Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-02-03
SLAVE AUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA


The following extract from letter in the Yer
mont Caledonian gives q graphic account of a
slave auction in Columbia, South Carolina:
Being acquainted with men and women auc-
tions only from reading, / determined, however,
painful it might be to the feelings or revolving to
the moral sense, to be witness at this Ac-
cordingly, about fifteen minutes before the np-
pointed hour, left the hotel, and while yet with
in some distance of the Court House, l already
heard the loud deep voice of the slave auctioneer,
as he appraised his chattles, and ratified out-'Six
hundred and ffty-no more than six hundred and
fifty for this likely negro fellow-ffy sixsix hun
dred and sixty &c, &c. This was carly on Mon
day morning. Scarcely had the echoes Of the
high anthem that pealed from the Episcopal organ
aud choir, a few hours before, yet died away.
Hardly had the swell Of the sweet tune that rose
from DR.. Pamers Presbyterian Church yet MUIR
INJURED to the stars. And the unmartistic but loud
and clear psalm-shout that assembled from the
throats of a thousand Baptist negroes the preced
ing Sabbath eve had as yet hardly had time (if
time 1t takes) to mingle with the triumphal and
eternal chorus of the hnrps Of heaven Having
so lately heard all these, with what harsh and graf
ing discord did the horid voice of the Man-secr
shake the heavens and strike upon my ear.
as it O, man, with such discordant noises
With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Natures sweet and kindly voices
And jarcst the celestial harmones ?"
OF the auctioneer himself l shall say nothing.
As has been said of kindred horror, so would
say Ot him, Forever undescribed let it remain
The sale took place on the steps of the Court of JUS
tice ironically so caled). OF the seventy y-fve or
one hundred persons that composed the bidders
and on-lookers, such II collection is seldom seen
this side of Erebus. There were groups of the pet
ty merchants of the town, hard, close listed, mon
ey'loyng mean looking men. There a num-
Der of the poor Clay Eaters, from the Sand Hills
Uisti iSbo Inv thpir pn1,
erous, ashen-white and half.human appearance
There were the gross, vulgar aad lecherous
youths OF the town: There were semi-soued
bog-t:otters. whose brogue (anything nut 'rich')
and cuuntenance told the delight with which
they saw the niggcrs' get what they deserved
There were two or three shrewd jew spectators,
with a broken foreign accent, who seemed to have
more montSh to bid on tie image Of God at auction
than they could afford to expend upon the poor
synagogue they have here And must tell it? or
shall go backwardand hide the shame)? there was
professed minister of God with the badge of his
order round his throat. and who but sun previous
had offered salvation and Heaven to all. Bidding
was tolerably swift and the competition keen. The
hrst negro offered was very dark middlc-aged
man, OF, should judge, about forty years of age,
whose care-worn broken down and dispiried
countenance and deeply wrinkled brow, intimated
that the toll and trouble of at least twice forty
years had been compressed into his brief exis-
tence' lie went off at pretty fair price. Bye
and by anotLe as put on the block-went off still
better. A middle aged woman then mounted
for her tuin. She had vacant, careless, stupid
l6ok-and rs the auctioneer praised up her high
quantities of chaotic grin would now and then fit
across her countenance. lie decamed about her,
and continued repeating her praises Ths
splendid seamstress and cutter, Lucretia. She lisa
splerdid seamstrcss and cutter. As a sewer and
cutter, am told Lucretia has no equal--bcsides
being valuable as a housekeeper,' &c. (Thnk of
hat m lint l-f and al,
ye hard working but noble and free maidens Of
LowellD She was knocked down to man who,
l learned, is going to keep tavern. The next
that came upon the steps was the last to be sold.
She was young woman, who her owners and
the auctioneer said) was just Is years of age;
she was OF q dark olive color; not near swarthy
as the others had been. She had very fine fore
head, pleasing counenance and mild lustrous
eyes. The auctiOneer took f her hood, to show
her countenance, and, when she replaced it, again
took it off; and in praisng her, by word and
action appealed to the lowest and basest passion
of the ass embed crowd. She clasped to her bos-
som light-coored, bluc-eyrd, curly, silkenhaired
child, only ten weeks old, and who, young as it
was seemed to cast a terrified look on auctioneer
and bidders.
"The next is the girl Adeline. Gentlemen, did
you ever see such face, and head, and form. as
that? taking off her mood. She is only Is years
old, and already has a child--a male child-ten
weeks od-will consequently make valuable
piece of property for some one. She is splendid
housekeeper and seamstresss."
'The big tear stood gitterng in the poor girls
eye-and, at every licentous allusion she east
look of pity and woe at the auctioneer, and at the
crowd-which was responded to, only, by a loud,
unfeeling, and brutal laugh. She was knocked
down to- know not who, for my eyes too
dim to discern. She descended from the Court
House steps, looked at her new master, looked at
the audience, looked fondly to her sweet child's
face, pressed it warmly to her bosom--with the
auctioneers hard hearted remark ringing in her
ear, that that child woundn't trouble her pur-
chaser long | made my way to my temporary
home, overpowered with chaos Of horrors. And
when | entered the hall of the house, the merry
gee and loud laugh of tie female inmates at their
own trifing wit and silly jokes, too plainly an
nounced is me the fact that the dark-eyed and
ebony daughters of the golden-rivered land of the
plantan find but few on earth who will shed for
their sorrows sisterly tear. Surely, the sweet
and blessed Virgins of the heavenly land will de-
scend at times to comfort their wOful hearts
while God himself will gather their tears in his
bottle EGO EMAUTON.
"P. 81, soon after picked up Longfellow's
Poems, and read -
There is poor blind Sampson in this land,
Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of
steel:
W hO may III SOhlC grim lSNCl, idlnO MS H"''t
And shake the pillars of this Commonweal.'
"Do you blame me if at that moment did mol
say God forbid it? "
This is the system of things which is to be
extended over Kansas and Nebraska and for
whose perpetuation we are to acquire, either 9y
purchase or robbery, Cuba, IIayti, and Central
America.
HIRING OF SLAVES
We find in North Carolina paper, the Whining
ton Herald, the following statement;
The hiring of negroes for the year is nearly if
not quite over and q compNrison Of the present