I happened once to get acquainted with a Frenchman, an owner of slaves, who said to me, ‘Doctor, I will be obliged to you if you will teach my slaves your religious opinions; for though they are to me ridiculous, I know very well that my slaves, once believing in your nonsense, will be worth more to me than they are now.’
Alas! poor Moses will remain a slave until death shall break his chains! But, no! His chains shall be broken before! God grant it!
No. 94. Matilda, wife of Moses, (though she is never regarded as a wife by the slave code,) seems to be a very good creature. While she is weeping silently, she presses her last-born, her darling boy, her Mike, close to her bosom. Poor child! Bitter, yes, very bitter are the tears thy unfortunate mother is weeping over thee! Alas! she fears that thou mayest be sold to a man whose gospel is ‘money.’ O Mike! will he order you to his infamous gambling saloon? Will you learn his tricks, and will he poison your pure innocent heart with his blasphemies? Is it his intention to make you a deceiver, a thief, a robber, a murderer? Dreadful thought! that child of affliction and of prayers shall perhaps become a candidate for the gallows! And why? For money’s sake! Yes, to fill a villain’s pockets with money!
And Richard—the noble, the smart, the truth-loving boy, with those clear innocent eyes—what shall become of him when his new master shall prove to be man of dissolute habits?
Mourn again, reader! for virtue and justice shall succumb, and crime shall be triumphant. That family brings a good price. These Christians are sold for $3000; and with them their hope, their virtue, their faith, all that they possess in this world. The curtain falls—the tragedy closes.
No. 97. Jerry, field hand, 42 years, and
No. 98. Molly, 40 years. An old looking couple, but a kind, a true-hearted one.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer——. But before I proceed, the reader will give me permission to mention that the four ladies, present at the commencement of this auction sale, did not bid, nor did they remain for more than half an hour. For the honor of their sex, I am bound to mention that they (though most probably themselves owners of slaves,) seemed to feel very uneasy while present. I believe that there is a certain natural feeling with the great majority of the gentler sex, which is more just, and more open to the truths of the gospel, than we of the masculine race are able to comprehend.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer, ‘Jerry and Molly are the last couple to be sold to-day; for it is late, and we have to close. To-morrow at 12 M., the rest of the slaves, belonging to this gang, fifty-one very valuable, sound and likely negroes, will be sold to the highest bidder for cash and approved paper.’
I intend,—Deo volente,—to delineate at some future time the proceedings of ‘the sale of to-morrow.’ Let us close, for the present, with poor Jerry and unfortunate Molly, who were sold to a not very kind looking man for $1125.