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Show ;?bRTJtA.lTUBE OF SLAVERY. hearing' from her children again! He that can behold thio "poor woman," (as a respect1ble citizen of Washington afterwards expressed himself, on requesting of her landlord the privilege of seeing her,) and listen to her unvar. nished story; and then delineate it with the mental pencil, (quill) and then view the picture from his o1vn hand, without a humid eye, I will confess possesses a stouter heart than I do. The sympathy of the whole American white population, (and it is presumed of the black also, for they know how to estimate such matters by dear experience,) has recently been very justly excited towards young King Prather, and his " confuS'd and 'istrrtcted" mother roam~ ing in search of him, along half the extent of the coast of the United Stutes. As he was kidnapped by a son of Africa, (though not for the detestable purpose of cupidity or enslavement, but for a ladder to his own Iibert\',) it is presumed if Africa's Genius were permitted to offer her sentiments on the subject, she would pronounce it a retott courteous apropos, from Africa to her sister Columbia. I have since learned many recent insL1nces of the tragical consequences of the usurped trade in the souls and bodies of men. ·ll' I have been informed by severo! dif- * Extract from the preamble to I he firsl act po.ssed by the legislature or Pennsylvania, for lhc gradual abolition of slavery in that state: · · e' Sect. 2. AND WHEREAS, the contlilion of those pPrsons•who bave heretofore been denominated Negro and l\Iulntlo Slaves, has been attended with circumstances, which not only deprived them of the common blcsaiogs that they were by nature entitled l~,, but Juts cast them into the deepc.:t amictions by an unnnlurat separation of husband and wife from cnch other and rrom their children-an injury the greatness of which can only be conceived by supposing that \fe were in tile same unhappy case.'' Darwin, who may \veil be style~ an arch connois.wlT, both in physiology _a.nd morality, in his classification of human diseases, ineludt:ll one whtch he denominates "Noslalg;a," and thus defines it : " NMtalgia. An unconquerable desire of returning to one's na~ 1in country, frequent in long voyages, in which the patiel\ts become PORTRAITUnE 8!' SLAVERY. -45 [crent persons in the District of Columbia, t1Jat a woman who had been sold in Georgetown, for the southern slave market, cut her own throat, intffectually, while on the way, in a hack, to the same depository abovementioned; and that on the road to Alexandria, she completed her design of destroying her life, by cutting it again mortally. A statement was published in the Baltimore Telegraph a few months ago, that a female slave who had been sold in Maryland, with her child, on the way from Bladensburgh to 'vV ashington, heroically cut the throats of both her child and herself, with mortal effect. This narrative has been since confirmed by a relative of the person who sold them. An African youth, in the city of Philadelphia, lately cut his throat almost mortally, merely from the apprehension, as he said, of being •old. This information was obtained li-mn several respectable citizens of Phi· lhdelphia, who had personal knowledge of the fact. Believing the facts already recited are sufficient to satisfy every candid rl"ttder of the unreasonableness, injustice and inhumanity of the prevailing interior slave trade, anJ of the necessity of legislative controul ; I will now com. mcnc~ a dclinea~ion ?f .tl:e still mo~e <;mtrageous and abnmumble pra~hce of se1zmg and sellmg mto exile, men, tvomen, and cluldren, whose freedom and moral ri~hts, are guarenteed by our nat•onal and state constitutiOn&. so insane as to throw themselves into the sea, mistaking it for green fields. an~ meadows. 'rhc Swis~ are sai~l to be yartic~arly liable to tlus <hse~se, and when tnk.en mto foretgn servtce, frequenlly de~ ocrt from tlu~ cause, and ~spcc1~11y. after hearing .or singing a particu· Jar tune, '~bach was used m the1r VIllage dances, m their native coun· trr, on wh1ch nce_ount tl:eir playing or singing this tune was punished 1\'Jth death. Zwmgerus. Dear is that shell to which his soul conforms And dear that bill, which lifts him te the sto~ms." GoldsmiU1. Zoonomin, C!:J. III. 1. 1. s. The late indefatigable Rueh, in his Inquiry into the Causes of the ~erangement of th~ Human Mind, states, that the slaves imported mto the West Ind1cs from Africa, frequently become distracted, ;~e;~titi~~~~bo:.~t to commence the teils of perpetual slavery, 00 |