Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-10-21
ANNALS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY.
A SCENE IN THE SHAMELESS.

view weeks since, while lounging away n sum
mer morning IN the rOtunda of the st. Charles
nj New Orleans, the advertisement of n sale nj
slaves caught my eye. One hundred plantation
siaVeS' the property uf q gentleman forced To sell
them 10 raise money to meet the payment of hi.
notes coming due in the city. The whole to be
sold TO- the highest bidder without reserve
AT II o'clock precisely, the hour appointed
was ut liowbltts Exchange, the place of sale
The arena was already filled with anxious purchas
ers with catalogues in their hands.
/ we noticed one hardened old sinner in partcu-
lar. lie had fixed his eye upon II young girl of
some hfteen or sixteen summers. She was Il
beautifully rounded FORM and hnd the head and
lace ot Venus. She would have been n queen in
her own sunny cline, but here she must choke
down her agony, and tamely submit to insult
open your mouth, you slut = sternly multored
the purchaser; and suited the action t., the vo,ls
he thrust apart the lips of the young girl Sound
Ieeth' I en-? Gtn eat your full allowance of grub,
III be bOunl.' Then followed certain rubs and
pinches upon the arms, shoulders, breasts and
neck suth ~ luliciius hjrSo 10 KEY bast,vs ,11
on the an1imal for which he is in treaty. We
hoped Tor the sake Of common decencv, if from
no other motive that his examination would end
here hut now we were disappointed! lie was not
me man to purchase II commodity. without first
lully understanding its value. Let's see YOUR
tnkleS, your knees, up higheri you silly wench.
This was two much for the poor girl. A faint
blushing tinge crcpt under her dark skin, and the
tears started to her eyes.
And this hardened villain had a dlughter of
his own, about the same age. What would have
been his rage ut the suggestion Of the same process
on his own daughter? If ANYTHING the delicacy
Of character would probably preponderate in ia
vor Of this poor enslavod girl But she il placed
upon platform, far above the floor as to he CON
spicuous to all in the house.
The aucliOneer possessed an Indifference sniff.
tclently brazen to have knocked dJwn ST. Paul
himself to the highest bidder Who bids p
WHAT'S offered? Fine wench-rather delicate in
lppearance, but she came Of good stock, and no
ioubt will be good breeder: come, come bid
iway; five hundred five fifty, eight hundreds well
i'ione sir, you have discovered her value; eight
eight hundred once, eight hundred twice, eight
hundred dollars and gone. Well, Mr.. Ifoldfast
v"n have got n bargain there; nope | shall have
the selling OF the progeny; don't let there be too
many young yellow ones, them always hurts my
feelings to SELL
The misery of the poor black girl was now at its
height. She had fallen nto the hands of the
brutal sneculator, and her fate could be imagined
from the treatment already received from him.
she continued in the posture in which her natural
gracetunesS had at fist thrown her, and such an
eloquent expression of despair, depicted in her
every form and feature, we never saw or i'm
agned before.
In the market catalogue before us, we find that
Jane was sold to Mr.. lIoldfast for eighth hun
red dollars. Mr.. tInldinst takes his property and
places it in corner evidently intending to add to
1t in the course of the sale.
so spoke the icnd, and with necessity
The tyrants plea, excused the dcviiish deeds"
The next two victims are noble middle a.ed
man, and wife who called herself twenty-two-|
They are not to be sold together, for they would
not bring so much money if sold separately; and
moreover, it seems the design Of every one who
has anything to do with slaves to discourage and
dcaden all the domestic loves to which the human
heart is addicted The young wifi. was questioned
in this manner, that she might perchanle recon-
mend herself:
How old are yOu?
'Twenly-two.'
How long have you been marriedT
Three years.
'Iluw many children have you?
Nome
And as she made the last reply, in saddened
tone, tie started to her eyes, and she turned
beseechingly to her husband for protection. Upon
this, the quesuoner too, turns ierociuusly upon
hun
'You villain, you! have you lived with that
young wench for three years, without her having
any children?
NoS the true man was seen. although bound in
fetters and tramplei in the dust With form erect
and folded arms and with n dignity that light
have lent lustrc to Othellu himself he calmly re-
piled
we have had one boy. but God took him.
The fact that the woman had been the mother Of
hut one child, and that dead, was the reason of
the low price of two hundred dollars for which she
was knocked duwn. She was purchased by II Red
River planter, to he turned out into the fields to
hue and pick cotton. The husband was afterwards
sold for seven hundred and fifty dollars, to he sent
into the swamps Of Tennessee as Il wood-chopper.
The two were separated never more to meet in
this world. 1t is expected husbands and wives
thus parted will form new connections, rear up now
families and perhaps be again sold and divided
assunder; Thus are the hoest of the institutions
of heaven rendered void by the management Of
men and thus are tho poor ignorant slaves
made to commit the sins that are denounced by all
moral anu civil law, and by the direct command
of God.
The last spectacle was as much as could bear
We thought of own deep domestic loves-then
three thousand miles away. The love and the
sympathy of the wife entwined into soul,
that no fate in time eternity could separate the
two whose separate existence had become one
life. The clinging tondness Of the little Ones who
will not be content with separate existence but
insist on being part Of the parent still. We left
the scene, but the anguish of that separated pair
followed us; it has not ceased to follow since.
There was the memory of their little log house up
m the river side; there was the place
of their early love, rs they had been reared
up together on their wealthy owners plantation
from thence they had entered the precincts of the
church and befnre God, and in the holy forms of
the Episcopacy. had they promised to to Ike each
other for the better for worse, for richer or
nnorer in sickness and in hsalth to love and to
cherish till death should part them. according to
Gods holy ordnance There was born to them a
little boy, who had gladdened their hearts, then
died; and there. hard by, was his little grave, over