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182 SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
4 Sion Neio To Call Orleans On A , Lad F...
Then a girl with a little baby got up , and the same sort of harangue ¦ went on until 800 dollarsI thinkwere bid ; and a
blackguard-, , looking gentleman came up , _oj _3 ened her mouth , examined her teeth , _ielt her all overand said she was dearor something to that effect .
2 noticed one mulatto , girl who looked , very sad and embarrassed ; she was going to have a childand seemed frightened and wretched .
, I was very sorry I could not get near enough to speak to her ; the others were not sad at all , _perhajDS they were glad of a change .
Some looked round anxiously at the different bearded faces below thembut there was no great emotion visible . I changed my place
and went , round to the corner where the women were standing before they had to mount the auction stage . There were two or three
young women with babies , laughing and talking with the gentlemen _* who stood roundin a quiet sad sort of way , not merrily ; the negroes
, often laugh when they are not merry . Quite in the corner was a little delicate negro -womanwith a boy as tall as herself , they
, were called up together , and the polite gentleman said they were mother and sonand their master would not let them be sej ) arated
on any account . , Bids not being good , they came down , and I went to them . The woman said she thought she was twenty-five years
old and her son ten : she came from South Carolina , had always lived in one familyand her boy had been a pet in her master ' s
, house . He sold them for debt ; he was sorry , but could not help it , and her _young missus cried very much when they parted with the boy .
This slave was religious and always went to church , she was much comforted to hear there were good black churches in this strange
country . "While , we talked , two or three men came up , and questioned her particularly about her health ; she confessed it was not
strong . They spoke kindly to her , but went about their examination exactly as a farmer would examine a cow . It is evident , as Mrs .
p said this morning , planters in general only consider the slaves as a means of _g-aining * money , and there is not the consideration for
them which they pretend in drawing-room conversations . The slave-owners talk of them as the patriarchs anight have spoken of
their families , and call it a _jmtriarchal institution , but it is not so ; they do not consider their feelings excej ) t in rare instances . They
tell you in drawing-rooms that marriage is encouraged , but it is a farce to say sofor the father is not _considered as part of the
, family in sales ! Of course there are exceptions , and my experience isvery limitedbut true andI imagineof an average kind . I came
, , , atmosp away quite here . ill Before with the I went noise , , the and young the sickening man _wlio moral is in our and house physical had
said , " Well , I don't think there is anything to see : they sell them Like so many rocking chairs ; there's no difference . " And that is
the truest word that can be said about the affair . When I see how Miss M— speaks of sales and separations as regretted "bthe
y owners , and as disagreeable , ( that is her tone , if not her words , ) I
feel inclined to condemn her to attend all tlie sales held in New
182 Slavery In The South.
182 _SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/38/
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