When the family of Mingo, consisting of his wife, two sons and a
daughter, was called for, it was announced by the auctioneer that
chattel No. 322, Dembo, the eldest son, aged 20, had the evening before
procured the services of a minister, and been joined in wedlock to
chattel No. 404, Frances, and that he should be compelled to put up
the bride and groom in one lot. They were called up, and, as was to be
expected, their appearance was the signal for a volley of coarse jokes
from the auctioneer, and of ribald remarks from the surrounding crowd.
The newly-married pair bore it bravely, although one refined gentleman
took hold of Frances's lips and pulled them apart, to see her age.
This sort of thing it is that makes Northern blood boil, and Northern
fists clench with a laudable desire to hit somebody. It was almost too
much for endurance to stand and see those brutal slave-drivers pushing
the women about, pulling their lips apart with their not too cleanly
hands, and committing many another indecent act, while the husbands,
fathers and brothers of those women were compelled to witness these
things, without the power to resent the outrage.
Dembo and Frances were at last struck off for $1,320 each, and went to
spend their honey-moon on a cotton plantation in Alabama.