Chapter VIII.
“Authority usurp’d from God, not given.
He gave us over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute. That right we hold
By his donation: but men over men
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.”
Milton.
Had Irving now seen the once attractive Imihie, and her playful boy, as he even beheld them in the slave-room of the African courtier, he would scarcely have given credit to any assurance that she was the same individual. She then, recently a captive, peculiarly displayed in her person the characteristic feminine traits of her country—perfect symmetry of proportion, and beautiful, in as far as it did not consist in colour. Modest, affable, and faithful, these sweet feminine qualities emanated from her softened eyes, and an air of winning innocence in [[95]]every look and gesture; while every word was pronounced with an inflection of voice so sweet, so soft, so tender, that cold indeed must have been the heart that could withstand its eloquent appeal, or listen, unmoved, to its modulations. Such was the young Imihie. Now, alas! how changed! Emaciated for want of food, sinking with illness, shrinking from exposure; almost frenzied with the recollection of the past, the misery of the present, and the dread of the future; bearing, with difficulty, her infant, she was conducted, with her companions in misery, to the vendue, in the bare hope that she might be purchased for the sake of the boy; who, though suffering from the effects of the voyage and want of his natural nutriment, still evidently displayed great intelligence, and much natural vigour. The first day of exhibition passed, and no purchaser was found for the sulky negress, (for such is the feeling term applied to the desponding.)
On occasions like this, it is a common thing to speculate upon the purchase of what are termed the refuse negroes, or those [[96]]left from the first day’s sale. Some are frequently in so weak and miserable a state, as even to be sold as low as for a dollar; some are taken to the mart almost in the agonies of death; and some are even known to draw their last sigh in the piazzas of the vendue master. It was on the second day’s sale that Imihie was purchased by a planter for a very low sum, and carried into the country, with some others, whom he intended to retail. The situation of these wretched captives was but little ameliorated, by becoming the property of this man, who was of that class of managers, who think that the safety of the family to which they are subservient, and the interest of the proprietor, renders severity indispensable, and oppression the only mode of subduing the refractory spirit of the African, whom they regard with the most sovereign contempt. With souls lost to all sense of compassion, they believe there can be but one mode of enforcing obedience, that of fear; and in the exercise of their delegated authority, they put in action, to the utmost, this ignoble [[97]]stimulus, by every means which a spirit of cruelty and ignorance can suggest.