Mary, being still sick, begged she might be sold to a kind master.
Sometimes she made this request in the hearing of purchasers, but was
always insulted for it, and afterwards punished by her cruel master for
her presumption. On one occasion he tied her up by the hands so that
she could barely touch the floor with her toes. He kept her thus
suspended a whole day, whipping her at intervals. In any other country
this inhuman beast would have been tried for the greatest crime, short
of murder, that man can commit against woman, and transported for life.
Poor Mary Brown was at length sold, at 450 dollars, as a house-servant
to a wealthy man of Vicksburgh, who compelled her to cohabit with him,
and had children by her,--most probably filling up the measure of his
iniquity by selling his own flesh. Wrongs like these must have inspired
our poet when he exclaimed,--

"To think that man--them just and gentle God--Should stand before
Thee with a tyrant's rod O'er creatures like himself, with souls from
Thee, Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty! Away! away! I 'd rather
hold my neck In doubtful tenure from a sultan's beck, In climes where
Liberty has scarce been named, Nor any right but that of ruling
claimed, Than thus to live where bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag
in mockery over slaves!"

As we advanced, we continually met with flat boats, laden with produce,
and floating sluggishly down. In the vernacular phrase, these boats are
called "Kentucky flats," or "broad-horns." They are curiously
constructed. At a distance, they appear like large chests or trunks
afloat. They are from 50 to 100 feet long, and generally about 15 or 20
feet wide. The timbers of the bottom are massive beams. The sides are
boarded up square to the height of 6 feet above the water; the roof
being slightly curved, like a trunk lid, to throw off rain. They are