Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly

'But, then, consider,' said Miss Ophelia, 'when you set him up for sale, the chances of his getting a bad master.'

'O, that's all humbug!' said Marie; 'it isn't one time in a hundred that a good fellow gets a bad master; most masters are good, for all the talk that is made. I've lived and grown up here, in the South, and I never yet was acquainted with a master that didn't treat his servants well,-quite as well as is worth while. I don't feel any fears on that head.'

'Well,' said Miss Ophelia, energetically, 'I know it was one of the last wishes of your husband that Tom should have his liberty; it was one of the promises that he made to dear little Eva on her death-bed, and I should not think you would feel at liberty to disregard it.'

Marie had her face covered with her handkerchief at this appeal, and began sobbing and using her smelling-bottle, with great vehemence.

'Everybody goes against me!' she said. 'Everybody is so inconsiderate! I shouldn't have expected that you would bring up all these remembrances of my troubles to me,-it's so inconsiderate! But nobody ever does consider,-my trials are so peculiar! It's so hard, that when I had only one daughter, she should have been taken!-and when I had a husband that just exactly suited me,-and I'm so hard to be suited!-he should be taken! And you seem to have so little feeling for me, and keep bringing it up to me so carelessly,-when you know how it overcomes me! I suppose you mean well; but it is very inconsiderate,-very!' And Marie sobbed, and gasped for breath, and called Mammy to open the window, and to bring her the camphor- bottle, and to bathe her head, and unhook her dress. And, in the general confusion that ensued, Miss Ophelia made her escape to her apartment.

She saw, at once, that it would do no good to say anything more; for Marie had an indefinite capacity for hysteric fits; and, after this, whenever her husband's or Eva's wishes with regard to the servants were alluded to, she always found it convenient to set one in operation. Miss Ophelia, therefore, did the next best thing she could for Tom,-she wrote a letter to Mrs. Shelby for him, stating his troubles, and urging them to send to his relief.

The next day, Tom and Adolph, and some half a dozen other servants, were marched down to a slave-warehouse, to await the convenience of the trader, who was going to make up a lot for auction.

CHAPTER XXX

The Slave Warehouse

A slave warehouse! Perhaps some of my readers conjure up horrible visions of such a place. They fancy some foul, obscure den, some horrible Tartarus 'informis, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.' But no, innocent friend; in these days men have learned the art of sinning expertly and genteelly, so as not to shock the eyes and senses of respectable society. Human property is high in the market; and is, therefore, well fed, well cleaned, tended, and looked after, that it may come to sale sleek, and strong, and shining. A slave-warehouse in New Orleans is a house externally not much unlike many others, kept with neatness; and where every day you may see arranged, under a sort of shed along the outside, rows of men and women, who stand there as a sign of the property sold within.

Then you shall be courteously entreated to call and examine, and shall find an abundance of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and young children, to be 'sold separately, or in lots to suit the convenience of the purchaser;' and that soul immortal, once bought with blood and anguish by the Son of God, when the earth shook, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, can be sold, leased, mortgaged, exchanged for groceries or dry goods, to suit the phases of trade, or the fancy of the purchaser.

It was a day or two after the conversation between Marie and Miss Ophelia, that Tom, Adolph, and about half a dozen others of the St. Clare estate, were turned over to the loving kindness of Mr. Skeggs, the keeper of a depot on – street, to await the auction, next day.

Tom had with him quite a sizable trunk full of clothing, as had most others of them. They were ushered, for the night, into a long room, where many other men, of all ages, sizes, and shades of complexion, were assembled, and from which roars of laughter and unthinking merriment were proceeding.

'Ah, ha! that's right. Go it, boys,-go it!' said Mr. Skeggs, the keeper. 'My people are always so merry! Sambo, I see!' he said, speaking approvingly to a burly negro who was performing tricks of low buffoonery, which occasioned the shouts which Tom had heard.

As might be imagined, Tom was in no humor to join these proceedings; and, therefore, setting his trunk as far as possible from the noisy group, he sat down on it, and leaned his face against the wall.

The dealers in the human article make scrupulous and systematic efforts to promote noisy mirth among them, as a means of drowning reflection, and rendering them insensible to their condition. The whole object of the training to which the negro is put, from the time he is sold in the northern market till he arrives south, is systematically directed towards making him callous, unthinking, and brutal. The slave-dealer collects his gang in Virginia or Kentucky, and drives them to some convenient, healthy place,-often a watering place,-to be fattened. Here they are fed full daily; and, because some incline to pine, a fiddle is kept commonly going among them, and they are made to dance daily; and he who refuses to be merry-in whose soul thoughts of wife, or child, or home, are too strong for him to be gay-is marked as sullen and dangerous, and subjected to all the evils which the ill will of an utterly irresponsible and hardened man can inflict upon him. Briskness, alertness, and cheerfulness of appearance, especially before observers, are constantly enforced upon them, both by the hope of thereby getting a good master, and the fear of all that the driver may bring upon them if they prove unsalable.

'What dat ar nigger doin here?' said Sambo, coming up to Tom, after Mr. Skeggs had left the room. Sambo was a full black, of great size, very lively, voluble, and full of trick and grimace.

'What you doin here?' said Sambo, coming up to Tom, and poking him facetiously in the side. 'Meditatin', eh?'

'I am to be sold at the auction tomorrow!' said Tom, quietly.

'Sold at auction,-haw! haw! boys, an't this yer fun? I wish't I was gwine that ar way!-tell ye, wouldn't I make em laugh? But how is it,-dis yer whole lot gwine tomorrow?' said Sambo, laying his hand freely on Adolph's shoulder.

'Please to let me alone!' said Adolph, fiercely, straightening himself up, with extreme disgust.

'Law, now, boys! dis yer's one o' yer white niggers,-kind o' cream color, ye know, scented!' said he, coming up to Adolph and snuffing. 'O Lor! he'd do for a tobaccer-shop; they could keep him to scent snuff! Lor, he'd keep a whole shope agwine,-he would!'

'I say, keep off, can't you?' said Adolph, enraged.

'Lor, now, how touchy we is,-we white niggers! Look at us now!' and Sambo gave a ludicrous imitation of Adolph's manner; 'here's de airs and graces. We's been in a good family, I specs.'

'Yes,' said Adolph; 'I had a master that could have bought you all for old truck!'

'Laws, now, only think,' said Sambo, 'the gentlemens that we is!'

'I belonged to the St. Clare family,' said Adolph, proudly.

'Lor, you did! Be hanged if they ar'n't lucky to get shet of ye. Spects they's gwine to trade ye off with a lot o' cracked tea-pots and sich like!' said Sambo, with a provoking grin.

Adolph, enraged at this taunt, flew furiously at his adversary, swearing and striking on every side of him. The rest laughed and shouted, and the uproar brought the keeper to the door.

'What now, boys? Order,-order!' he said, coming in and flourishing a large whip.

All fled in different directions, except Sambo, who, presuming on the favor which the keeper had to him as a licensed wag, stood his ground, ducking his head with a facetious grin, whenever the