THE SABLE CLOUD: A SOUTHERN TALE, WITH NORTHERN COMMENTS. BY THE AUTHOR OF "A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY." "I did not err, there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night" MILTON'S COMUS BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. MDCCCLXI Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by TICKNOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H O HOUGHTON CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT 1 CHAPTER II. NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE 5 CHAPTER III. MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE 32 CHAPTER IV. RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION 53 CHAPTER V. THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH 59 CHAPTER VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 118 CHAPTER VII. OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY 150 CHAPTER VIII. THE TENURE 177 CHAPTER IX. DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS 205 CHAPTER X. THE FUTURE 239 CHAPTER I. DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT. "The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master." A Southern gentleman, who was visiting in New York, sent me, with his reply to my inquiries for the welfare of his family at home, the following letter which he had just received from one of his married daughters in the South. The reader will be so kind as to take the assurance which the writer hereby gives him, that the letter was received under the circumstances now stated, and that it is not a fiction. Certain names and the date only are, for obvious reasons, omitted. THE LETTER. MY DEAR FATHER,--