An Outcast; Or, Virtue and FaithAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
An Outcast; Or, Virtue and Faith
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
Conduct of life -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Vice -- Fiction
Our very chivalric dealers in human merchandise, like philosophers and
philanthropists, are composed merely of flesh and blood, while their
theories are alike influenced by circumstances. Those of the first, we
(the South) are, at times, too apt to regard as sublimated and refined,
while we hold the practices of the latter such as divest human nature of
everything congenial. Nevertheless we can assure our readers that there
does not exist a class of men who so much pride themselves on their
chivalry as some of our opulent slave-dealers. Did we want proof to
sustain what we have said we could not do better than refer to Mr.
Forsheu, that very excellent gentleman. Mrs. Swiggs held him in high
esteem, and so far regarded his character for piety and chivalry
unblemished, that she consigned to him her old slave of seventy
years--old Molly. Molly must be sold, the New York Tract Society must
have a mite, and Sister Abijah Slocum's very laudable enterprise of
getting Brother Singleton Spyke off to Antioch must be encouraged. And
Mr. Forsheu is very kind to the old people he sells. It would, indeed,
be difficult for the distant reader to conceive a more striking instance
of a man, grown rich in a commerce that blunts all the finer qualities
of our nature, preserving a gentleness, excelled only by his real
goodness of heart.
When the old slave, leaning on her crutch, stood before Mr. Forsheu, her
face the very picture of age and starvation, his heart recoiled at the
thought of selling her in her present condition. He read the letter she
bore, contemplated her with an air of pity, and turning to Mr. Benbow,
his methodical book-keeper of twenty years, who had added and subtracted
through a wilderness of bodies and souls, ordered him to send the
shrunken old woman into the pen, on feed. Mr. Forsheu prided himself on
the quality of people sold at his shambles, and would not for the world
hazard his reputation on old Molly, till she was got in better
condition. Molly rather liked this, inasmuch as she had been fed on corn
and prayers exclusively, and more prayers than corn, which is become the
fashion with our much-reduced first families. For nearly four months she
enjoyed, much to the discomfiture of her august owner, the comforts of
Mr. Forsheu's pen. Daily did the anxious old lady study her Milton, and
dispatch a slave to inquire if her piece of aged property had found a
purchaser. The polite vender preserved, with uncommon philosophy, his
temper. He enjoined patience. The condition and age of the property
were, he said, much in the way of sale. Then Mrs. Swiggs began
questioning his ability as a merchant. Aspersions of this kind, the
polite vender of people could not bear with. He was a man of enormous
wealth, the result of his skill in the sale of people. He was the
president of an insurance company, a bank director, a commissioner of
the orphan asylum, and a steward of the jockey club. To his great
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account