own free children into slavery; and, as there are
good-for-nothing white as well as coloured persons
everywhere, no one, perhaps, will wonder at such
inhuman transactions: particularly in the Southern
States of America, where I believe there is a
greater want of humanity and high principle
amongst the whites, than among any other
civilized people in the world.

I know that those who are not familiar with the
working of "the peculiar institution," can scarcely
imagine any one so totally devoid of all natural
affection as to sell his own offspring into returnless
bondage. But Shakespeare, that great observer
of human nature, says:--


"With caution judge of probabilities.
Things deemed unlikely, e'en impossible,
Experience often shews us to be true."


My wife's new mistress was decidedly more
humane than the majority of her class. My wife
has always given her credit for not exposing her to
many of the worst features of slavery. For instance,
it is a common practice in the slave States for ladies,
when angry with their maids, to send them to the
calybuce sugar-house, or to some other place
established for the purpose of punishing slaves,