“Eighteen hundred dollars.”
“Dat was putty smart fer man like you, ain’t it?”
“Well, I dunno; it’s no mo’ dan I is wuf; fer you muss’ ’member, I was raised by de Christy’s. I’m none of yer common niggers, sellin’ fer a picayune. I tink my new boss got me mighty cheap.”
“An’ so you sole, las’ Sataday, fer nine hundred dollars; so I herd.”
“Well, what on it?”
“All I got to say is, ef I was sole, to-morrow, an’ did’nt bring more dan nine hundred dollars, I’d never look a decent man in de face agin.”
These, and other sayings of the kind, were often heard in any company of colored men, in our Southern towns.
CHAPTER XII.
Throughout the Southern States, there are still to be found remnants of the old time Africans, who were stolen from their native land and sold in the Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans markets, in defiance of all law. The last-named city, however, and its vicinity, had a larger portion of these people than any other section. New Orleans was their centre, and where their meetings were not uninteresting.