Chapter IV: The Slave-Trade

What is it that constitutes the vital force of the institution of slavery in this country? Slavery, being an unnatural and unhealthful condition of society, being a most wasteful and impoverishing mode of cultivating the soil, would speedily run itself out in a community, and become so unprofitable as to fall into disuse, were it not kept alive by some unnatural process.

What has that process been in America? Why has that healing course of nature which cured this awful wound in all the northern states stopped short on Mason & Dixon’s line? In Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, slave labor long ago impoverished the soil almost beyond recovery, and became entirely unprofitable. In all these states it is well known that the question of emancipation has been urgently presented. It has been discussed in legislatures, and Southern men have poured forth on the institution of slavery such anathemas as only Southern men can pour forth. All that has ever been said of it at the North has been said in four-fold thunders in these Southern discussions. The State of Kentucky once came within one vote, in her legislature, of taking measures for gradual emancipation. The State of Virginia has come almost equally near, and Maryland has long been waiting at the door. There was a time when no one doubted that all these states would soon be free states; and what is now the reason that they are not? Why are these discussions now silenced, and why does this noble determination now retrograde? The answer is in a word. It is the extension of slave territory, the opening of a great southern slave-market, and the organization of a great internal slave-trade, that has arrested the progress of emancipation.

While these states were beginning to look upon the slave as one who might possibly yet become a man, while they meditated giving to him and his wife and children the inestimable blessings of liberty, this great southern slave-mart was opened. It began by the addition of Missouri as slave territory, and the votes of two Northern men were those which decided this great question. Then, by the assent and concurrence of Northern men, came in all the immense acquisition of slave territory which now opens so boundless a market to tempt the avarice and cupidity of the northern slave-raising states.

This acquisition of territory has deferred perhaps for indefinite ages the emancipation of a race. It has condemned to sorrow and heart-breaking separation, to groans and wailings, hundreds of thousands of slave families; it has built, through all the Southern States, slave-warehouses, with all their ghastly furnishings of gags, and thumb-screws, and cowhides; it has organized unnumbered slave-coffles, clanking their chains and filing in mournful march through this land of liberty.

This accession of slave territory hardened the heart of the master. It changed what was before, in comparison, a kindly relation, into the most horrible and inhuman of trades.

The planter whose slaves had grown up around him, and whom he had learned to look upon almost as men and women, saw on every sable forehead now nothing but its market value. This man was a thousand dollars, and this eight hundred. The black baby in its mother’s arms was a hundred-dollar bill, and nothing more. All those nobler traits of mind and heart which should have made the slave a brother became only so many stamps on his merchandise. Is the slave intelligent?—Good! that raises his price two hundred dollars. Is he conscientious and faithful?—Good! stamp it down in his certificate; it’s worth two hundred dollars more. Is he religious? Does that Holy Spirit of God, whose name we mention with reverence and fear, make that despised form His temple?—Let that also be put down in the estimate of his market value, and the gift of the Holy Ghost shall be sold for money. Is he a minister of God?—Nevertheless, he has his price in the market. From the church and from the communion-table the Christian brother and sister are taken to make up the slave-coffle. And woman, with her tenderness, her gentleness, her beauty,—woman, to whom mixed blood of the black and the white have given graces perilous for a slave,—what is her accursed lot, in this dreadful commerce?—The next few chapters will disclose facts on this subject which ought to wring the heart of every Christian mother, if, indeed, she be worthy of that holiest name.

But we will not deal in assertions merely. We have stated the thing to be proved; let us show the facts which prove it.

The existence of this fearful traffic is known to many,—the particulars and dreadful extent of it realized but by few.

Let us enter a little more particularly on them. The slave-exporting states are Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri. These are slave-raising states, and the others are slave-consuming states. We have shown, in the preceding chapters, the kind of advertisements which are usual in those states; but, as we wish to produce on the minds of our readers something of the impression which has been produced on our own mind by their multiplicity and abundance, we shall add a few more here. For the State of VIRGINIA, see all the following:

_Kanawha Republican_, Oct. 20, 1852, Charleston, Va. At the head—Liberty, with a banner, “_Drapeau sans Tache_.”

CASH FOR NEGROES.

The subscriber wishes to purchase a few young NEGROES, _from 12 to
25 years of age_, for which the highest market price will be paid in
cash. A few lines addressed to him through the Post Office, Kanawha
C. H., or a personal application, will be promptly attended to.

JAS. L. FICKLIN.

Oct. 20, ‘53.—3t

_Alexandria Gazette_, Oct. 28th:

CASH FOR NEGROES.

I wish to purchase immediately, for the South, any number of
NEGROES, _from 10 to 30 years of age_, for which I will pay the very
highest cash price. All communications promptly attended to.

JOSEPH BRUIN.

West End, Alexandria, Va., Oct. 26.—tf

_Lynchburg Virginian_, Nov. 18:

NEGROES WANTED.

The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is giving the highest
cash prices for negroes, _between the ages of 10 and 30 years_.
Those having negroes for sale may find it to their interest to call
on him at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg, or address him by letter.

All communications will receive prompt attention.

J. B. MCLENDON.

Nov. 5.—dly

_Rockingham Register_, Nov. 13:

CASH FOR NEGROES.

I wish to purchase a number of NEGROES of both sexes and all ages,
for the Southern market, for which I will pay the highest cash
prices. Letters addressed to me at Winchester, Virginia, will be
promptly attended to.

H. J. MCDANIEL, Agent for Wm. Crow.

Nov. 24, 1846.—tf

_Richmond Whig_, Nov. 16:

PULLIAM & DAVIS,

AUCTIONEERS FOR THE SALE OF NEGROES.

D. M. PULLIAM. HECTOR DAVIS.

The subscribers continue to sell Negroes, at their office, on
Wall-street. From _their experience in the business_, they can
safely insure the highest prices for all negroes intrusted to their
care. They will make sales of negroes in estates, and would say to
Commissioners, Executors and Administrators, that they will make
their sales on favorable terms. They are prepared to board and lodge
negroes comfortably at 25 cents per day.

NOTICE.—CASH FOR SLAVES.

Those who wish to sell slaves in Buckingham and the adjacent
counties in Virginia, by application to ANDERSON D. ABRAHAM, Sr., or
his son, ANDERSON D. ABRAHAM, Jr., they will find sale, at the
highest cash prices, for one hundred and fifty to two hundred
slaves. One or the other of the above parties will be found, for the
next eight months, at their residence in the aforesaid county and
state. Address ANDERSON D. ABRAHAM, Sr., Maysville Post Office,
White Oak Grove, Buckingham County, Va.

_Winchester Republican_, June 29, 1852:

NEGROES WANTED.

The subscriber having located himself in Winchester, Va., wishes to
purchase a large number of SLAVES of both sexes, for which he will
give the highest price in cash. Persons wishing to dispose of Slaves
will find it to their advantage to give him a call before selling.

All communications addressed to him at the _Taylor Hotel,
Winchester, Va._, will meet with prompt attention.

ELIJAH MCDOWEL,
Agent for B. M. & Wm. L. Campbell, of Baltimore.

Dec. 27, 1851.—ly

* * * * *

For MARYLAND:

_Port Tobacco Times_, Oct., ‘52:

SLAVES WANTED.

The subscriber is permanently located at MIDDLEVILLE, Charles County
(immediately on the road from Port Tobacco to Allen’s Fresh), where
he will be pleased to buy any SLAVES that are for sale. The extreme
value will be given at all times, and liberal commissions paid for
information leading to a purchase. Apply personally, or by letter
addressed to Allen’s Fresh, Charles County.

JOHN G. CAMPBELL.

Middleville, April 14, 1852.

_Cambridge_ (Md.) _Democrat_, October 27, 1852:

NEGROES WANTED.

I wish to inform the slave-holders of Dorchester and the adjacent
counties that I am again in the market. Persons having negroes that
are slaves for life to dispose of will find it to their interest to
see me before they sell, as I am determined to pay the highest
prices in cash that the Southern market will justify. I can be found
at A. Hall’s Hotel, in Easton, where I will remain until the first
day of July next. Communications addressed to me at Easton, or
information given to Wm. Bell, in Cambridge, will meet with prompt
attention.

I will be at John Bradshaw’s Hotel, in Cambridge, every Monday.

WM. HARKER.

Oct. 6, 1852.—3m

The _Westminster Carroltonian_, Oct. 22, 1852:

25 NEGROES WANTED.

The undersigned wishes to purchase 25 LIKELY YOUNG NEGROES, for
which the highest cash prices will be paid. All communications
addressed to me in Baltimore will be punctually attended to.

LEWIS WINTERS.

Jan. 2.—tf

* * * * *

For TENNESSEE the following:

_Nashville True Whig_, Oct. 20th, ‘52:

FOR SALE.

21 likely Negroes, of different ages.

Oct. 6.

A. A. MCLEAN, Gen. Agent.

* * * * *

WANTED.

I want to purchase, immediately, a Negro man, Carpenter, and will
give a good price.

Oct. 6.

A. A. MCLEAN, Gen. Agent

_Nashville Gazette_, October 22:

FOR SALE.

SEVERAL likely girls from 10 to 18 years old, a woman 24, a very
valuable woman 25 years old, with three very likely children.

WILLIAMS & GLOVER
A. B. U.

Oct. 16th, 1852.

* * * * *

WANTED.

I want to purchase Twenty-five LIKELY NEGROES, between the ages of
18 and 25 years, male and female, for which I will pay the highest
price IN CASH.

A. A. McLean,
Cherry Street.

Oct. 20.

The _Memphis Daily Eagle and Enquirer_:

500 NEGROES WANTED.

We will pay the highest cash price for all good negroes offered. We
invite all those having negroes for sale to call on us at our mart,
opposite the lower steamboat landing. We will also have a large lot
of Virginia negroes for sale in the Fall. We have as safe a jail as
any in the country, where we can keep negroes safe for those that
wish them kept.

BOLTON, DICKINS & CO.

je 13—d & w

* * * * *

LAND AND NEGROES FOR SALE.

A good bargain will be given in about 400 acres of Land; 200 acres
are in a fine state of cultivation, fronting the Railroad about ten
miles from Memphis. Together with 18 or 20 likely negroes,
consisting of men, women, boys and girls. Good time will be given on
a portion of the purchase money.

J. M. PROVINE.

Oct. 17.—1m.

_Clarksville Chronicle_, Dec. 3, 1852:

NEGROES WANTED.

We wish to hire 25 good Steam Boat hands for the New Orleans and
Louisville trade. We will pay very full prices for the Season,
commencing about the 15th November.

MCCLURE & CROZIER, Agents
S. B. Bellpoor

Sept. 10th, 1852.—1m

MISSOURI:

The _Daily St. Louis Times_, October 14, 1852:

REUBEN BARTLETT,

On Chesnut, between Sixth and Seventh streets, near the city jail,
will pay the highest price in cash for all good negroes offered.
There are also other buyers to be found in the office very anxious
to purchase, who will pay the highest prices given in cash.

Negroes boarded at the lowest rates.

jy 15—6m.

* * * * *

NEGROES.

BLAKELY and McAFEE having dissolved co-partnership by mutual
consent, the subscriber will at all times pay the highest cash
prices for negroes of every description. Will also attend to the
sale of negroes on commission, having a jail and yard fitted up
expressly for boarding them.

☞ Negroes for sale at all times.

3 A. B. MCAFEE, 93 Olive street.

* * * * *

ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED.

Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to purchase, as soon as
possible, one hundred likely negroes, consisting of men, women, boys
and girls, for which I will pay at all times from fifty to one
hundred dollars on the head more money than any other trading man in
the city of St. Louis, or the State of Missouri. I can at all times
be found at Barnum’s City Hotel, St. Louis, Mo.

je12d&wly. JOHN MATTINGLY.

From another St. Louis paper:

NEGROES WANTED.

I will pay at all times the highest price in cash for all good
negroes offered. I am buying for the Memphis and Louisiana markets,
and can afford to pay, and will pay, as high as any trading man in
this State. All those having negroes to sell will do well to give me
a call at No. 210, corner of Sixth and Wash streets, St Louis, Mo.

THOS. DICKINS,
of the firm of Bolton, Dickins & Co.

o18—6m*

* * * * *

ONE HUNDRED NEGROES WANTED.

Having just returned from Kentucky, I wish to purchase one hundred
likely Negroes, consisting of men and women, boys and girls, for
which I will pay in cash from fifty to one hundred dollars more than
any other trading man in the city of St. Louis or the State of
Missouri. I can at all times be found at Barnum’s City Hotel, St.
Louis, Mo.

je14d&wly JOHN MATTINGLY.

* * * * *

B. M. LYNCH,

No. 104 Locust street, St. Louis, Missouri,

Is prepared to pay the highest prices in cash for good and likely
negroes, or will furnish boarding for others, in comfortable
quarters and under secure fastenings. He will also attend to the
sale and purchase of negroes on commission.

☞ Negroes for sale at all times.

&w

We ask you, Christian reader, we beg you to think, what sort of scenes are going on in Virginia under these advertisements? You see that they are carefully worded so as to take only the young people; and they are only a specimen of the standing, season advertisements which are among the most common things in the Virginia papers. A succeeding chapter will open to the reader the interior of these slave-prisons, and show him something of the daily incidents of this kind of trade. Now let us look at the corresponding advertisements in the southern states. The coffles made up in Virginia and other states are thus announced in the southern market.

From the _Natchez_ (Mississippi) _Free Trader_, Nov. 20:

NEGROES FOR SALE.

The undersigned have just arrived, direct from Richmond, Va., with a
large and likely lot of Negroes, consisting of Field Hands, House
Servants, Seamstresses, Cooks, Washers and Ironers, a first-rate
brick mason, and other mechanics, which they now offer for sale at
the Forks of the Road, near Natchez (Miss.), on the most
accommodating terms.

They will continue to receive fresh supplies from Richmond, Va.,
during the season, and will be able to furnish to any order any
description of Negroes sold in Richmond.

Persons wishing to purchase would do well to give us a call before
purchasing elsewhere.

nov20—6m

MATTHEWS, BRANTON & CO.

* * * * *

To The Public.

NEGROES BOUGHT AND SOLD.

ROBERT S. ADAMS & MOSES J. WICKS have this day associated themselves
under the name and style of ADAMS & WICKS, for the purpose of buying
and selling Negroes, in the city of Aberdeen, and elsewhere. They
have an Agent who has been purchasing Negroes for them in the Old
States for the last two months. One of the firm, Robert S. Adams,
leaves this day for North Carolina and Virginia, and will buy a
large number of negroes for this market. They will keep at their
depot in Aberdeen, during the coming fall and winter, a large lot of
choice Negroes, which they will sell _low for cash_, or for bills on
Mobile.

ROBERT S. ADAMS,
MOSES J. WICKS.

Aberdeen, Miss., May 7th, 1852.

* * * * *

SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES!

FRESH ARRIVALS WEEKLY.—Having established ourselves at the Forks of
the Road, near Natchez, for a term of years, we have now on hand,
and intend to keep throughout the entire year, a large and
well-selected stock of Negroes, consisting of field-hands, house
servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers, etc.,
which we can sell and will sell as low or lower than any other house
here or in New Orleans.

Persons wishing to purchase would do well to call on us before
making purchases elsewhere, as our regular arrivals will keep us
supplied with a good and general assortment. Our terms are liberal.
Give us a call.

GRIFFIN & PULLUM.

Natchez, Oct. 16, 1852. 6m

* * * * *

NEGROES FOR SALE.

I have just returned to my stand, at the Forks of the Road, with
fifty likely young NEGROES for sale.

R. H. ELAM.

Sept. 22

* * * * *

NOTICE.

The undersigned would respectfully state to the public that he has
leased the stand in the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, for a term
of years, and that he intends to keep a large lot of NEGROES on hand
during the year. He will sell as low, or lower, than any other
trader at this place or in New Orleans.

He has just arrived from Virginia, with a very likely lot of field
men and women and house servants, three cooks, a carpenter and a
fine buggy horse, and a saddle-horse and carryall. Call and see.

THOS. G. JAMES.

_Daily Orleanian_, Oct. 19, 1852:

W. F. TANNEHILL,

NO. 159 GRAVIER STREET.

_SLAVES! SLAVES! SLAVES!_

Constantly on hand, bought and sold on commission, at most
reasonable prices.—Field hands, cooks, washers and ironers, and
general house servants. City reference given, if required.

Oct 14

* * * * *

DEPOT D’ESCLAVES

_DE LA NOUVELLE-ORLEANS_.

NO. 68, RUE BARONNE.

WM. F. TANNEHILL & CO. ont constamment en mains un assortiment
complet d’ESCLAVES bien choisis A VENDRE. Aussi, vente et achat
d’esclaves par commission.

Nous avons actuellement en mains un grand nombre de NEGRES à louer
aux mois, parmi lesquels se trouvent des jeunes garcons, domestiques
de maison, cuisinières, blanchisseuses et repasseuses, nourices,
etc.

REFERENCES:

Wright, Williams & Co.
Williams, Phillips & Co.
Moses Greenwood.
Moon, Titus & Co.
S. O. Nelson & Co.
E. W. Diggs. 3ms

_New Orleans Daily Crescent_, Oct. 21, 1852:

SLAVES.

JAMES WHITE, No. 73 Baronne street, New Orleans, will give strict
attention to receiving, boarding and selling SLAVES consigned to
him. He will also buy and sell on commission. References: Messrs.
Robson & Allen, McRea, Coffman & Co., Pregram, Bryan & Co.

Sep. 23

* * * * *

NEGROES WANTED.

Fifteen or twenty good Negro Men wanted to go on a Plantation. The
best of wages will be given until the first of January, 1853.

Apply to

THOMAS G. MACKEY & CO.,
5 Canal street, corner of Magazine, up stairs.

Sep 11

From another number of the _Mississippi Free Trader_ is taken the following:

NEGROES.

The undersigned would respectfully state to the public that he has a
lot of about forty-five now on hand, having this day received a lot
of twenty-five _direct from Virginia_, two or three good cooks, a
carriage driver, a good house boy, _a fiddler_, _a fine seamstress_
and a likely lot of _field men and women_; all of whom he will sell
at a small profit. He wishes to close out and _go on to Virginia
after a lot for the fall trade_. Call and see.

THOMAS G. JAMES.

The slave-raising business of the northern states has been variously alluded to and recognized, both in the business statistics of the states, and occasionally in the speeches of patriotic men, who have justly mourned over it as a degradation to their country. In 1841, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society addressed to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society some inquiries on the internal American slave-trade.

A labored investigation was made at that time, the results of which were published in London; and from that volume are made the following extracts:

The _Virginia Times_ (a weekly newspaper, published at Wheeling,
Virginia) estimates, in 1836, the number of slaves exported for sale
from that state alone, during “the twelve months preceding,” at
_forty thousand_, the aggregate value of whom is computed at
twenty-four millions of dollars.

Allowing for Virginia one-half of the whole exportation during the
period in question, and we have the appalling sum total of _eighty
thousand slaves_ exported in a single year from the breeding states.
We cannot decide with certainty what proportion of the above number
was furnished by each of the breeding states, but Maryland ranks
next to Virginia in point of numbers, North Carolina follows
Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, then Tennessee and Delaware.

The _Natchez_ (Mississippi) _Courier_ says “that the States of
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, imported _two hundred
and fifty thousand_ slaves from the more northern states in the year
1836.”

This seems absolutely incredible, but it probably includes all the
slaves introduced by the immigration of their masters. The
following, from the _Virginia Times_, confirms this supposition. In
the same paragraph which is referred to under the second query, it
is said:

“We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves
exported from Virginia, within the last twelve months, at a hundred
and twenty thousand, each slave averaging at least six hundred
dollars, making an aggregate of seventy-two million dollars. Of the
number of slaves exported, not more than _one-third_ have been sold;
the others having been carried by their masters, who have removed.”

Assuming one-third to be the proportion of the sold, there are more
than eighty thousand imported for sale into the four States of
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Supposing one-half of
eighty thousand to be sold into the other buying states,—S.
Carolina, Georgia, and the territory of Florida,—and we are brought
to the conclusion that more than a hundred and twenty thousand
slaves were, for some years previous to the great pecuniary pressure
in 1837, exported from the breeding to the consuming states.

The _Baltimore American_ gives the following from a Mississippi
paper of 1837:

“The report made by the committee of the citizens of Mobile,
appointed at their meeting held on the 1st instant; on the subject
of the existing pecuniary pressure, states that so large has been
the return of slave labor, that purchases by Alabama of that species
of property from other states, since 1833, have amounted to about
_ten million dollars annually_.”

“Dealing in slaves,” says the _Baltimore_ (Maryland) _Register_ of
1829, “has become a large business; establishments are made in
several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like
cattle. These places of deposit are strongly built, and well
supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with
cowskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody.”

Professor Dew, now President of the University of William and Mary,
in Virginia, in his review of the debate in the Virginia legislature
in 1831–2, says (p. 120):

“A full equivalent being left in the place of the slave (the
purchase-money), this emigration becomes an advantage to the state,
and does not check the black population as much as at first view we
might imagine; because it furnishes every inducement to the master
to attend to the negroes, _to encourage breeding, and to cause the
greatest number possible to be raised_.” Again: “_Virginia is, in
fact, a negro-raising state for the other states._”

Mr. Goode, of Virginia, in his speech before the Virginia
legislature, in January, 1832, said:

“The superior usefulness of the slaves in the South will constitute
an _effectual demand_, which will remove them from our limits. We
shall send them from our state, because it will be _our interest_ to
do so. But gentlemen are alarmed _lest the markets of other states_
be closed against the introduction of our slaves. Sir, the demand
for _slave labor must increase,” &c._

In the debates of the Virginia Convention, in 1829, Judge Upshur
said:

“The value of slaves as an article of property depends much on the
state of the market abroad. In this view, it is the value of land
_abroad_, and not of land here, which furnishes the ratio. Nothing
is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of
Louisiana reduced their value twenty-five per cent. in two hours
after its passage was known. _If it should be our lot, as I trust it
will be, to acquire the country of Texas, their price will rise
again._”

Hon. Philip Doddridge, of Virginia, in his speech in the Virginia
Convention, in 1829 (Debates p. 89), said:

“The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance the value of the
property in question (Virginia slaves).”

Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, at a Colonization
meeting held at that place in the fall of 1837, said:

“There were nearly seven thousand slaves offered in New Orleans
market, last winter. From Virginia alone six thousand were annually
sent to the South, and from Virginia and North Carolina there had
gone to the South, in the last twenty years, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
SLAVES.”

Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in his speech before the Colonization
Society, in 1829, says:

“It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United
States would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor
were not tempted to _raise slaves by the high price of the southern
markets_, which keeps it up in his own.”

The _New York Journal of Commerce_ of October 12th, 1835, contains a
letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls “a very good and
sensible man,” asserting that _twenty thousand_ slaves had been
driven to the South from Virginia that year, but little more than
three-fourths of which had then elapsed.

Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that
state, January 18, 1831 (see _Richmond Whig_), says:

“It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered, by steady and
old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right
to its annual profits; the owner of orchards to their annual fruits;
the owner of brood mares to their product; and the owner of _female
slaves to their increase_. We have not the fine-spun intelligence
nor legal acumen to discover the technical distinctions drawn by
gentlemen (that is, the distinction between _female slaves_ and
_brood mares_). The legal maxim of _partus sequitur ventrem_ is
coëval with the existence of the right of property itself, and is
founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and
inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of
the female slave, has her nursed and attended during the period of
her gestation, and raises the helpless infant offspring. The value
of the property _justifies the expense_, and I do not hesitate to
say that in its _increase consists much of our wealth_.”

Can any comment on the state of public sentiment produced by slavery equal the simple reading of this extract, if we remember that it was spoken in the Virginia legislature? One would think the cold cheek of Washington would redden in its grave for shame, that his native state had sunk so low. That there were Virginian hearts to feel this disgrace is evident from the following reply of Mr. Faulkner to Mr. Gholson, in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1832. See _Richmond Whig_:

“But he (Mr. Gholson) has labored to show that the abolition of
slavery would be impolitic, because your slaves constitute the
entire wealth of the state, all _the productive capacity_ Virginia
possesses; and, sir, as things are, _I believe he is correct_. He
says that the slaves constitute the entire available wealth of
Eastern Virginia. Is it true that for two hundred years the only
increase in the wealth and resources of Virginia has been a remnant
of the natural increase of this miserable race? Can it be that on
this increase she places her sole dependence? Until I heard these
declarations, I had not fully conceived the horrible extent of this
evil. These gentlemen state the fact, which the history and _present
aspect of the commonwealth_ but too well sustain. What, sir! have
you lived for two hundred years without personal effort or
productive industry, in extravagance and indolence, sustained alone
by the return from the sales of the increase of slaves, and
retaining merely such a number as your now impoverished lands can
sustain as STOCK?”

Mr. Thomas Jefferson Randolph in the Virginia legislature used the
following language (_Liberty Bell_, p. 20):

“I agree with gentlemen in the necessity of arming the state for
internal defence. I will unite with them in any effort to restore
confidence to the public mind, and to conduce to the sense of the
safety of our wives and our children. Yet, sir, I must ask upon whom
is to fall the burden of this defence? Not upon the lordly masters
of their hundred slaves, who will never turn out except to retire
with their families when danger threatens. No, sir; it is to fall
upon the _less wealthy class of our citizens, chiefly upon_ the
non-slaveholder. I have known patrols turned out where _there was
not a slave-holder among them_; and this is the practice of the
country. I have slept in times of alarm quiet in bed, without having
a thought of care, while these individuals, owning none of this
property themselves, were patrolling under a compulsory process, for
a pittance of seventy-five cents per twelve hours, the very
curtilage of my house, and guarding that property which was alike
dangerous to them and myself. After all, this is but an expedient.
As this population becomes more numerous, it becomes less
productive. Your guard must be increased, until finally its profits
will not pay for the expense of its subjection. Slavery has the
effect of lessening the free population of a country.

“The gentleman has spoken of the increase of the female slaves being
a part of the profit. It is admitted; but no great evil can be
averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It may be
questioned how far it is desirable to foster and encourage this
branch of profit. It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in
parts of Virginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable
mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this
Ancient Dominion, rendered illustrious by the noble devotion and
patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, converted into one
grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for the market, like
oxen for the shambles? Is it better, is it not worse, than the
slave-trade;—that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and
wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish it? The trader
receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect and manners, from
the merchant who has brought him from the interior. The ties of
father, mother, husband and child, have all been rent in twain;
before he receives him, his soul has become callous. But here, sir,
individuals whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen
sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been
accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother’s
arms, and sells into a strange country, among strange people,
subject to cruel taskmasters.

“He has attempted to justify slavery here because it exists in
Africa, and has stated that it exists all over the world. Upon the
same principle, he could justify Mahometanism, with its plurality of
wives, petty wars for plunder, robbery and murder, or any other of
the abominations and enormities of savage tribes. Does slavery exist
in any part of civilized Europe?—No sir, in no part of it.”

The calculations in the volume from which we have been quoting were made in the year 1841. Since that time, the area of the southern slave-market has been doubled, and the trade has undergone a proportional increase. Southern papers are full of its advertisements. It is, in fact, the great trade of the country. From the single port of Baltimore, in the last two years, a thousand and thirty-three slaves have been shipped to the southern market, as is apparent from the following report of the custom-house officer:

ABSTRACT OF THE NUMBER OF VESSELS CLEARED IN THE DISTRICT OF BALTIMORE
FOR SOUTHERN PORTS, HAVING SLAVES ON BOARD, FROM JAN. 1, 1851, TO
NOVEMBER 20, 1852.

────────┬──────────────┬────────────────────┬──────────────────┬─────── Date. │ Denomina’s. │ Names of Vessels. │ Where Bound. │ Nos. ────────┼──────────────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────┼─────── 1851 │ │ │ │ Jan. 6│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 16 Jan. 10│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 6 Jan. 11│Bark, │Elizabeth, │New Orleans. │ 92 Jan. 14│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 9 Jan. 17│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 6 Jan. 20│Bark, │Cora, │New Orleans. │ 14 Feb. 6│Bark, │E. H. Chapin, │New Orleans. │ 31 Feb. 8│Bark, │Sarah Bridge, │New Orleans. │ 34 Feb. 12│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 5 Feb. 24│Schooner, │H. A. Barling, │New Orleans. │ 37 Feb. 26│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 3 Feb. 28│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 42 Mar. 10│Ship, │Edward Everett, │New Orleans. │ 20 Mar. 21│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 11 Mar. 19│Bark, │Baltimore, │Savannah. │ 13 Apr. 1│Sloop, │Herald, │Norfolk, Va. │ 7 Apr. 2│Brig, │Waverley, │New Orleans. │ 31 Apr. 18│Sloop, │Baltimore, │Arquia Creek, Va. │ 4 Apr. 23│Ship, │Charles, │New Orleans. │ 25 Apr. 28│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 5 May 15│Sloop, │Herald, │Norfolk, Va. │ 27 May 17│Schooner, │Brilliant, │Charleston. │ 1 June 10│Sloop, │Herald, │Norfolk, Va. │ 3 June 16│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 4 June 20│Schooner, │Truth, │Charleston. │ 5 June 21│Ship, │Herman, │New Orleans. │ 10 July 19│Schooner, │Aurora S., │Charleston. │ 1 Sept. 6│Bark, │Kirkwood, │New Orleans. │ 2 Oct. 4│Bark, │Abbott Lord, │New Orleans. │ 1 Oct. 11│Bark, │Elizabeth, │New Orleans. │ 70 Oct. 18│Ship, │Edward Everett, │New Orleans. │ 12 Oct. 20│Sloop, │Georgia, │Norfolk, Va. │ 1 Nov. 13│Ship, │Eliza F. Mason, │New Orleans. │ 57 Nov. 18│Bark, │Mary Broughtons, │New Orleans. │ 47 Dec. 4│Ship, │Timalean, │New Orleans. │ 22 Dec. 18│Schooner, │H. A. Barling, │New Orleans. │ 45 │ │ │ │ 1852. │ │ │ │ Jan. 5│Bark, │Southerner, │New Orleans. │ 52 Feb. 7│Ship, │Nathan Hooper, │New Orleans. │ 51 Feb. 21│Ship, │Dumbarton, │New Orleans. │ 22 Mar. 27│Sloop, │Palmetto, │Charleston. │ 36 Mar. 4│Sloop, │Jewess, │Norfolk, Va. │ 34 Apr. 24│Sloop, │Palmetto, │Charleston. │ 8 Apr. 25│Bark, │Abbott Lord, │New Orleans. │ 36 May 15│Ship, │Charles, │New Orleans. │ 2 June 12│Sloop, │Pampero, │New Orleans. │ 4 July 3│Sloop, │Palmetto, │Charleston. │ 1 July 6│Sloop, │Herald, │Norfolk, Va. │ 7 July 6│Sloop, │Maryland, │Arquia Creek, Va. │ 4 Sept. 14│Sloop, │North Carolina, │Norfolk, Va. │ 15 Sept. 23│Ship, │America, │New Orleans. │ 1 Oct. 15│Ship, │Brandywine, │New Orleans. │ 6 Oct. 18│Sloop, │Isabel, │Charleston. │ 1 Oct. 28│Schooner, │Maryland, │Charleston. │ 12 Oct. 29│Schooner, │H. M. Gambrill, │Savannah. │ 11 Nov. 1│Ship, │Jane Henderson, │New Orleans. │ 18 Nov. 6│Sloop, │Palmetto, │Charleston. │ 3 │ │ │ │ ———— │ │ │ │ 1033 ────────┴──────────────┴────────────────────┴──────────────────┴───────

If we look back to the advertisements, we shall see that the traders take only the younger ones, between the ages of ten and thirty. But this is only one port, and only one mode of exporting; for multitudes of them are sent in coffles over land; and yet Mr. J. Thornton Randolph represents the negroes of Virginia as living in pastoral security, smoking their pipes under their own vines and fig-trees, the venerable patriarch of the flock declaring that “he nebber hab hear such a ting as a nigger sold to Georgia all his life, unless dat nigger did someting very bad.”

An affecting picture of the consequences of this traffic upon both master and slave is drawn by the committee of the volume from which we have quoted.

The writer cannot conclude this chapter better than by the language which they have used.

This system bears with extreme severity upon the slave. It subjects
him to a perpetual fear of being sold to the “soul-driver,” which to
the slave is the realization of all conceivable woes and horrors,
more dreaded than death. An awful apprehension of this fate haunts
the poor sufferer by day and by night, from his cradle to his grave.
SUSPENSE hangs like a thunder-cloud over his head. He knows that
there is not a passing hour, whether he wakes or sleeps, which may
not be THE LAST that he shall spend with his wife and children.
Every day or week some acquaintance is snatched from his side, and
thus the consciousness of his own danger is kept continually awake.
“Surely my turn will come next,” is his harrowing conviction; for he
knows that he was reared for this, as the ox for the yoke, or the
sheep for the slaughter. In this aspect, the slave’s condition is
truly indescribable. _Suspense_, even when it relates to an event of
no great moment, and “endureth but for a night,” is hard to bear.
But when it broods over all, absolutely all that is dear, chilling
the present with its deep shade, and casting its awful gloom over
the future, it _must_ break the heart! Such is the suspense under
which every slave in the breeding states lives. It poisons all his
little lot of bliss. If a father, he cannot go forth to his toil
without bidding a mental farewell to his wife and children. He
cannot return, weary and worn, from the field, with any certainty
that he shall not find his home robbed and desolate. Nor can he seek
his bed of straw and rags without the frightful misgiving that his
wife may be torn from his arms before morning. Should a white
stranger approach his master’s mansion, he fears that the
_soul-driver_ has come, and awaits in terror the overseer’s mandate,
“You are sold; follow that man.” There is no being on earth whom the
slaves of the breeding states regard with so much horror as the
_trader_. He is to them what the prowling kidnapper is to their less
wretched brethren in the wilds of Africa. The master knows this, and
that there is no punishment so effectual to secure labor, or deter
from misconduct, as the threat of being delivered to the
soul-driver.[20] Another consequence of this system is the
prevalence of licentiousness. This is indeed one of the foul
features of slavery everywhere; but it is especially prevalent and
indiscriminate where _slave-breeding_ is conducted as a business. It
grows directly out of the system, and is inseparable from it. * * *
The pecuniary inducement to general pollution must be very strong,
since the larger the slave increase the greater the master’s gains,
and especially since the _mixed blood_ demands a considerably
_higher price than the pure black_.

The remainder of the extract contains specifications too dreadful to be quoted. We can only refer the reader to the volume, p. 13.

The poets of America, true to the holy soul of their divine art, have shed over some of the horrid realities of this trade the pathetic light of poetry. Longfellow and Whittier have told us, in verses beautiful as strung pearls, yet sorrowful as a mother’s tears, some of the incidents of this unnatural and ghastly traffic. For the sake of a common humanity, let us hope that the first extract describes no _common_ event.

THE QUADROON GIRL.

The Slaver in the broad lagoon
Lay moored with idle sail;
He waited for the rising moon,
And for the evening gale.

Under the shore his boat was tied
And all her listless crew
Watched the gray alligator slide
Into the still bayou.

Odors of orange-flowers and spice
Reached them, from time to time,
Like airs that breathe from Paradise
Upon a world of crime.

The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
Smoked thoughtfully and slow;
The Slaver’s thumb was on the latch,
He scorned in haste to go.

He said, “My ship at anchor rides
In yonder broad lagoon;
I only wait the evening tides,
And the rising of the moon.”

Before them, with her face upraised,
In timid attitude,
Like one half curious, half amazed,
A Quadroon maiden stood.

Her eyes were large, and full of light,
Her arms and neck were bare;
No garment she wore, save a kirtle bright,
And her own long raven hair.

And on her lips there played a smile
As holy, meek, and faint,
As lights in some cathedral aisle
The features of a saint.

“The soil is barren, the farm is old,”
The thoughtful Planter said;
Then looked upon the Slaver’s gold,
And then upon the maid.

His heart within him was at strife
With such accursed gains;
For he knew whose passions gave her life,
Whose blood ran in her veins.

But the voice of nature was too weak;
He took the glittering gold!
Then pale as death grew the maiden’s cheek,
Her hands as icy cold.

The Slaver led her from the door,
He led her by the hand,
To be his slave and paramour
In a strange and distant land!

* * * * *

THE FAREWELL

OF A VIRGINIA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTERS, SOLD INTO SOUTHERN BONDAGE.

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
Where the noisome insect stings,
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews,
Where the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air,—
Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia’s hills and waters,—
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
There no mother’s eye is near them,
There no mother’s ear can hear them;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash,
Shall a mother’s kindness bless them,
Or a mother’s arms caress them.
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
O, when weary, sad, and slow,
From the fields at night they go,
Faint with toil, and racked with pain,
To their cheerless homes again,—
There no brother’s voice shall greet them,
There no father’s welcome meet them.
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
From the tree whose shadow lay
On their childhood’s place of play;
From the cool spring where they drank;
Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank;
From the solemn house of prayer,
And the holy counsels there,—
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
Toiling through the weary day,
And at night the spoiler’s prey.
O, that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant’s power is o’er,
And the fetter galls no more!
Gone, gone, &c.

Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
By the holy love He beareth,
By the bruised reed He spareth,
O, may He, to whom alone
All their cruel wrongs are known,
Still their hope and refuge prove,
With a more than mother’s love!
Gone, gone, &c.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The following extract from a letter of Dr. Bailey, in the _Era_, 1847, presents a view of this subject more creditable to some Virginia families. May the number that refuse to part with slaves except by emancipation increase!

The sale of slaves to the south is carried to a great extent. The
slave-holders do not, so far as I can learn, raise them for that
special purpose. But, here is a man with a score of slaves, located
on an exhausted plantation. It must furnish support for all; but,
while they increase, its capacity of supply decreases. The result
is, he must emancipate or sell. But he has fallen into debt, and he
sells to relieve himself from debt, and also from an excess of
mouths. Or, he requires money to educate his children; or, his
negroes are sold under execution. From these and other causes, large
numbers of slaves are continually disappearing from the state, so
that the next census will undoubtedly show a marked diminution of
the slave population.

The season for this trade is generally from November to April; and
some estimate that the average number of slaves passing by the
southern railroad weekly, during that period of six months, is at
least two hundred. A slave-trader told me that he had known one
hundred pass in a single night. But this is only one route. Large
numbers are sent off westwardly, and also by sea, coastwise. The
Davises, in Petersburg, are the great slave-dealers. They are Jews,
who came to that place many years ago as poor peddlers; and, I am
informed, are members of a family which has its representatives in
Philadelphia, New York, &c.! These men are always in the market,
giving the highest price for slaves. During the summer and fall they
buy them up at low prices, trim, shave, wash them, fatten them so
that they may look sleek, and sell them to great profit. It might
not be unprofitable to inquire how much Northern capital, and what
firms in some of the Northern cities, are connected with this
detestable business.

There are many planters here who cannot be persuaded to sell their
slaves. They have far more than they can find work for, and could at
any time obtain a high price for them. The temptation is strong, for
they want more money and fewer dependants. But they resist it, and
nothing can induce them to part with a single slave, though they
know that they would be greatly the gainers in a pecuniary sense,
were they to sell one-half of them. Such men are too good to be
slave-holders. Would that they might see it their duty to go one
step further, and become emancipators! The majority of this class of
planters are religious men, and this is the class to which generally
are to be referred the various cases of emancipation _by will_, of
which from time to time we hear accounts.

-----

Footnote 20:

This horribly expressive appellation is in common use among the slaves
of the breeding states.