Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-11-15

many young yellow ones though, them al
Ways hurts my feelings to sell.''
The misery Of the poor black girl WINS
now at its height. She had fallen into the
hands Of the brutal speculator, and her
fate could be imagined from the treatment
already received from him. She continued
in the posture in which her natural grace
fulness had at first thrown her. and such
an eloquent expression Of despair, depicted
in her every form and feature, We never
saw or imagined before.
In The marked catalogue before us, we
find that ..Jane" was sold to Mr.. Hold
fast, for eight hundred dollas. Mr.. Hold |
fast takes his property and places ii in
corner. evidently intending to add TO it in
The course Of the sale.
.'So spoke the fend and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds"
The hundred slaves were huddIed to-
gether near tie auctioneer's platform.
where one by one they were successive ly
to pass under the hammer. The men sat
in sioica, silence. The women, especial
ly such rs were mothers, gazed in anxious
grief upon the little ones, as they playfuly
grouped themselves upon the floor at their
ieei. The children that but a short time
since had been pressed to the mothers bo-
.om with all the earnest yearnings that
none but mothers heart can feel. were
to be sold nd'separated away TO cruel SER
ytude, never more to know the endear-
men:s of maternal love. AL the ties Of
consanguinity and friendship were to be
severed for life. and the miserable objects to
be sent from the place where all their
happy associations had clustered, away TO
the fever and ague swamps Of Mississippi
or the barbarous coiton-helds Of Upper
Texas.
And such an outrage upon humanity
was to be perpetrated in open daylight, in
a Chris,isn city, and witnessed, yes sane
toned by hundred of witnesses. One could
hardly realize the atrocious fact. Here,
in this the freest country on earth, and in
the nineteenth century, was i scene trans
piring that would have disgraced the times
Of Nero or Calgula. IL is no dream Of
fiction. And yet no avenging hand is put
forth to stay the Outrage. The work goes
on.
The Hext two victims are noble. mid
dle-aged man and his wife, who called her
self twenty-five. They were not TO be
sold together, for they would not bring so
much money as If sold separately; aud
moreover, it seems the design OF every
one who has anything TO do with slaves to
discourage and deaden all the domestic
loves TO which the human heart is addc.
ed. The young wife was first question
ed in this manner, that size might per.
chance recommend
"How old are you2''
"Twenty-two."
"How long have you been married?"
"Three years."
"How many children have you?"
"None."
And as she made the last reply in snd-
dened tone, the tears started to her eyes
and she turned beseechingly 10 her HUSBAND
for protection. Upon this the questioner.
too, turns ferociousy y towards him:
"You william. you. have you lived with
this young wench for three years without
her having any children?"
Now the true man was seen, although
bound in fetters and tranpled in the dust.
With form erect and folded arms, and with
a dignity that might have lent lustre to
Olhello himself, he calmly replied:
1--WE have had one boy, but God took
him."
The fact that ihe woman had been the
mother Of but one child and that dead, was
the reason for the low price of two hun
dred dollars. for Which she was knocked
down. She was purchased by Red River
planter, to be turned out into the fields to
hoe and pick cotton. The husband was
afterwards sold Cor seven hundred and fifty
dollars. TO be sent into the the swamps of
Tennesse as wood chopper. The two
were separated, nevermore to meet in this
| world. 1t is expected that husbands and
wives thus parted will form new connec-
lions, rear up new families, and perhaps
be again sold and divided asunder. Thus
are the holiest of she institutions Of heaven
rendered void by the management Of men;
and thus are poor, ignorant slaves made
10 commit The sins that are denoun-
ced by all moral and civil law, and by the
direct command of God.
ne lasI spectacle was as much rs we
could bear.-We thought Of our own deep
domestic loves-lhen three thousand miles
away. The love and the sympathy of the
wife so entwined into our own soul, that NO
fate in time or eternity could separate The
Two whose separate existences had become
one life.-The clinging fondness of the
little ones, who will not be content with a
separate existence, but insist upon being a
part ofthe parent still. We lef, the scene.
but the anguish of that separated pair fol-
lowed US; it has not ceased 10 follow US
since. The rewas the memory OF their lit
lie log house upon the river side; there
was the place of their early love, as they
had been reared up together on their veal
thy owners plantation; from thence they
had entered The precincts Of The church, and
before God and in the holy forms Of the
Episcopacy, had they promised 10 take each
other ..for better for worse. for richer or
poorer, in sickness in health to love and to
cherish. till death should part them, ac-
cording to Gods holy ordinance" There
was born to them little boy, who had
gladdened their hearts. and then died; and
there. hard by, was his little grave, over
which they had wept and only would be
cornloried in believing that God had taken
him. In that last long lingereing look
was crowded the gathering "reminiscences
Il 4.