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.