As a rule negroes had a great dislike to be sold South; in the early history of the trade this amounted to horror for them.[288] Whether this dislike arose from the impression that they might not be treated so well or simply from the natural dislike of removing to a strange land is a question, though the latter seems much more probable.[289] In 1835, however, it appears that the Virginia slaves were not so averse to going South for the reason that many who had gone there sent back such favorable accounts of their circumstances.[290] Another phase of the domestic slave trade, which it may not be out of way to mention, was the traffic in beautiful mulatto or quadroon girls. It was a part of the slave trader's business to search out and obtain them. At New Orleans, or elsewhere, they were sold at very high prices for the purpose of prostitution or as mistresses.[291] From a letter written in 1850 by a slave dealer of Alexandria, Virginia, we quote the following: "We ... cannot afford to sell the girl Emily for less than $1,800.... We have two or three offers for Emily from gentlemen from the South. She is said to be the finest looking woman in this country."[292] In New Orleans they often brought very high prices. The "Liberator" quoting from the New York "Sun" in 1837 concerning the sale of a girl at New Orleans, says: "The beautiful Martha was struck off at $4,500."[293] And in the New Orleans "Picayune," of the same year, was an account of a girl--"remarkable for her beauty and intelligence"--who sold at $7,000 in New Orleans.[294] Many other instances might be given but we think these sufficient. A word now with reference to slave traders and the general estimation in which they were held in the South. Ingraham says: "Their admission into society ... is not recognized. Planters associate with them freely enough, in the way of business, but notice them no further. A slave trader is much like other men. He is to-day a plain farmer with twenty or thirty slaves endeavoring to earn a few dollars from the worn out land, in some old homestead. He is in debt and hears he can sell his slaves in Mississippi for twice their value in his own State. He takes his slaves and goes to Mississippi. He finds it profitable and his inclinations prompt him to buy of his neighbors when he returns home and makes another trip to Mississippi, thus he gets started."[295] Some traders were no doubt honorable men. Indeed, Andrews gives us a very pleasing picture of Armfield, the noted Alexandria, Virginia, slave dealer. He describes him as "a man of fine personal appearance, and of engaging and graceful manners."[296] ... "Nothing, however, can reconcile the moral sense of the Southern public to the character of a trader in slaves. However honorable may be his dealings his employment is accounted infamous."[297] Upon the whole, no doubt the characterization of the slave traders by Featherstonhaugh was a true one: