No. 6. Jim Ludlow, field hand, 30 years old, brings $1400.
No. 7. Chap, field hand, 34 years, brings the round sum of $1000.
No. 8. Henry Wood, 23 years old, for $1375.
No. 9. Charles Longback, plowman and harness maker, age 35, value
received, $1300.
No. 10. March, field hand, 26 years old, fine-looking fellow, splendid
eyes, teeth white like ivory. That dandy there, who is lighting his
cigar with a fashionable Parisian silver-match, would be glad to give
his gold watch with chain, and his diamond breastpin in the bargain,
for March’s beautiful set of spotless teeth. But how can we see them?
Is March so much pleased as to show all his teeth? No, reader! he is
very, very far from laughing. His eyes are cast down; they are fixed
upon the floor of the hall. But tell me why March shows his teeth? Out
of rage? Yes, indeed, out of rage. Why?
There is a poor young woman at his side; they call her Caroline. A
Christian minister gave her that name when she was christened. She is
bitterly crying; she casts a look of extreme sorrow upon her husband.
Why?
Caroline is the lawful wife, (lawful, indeed? lawful in a Slave State?)
of March, and the ‘gentleman’ who bought him for $1250 will not buy
Caroline. She is twenty-two years of age, and the auctioneer calls
her a splendid washer and ironer, a very likely girl. She has always
conducted herself well; she is a member of the Methodist Church; she
is one of the most gentle persons in the South; she calls March her
husband, and she loves him dearly. And now, gentle reader, tell me why
Caroline shall be torn from her husband? Why shall she belong to a
tyrant? Because that man has money--because he bought her for $1100.
Friends of humanity! take another glance at No. 10½. There stands
Caroline, crying for her husband in a manner to move a heart of stone;
but she is not crying loud enough to move pretended ‘Christians,’
who are going to church every Sunday, there to adore the Redeemer of
mankind, the Savior upon the Cross!
No. 11. Abraham Arkansas, plowman and carter, 28 years of age; he
brings $1350.
No. 12. Michael, carter and plowman, 29 years, sold for $1300.
No. 13. Booker, plowman, 28 years, brings $1375.
No. 14. Lucy, a young girl of 14, yet nearly a child. Her color is
black, but her features are handsome. She stands upon the platform like
a lamb, doomed to be sold to a wolf. See those long, silky eyelids;
how the large full drops are falling upon the table! Look at the
sad, silent face of a poor lovely girl of dark color, innocent like
the blossom of a fair nightly flower! Her crime is, that she is a
descendant from African blood. Look, how her full, red lips open with
untold agony, showing a string of pearls rarely to be met with. Her
dark but soft eyes are fixed upon the man who has already bid twice for
her. She casts them down in despairing hopelessness, as he is bidding
for her $1025 for the last time. She belongs to him! Her whole body
belongs to the man with the lustful countenance; to the very man who
whispered in her ear when she was entering the hall of perdition, ‘Thou
art mine, black little dove! Thou art mine, even though God and all his
holy angels should defend thee!’ Does not that man look like one of the
fiends? But he has paid for her, one thousand and fifty dollars in gold
and approved paper; he takes her away--and hell solemnizes its triumph!
No. 15. The boy Clifford, a field hand, fourteen years of age, is sold
for $1000.
No. 16. Sam, twenty-one years, truly as honest a boy as could be
found south of Mason and Dixon’s line. A gentleman behind my chair is
exclaiming, ‘What a splendid jet black animal he is!’ Sam brings the
nice round sum of $1500.
No. 17. Little Henry, plowman, twenty-four years, brings $1325.
No. 18. Titus, blacksmith, cooper and engineer, ‘extra,’ 23 years. Of
course, he must be ‘extra,’ for he is able to work for his master at
the rate of $5 a day. Now, suppose he could work for himself at the
rate of only $3 a day, it would take him only two years five months
and seventeen days to produce the money for which he is now sold at
auction. But his master will be a wise man, (though he is a prominent
member in his church)--he will let him have no time to work for
himself; no, not one hour!
The kind reader will give me permission to retreat, for a short time,
from the auction hall, in order to relate an event which happened at
the time of my stay in the same city where our auction takes place. A
certain citizen of said city had a very honest and diligent slave, a
blacksmith by trade. The slave agreed with his master to pay him two
dollars and a half a day, but the money which he should earn besides,
should belong to himself. He diligently worked by day and night, hardly
allowing himself any rest. By so doing, he made two dollars and a half
a day for his master, and one for himself. After five years of the
hardest toil, the slave had collected the required sum of money to buy
himself free--say $1800. He--poor honest fellow!--not suspecting the
rascality of his ‘Christian’ master, had given to him, at the end of
every week, $24.50; all of his very hard earned money; and after the
lapse of five years, he demanded his freedom from that master. But
the hardened wretch laughed at him, and told him to go to h--ll, and
to his work again. Now, could not the slave find justice in the court
of justice? No, never--for the laws of the Slave States provide that
no slave shall bear witness against any white person. No ‘Christian’
judge nor ‘Christian’ jury could help the poor slave; for the laws of a
‘Christian’ State regard a fellow-man of color as a tool, belonging to
any rascal who happens to possess a sufficient quantity of money to buy
that human tool!
No. 19. Rosa, field hand, 16 years of age, a capital girl, well built,
good-natured and intelligent. There she stands upon the platform,
gazed at by several hundred men. She has to submit, without a murmur,
to be examined by the hand of a rough fellow, a slave-driver--a name
which I consider equivalent to ‘human butcher.’ Her fine teeth are
touched by his bloody fingers; so are her beautiful eyelashes; and
when he is handling her beating bosom, oh, reader! mark the just
indignation expressed in all her features! Poor Rosa! there is no help
for you; there is no salvation. She knows it, and the awful conviction
of so crushing a calamity casts her down,--down into the abyss of
utter despair. She is sold at last to the highest bidder--to the
slave-driver--to the tiger in frock-coat and pants, for $1250.
No. 20. Ben, field hand, 30 years old, for $1150.
No. 21. Isam, a field hand, 40 years old, is not able to bring more
than $700, because his youth has gone. Of course, a mule of 18 is worth
less than one of 6 years. It is certainly very reasonable to sell an
old animal for less than a young one. But, let us see what kind of
an animal Isam is? Isam is not a strong man; his health is rather
delicate; but his mind is sound. He has not only an inclination toward
religion, he is himself a Christian, and he acts on Sundays among his
unfortunate fellow-men as a minister of the gospel.
What! A minister of the gospel a brute--to be sold at auction for $700!
Is not that a shameful untruth? No barbarian, in whatever part of the
globe, will sell at public auction the priest of his faith for any
money! Behold, ye nations of Christendom! There is a country which is
called a Christian one, in which a minister of the gospel of Jesus
Christ is sold at public auction like a brute! Will that time never
come when such as he shall be sold no more to the highest bidder by the
pretended disciples of that Savior who came to break every yoke, and to
set every captive free?
No. 22. Yellow Charles, carter and plowman, (has a short leg from
infancy,) 27 years of age, is sold for $950,--a very trifling sum. Yes,
indeed, trifling for his own natural father--the rich banker--the man
of refinement--the gallant ‘defender of liberty.’
No. 23. Sam Bayou, field hand, 32 years old, for $1075.
No. 24. Brown, field hand, 28 years, brings $1200.
No. 25. George, the valorous, 26 years old, strong enough to be a rival
to his celebrated namesake, the dragon-killing knight of the middle
ages. At least, he is able to kill two alligators in five minutes.
George (not the knight) is sold for $1400.
No. 26. Etienne, carter and plowman, 29, sold for $1150.
No. 27. Quacco, plowman and carpenter, a young man of 23, brings $1275.
No. 28. Bob, blind of one eye, plowman and carter, aged 35, brings
$850. Why only $850? Because he has but one eye. How did he lose the
other? When he was a little boy, he had a sister, a very kind and
gentle little girl, whom he dearly loved. One Sunday, they were walking
together near the plantation to which they belonged. Beneath an orange
tree, covered with red, beautiful, juicy fruits, they sat down upon
the grass. Nancy, which was the name of the little girl, dropped
silently her head; not a word came from her lips, but large drops fell
from her eyes upon the grass. Bob took her hands in his, asking her
tenderly, ‘Sis, what is the matter with you? Why will you cry?’ ‘O
Bob,’ sobbed she, ‘I am very unhappy--I wish to die.’ ‘Why, Nancy?’ But
Nancy gave no answer--all her limbs trembled--her eyes stared in agony
towards the sugar-house. A big white boy came running towards them,
holding in his hand a large whip. It was Peter, the overseer’s oldest
son--the most malicious and cruel young rascal in the parish--the
terror of the poor slaves on the plantation.
‘Ay! you black little grasshopper, have I caught you at last!’ cried
the young loafer, grasping her by the neck, and throwing her upon the
grass. ‘You shall know that I am master, and you are my slave.’ The
terror-struck girl made no reply; she only uttered a long, painful
groan. Bob, in great excitement, placed himself between his sister and
the boy, crying, ‘Oh, master Peter, don’t hurt my sister! No! you shall
not hurt my sister!’ At once, the young overseer got into a terrible
rage, and crying, ‘Hie, dog of a nigger!’ he struck Bob with the heavy
handle of his whip in the face, and the poor boy fell with a single
piercing cry to the ground. From that day, Bob had but one eye, and the
stripes made by the whip of the overseer upon Bob’s back can be still
seen to-day.
No. 29. Charles Yellabusha, field hand, 24 years old, price $1525.
No. 30. Allrick, field hand, age 45. He looks very good-natured; twenty
years ago, he was worth $2100, but is sold now for $1025.
No. 31. Jake, good cooper, sugar-maker, and vacuum boiler, 32 years of
age. His color is a mingling of yellow and white. His forehead is high,
his face intelligent. There is no mistake--plenty of Anglo-Saxon blood
is running through his veins. If he had been born in Massachusetts, or
in one of the other Free States, in Canada or in Europe, I would bet
a hundred dollars against one, he would be a professor, a minister, a
doctor, or some kind of a savan, now. If his star had cast him into
the empire of France, I should by no means be surprised to see in him
a second Alexander Dumas; and if, in that case, he would not be able
to write as admirable a story as is ‘The Count of Monté Christo,’ I
should despair of finding any sense in a Gall or a Lavater. Well, this
second Alexander Dumas is sold at auction for $2625, a sum which he
could realize for himself in less than one year, if he were not born in
a Slave State.
Who was Jake’s mother? Of course, a mulatto woman, and a slave. Most
probably, she has gone to that land where the master and the slave
enjoy ‘equal rights.’
But who was her father? There we have a problem, which even the
discoverer of the quadrature of the circle can never solve. Perhaps
Jake’s grandfather was a ‘rising man,’ and his white grand-children are
now celebrated senators and lawgivers.
And who was the father of Jake? Don’t know. But may it not be possible
that he was a Governor, or some other big personage? Perhaps, while
Jake is being sold at auction to the highest bidder, his natural
brothers and sisters are sitting in splendid parlors, or in the
drawing-room of some fashionable hotel, ‘up North.’ May not one of
Jake’s natural brothers be a Judge of the Supreme Court, and the other
a learned minister of the gospel? How does it happen that, while one of
the children of the same father is a rich and high-standing favorite of
the people, the other child is sold at public auction, like a valuable
mule? Can it be the little difference in their color? Well, let the
former brother stay for some years in South America, or in some other
warm climate, and I am sure his color would show no great difference
from that of his brother who is sold at auction. Why, then, shall
the one brother be treated as a beast, and the other brother as a
gentleman? Can any one of my learned readers solve this problem for me?