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 One word concerning the religion of the South. I regard it as all delusion, and that there is not a particle of religion in their slaveholding churches. "The great end to which religion is there made to minister, is to keep the slaves in a docile and submissive frame of mind, by instilling into them the idea that if they do not obey their masters, they will infallibly "go to hell;" and yet some of the miserable wretches who teach this doctrine, do not themselves believe it. Of course the slave prefers obedience to his master, to an abode in the "lake of fire and brimstone." It is truce in more senses than one, that slavery rests upon hell! I once heard a minister declare in public, that he had, preached six years before he was converted; and that he was then in the habit of taking a glass of "mint julep" directly after prayers, which wonderfully refreshed him, soul and body. This dram he would repeat three or four times during the day; but at length an old slave persuaded him to abstain a while from his potations, the following of which advice, resulted in his conversion. I believe his second conversion, was nearer a true one, than his first, because he said his conscience reproved him for having sold slaves; and he finally left that part of the country, on account of slavery, and went to the North.

But as time passed along, I began to think seriously of entering into the matrimonial state, as much as a person "can, who can "make no contract whatever," and whose wife is not his, only so far as her master allows her to be. I formed an acquaintance with a young woman by the name of Nancy — belonging to a Mr. Lee, a clerk in the bank, and a pious man; and our friendship having ripened into mutual love, we