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Show 8o Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. mother or graudn1othcr, or son1o good n1istross ; she 1 a lover whose good opinion anJ peace of may laVO ' . mind arc dear to her heart; or tho pro:ltgatc ln.on ·who have power over her may be oxcoochngly od1ous to her. But resistance is hopeless. "The poor worm Shall prove her contest vain. Life's little day Shall pass, an d s hc 1. s gon c·' " Tho slaveholder's sons arc, of course, vitiated, oven while boys, by the unclean iniluoncos every where around thmn. Nor do the n1a tor's daughter · always escape. Severe retributions so n1otin1os co1no upon hi1n for tho wrongs he docs to tho daughters of the slave'. Tho white daughters early hoar their parents quarrelling about so111C fmnalo slave. Their curiosity is excited, and they soon learn the cause. They are attended by the young slave o·irls \VhOl11 their father has corrupted; and they hoar such talk as should never n1cct youthful cars, or any other cars. rrhey know that tho women slaves arc subject to their father's authority in all things ; and in some cases they exercise the sa1ne authority over the men slaves. I have myself soon tho master of uch a h ou seh old whose head was bowed down in shame; for it was known in the neighborhood that his daugh tor had selected one of the 1noanest slaves on his plantation to be tho father of his first grandchild. She did not n1ako her advances to her equals, nor even to h0r father' 1norc intelligent servants. ~ 1he selectoJ tho 1nost brutalized, over whom her authority conlJ be oxerci ·od \Yith lc ·s fear of expo ·tuo. IIcr father, half frantic \vith rage, sought to reve11ge hilnbelf on the oHcu<li11g black man; ' . Sketches of N eighborjng Slaveholders. g1 but his danghter, foreseeing tho tonn that \Vould ari ·c, had gi von hin1 free papers, and sou t hi1n out of the state. In such case the infant is sn1oth erod, or ont ·where it is never soon hy any \vho knovv its hit>tory. But if the white parent is tho fatlte~r, instead of tho 1nothur tho off:·pring arc unLlnshiugly roareu for tho market~ If they arc girl·, I have indicated plainly enouo·h \vhat will be their inovitaLle de tiny. b You 1nay believe \vhat I ·ay; for I write only that whereof I In~ow. I \vas t\Yenty-oue years in that cage of obscene lnrds. . I can testify, fr01n n1y own experience and observation, that slavery i · a cur ·o to the whites as ·well as to tho black:. It 1nako, tho \vhite fathers cruel and sen ·nul ; tho :ons y i olen t and licentious ; it contalninatos tho clau crh tors, and lnako the wives wretched. A.ncl a -- for tlte colored race, it needs an .abler. p~n than 1nino to describe the oxtre1nity of thmr suffonng ·, tho depth of their dcoTadation. Yet few slavoh olclors .·oon1 to l>e a\vare of tho \vido~~) ro~d 1nor~l ruin ?ccasionod by this wicke(l sy totn. I hotr talk 1s of bltghtod cotton crops- not of the blight on their children' · souls. If you ·want to be fully convinced of the abon1ination' of slavery, go on a southern plantation, and call yourself a negro trader. Then there will be no conceahnent ; and you \vill soc and hoar tb ing · that \vill seem to you i1npossible an1onbo· lnnnan bcino·s with . b lmtuortal soub. |