Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/191

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IN HIGH LIFE.
193

money. The poor slave not having a cent in his pocket, some gentleman in an upper gallery hearing the whole conversation, and feeling both indignant and sorry, went down and gave the man the mighty sum of ten cents, which he gave his master. The gentlemen then consulted together, and thought so brutal a master should not take this man out of a free State, so the next morning, he with plenty of money in his pocket, was safely under the banner of Great Britain, and this was not done by abolitionists, but by friends of the master himself. I visited many places and was well treated, and saw slaves apparently well treated too, but that does not say they are all well treated, for there is a plantation in lower Mississippi, kept by some two or three planters, so that the slaves who in, any way disoblige their master or mistress, could be sent to this place to be punished. It must be an awful place, for the slaves in general, would prefer going to perdition itself, to being sent there.

After my seeing all the plantations, and going round as much as I wanted to, I thought I would now stay in the city of Natchez, where they sent for me every day. I would drive out and drive in. My visit to the plantations taught me many things, and amongst the rest to manage horses. One of the servants I taught hair-dressing to, in the city, belonged to Mrs. Colonel K. and she must be a kind mistress, as her girl is now a competent hair-dresser, and she brings her to New York every season. I saw her myself, a short time since in New York. I think Natchez a beautiful place, it reminds me of England more than any place I ever saw in my life.