person in company with such slave, shall _refuse to submit_ to undergo
+the examination of _any white_ person, it shall be lawful for such
+white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave
+and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such
+slave may be _lawfully killed_!!--_2 Brevard's Digest_, 231.
+
+MISSISSIPPI. _Chapt._ 92, Sec. 110.--Penalty for any slave or free
+colored person exercising the functions of a minister of the gospel,
+thirty-nine lashes; but any master may permit his slave to preach
+on his own premises, no slaves but his own being permitted to
+assemble.--_Digest of Stat._, p. 770.
+
+_Act of June 18, 1822_, Sec. 21.--No negro or mulatto can be a witness
+in any case, except against negroes or mulattoes.--p. 749. _New Code_,
+372.
+
+Sec. 25.--Any master licensing his slave to go at large and trade as a
+freeman, shall forfeit fifty dollars to the state for the literary fund.
+
+Penalty for teaching a slave to read, imprisonment one year. For using
+language having a _tendency_ to promote discontent among free colored
+people, or insubordination among slaves, imprisonment at _hard labor_,
+not less than three, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the
+discretion of the court.--_L. M. Child's Appeal_, p. 70.
+
+Sec. 26.--It is _lawful_ for _any_ person, and the duty of every
+sheriff, deputy-sheriff, coroner and constable to apprehend any slave
+going at large, or hired out by him, or herself, and take him or her
+before a justice of the peace, who shall impose a penalty of not less
+than twenty dollars, nor more than fifty dollars, on the owner, who has
+permitted such slave to do so.
+
+Sec. 32.--Any negro or mulatto, for using abusive language, or lifting
+his hand in opposition to any white person, (except in self-defence
+against a wanton assault,) shall, on proof of the offence by oath of
+such person, receive such punishment as a justice of the peace may
+order, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.
+
+Sec. 41--Forbids the holding of cattle, sheep or hogs by slaves, even
+with consent of the master, under penalty of forfeiture, half to the
+county, and half to the _informer_.
+
+Sec. 42--Forbids a slave keeping a dog, under a penalty of twenty-five
+stripes; and requires any master who permits it to pay a fine of five
+dollars, and make good all damages done by such dog.
+
+Sec. 43--Forbids slaves cultivating cotton for their own use, and
+imposes a fine of fifty dollars on the master or overseer who permits
+it.
+
+_Revised Code._--Every negro or mulatto found in the state, not able to
+show himself entitled to freedom, may be sold as a slave.--p. 389. The
+owner of any plantation, on which a slave comes without written leave
+from his master, and not on lawful business, may inflict ten lashes for
+every such offence.--p. 371.
+
+ALABAMA.--_Aiken's Digest._ Tit. _Slaves, &c._, Sec. 31.--For
+_attempting_ to teach any free colored person, or slave, to spell,
+read or write, a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty dollars,
+nor more than five hundred dollars!--p. 397.
+
+Sec. 35 and 36.--Any free colored person found with slaves in a
+kitchen, outhouse or negro quarter, without a written permission from
+the master or overseer of said slaves, and any slave found without such
+permission with a free negro on his premises, shall receive fifteen
+lashes for the first offence, and thirty-nine for each subsequent
+offence; to be inflicted by master, overseer, or member of any patrol
+company.--p. 397.
+
+_Toulmin's Digest._--No slave can be emancipated but by a _special_ act
+of the Legislature.--p. 623.
+
+Act Jan. 1st, 1823--Authorizes an agent to be appointed by the governor
+of the state, _to sell for the benefit of the state_ all persons of
+color brought into the United States and within the jurisdiction of
+Alabama, _contrary to the laws of congress prohibiting the slave
+trade_.--p. 643.
+
+GEORGIA.--_Prince's Digest._ Act Dec. 19, 1818.--Penalty for any free
+person of color (except regularly articled seamen) coming into the
+state, a fine of one hundred dollars, and on failure of payment to be
+sold as a slave.--p. 465.
+
+Penalty for permitting a slave to labor or do business for himself,
+except on his master's premises, thirty dollars per week.--p. 457.
+
+No slave can be a party to any suit against a white man, except on
+claim of his freedom, _and every colored person is presumed to be a
+slave, unless he can prove himself free_.--p. 446.
+
+Act Dec. 13, 1792--Forbids the assembling of negroes under pretence of
+divine worship, contrary to the act regulating patrols, p. 342. This
+act provides that any justice of the peace may disperse any assembly of
+slaves which _may_ endanger the peace; and every slave found at such
+meeting shall receive, _without trial_, twenty-five stripes!--p. 447.
+
+Any person who sees more than seven men slaves without any white
+person, in a high road, may whip each slave _twenty_ lashes.--p. 454.
+
+Any slave who harbors a runaway, may suffer punishment to _any extent_,
+not affecting life or limb.--p. 452.
+
+SOUTH CAROLINA.--_Brevard's Digest._--Slaves shall be deemed sold,
+taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be _chattels personal_ in
+the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
+administrators, and assigns, _to all intents, constructions and
+purposes whatever_.--Vol. ii., p. 229.
+
+Act of 1740, in the preamble, states that "_many_ owners of slaves and
+others that have the management of them do confine them _so closely
+to hard labor_, that they have _not sufficient time for natural
+rest_," and enacts that no slave shall be compelled to labor more than
+_fifteen_ hours in the twenty-four, from March 25th to Sept. 25th, or
+_fourteen_ in the twenty-four for the rest of the year. Penalty from £5
+to £20.--Vol. ii., p. 243.
+
+[Yet, in several of the slave states, the time of work for _criminals_
+whose _punishment_ is hard labor, is eight hours a day for three
+months, nine hours for two months, and ten for the rest of the year.]
+
+A slave endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, if provision
+be prepared for the purpose of aiding or abetting such endeavor, shall
+suffer _death_.--pp. 233 and 244.
+
+Penalty for cruelly scalding or burning a slave, cutting out his
+tongue, putting out his eye, or depriving him of any limb, a fine
+of £100. For beating with a _horse_-whip, cow-skin, switch or small
+stick, or putting irons on, or imprisoning a slave, _no penalty or
+prohibition_.--p. 241.
+
+Any person who, not having lawful authority to do so, shall beat a
+slave, so as to disable him from _working_, shall pay fifteen shillings
+a day _to the owner_, for the slave's lost time, and the charge of his
+cure.--pp. 231 and 232.
+
+A slave claiming his freedom may sue for it by some friend who will act
+as guardian, but if the action be judged groundless, said guardian
+shall pay _double_ costs of suit, and such damages to the owner as the
+court may decide.--p. 260.
+
+Any assembly of slaves or free colored persons, in a secret or confined
+place, for mental instruction, (even if white persons _are_ present,)
+is an unlawful meeting, and magistrates must disperse it, breaking
+doors if necessary, and may inflict _twenty lashes_ upon each slave or
+colored person present.--pp. 254 and 255.
+
+Meetings for religious worship, before sunrise, or after 9 o'clock,
+P. M., unless a majority are white persons, are forbidden; and
+magistrates are required to disperse them.--p. 261.
+
+A slave who lets loose any boat from the place where the owner has
+fastened it, for the first _offence shall receive thirty-nine lashes,
+and for the second shall have one ear cut off_.--p. 228.
+
+_James' Digest._--Penalty for _killing_ a slave, on _sudden heat of
+passion_, or by _undue correction_, a fine of $500 and imprisonment not
+over six months.--p. 392.
+
+NORTH CAROLINA.--_Haywood's Manual._--Act of 1798, Sec. 3, enacts,
+that the killing of a slave shall be punished like that of a free man;
+_except_ in the case of a slave _out-lawed_,[5] or a slave _offering to
+resist_ his master, or a slave _dying under moderate correction_.--p.
+530.
+
+Act of 1799.--Any slave set free, except for meritorious services, to
+be adjudged of by the county court, may be seized by any freeholder,
+committed to jail, _and sold to the highest bidder_.[6]--p. 525.
+
+Patrols are not liable to the master for punishing his slave, unless
+their conduct clearly shows malice _against the master_.--_Hawk's
+Reps._, vol. i., p. 418.
+
+TENNESSEE.--_Stat. Law_, Chap. 57, Sec. 1.--Penalty on master for
+hiring to any slave his own time, a fine of not less than one dollar
+nor more than two dollars a day, _half_ to the informer.--p. 679.
+
+Chap. 2, Sec. 102.--No slave can be emancipated but on condition of
+immediately removing from the state, and the person emancipating
+shall give bond, in a sum equal to the slave's value, to have him
+removed.--p. 279.
+
+_Laws of 1813._ Chap. 35.--In the trial of slaves, the sheriff
+chooses the court, which must consist of three justices and twelve
+_slaveholders_ to serve as jurors.
+
+ARKANSAS.--_Rev. Stat._, Sec. 4, requires the patrol to visit all
+places suspected of unlawful assemblages of slaves; and sec. 5 provides
+that any slave found at such assembly, or strolling about without a
+pass, _shall receive_ any number of _lashes_, at the discretion of the
+patrol, not exceeding twenty.--p. 604.
+
+MISSOURI.--_Laws, I._--Any master may commit to jail, there to
+remain, at _his pleasure_, any slave who refuses to obey him or his
+overseer.--p. 309.
+
+Whether a slave claiming freedom may even commence a suit for it, may
+depend on the decision of a single judge.--_Stroud's Sketch_, p. 78,
+note which refers to Missouri laws, I., 404.
+
+KENTUCKY.--_Dig. of Stat._, Act Feb. 8, 1798, Sec. 5.--No colored
+person may _keep_ or _carry_ gun, powder, shot, _club_ or _other
+weapon_, on penalty of _thirty-nine lashes_, and forfeiting the weapon,
+which any person is authorized to take.
+
+VIRGINIA.--_Rev. Code._--Any emancipated slave remaining in the state
+more than a year, may be sold by the overseers of the _poor_, for the
+benefit of the _literary fund_!--Vol. i., p. 436.
+
+Any slave or free colored person found at any school for teaching
+reading or writing, by day or night, may be whipped, at the discretion
+of a justice, not exceeding twenty lashes.--p. 424.
+
+_Suppl. Rev. Code._--Any white person assembling with slaves, for
+the _purpose_ of teaching them to read or write, shall be fined, not
+less than 10 dollars, nor more than 100 dollars; or with free colored
+persons, shall be fined not more than fifty dollars, and imprisoned not
+more than two months.--p. 245.
+
+By the revised code, _seventy-one_ offences are punished with _death_
+when committed by slaves, and by nothing more than imprisonment when by
+the whites.--_Stroud's Sketch_, p. 107.
+
+_Rev. Code._--In the trial of slaves, the court consists of five
+justices without juries, even in capital cases.--I., p. 420.
+
+MARYLAND.--_Stat. Law_, Sec. 8.--Any slave, for rambling in the night,
+or riding horses by day without leave, or running away, may be punished
+by whipping, cropping, or branding in the cheek, or otherwise, not
+rendering him unfit for labor.--p. 237.
+
+Any slave convicted of petty treason, murder, or _wilful burning of
+dwelling houses_, may be sentenced _to have the right hand cut off, to
+be hanged in the usual manner, the head severed from the body, the body
+divided into four quarters, and the head and quarters set up in the
+most public place in the country where such fact was committed_!!--p.
+190.
+
+Act 1717, Chap. 13, Sec. 5--Provides that any free colored person
+marrying a slave, becomes a slave for life, except mulattoes born of
+white women.
+
+DELAWARE.--_Laws._--More than six men slaves, meeting together, not
+belonging to one master, unless on lawful business of their owners, may
+be whipped to the extent of twenty-one lashes each.--p. 104.
+
+UNITED STATES.--_Constitution._--The chief pro-slavery provisions of
+the constitution, as is generally known, are, 1st, that by virtue of
+which the slave states are represented in congress for three-fifths
+of their slaves;[7] 2nd, that requiring the giving up of any runaway
+slaves to their masters; 3rd, that pledging the physical force of
+the whole country to suppress insurrections, i. e., attempts to gain
+freedom by such means as the framers of the instrument themselves used.
+
+Act of Feb. 12, 1793--Provides that any master or his agent may seize
+any person whom he claims as a "fugitive from service," and take
+him before a judge of the U. S. court, or magistrate of the city or
+county where he is taken, and the magistrate, on proof, in support of
+the claim, to his satisfaction, must give the claimant a certificate
+authorizing the removal of such fugitive to the state he fled from.[8]
+
+DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--The act of congress incorporating Washington
+city, gives the corporation power to prescribe the terms and conditions
+on which free negroes and mulattoes may reside in the city. _City
+Laws_, 6 and 11. By this authority, the city in 1827 enacted that any
+free colored person coming there to reside, should give the mayor
+satisfactory evidence of his freedom, and enter into bond with two
+freehold sureties, in the sum of five hundred dollars, for his good
+conduct, to be renewed each year for three years; or failing to do so,
+must leave the city, or be committed to the workhouse, for not more
+than one year, and if he still refuse to go, may be again committed for
+the same period, and so on.--_Ib._ 198.
+
+Colored persons residing in the city, who cannot prove their title to
+freedom, shall be imprisoned as absconding slaves.--_Ib._ 198.
+
+Colored persons found without free papers may be arrested as runaway
+slaves, and after two months' notice, if no claimant appears, must be
+advertised ten days, and sold to pay their jail fees.[9]--_Stroud_, 85,
+note.
+
+The city of Washington grants a license to _trade in slaves_, for
+profit, as agent, or otherwise, for four hundred dollars.--_City Laws_,
+p. 249.
+
+Reader, you uphold these laws _while you do nothing for their repeal_.
+You _can do_ much. You can take and read the anti-slavery journals.
+They will give you an impartial history of the cause, and arguments
+with which to convert its enemies. You can countenance and aid
+those who are laboring for its promotion. You can petition against
+slavery; you can refuse to vote for slaveholders or pro-slavery men,
+constitutions and compacts; can abstain from products of slave labor;
+and can use your social influence to spread right principles and awaken
+a right feeling. Be as earnest for freedom as its foes are for slavery,
+and you can diffuse an anti-slavery sentiment through your whole
+neighborhood, and merit "the blessing of them that are ready to perish."
+
+
+The following is from the old colonial law of North Carolina:
+
+Notice of the commitment of runaways--viz., 1741, c. 24, § 29. "An act
+concerning servants and slaves."
+
+Copy of notice containing a full description of such runaway and his
+clothing.--The sheriff is to "cause a copy of such notice to be sent
+to the clerk or reader of each church or chapel within his county, who
+are hereby required to make publication thereof by setting up the same
+in some open and convenient place, near the said church or chapel, on
+every Lord's day, during the space of two months from the date thereof."
+
+1741, c. 24, § 45.--"Which proclamation shall be published on a Sabbath
+day at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such, at the
+place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by
+the parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service; and if
+any slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued,
+stay out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any
+person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves
+by such way or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation
+or impeachment of any crime for the same."
+
+
+It is well known that slavery makes labor disreputable in the slave
+states. Laboring men of the north, hear how contemptibly slaveholders
+speak of you.
+
+Mr. Robert Wickliffe of Kentucky, in a speech published in the
+Louisville Advertiser, in opposition to those who were averse to the
+importation of slaves from the states, thus discourseth:
+
+"Gentlemen wanted to drive out the black population that they may
+obtain WHITE NEGROES in their place. WHITE NEGROES have this advantage
+over black negroes, they can be converted into voters; and the men
+who live upon the sweat of their brow, and pay them but a dependent
+and scanty subsistence, can, if able to keep ten thousand of them in
+employment, come up to the polls and change the destiny of the country.
+
+"How improved will be our condition when we have such white negroes as
+perform the servile labors of Europe, of old England, and he would add
+now of _New England_, when our body servants and our cart drivers, and
+our street sweepers, are _white negroes_ instead of black. Where will
+be the independence, the proud spirit, and chivalry of the Kentuckians
+then?"
+
+"We believe the servitude which prevails in the south far preferable
+to that of the _north_, or in Europe. Slavery will exist in all
+communities. There is a class which may be nominally free, but they
+will be virtually _slaves_."--_Mississippian, July 6th, 1838._
+
+"Those who depend on their daily labor for their daily subsistence can
+never enter into political affairs, they never do, never will, never
+can."--_B. W. Leigh in Virginia Convention, 1829._
+
+"All society settles down into a classification of capitalists and
+laborers. The former will _own_ the latter, either collectively through
+the government, or individually in a state of domestic servitude as
+exists in the southern states of this confederacy. If LABORERS
+ever obtain the political power of a country, it is in fact in a state
+of REVOLUTION. The capitalists north of Mason and Dixon's
+line have precisely the same interest in the labor of the country
+that the capitalists of England have in their labor. Hence it is,
+that they must have a strong federal government (!) _to control_ the
+labor of the nation. But it is precisely the reverse with us. We
+have already not only a right to the proceeds of our laborers, but
+we OWN a _class of laborers_ themselves. But let me say to
+gentlemen who represent the great class of capitalists in the north,
+beware that you do not drive us into a separate system, for if you do,
+as certain as the decrees of heaven, you will be compelled to _appeal
+to the sword to maintain yourselves at home_. It may not come in your
+day; but your children's children will be covered with the blood of
+domestic factions, and _a plundering mob contending for power and
+conquest_."--_Mr. Pickens, of South Carolina, in Congress, 21st Jan.,
+1836._
+
+"In the very nature of things there must be classes of persons to
+discharge all the different offices of society from the highest to the
+lowest. Some of these offices are regarded as _degraded_, although
+they must and will be performed. Hence those manifest forms of
+dependent servitude which produce a sense of superiority in the masters
+or employers, and of inferiority on the part of the servants. Where
+these offices are performed by _members of the political community_, a
+DANGEROUS ELEMENT is obviously introduced into the body politic. Hence
+the alarming tendency to violate the rights of property by agrarian
+legislation which is beginning to be manifest in the older states where
+UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE _prevails without_ DOMESTIC SLAVERY.
+
+"In a word, the institution of domestic slavery supersedes the
+_necessity_ of AN ORDER OF NOBILITY AND ALL THE OTHER APPENDAGES OF
+A HEREDITARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT."--_Gov. M'Duffie's Message to
+the South Carolina Legislature, 1836._
+
+"We of the south have cause now, and shall soon have greater, to
+congratulate ourselves on the existence of a population among us which
+excludes the POPULACE which in effect rules some of our
+northern neighbors, and is rapidly gaining strength wherever slavery
+does not exist--a populace made up of the dregs of Europe, and the most
+worthless portion of the native population."--_Richmond Whig, 1837._
+
+"Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox by giving him a
+cultivated understanding, a fine feeling! So far as the MERE
+LABORER has the pride, the knowledge or the aspiration of a
+freeman, he is unfitted for his situation. If there are sordid,
+servile, _laborious_ offices to be performed, is it not better that
+there should be sordid, servile, laborious beings to perform them?
+
+"Odium has been cast upon our legislation on account of its forbidding
+the elements of education being communicated to slaves. But in truth
+what injury is done them by this? _He who works during the day with his
+hands_, does not read in the intervals of leisure for his amusement
+or the improvement of his mind, or the exception is so very rare as
+scarcely to need the being provided for."--_Chancellor Harper, of
+South Carolina._--_Southern Lit. Messenger._
+
+"Our slave population is decidedly preferable, as an orderly and
+laboring class, to a northern laboring class, that have just learning
+enough to make them wondrous wise, and make them the most dangerous
+class to well regulated liberty under the sun."--_Richmond (Virginia)
+Enquirer._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In accordance with this doctrine, an act of Maryland, 1798,
+enumerates among articles of property, "_slaves, working beasts,
+animals of any kind, stock, furniture, plate, and so forth_."--_Ib._ 23.
+
+[2] A slave is not admonished for incontinence, punished for adultery,
+nor prosecuted for bigamy.--_Attorney General of Maryland, Md. Rep.
+Vol. I._ 561.
+
+[3] The legal meaning of assault is to _offer_ to do personal violence.
+
+[4] A court for the trial of slaves consists of one justice of the
+peace, and three freeholders, and the justice and one freeholder,
+i. e., _one half the court, may convict, though the other two are for
+acquittal_.--_Martin's Dig., I._ 646.
+
+[5] A slave may be out-lawed when he runs away, conceals himself,
+and, to sustain life, kills a hog, or any animal of the cattle
+kind.--_Haywood's Manual_, p. 521.
+
+[6] In South Carolina, _any_ person may seize such freed man and keep
+him as his property.
+
+[7] By the operation of this provision, twelve slaveholding states,
+whose white population only equals that of New York and Ohio, send to
+congress 24 senators and 102 representatives, while these two states
+only send 4 senators and 59 representatives.
+
+[8] Thus it may be seen that a _man_ may be doomed to slavery by an
+authority not considered sufficient to settle a claim of _twenty
+dollars_.
+
+[9] The prisons of the district, built with the money of the nation,
+are used as store-houses of the slaveholder's human merchandize. "From
+the statement of the keeper of a jail at Washington, it appears that
+in five years, upwards of 450 colored persons were committed to the
+national prison in that city, for safekeeping, i. e., until they could
+be disposed of in the course of the _slave trade_, besides nearly 300
+who had been taken up as runaways."--_Miner's Speech in H. Rep._, 1829.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of William W. Brown, a
+Fugitive Slave, by William W. Brown
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59500 ***