Notes At The South--slave Auctions And Slavery Extension

Extract Prom a private letter from a gentleman travelling at the Sout i lo his fiino h this city : I have .'een snine strangc lliings n the wnywliicli h.ive nnrfe me doif-st Slaven more than pver. We hearof slaves being sold, and miglit even see tiietn, pro.vide) they me black, without a sl'udder, as we think ofihetn n.s half brutalizpri npgioes ; but when we see, as I diii, Ivlfa dozen girla frorn 16 10 22 ypar. ■ ■11, nenrfy white, wilh strag'u hair. fvincing by th'ir d portmo'it a müch refinTnptit ani snsihilitv as hnll' the popu'a ion ofilifi Nortli, the casf is rtiflerrnt. This I n v go.ing d wn he Alabvni R - ver. It rmde me f el absolut'-ly sick - as I !'e 't when I first siw n dozen with thp cat o'-nine Uils administered on board of a ship. Someofthen ere quite prelty, and snng fashionnb'e songs with murh tistp and fenlmg ; 'hy were all npatly drcs-;ed, ntid hai rings and olher jewelry. - Thpy were pvidently pelted house iervants, and did not look as though they had ever done a day's lard work in their lives. They orcupied a part of the c.ihin. B(-lo', and belonging tó t!ie snmp man, wpre a dnzer, poor feüows fastpned to a long cha 'n by a hand-cnff Thesp wei e common fie'd-hanrls. They liad teen botigM, ns '.veil as ihe éirlf, in Virginia and MaVlmd, and ■ were bing taken t LoiHsiam to bo Ko'd to the plantprs. Had tiie üirliabm-e mpntioned been entirelv white, I could not have bien more disgutrd. A planter who tnvells'l with us tolr! me ih.il in his spc:ion f country (North Al bami nnd V'et (Jeorgia the sight of moiiWprifjg itrinions, storpp, ai d other iiiiprovnient-, was most - Tlie wood hnd all bren ent off, ihe field cropppd tül they bei-im? rnithles, no a teinjit béng mide to manuro the lond. and when the ;-,lantation mw ruined, the planter mfived wilh his sl-ues to iipw Innds in M:3i-s'pjii or Louisinnt, and when thse in tl)iir turn wcre exhnuted, to or Texns. This is ihs lrgt:ma:e rrsnlt of Slivery. Th s nrconn's foi" the desirn of th Sunth to firocur' new terrtoiy frotn Mexico, and es'nblis! j Sluvpry in it - not, as thev pretended, to esuiblish n politica! balance, but to Inve a inarkpl f. ir their slnve popula'ion. No' mprely the inerrase of the slavps rrnivpd to the tiew lanns, but ihe capita' also, ifl may so express mysp!", from whrfcli l!ie increape springs. I beüeve Virgiti ani Maryland will show a s.Tiaüer t-lave population nt th( next census than thpy did at the lat. - This. too, wlipii large trasts of fine Innds in thre St!ite- are stvll lying nnculiivate 1, tlereby flfijrding room for the domesiio insiitution to oxpand. No State wdul.l i-on-ipnt to receivc SlavFiv inlo iis borders, f once a modpíate white population wu t-staSl ishe i : but the Iftrge ind immediate prnfit can?e slnve l'ib'T to bè used at firt, nnd ihe d;u k clond swppps over the Siate, the land n garden of Kdnn b''forp it, anrt in it ir.uk d silfition nnd ruin. I goheart nnd soul for the Wilmot Piovi-o. If Slaverv coul 1 !ie or, fine! l the limits it now ocup es - I mean t!ie p'irlicnlar plantalinns - in fi.'tv e'rs it wunld be exiinct. as ihe land would long lpf tb that liim run out, and the slaves bo thfieby rpn derpo' worth'ess. Besides thic, the PacH:ty of thpir escape into the snrroundi' g fien tpiriiory, would in itself lese1: thfiii va.üo.