Some people pretend that slaves are indifferent to their being bought and sold. Upon questioning, I was told by many slaves who had comparatively kind masters, that their minds are constantly troubled for fear of being sold. They would rather submit to the most cruel treatment at the hands of their masters, than to be separated.
A very strong and valuable slave in Mobile assured me, that if his master should ever attempt to sell him, he would jump into the river. His idea of hell, he said, was a large platform of red hot iron, where bad people are to be sold. The auctioneer there is the devil. ‘There is,’ said he, ‘a good deal more white folks sold there by the devil than black ones.’ If those poor fellows had no reason like brutes—if they could not be conscious of their miserable condition—if they had no rational feeling—they might be less unhappy; but their reason, their power of intellect, is frequently superior to that of their brutal and often drunken masters. When slaves, who have been raised by kind masters, know that they shall be sold to men of ill repute, they live in a constant state of desperation, until they are sold, when they submit themselves to their deplorable lot, or look out for some opportunity to run away.
I shall never forget an awful catastrophe which took place in a large Southern seaport while I resided there. A beautiful quadroon slave girl, of about sixteen summers, with a skin such as many a Spanish lady would be proud of, and with splendid long black curls, was bought at auction for $1900 by a confirmed dissolute rascal, who forced her in the same night to stay with him.
Though she was a slave, Raimond Legrand, an honest young Frenchman, had fallen in love with her. He had sworn to buy her, and to bring her to ‘la belle France,’ where color of skin is never punished by imprisonment in the galleys, nor elsewhere. Unfortunately, he was not in possession of the money which her master asked for her. To procure it, Raimond went to California. During the time of his absence, the rather good-natured master of Madeline, (that was her name,) died suddenly, and his heir put Madeline up at auction. She was bought by the fellow I mentioned before, and all her happy dreams and hopes were at once blasted. Her pitiful cries and groans of anguish, in that horrible night, were heard for several houses from that of her inhuman new master. But there was no help for her, no salvation for Madeline. For the law of the State says:—‘A slave has to obey in all cases his or her master.’ In the following morning, a human chase was seen down the street towards the wharf. A young and beautiful girl, with flying curls, crying piteously, and running with all her might, was followed by a man who shouted, ‘Stop her! stop her!’ That poor girl was Madeline, and her pursuer was her new master. A man? No, a demon in human shape! They arrive together upon the wharf above the stream. He seizes hold of the dress of his victim, exclaiming, ‘Mine again! curse you!’ But, in an instant, she tears herself from the grasp of her tormentor—she casts one quick despairing glance upwards—and, uttering the words, ‘Adieu, cher Raimond!’ she throws herself from the wharf into the stream, and was seen no more.
No. 77. Scott, field hand, aged about 19, for $1375.
No. 78. Campbell, 22 years, for $1500.
No. 79. Dennis, 26 years, brought $1600.
Three valuable laborers, healthy and strong men. They are condemned to ‘hard labor for life,’ as a reward for their good behavior and diligence.
No. 80. Frank, field hand, and excellent gardener, 22 years, for $1425.
No. 81. Gerrard, 24 years, for $1500.