In the prosecution of this traffic the feelings and interests, the parental, connubial and filial relations of slaves are utterly disregarded. They are sold for the benefit of the _master_, as a horse is sold, and bought _to suit the purchaser_. To all intents and purposes slaves are daily bought and sold like cattle. Alas, that my pen is compelled to write this fact. A respectable gentleman (Dr. Elwood) was an eye witness to a sale of slaves in Petersburg, Va., in 1846. He saw some old men and women go upon the auctioneer's stand to be sold to the highest bidder. The case of a beautiful youth affected him most deeply. "His hair," said Mr. E. "was brown and straight, his skin exactly the hue of white persons, and no discernible trace of negro features in his countenance. Some vulgar jests were passed on his color, and $200 was bid for him; but the audience remarked that was not enough to begin on for such a likely young negro; some said a white negro was more trouble than he was worth. Before he was sold his mother rushed from the house upon the portico, crying in frantic grief, 'My son, O! my boy, they will take away my dear'--Here her voice was lost as she was rudely pushed back and the door closed. The sale was not for a moment interrupted, and none of the crowd appeared to be affected by the scene. The poor boy trembled and wiped the tears from his cheeks with his sleeves. He was sold for about 250 dollars." After this boy was sold a woman was called upon the stand. She had an infant in her arms, but she dared not take it with her. "She gave it one wild embrace, before leaving it with an old woman, and hastened mechanically to obey the call; but stopped, threw up her arms, screamed and was unable to move!" Those who know a mother's love can understand the agony which raged in her maternal bosom. The following is from the pen of an aged preacher, now living in Canada, who escaped from slavery some years since. When the master to whom he belonged died, he, with his fellow slaves, were put up for sale. Said he--