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.