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Show 15'4 UNCLE TOl\118 CABIN : OR, CHAPTER XXX. A SLAVE warehouse ! Perhaps some of my readers conjure up horrible visions of such a place. ~rhcy fancy some foul, obscure den, some horrible Tartarus "iufonnis, ingens, cui lumen ademptwn." But no, innocent friend; in these days men have learned the art of sinning expertly and genteelly, so as not to shock the eyes and senses of respectable society. Human property is high in the market; and is, therefore, well fed, well cleaned, tended, and looked after, that it may come to sale sleek, and strong, and shining. A slave-warehouse in Now Orleans is a house cxtcmally not much unlike many others, kept with neatness; and where every day you may sec arranged, under a sort of shed alcng the outside, rows of men and women, who stand there as a sign of the property sold within. Then you shall be courteously entreated to call and ex. amine, and shall find an abundance of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, ancl young children, to be '~sold separately, or in lots to suit the convenience of the purchaser;" and that soul immortal, once bought with blooU and anguish by the Son of God, when the earth shook, and the rocks rent, and tho graves were opened, can be sold, leased, mortgaged, exchanged for groceries or dry goods, to suit the phases of trade, or the fancy of the purchaser. It was a day or two after the conversation between Marie and Miss Ophelia, that Tom, Adolph, and about half a dozen others of the St- Clare estate, were turned over to the loving LIFE AMQgO 'l'l!E LOWLY. 155 kindness of Mr. Skcggs, the keeper of a depot on-- street, to await the auction, next day. Tom had with him quite a sizable trunk full of clothing, as hall most others of them. 1'hey were ushered, for the night, into a long room, where many other men, of all ages, sizes, and shades of complexion, were assembled, and from which roars of laughter and unthinking merriment were proceeding. "Ah, ha! that's right. Go it, boys,-go it! " said l\1r. Skeggs, the keeper. "My people arc always so merry! Sambo, I sec! " · he said, speaking approvingly to a burly negro who was performing tricks of low buffoonery, which occasioned the shouts which Tom had heard. As might be imagined, Tom was in no humor to join these proceedings i and, therefore, setting his trunk as far as possible from the noisy group, he sat down on it, and leaned his face against the wall. The dealers in the human article make scrupulous ancl systematic efforts to promote noisy mirth among them, as a means of drowning reflection, and rendering them insensible to their condition. ~'he whole object of the training to which the negro is put, from the time he is sold in the northern market till he arrives south, is systematically directed towards making him callous, unthinking, and brutal. The slave-dealer collects his gang in Virginia or Kentucky, and drives them to some convenient, healthy place,- often a watering place,- to be fi•ttencd. Here they arc fed full daily; and, because some incline to pine, a fiddle is kept commonly going among them, and they arc made to dance daily; and he w~o refuses to be merry- in whose soul thoughts of wife, or cluld, or home, are too strong for him to be ·gay- is marked as sullen and dangerous, and subjected to all the evils which tho ill will of an utterly irresponsible and hardened man can |