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Show 180 UNCl.E TO~J' S C:\BIN: OR, "\Vhat 's that? " said another lady. "Some poor slaves below," said the mother. "And they 'vc got chains on," said the boy. " What a shame to our country that such sights are to he seen ! " said another lady. " 0, there's a great deal to be said on beth sides of the subject," said a genteel woman, who sat at her state-room door sewing, while her little girl ancl boy were playing round her. ''I 'vc been south, and I must say I think the negroes arc better off than they would he to he free." "In some respects, some of them arc well off, I grant," said the lady to whose remark she had answered. "'l'he most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections,- the separating of families, for example.'' "'l'hat is a bad thing, certainly," said the other lady, holding up a baby's dress she had just completed, and looking intently on its trimmings; "but then, I fancy, it don't occur often." '' 0, it docs," said the first lady, eagerly; "I've lived many yOI\rs in Kentucky and Virginia both, and I've seen enough to make any one's heart sick. Suppose, ma'am, your two children, there, should he taken from you, and sold? " "We can't reason from our feelings to those of this class of persons," said the other lady, sorting out some worsteds on her lap. "Indeed, ma.'nm, you can know nothing of them, if you say so," answered the first lady, warmly. "I was born and brought up among them. I know they do feel, just as keenly,- even more so, perhaps,- as we do." The lady said "Indeed! " yawned, and looked out tho cabin window, and frnally repeated, for a finale, the remark LIFE Al\fONO TIIH T,OWLY. 181 with which she had begun,- " After all, I think they arc better off thon they would be to he free." " It 's undoubtedly the intention of Providence that the African race should be servants,- kept in a low condition," said a grave-looking gentleman in black, a clergyman, seated by the cabin door. !( 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be,' tho scripture says.'' '' I say, stranger, is that ar what that text means? '' said a tall man, standing by. "Undoubtedly. It pleased Providence, for some inscrutable reason, to doom the race to bondage, ages ago; and we must not set up our opinion against that." "Well, then, wo 'II all go ahead and buy up niggers," said the man, "if that 's the way of Providence,- won't we, Squire?" said he, turning to Haley, who had been standing, with his hands in his pockets, by the stove, and intently listening to the convcrs..1.tion. "Y cs," continued the tall man, " we must all be resigned to the decrees of Providence. Niggers must he sold, and trucked round, and kept under; it's what they 's made for. 'Pears like this yer view 'a quite refreshing, an't it, stranger?" said he to Haley. "I never thought on 't," said Haley. "I couldn't have said a~ much, myself; I ha'nt no laming. I took up the trade JUSt to make a living; if 't an't right, I calculated to 'pent on 'tin time, yc know." . "And now you 'Il save yersclf the trouble, won't yo?" sntd tho tall man. "Sec what 'tis, now, to know scripture. If yc 'd only studied yer Bible, like this ycr good man, ye n11ght h:wc know'd it before, and &'l.vcd yo a heap o' trouble. Yc could jist have said, 'Cussed be'- what's his name?_ (and 't woultl all have come right.' '' And tho stranger, J6 |