Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-07-18

and certainly, had ! never visited a slave auc
room bofoIe,-a great deal less than some
narratives would have done. ThJse men and boys
were too brutal in their natures to arouse my SYM
pathics. Besides, they were men, VINO could es'
cape death or flight Ivy insurrcction and it is q
mans duty, | hold-every mans duty-to be Tree
at all hazards or by any means.
But the poor black mothcr-with her nearly
white babc-with the anxiety of an uncertain iu'
ture among brutal men before her-and the
young girl, too, now innocent, predestinated ny
the nature of slavery TO q life Of hard labor ana
involuntary prostitution-I would have been
less than a man, to have looked on with indil
ference, as she and her little ones were sold.
Twelve hundred and fifty dollars were bid for
her, but she was not sold. She was worth,a Virgin
ian told me, "hfteen hundred dollars of any mans
money / don't doubt it. The christian theolo'
cy tells us that she was once, vile and lowly as
she may be deemed, worthy Of a greater price than
that. She was warranted sound and healthy,
with the exception of II female complaint, to whlcn,
mothers arc occasionally subject, the name ahu
nature of which was unblushingly stated.
She was taken into the inner room, after the
bidding commenced, and there indec9ntly Gram.
inci" in the presence Of n dozen or fifteen bruta
men. | did not 90 in, but was told by q spectator
cody, that they'd examined her" and the bruta
remarks and liccntiOus looks of the creatures
when they came out, was evidence that be spok'
the truth.
The mothers breast heaycd, and her eyes anx
iously wandered from one bidder to another, a
the sale was going on. She seemed relieved wheI
it was over-but it was cnly the hcartaching re
lief Of suspense. A girl of twenty years or there
abouts, was the next commodity put up. lie
right hand was entirely useless-"dead" ms sh
aptly called it. One finger had been cut OF by
doctor, and the auctionccr stated that she hersei
chopped off the other fnger-her iOrefngcr-be
cause it hurt her, and sho thought that to cut it Of
would cure it. This remark raised II laugh anon
the crowd. | looked at her and expected to see
stupid creature, low browed a1d sensual in he
appearance but was surprised, instead, 20 see
IA woman with an eye which reminded me of Mar
garet Garner, whom ] visited in Cincinnati,) bu
more resolute, intelligent and impulsivc. Sh
was perfectly black but her eye was Saxon, ]
by Saxon we mean a hell-dcfying courage, whicl
neither death nor the devil car terriGy. IL wa
an eye that will never die in a slaves socket, OF
never die q natural death in SO unworthy ar
abode.
Didn't you cut your finger of" asked a man
"kase you was mad Z"
She looked at him quietly, bnt with q glance o
contempt. and said
"No you see it was sort o'soro, and | tho't !
would be better to cut it off than be plagued wit
it,"
Several around me expressed the opinion thu
she had done it ~wilfully, to spite her master c
mistress, or to keep her from being sent dow
South"
An heroic act of this kind, publicly performed
was once witnessed 10y men now living in TIL
streets of st. Louis, Missouri.
"Oh Liberty! what outragcs arc committed
thy namc !"