Let it not then be thought, that in the odious recital which will follow, I am influenced by any invidious or ungenerous feelings towards the colonial Proprietors. I have a solemn duty to discharge, and however painful the task, however invidious, however liable to misconstruction, I must not shrink from it. It may be enough, I hope, to touch on the chief humiliating particulars. [Sidenote: Instances of degradation.] And, first, comes in that most degrading spectacle of a negro sale. [Sidenote: A negro sale.] Mr. Edwards himself acknowledges with frankness and liberality, that “there is something extremely shocking to a humane and cultivated mind, in the idea of beholding a numerous body of our unfortunate fellow creatures in captivity and exile, exposed naked to public view, and sold like a herd of cattle.”[27] But the account given of one of those sales by a late traveller, in his highly instructive and interesting work,[28] will convey a more precise idea of the scene:—“The poor Africans, says he, who were to be sold, were exposed naked, in a large empty building like an open barn. Those who came with intention to purchase, minutely inspected them; handled them, made them jump, and stamp with their feet, and throw out their arms and their legs; turned them about; looked into their mouths; and, according to the usual rules of traffic with respect to cattle, examined them; and made them show themselves in a variety ways, to try if they were sound and healthy. All this was distressful and humiliating; but a wound still more severe was inflicted on the feelings, by some of the purchasers selecting only such as their judgment led them to prefer, regardless of the bonds of nature and affection.” “The husband was taken from the wife, children separated from their parents, and the lover torn from his mistress.” “In one part of the building was seen a wife clinging to her husband. Here was a sister hanging upon the neck of her brother. There stood two brothers enfolded in each others arms, mutually bewailing their threatened separation. In other parts were friends, relatives, and companions, praying to be sold to the same master, using signs to signify that they would be content with slavery, might they but toil together.” “Silent tears, deep sighs, and heavy lamentations, bespoke the universal suffering of these poor Blacks. Never was the scene more distressful. Among these unhappy, degraded Africans, scarcely was there an unclouded countenance.”