No. 94. Matilda, wife of Moses, (though she is never regarded as a
wife by the slave code,) seems to be a very good creature. While she
is weeping silently, she presses her last-born, her darling boy, her
Mike, close to her bosom. Poor child! Bitter, yes, very bitter are the
tears thy unfortunate mother is weeping over thee! Alas! she fears that
thou mayest be sold to a man whose gospel is ‘money.’ O Mike! will he
order you to his infamous gambling saloon? Will you learn his tricks,
and will he poison your pure innocent heart with his blasphemies? Is it
his intention to make you a deceiver, a thief, a robber, a murderer?
Dreadful thought! that child of affliction and of prayers shall perhaps
become a candidate for the gallows! And why? For money’s sake! Yes, to
fill a villain’s pockets with money!
And Richard--the noble, the smart, the truth-loving boy, with those
clear innocent eyes--what shall become of him when his new master shall
prove to be man of dissolute habits?
Mourn again, reader! for virtue and justice shall succumb, and crime
shall be triumphant. That family brings a good price. These Christians
are sold for $3000; and with them their hope, their virtue, their
faith, all that they possess in this world. The curtain falls--the
tragedy closes.
No. 97. Jerry, field hand, 42 years, and
No. 98. Molly, 40 years. An old looking couple, but a kind, a
true-hearted one.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer----. But before I proceed, the reader
will give me permission to mention that the four ladies, present at the
commencement of this auction sale, did not bid, nor did they remain
for more than half an hour. For the honor of their sex, I am bound to
mention that they (though most probably themselves owners of slaves,)
seemed to feel very uneasy while present. I believe that there is a
certain natural feeling with the great majority of the gentler sex,
which is more just, and more open to the truths of the gospel, than we
of the masculine race are able to comprehend.
‘Gentlemen,’ says the auctioneer, ‘Jerry and Molly are the last couple
to be sold to-day; for it is late, and we have to close. To-morrow at
12 M., the rest of the slaves, belonging to this gang, fifty-one very
valuable, sound and likely negroes, will be sold to the highest bidder
for cash and approved paper.’
I intend,--_Deo volente_,--to delineate at some future time the
proceedings of ‘the sale of to-morrow.’ Let us close, for the present,
with poor Jerry and unfortunate Molly, who were sold to a not very kind
looking man for $1125.
The chattels are sold. There were ninety-eight large and small
articles--Christian goods--bringing to their former owner the snug
little sum of $80,890. Will that sum be sufficient to buy ninety-eight
souls of men, baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit? Friends! eighty millions will never buy them from
their Father in heaven, for they have been ‘bought with a price’--with
the precious blood of the Son of God!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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