NAME. AGE. REMARKS.
1. George, 27 Prime Cotton Planter.
2. Sue, 26 Prime Rice Planter.
3. George, 6 Boy Child.
4. Harry, 2 Boy Child.
The manner of buying was announced to be bidding a certain price
a-piece for the whole lot. Thus, George and his family were started at
$300, and were finally sold at $600 each, being $2,400 for the four. To
get an idea of the relative value of each one, we must suppose George
worth $1,200, Sue worth $900, Little George worth $200, and Harry worth
$100. Owing, however, to some misapprehension on the part of the buyer,
as to the manner of bidding, he did not take the family at this figure,
and they were put up and sold again, on the second day, when they
brought $620 each, or $2,480 for the whole--an advance of $80 over the
first sale.
Robert, and Luna his wife, who were announced as having "goitre,
otherwise very prime," brought the round sum of $1,005 each. But that
your readers may have an idea of the exact manner in which things
are done, I append a couple of pages of the catalogue used on this
occasion, which you can print verbatim:
99--Kate's John, aged 30; rice, prime man.
100--Betsey, 29; rice, unsound.
101--Kate, 6.
102--Violet, 3 months.
Sold for $510 each.
103--Wooster, 45; rice hand, and fair mason.
104--Mary, 40; cotton hand.
Sold for $300 each.
105--Commodore Bob, aged; rice hand.
106--Kate, aged; cotton.
107--Linda, 19; cotton, prime young woman.
108--Joe, 13; rice, prime boy.
Sold for $600 each.
109--Bob, 30; rice.
110--Mary, 25; rice, prime woman.
Sold for $1,135 each.
111--Anson, 49; rice--ruptured, one eye.
112--Violet, 55; rice hand.
Sold for $250 each.
113--Allen Jeffrey, 46; rice hand and sawyer in steam mill.
114--Sikey, 43; rice hand.
115--Watty, 5; infirm legs.
Sold for $520 each.
116--Rina, 18; rice, prime young woman.
117--Lena, 1.
Sold for $645 each.
118--Pompey, 31; rice--lame in one foot.
119--Kitty, 30; rice, prime woman.
120--Pompey, Jr., 10; prime boy.
121--John, 7.
122--Noble, 1; boy.
Sold for $580 each.
341--Goin, 39; rice hand.
342--Cassander, 35; cotton hand--has fits.
343--Emiline, 19; cotton, prime young woman.
344--Judy, 11; cotton, prime girl.
Sold for $400 each.
345--Dorcas, 17; cotton, prime woman.
346--Joe, 3 months.
Sold for $1,200 each.
347--Tom, 22; cotton hand. Sold for $1,260.
348--Judge Will, 55; rice hand. Sold for $325.
349--Lowden, 54; cotton hand.
350--Hagar, 50; cotton hand.
351--Lowden, 15; cotton, prime boy.
352--Silas, 13; cotton, prime boy.
353--Lettia, 11; cotton, prime girl.
Sold for $300 each.
354--Fielding, 21; cotton, prime young man.
355--Abel, 19; cotton, prime young man.
Sold for $1,295 each.
356--Smith's Bill, aged; sore leg.
357--Leah, 46; cotton hand.
358--Sally, 9.
Withdrawn.
359--Adam, 24; rice, prime man.
360--Charlotte, 22; rice, prime woman.
361--Lesh, 1.
Sold for $750 each.
362--Maria, 47; rice hand.
363--Luna, 22; rice, prime woman.
364--Clementina, 17; rice, prime young woman.
Sold for $950 each.
365--Tom, 48; rice hand.
366--Harriet, 41; rice hand
367--Wanney, 19; rice hand, prime young man.
368--Deborah, 6.
369--Infant, 3 months.
Sold for $700 each.
It seems as if every shade of character capable of being implicated in
the sale of human flesh and blood was represented among the buyers.
There was the Georgia fast young man, with his pantaloons tucked into
his boots, his velvet cap jauntily dragged over to one side, his cheek
full of tobacco, which he bites from a huge plug, that resembles
more than anything else an old bit of a rusty wagon tire, and who
is altogether an animal of quite a different breed from your New
York fast man. His ready revolver, or his convenient knife, is ready
for instant use in case of a heated argument. White-neck-clothed,
gold-spectacled, and silver-haired old men were there, resembling in
appearance that noxious breed of sanctimonious deacons we have at the
North, who are perpetually leaving documents at your door that you
never read, and the business of whose mendicant life it is to eternally
solicit subscriptions for charitable associations, of which they are
treasurers. These gentry, with quiet step and subdued voice, moved
carefully about among the live stock, ignoring, as a general rule, the
men, but tormenting the women with questions which, when accidentally
overheard by the disinterested spectator, bred in that spectator's
mind an almost irresistible desire to knock somebody down. And then,
all imaginable varieties of rough, backwoods rowdies, who began the
day in a spirited manner, but who, as its hours progressed, and their
practice at the bar became more prolific in results, waxed louder and
talkier and more violent, were present, and added a characteristic
feature to the assemblage. Those of your readers who have read "Uncle
Tom,"--and who has not?--will remember, with peculiar feelings,
Legree, the slave-driver and woman-whipper. That that character is not
been overdrawn, or too highly colored, there is abundant testimony.
Witness the subjoined dialogue: A party of men were conversing on the
fruitful subject of managing refractory "niggers;" some were for severe
whipping, some recommending branding, one or two advocated other modes
of torture, but one huge brute of a man, who had not taken an active
part in the discussion, save to assent, with approving nod, to any
unusually barbarous proposition, at last broke his silence by saying,
in an oracular way, "You may say what you like about managing niggers;
I'm a driver myself, and I've had some experience, and I ought to know.
You can manage ordinary niggers by lickin' 'em, and givin' 'em a taste
of the hot iron once in awhile when they're extra ugly; but if a nigger
really sets himself up against me, I can't never have any patience with
him. I just get my pistol and shoot him right down; and that's the best
way."
And this brute was talking to gentlemen, and his remarks were listened
to with attention, and his assertions assented to by more than one in
the knot of listeners. But all this time the sale was going on, and
the merry Mr. Walsh, with many a quip and jest, was beguiling the
time when the bidding was slow. The expression on the faces of all who
stepped on the block was always the same, and told of more anguish than
it is in the power of words to express. Blighted homes, crushed hopes
and broken hearts, was the sad story to be read in all the anxious
faces. Some of them regarded the sale with perfect indifference, never
making a motion, save to turn from one side to the other at the word
of the dapper Mr. Bryan, that all the crowd might have a fair view of
their proportions, and then, when the sale was accomplished, stepped
down from the block without caring to cast even a look at the buyer,
who now held all their happiness in his hands. Others, again, strained
their eyes with eager glances from one buyer to another as the bidding
went on, trying with earnest attention to follow the rapid voice of
the auctioneer. Sometimes, two persons only would be bidding for the
same chattel, all the others having resigned the contest, and then the
poor creature on the block, conceiving an instantaneous preference for
one of the buyers over the other, would regard the rivalry with the
intensest interest, the expression of his face changing with every bid,
settling into a half smile of joy if the favorite buyer persevered unto
the end and secured the property, and settling down into a look of
hopeless despair if the other won the victory.