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Show 312 UNCLI-.: TOM'S CABIN : On, uadroon girls has acquired a notoriety, from tho i ncidc~ts qfo llowm. (l' t1 w cap t l1l. c o f the Pearl · 'Vc extract the followmg from tl~ speech of lion. Horace Th-l:mn, one of the legal counsel for the defendants in that C:lSC. lie says.: " In that company o f seventy-si·x persons, who attempted, m 18-p1 8, t1o escape from tho District of Columbia .in the schooner -car ' and whose officers I assisted in defcndmg, thor~ were scv~ral . -,ung and healthy girls, who had those pecubar attra~t10ns ~f form and feature which connoisseurs prtzc so lughly. Elizabeth Russel was one of them. She immediately fell into the slave-trader's fangs, and was doomed for the New Orleans market. r.rhc hearts of those that sa.w her were toucbeu with pity for her fate. 'l'hey offered eighteen hundred do11ars to redeem her ; and some there were who offered to gi vo, that would not have much left after the gift ; but the fiend of a slave-trader was inexorable. She was despatched to New Orleans; but, when about half way there, God hau mercy on her, and smote her with death. There were two girls named Edmundson in the same company. When about to be sent to the same market, an older Sister went to the shambles, to plead with the wretch who owned them, for the love of God, to spare his victims. He bantered her, telling what fine dresses and fine furniture they would have. <Yes,' she said, ' that may do very well in this life, but what will become of them in the next? ' They too were sent to New Orleans; but were afterwards redeemed, at an enormous ransom, aml brought back." Is it not plain, from this, that the. histories of Emmeline and Cassy may bavo many counterparts 1 . Justice, too, obliges the author to state that the fairness of mind and generosity attributed to St. Clare are not without a parallel, as the following anecdote will show. LIFE AMONG TilE LOWLY. 813 A few years since, a young southern gentleman was in Cincinnati, with a favorite servant, who had been his personal attendant from a boy. The young man took advantage of this oppor tunity to secure his own freedom, and fled to the protection of a Quaker, who was quite noted in affairs of this kind. 'l.'he owner was exceedingly indignant. He had always treated the slave with such indulgence, and his confidence in his affection was such, that he believed he must have been practised upon to induce him to revolt from him. He visited the Quaker, in high anger ; but, being possessed of uncommon candor and fairness, was soon quieted by his arguments and representations. It was a side of the subject which he never had heard,- never had thought on ; and he immediately told the Quaker that, if his slave would, to his own face, say that it was his desire to be free, he would liberate him. An interview was forthwith procured, and Nathan was asked by his young master whether he had ever had any reason to complain of his treatment, in any r espect. "No, Mas'r,'' said Nathan ; " you've always been good to me.'' " Well, then, why do you want to leave me ? " "Mas'r may die, and then who get me ? - I 'd rather be a free man.'' After some deliberation, the young master replied, " Nathan, in your place, I think I should feel very much so, myself. You are free." He immediately made him ont free papers ; deposited a sum of money in the hands of the Quaker, to be judiciously used in assisting him to start in life, and left a very sensible and kind letter of advice to the young man. That letter was for some time in the writer's hands. 'l.'hc author hopes she has dono justice to that nobility, VOL. Jr. 27 |