each other to God, who is no respecter of persons, and before whom
master and slave must one day appear.




CHAPTER III

THE SLAVE-SPECULATOR


DICK JENNINGS the slave-speculator, was one of the few Northern men,
who go to the South and throw aside their honest mode of
obtaining a living and resort to trading in human beings.
A more repulsive-looking person could scarcely be found
in any community of bad looking men. Tall, lean and lank,
with high cheek-bones, face much pitted with the small-pox,
gray eyes with red eyebrows, and sandy whiskers, he indeed
stood alone without mate or fellow in looks. Jennings prided
himself upon what he called his goodness of heat, and was always
speaking of his humanity. As many of the slaves whom he intended
taking to the New Orleans market had been raised in Richmond,
and had relations there, he determined to leave the city
early in the morning, so as not to witness any of the scenes
so common on the departure of a slave-gang to the far South.
In this, he was most successful; for not even Isabella,
who had called at the prison several times to see her mother
and sister, was aware of the time that they were to leave.

The slave-trader started at early dawn, and was beyond the confines