The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1855-07-28
Northern slave Pens.

II may sound strange to some for us to
say we have slave pens at the North. But,
alasi II is too true-we have the worst form
Of slave pens among US, where human be-
ingS put themselves up for sale. These pens
are called by courtesy, and for the purpose
Of quieting the consciences of the puritan
ical public, "Intelligence Offices" Here
we encounter all the evils which the hypo-
critical abolitionists charge upon the South
ern slave pens. Here husbands and wives
are sold apart; children are separated from
their parents and parents from their chill
dren. Here the keeper of the slave pen
trots out his stock, that the purchaser may
examine their good points, and accommodate
his pocket and TASTE, Here the most beau
tiful white wenches are purchased for pros
tuition and the vilest Of purposes. Here
do we encounter scar and deformities, oeca-
stoned by the lash of care and want, and the
burdens of overwork.. k..imposed by tyrannical
masters. Here do we encounter all the hor-
rors of bodily and mental sufering-the
poor victims Of oppression and cruelty being
driven to the dire necessity of.putting them
selves up for sale, with the hope of procur-
ing the means of keeping soul and body to-
gether-barely keeping them together
nothing more. They have not the consola-
ton of knowing even that they will be cared
for in sickness and old age, by those in
whose selfish service they wear themselves
out, dying day by day, inch by inch. They
could notefect permanent sale, ifthey would
as no one would take them and hazard the
trouble and nd'expense of providing for them
as long as they live, for what they are able
to do. They can sell themselves but tenn
porarily-during health and bodily and men
tai vgor, while they are able to toll and
drudge; and for this they get a mere pittance
that serves to feed them on course food and
clothe them indiferently. They are in hope
less slavery, expecting every day to be turn
ed out, like poor broken-down brutes, to
die by the wayside. Such is the true con-
dition of the inmates of our Northern slave
pens. But no aboltionist thinks of dissolv-
ing the Union for their sake-he sympa-
thizes only with the blacks who are distant
from his door. The whites, dying slowly
all around him, excite no pain in his breast,
because they ore his slaves, and he cannot
afford to emancipate them. They must sup
port him in his idleness and luxury, no mat
ter what their own sGferings may be. He
has an easy way of enforcing obedience
they must use his capital, and pay him in
terest omit; and if they do not obey as he
thinks they ought, he allows them neith-
er capital nor work--he starves them into
submission. He can, therefore, purchase
their services at any time, at his own price,
and they are thankful to him for purchasing
them; for life is sweet, and they cannot bear
to die yet. Oh, it is horrible state of So
ciety, which maintains the slave pens of the
North--it is terrible, this eternal vassalage
of labor, this unrelenting tyranny of money!
Here the capitalist-the Almighty Specula-
tor in stocks and banks-owns both slave
and driver. The Industrious business
man is but the agent, the tool of the cap
italist, and the farmer, the laborer, and the
mechanic are but his slaves.-N. Y. De-
sp4tch.