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  but the moral nature of which he was utterly indifferent to, beyond a certain

  secret pleasure in thus indirectly inflicting a little torture on his hearers.

  I am not, however, altogether clear, to do John Caphart justice, that he is

  entirely conscience-proof. There was something in his anxious look which leaves

  one not without hope.

  At the first trial we did not know of his pursuits, and he passed merely as a

  policeman of Norfolk, Virginia. But, at the second trial, some one in the room

  gave me a hint of the occupations many of these policemen take to, which led to

  my cross-examination.

  Question. Is it a part of your duty, as a policeman, to take up coloured per-

  sons who are out after hours in the streets?Answer. Yes, sir.

  Q. What is done with them?

  A. We put them in the lock-up, and in the morning they are brought into

  court and ordered to be punished--those that are to be punished.

  Q. What punishment do they get?

  A. Not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.

  Q. Who gives them these lashes?

  A. Any of the officers. I do sometimes.

  Q. Are you paid extra for this? How much?

  A. Fifty cents a head. It used to be sixty-two cents. Now it is fifty. Fifty

  cents for each one we arrest, and fifty more for each one we flog.

  Q. Are these persons you flog men and boys only, or are they women and

  girls also?

  A. Men, women, boys, and girls, just as it happens.

  [The government interfered, and tried to prevent any further examination; and

  said, among other things, that he only performed his duty as police-officer under

  the law. After a discussion, Judge Curtis allowed it to proceed.]

  Q. Is your flogging confined to these cases? Do you not flog slaves at the

  request of their masters?

  A. Sometimes I do. Certainly, when I am called upon.

  Q. In these cases of private flogging, are the negroes sent to you? Have you

  a place for flogging?

  A. No. I go round, as I am sent for.

  Q. Is this part of your duty as an officer?

  A. No, sir.

  Q. In these cases of private flogging, do you inquire into the circumstances, to

  see what the fault has been, or if there is any?

  A. That's none of my business. I do as I am requested. The master is

  responsible.

  Q. In these cases, too, I suppose you flog women and girls, as well as men?

  A. Women and men.

  Q. Mr. Caphart, how long have you been engaged in this business?

  A. Ever since 1836.

  Q. How many negroes do you suppose you have flogged, in all, women and

  children included?

  A. [Looking calmly round the room.] I don't know how many niggers you

  have got here in Massachusetts, but I should think I had flogged as many as you've

  got in the State.

  [The same man testified that he was often employed to pursue fugitive slaves.

  His reply to the question was, “I never refuse a good job in that line.”]

  Q. Don't they sometimes turn out bad jobs?

  A. Never, if I can help it.

  Q. Are they not sometimes discharged after you get them?

  A. Not often. I don't know that they ever are, except those Portuguese the

  counsel read about.

  [I had found, in a Virginia report, a case of some two hundred Portuguese

  negroes, whom this John Caphart had seized from a vessel, and endeavoured to

  get condemned as slaves, but whom the Court discharged.]

  Hon. John P. Hale, associated with Mr. Dana as counsel for

  the defence in the Rescue Trials, said of him in his closing

  argument:--

  Why, gentlemen, he sells agony! Torture is his stock-in-trade! He is a

  walking scourge! He hawks, peddles, retails, groans and tears about the streets

  of Norfolk!

  See also the following correspondence between the two

  traders, one in North Carolina, the other in New Orleans:

  with a word of comment by Bishop Wilberforce, of Oxford:--

  Halifax, N. C., Nov. 16, 1839.

  Dear Sir,--I have shipped in the brig Addison--prices are below:

  Dollars.

  No. 1. Caroline Ennis 650.00

  ” 2. Silvy Holland 625.00

  ” 3. Silvy Booth 487.50

  ” 4. Maria Pollock 475.00

  ” 5. Emeline Pollock 475.00

  ” 6. Delia Averit 475.00

  The two girls that cost 650 dollars, and 625 dollars, were bought before I

  shipped my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me, but I will not pay

  the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no opposition in

  market. I will wait until I hear from you before I buy, and then I can judge what

  I must pay. Goodwin will send you the bill of lading for my negroes, as he

  shipped them with his own. Write often, as the times are critical, and it

  depends on the prices you get to govern me in buying. Yours, &c.

  Mr. Theophilus Freeman,

  New Orleans.

  G. W. Barnes.

  The above was a small but choice invoice of wives and mothers. Nine days

  before, namely, 7th November, Mr. Barnes advised Mr. Freeman of having

  shipped a lot, of forty-three men and women. Mr. Freeman, informing one

  of his correspondents of the state of the market, writes (Sunday, 21st Sept.,

  1839), “I bought a boy yesterday, sixteen years old, and likely, weighing one

  hundred and ten pounds, at 700 dollars. I sold a likely girl, twelve years

  old, at 500 dollars. I bought a man yesterday, twenty years old, six feet high

  at 820 dollars; one to-day, twenty-four years old, at 850 dollars, black and

  sleek as a mole.”

  The writer has drawn in this work only one class of the negro-

  traders. There are all varieties of them, up to the great whole-

  sale purchasers, who keep their large trading-houses; who are

  gentlemanly in manners and courteous in address; who, in many

  respects, often perform actions of real generosity; who consider

  slavery a very great evil, and hope the country will at some time

  be delivered from it, but who think that so long as clergyman

  and layman, saint and sinner, are all agreed in the propriety and

  necessity of slave-holding, it is better that the necessary trade in

  the article be conducted by men of humanity and decency, than

  by swearing, brutal men, of the Tom Loker school. These men

  are exceedingly sensitive with regard to what they consider the

  injustice of the world, in excluding them from good society,

  simply because they undertake to supply a demand in the com-

  munity, which the bar, the press, and the pulpit, all pronounce

  to be a proper one. In this respect, society certainly imitates

  the unreasonableness of the ancient Egyptians, who employed a

  certain class of men to prepare dead bodies for embalming, but

  flew at them with sticks and stones the moment the operation

  was over, on account of the sacrilegious liberty which they had

  taken. If there is an ill-used class of men in the world, it is

  certainly the slave-traders; for, if there is no harm in the insti-

  tution of slavery--if it is a divinely-appointed and honourable

  one, like civil government and the family state, and like other

  species of property relation--then there is no earthly reason why

&
nbsp; a man may not as innocently be a slave trader as any other kind

  of trader.

  CHAPTER III.

  MR. AND MRS. SHELBY.

  It was the design of the writer, in delineating the domestic

  arrangements of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, to show a picture of the

  fairest side of slave-life, where easy indulgence and good-natured

  forbearance are tempered by just discipline and religious instruc-

  tion, skilfully and judiciously imparted.

  The writer did not come to her task without reading much

  upon both sides of the question, and making a particular effort

  to collect all the most favourable representations of slavery which

  she could obtain. And, as the reader may have a curiosity to

  examine some of the documents, the writer will present them

  quite at large. There is no kind of danger to the world in

  letting the very fairest side of slavery be seen; in fact, the horrors

  and barbarities which are necessarily inherent in it are so terrible

  that one stands absolutely in need of all the comfort which can

  be gained from incidents like the subjoined, to save them from

  utter despair of human nature. The first account is from Mr.

  J. K. Paulding's Letters on Slavery; and is a letter from a Vir-

  ginia planter, whom we should judge, from his style, to be a

  very amiable, agreeable man, and who probably describes very

  fairly the state of things on his own domain.

  Dear Sir,--As regards the first query, which relates to the “rights and duties

  of the slave,” I do not know how extensive a view of this branch of the subject is

  contemplated. In its simplest aspect, as understood and acted on in Virginia, I

  should say that the slave is entitled to an abundance of good plain food; to coarse

  but comfortable apparel; to a warm but humble dwelling; to protection when

  well, and to succour when sick; and, in return, that it is his duty to render to his

  master all the service he can consistently with perfect health, and to behave sub-

  missively and honestly. Other remarks suggest themselves, but they will be more

  appropriately introduced under different heads.

  2nd. The domestic relations of master and slave.--These relations are much

  misunderstood by many persons at the North, who regard the terms as synonymous

  with oppressor and oppressed. Nothing can be further from the fact. The con-

  dition of the negroes in this State has been greatly ameliorated. The proprietors

  were formerly fewer and richer than at present. Distant quarters were often kept

  up to support the aristocratic mansion. They were rarely visited by their owners;

  and heartless overseers, frequently changed, were employed to manage them for a

  share of the crop. These men scourged the land, and sometimes the slaves. Their

  tenure was but for a year, and of course they made the most of their brief

  authority. Owing to the influence of our institutions, property has become sub-

  divided, and most persons live on or near their estates. There are exceptions to

  be sure, and particularly among wealthy gentlemen in the towns; but these last

  are almost all enlightened and humane, and alike liberal to the soil and to the

  slave who cultivates it. I could point out some noble instances of patriotic and

  spirited improvement among them. But, to return to the resident proprietors:

  most of them have been raised on the estates; from the older negroes they have

  received in infancy numberless acts of kindness; the younger ones have not

  unfrequently been their playmates (not the most suitable, I admit), and much

  good-will is thus generated on both sides. In addition to this, most men feel

  attached to their property; and this attachment is stronger in the case of persons

  than of things. I know it, and feel it. It is true there are harsh masters; but

  there are also bad husbands and bad fathers. They are all exceptions to the rule,

  not the rule itself. Shall we therefore condemn in the gross those relations,

  and the rights and authority they imply, from their occasional abuse? I could

  mention many instances of strong attachment on the part of the slave, but

  will only adduce one or two, of which I have been the object. It became

  a question whether a faithful servant, bred up with me from boyhood, should

  give up his master, or his wife and children, to whom he was affectionately

  attached, and most attentive and kind. The trial was a severe one, but he

  determined to break those tender ties, and remain with me. I left it entirely

  to his discretion, though I would not, from considerations of interest, have

  taken for him quadruple the price I should probably have obtained. For-

  tunately, in the sequel, I was enabled to purchase his family, with the excep-

  tion of a daughter, happily situated; and nothing but death shall henceforth

  part them. Were it put to the test, I am convinced that many masters

  would receive this striking proof of devotion. A gentleman but a day or two

  since informed me of a similar, and even stronger case, `afforded by one of his

  slaves. As the reward of assiduous and delicate attention to a venerated parent,

  in her last illness, I proposed to purchase and liberate a healthy and intelligent

  woman, about thirty years of age, the best nurse, and, in all respects, one of the

  best servants in the State, of which I was only part owner; but she declined to

  leave the family, and has been since rather better than free. I shall be excused

  for stating a ludicrous case I heard of some time ago. A favourite and indulged

  servant requested his master to sell him to another gentleman. His master re-

  fused to do so, but told him he was at perfect liberty to go to the North, if he were

  not already free enough. After a while he repeated the request; and, on being

  urged to give an explanation of his singular conduct, told his master that he con-

  sidered himself consumptive, and would soon die; and he thought Mr. B--was

  better able to bear the loss than his master. He was sent to a medicinal spring,

  and recovered his health, if, indeed, he had ever lost it, of which his master had

  been unapprised. It may not be amiss to describe my deportment towards my

  servants, whom I endeavour to render happy while I make them profitable. I

  never turn a deaf ear, but listen patiently to their communications. I chat fami-

  liarly with those who have passed service, or have not begun to render it. With

  the others I observe a more prudent reserve, but I encourage all to approach me

  without awe. I hardly ever go to town without having commissions to execute

  for some of them; and think they prefer to employ me, from a belief that, if their

  money should not quite hold out, I would add a little to it; and I not unfrequently

  do, in order to get a better article. The relation between myself and my slaves is

  decidedly friendly. I keep up pretty exact discipline, mingled with kindness, and

  hardly ever lose property by thievish, or labour by runaway slaves. I never lock

  the outer doors of my house. It is done, but done by the servants; and I rarely

  bestow a thought on the matter. I leave home periodically for two months, and

  commit the dwelling-house, plate, and other valuables, to the servants, without

  even an enumeration of the articles.

  3rd. Th
e duration of the labour of the slave.--The day is usually considered long

  enough. Employment at night is not exacted by me, except to shell corn once a

  week for their own consumption, and on a few other extraordinary occasions. The

  people, as we generally call them, are required to leave their houses at daybreak,

  and to work until dark, with the intermission of half an hour to an hour at break-

  fast, and one to two hours at dinner, according to the season and sort of work.

  In this respect I suppose our negroes will bear a favourable comparison with any

  labourers whatever.

  4th. The liberty usually allowed the slave--his holidays and amusements, and

  the way in which they usually spend their evenings and holidays.--They are pro-

  hibited from going off the estate without first obtaining leave; though they often

  transgress, and with impunity, except in flagrant cases. Those who have wives

  on other plantations visit them on certain specified nights, and have an allowance

  of time for going and returning, proportioned to the distance. My negroes are

  permitted, and indeed, encouraged, to raise as many ducks and chickens as

  they can; to cultivate vegetables for their own use, and a patch of corn for sale;

  to exercise their trades, when they possess one, which many do; to catch musk-

  rats and other animals for the fur or the flesh; to raise bees; and, in fine, to

  earn an honest penny in any way which chance or their own ingenuity may

  offer. The modes specified are, however, those most commonly resorted to, and

  enable provident servants to make from five to thirty dollars a-piece. The corn

  is a different sort from that which I cultivate, and is all bought by me. A

  great many fowls are raised; I have this year known ten dollars' worth sold by

  one man at one time. One of the chief sources of profit is the fur of the

  muskrat; for the purpose of catching which the marshes on the estate have

  been parcelled out and appropriated from time immemorial, and held by a tenure

  little short of fee-simple. The negroes are indebted to Nat Turner* and

  Tappan for a curtailment of some of their privileges. As a sincere friend to

  the blacks, I have much regretted the reckless interference of these persons, on

  account of the restrictions it has become, or been thought, necessary to impose.