in such a way that he could not be distinguished
from a person of colour, and then sold as a slave

in Virginia. At the age of twenty, he made his
escape, by running away, and happily succeeded in

rejoining his parents.
I have known worthless white people to sell their

own free children into slavery; and, as there are
good-for-nothing white as well as coloured persons

everywhere, no one, perhaps, will wonder at such
inhuman transactions: particularly in the Southern

States of America, where I believe there is a
greater want of humanity and high principle

amongst the whites, than among any other
civilized people in the world.

I know that those who are not familiar with the
working of "the peculiar institution," can scarcely

imagine any one so totallydevoid of all natural
affection as to sell his own offspring into returnless

bondage. But Shakespeare, that great observer
of human nature, says:--

"With caution judge of probabilities.
Things deemed unlikely, e'en impossible,

Experience often shews us to be true."
My wife's new mistress was decidedly more

humane than the majority of her class. My wife
has always given her credit for not exposing her to

many of the worst features of slavery. For instance,
it is a common practice in the slave States for ladies,

when angry with their maids, to send them to the
calybuce sugar-house, or to some other place

established for the purpose of punishing slaves,
and have them severely flogged; and I am sorry

it is a fact, that the villains to whom those de-
fenceless creatures are sent, not only flog them

as they are ordered, but frequently compel them
to submit to the greatest indignity. Oh! if there

is any one thing under the wide canopy of heaven,
horrible enough to stir a man's soul, and to make

his very blood boil, it is the thought of his dear
wife, his unprotected sister, or his young and

virtuous daughters, struggling to save themselves
from falling a prey to such demons!

It always appears strange to me that any one
who was not born a slaveholder, and steeped to the

very core in the demoralizing atmosphere of the
Southern States, can in any way palliate slavery.

It is still more surprising to see virtuous ladies
looking with patience upon, and remaining indif-

ferent to, the existence of a system that exposes
nearly two millions of their own sex in the manner

I have mentioned, and that too in a professedly
free and Christian country. There is, however,

great consolation in knowing that God is just, and
will not let the oppressor of the weak, and the

spoiler of the virtuous, escape unpunished here and
hereafter.

I believe a similar retribution to that which
destroyed Sodom is hanging over the slaveholders.

My sincere prayer is that they may not provoke
God, by persisting in a reckless course of wicked-

ness, to pour out his consuming wrath upon them.
I must now return to our history.

My old master had the reputation of being a
very humane and Christian man, but he thought

nothing of selling my poor old father, and dear
aged mother, at separate times, to different persons,

to be dragged off never to behold each other again,
till summoned to appear before the great tribunal

of heaven. But, oh! what a happy meeting it
will be on that day for those faithful souls.

I say a happy meeting, because I never saw
persons more devoted to the service of God

than they. But how will the case stand with those
reckless traffickers in human flesh and blood, who

plunged the poisonousdagger of separation into
those loving hearts which God had for so many

years closely joined together--nay, sealed as it
were with his own hands for the eternal courts of

heaven? It is not for me to say what will become
of those heartless tyrants. I must leave them in

the hands of an all-wise and just God, who will, in
his own good time, and in his own way, avenge the

wrongs of his oppressed people.
My old master also sold a dear brother and a

sister, in the same manner as he did my father and
mother. The reason he assigned for disposing of

my parents, as well as of several other aged slaves,
was, that "they were getting old, and would soon

become valueless in the market, and therefore he
intended to sell off all the old stock, and buy in a

young lot." A most disgracefulconclusion for a
man to come to, who made such great professions

of religion!
This shameful conduct gave me a thorough

hatred, not for true Christianity, but for slave-
holding piety.

My old master, then, wishing to make the most
of the rest of his slaves, apprenticed a brother

and myself out to learn trades: he to a black-
smith, and myself to a cabinet-maker. If a slave

has a good trade, he will let or sell for more
than a person without one, and many slave-

holders have their slaves taught trades on this
account. But before our time expired, my old

master wanted money; so he sold my brother, and
then mortgaged my sister, a dear girl about four-

teen years of age, and myself, then about sixteen,
to one of the banks, to get money to speculate in

cotton. This we knew nothing of at the moment;
but time rolled on, the money became due, my

master was unable to meet his payments; so the
bank had us placed upon the auction stand and

sold to the highest bidder.
My poor sister was sold first: she was knocked

down to a planter who resided at some distance
in the country. Then I was called upon the stand.

While the auctioneer was crying the bids, I saw
the man that had purchased my sister getting her

into a cart, to take her to his home. I at once
asked a slave friend who was standing near the

platform, to run and ask the gentleman if he
would please to wait till I was sold, in order

that I might have an opportunity of bidding her
good-bye. He sent me word back that he had

some distance to go, and could not wait.
I then turned to the auctioneer, fell upon my

knees, and humbly prayed him to let me just step
down and bid my last sister farewell. But, instead

of granting me this request, he grasped me by the