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Show 192 THE CONTRAST. In order to form a correct view, however, on the present subject, it is enough for me to recur to scenes which I have myself witnessed. Although, in travelling through some of your slave states, I have often observed the negroes well clad, and in good bodily condition, their general aspect has not appeared to me to be that of happiness. Seldom have I seen any thing among them, like the cheerful smile of the peasant of Jamaica; and sometimes they have been halfnaked, and wretched in their demeanor. When I saw large companies of black people following either the masters who owned them, or the merchants who had bought them, to some distant state, the lame ones compelled to keep up with their associates, and yet limping behind from very weakness-when, in one of the sea islands of South Carolina, I looked on a gang of them, ginning cotton, working as if they were on the tread-wheel, their sweat falling from them like rain, and the overseer sitting by, with his cow-hide alongside of him-when, in the negro jail of Charleston, I was surrounded by a large number of negroes, who had been sent thither, without anv intervention of law or magistracy, but at the sole. will of their holders, to be punished on the thread-wheel, or with whipping (not exceeding fifteen lashes) according to directions on the accompanying ticket- when, lastly, in the iron-grated depot at Baltimore, I visited the poor creatures who had been sold away frorn their families and frienus, and were about to be transmitted on speculation, like so many bales of cotton or wors· ted, to the far-distant South-when these scenes passed THE CONTRAST. 193 one .abf ter another' in revr.e w be~ possr le for me to tll i. n1 { hi~hl' oref me-it was 1·1 11- yonr enslaved negroes. b Y 0 the comforts of The slave market inCh I . l . ar eston rs I ld stam , m the open street . . . Ie , as I under-f s, rmmelllat 1 o the exchange. There f" I e Y under the walls ld . our c low m so wrthout reserve. T . en are bought and b rue mdeed . t . enevolcnt holders rcfu 1 Is, that many . se to sell thei I any crrcumstances and tl r s aves under h ' rat manv othe . t em, except in undivided f: .1: rs avord selling b k arm res B t 1 an ruptcy and execnt I . · u t 1e laws of d ors llp are fran ht . 1 ten er feelino-s. and . I ' g wrt 1 no such b ' ' ' m t 1e breakin . . of estates, husbands a d . g up ,md drsposal n WIVCS pa. are often sold-irrespective! ~f Ients and children, the highest bidder w· h y each other-each to · rt such I" bT · where can be the solid h . ra ' rtres at hancl America? I would h appmess of the slave of North d ' owever, recur t groun -no man whoh o my orignai II ' as sense and k I d tore ect upon himself, . ·. now e geenouo-h tb I ' can enjoy tru ' f" b e aw regards him h . e com ort, while f as t e prop t f o your most enlighten d , er y o another. One · e senators fi · h an mstrnctive anecdot . c urms ed me with I e m re,erence t ti . pro-s avery Meth oc1 r. st mm. J. ster . 0 ns subject. A sence, was one day quest" . ' m our friend's pre-mu c h respected b h. ronmg a well -ed ucated negro with th y IS master, and am I . ' e conveniences of n " p y supphed and family about " .' e. You have your wife a good h you, sard the minister. " h ' ouse; you and . • you ave you sit down, day b a/our children are well cla,d ; you are even eno-ageJa , y, to a well provided table; why then are v~u .s a preacher to your brethren-wi sh ~o r more - an xwus to be f , h I" "Sir " . ree : w at can you ' replred the negro " I . h ' WIS .to 0 |