Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/82

 unruly fellow, and had determined to sell me. I had not seen him since the day I had fainted under the energy of his paternal discipline. Nor did I ever see him afterwards. A strange parting that, between a son and a father!





next day I was to be sold. There was to be a public sale of slaves, and several besides myself, were to be disposed of. I was fettered and handcuffed, and taken to market. "The rest of the merchandise was already collected; but it was some time before the sale began, and I occupied the interval in looking about me. Several of the groups attracted my particular attention.

The first that caught my eye, was an old man whose head was completely white, and a pretty littlé girl, his granddaughter, as he told me, about ten or twelve years old. Both the old man and the little girl had iron collars about their necks, which were connected by a heavy chain. One would have imagined, that the old age of the man, and the youth of the girl, would have made such savage precautions unnecessary. But their master, so far as I could learn, had resolved to sell them in a fit of passion, and the chains perhaps were intended more for punishment than security.

A man and his wife with an infant in her arms, stood next to the old man and his daughter. "The man and wife were quite young, and apparently fond of each other; at least, they seemed very much distressed at the idea of falling into the hands of different purchasers. "The woman now and then would address some one or other of the company, who seemed to indicate an intention of buying. She would beg them to purchase herself and her husband; and she ran over, with great volubility, the good qualities of both. "The man looked on the ground, and preserved a moody and sullen silence.

There was another group of eight or ten men and women, who seemed to regard the sale with as much unconcern, as 