the article you are bidding on. Here, gentlemen, I hold in my hand a paper certifying that she has a good moral character."
"Seven hundred."
"Ah, gentlemen, that is something like. This paper also states that she is very intelligent."
"Eight hundred."
"She was first sprinkled, then immersed, and is now warranted to be a devoted Christian, and perfectly trustworthy."
"Nine hundred dollars."
"Nine hundred and fifty."
"One thousand."
"Eleven hundred."
Here the bidding came to a dead stand. The auctioneer stopped, looked around, and began in a rough manner to relate some anecdote connected with the sale of slaves, which he said had come under his own observation.
At this juncture the scene was indeed a most striking one. The laughing, joking, swearing, smoking, spitting, and talking, kept up a continual hum and confusion among the crowd, while the slave-girl stood with tearful eyes, looking alternately at her mother and sister and toward the young man whom she hoped would become her purchaser.
"The chastity of this girl," now continued the auctioneer, "is pure. She has never been from under her mother's care. She is virtuous, and as gentle as a dove."
The bids here took a fresh start, and went on until $1800 was reached. The auctioneer once more resorted to his jokes, and concluded by assuring the company that Isabella was not only pious, but that she could make an excellent prayer.
"Nineteen hundred dollars."
"Two thousand."
This was the last bid, and the quadroon girl was struck off, and be came the property of Henry Linwood.
This was a Virginia slave-auction, at which the bones, sinews, blood, and nerves of a young girl of eighteen were sold for $500; her moral character for $200; her superior intellect for $100; the benefits supposed to accrue from her having been sprinkled and immersed, together with a warranty of her devoted Christianity, for $300; her ability to make a good prayer for $200; and her chastity for $700 more. This, too, in a city thronged with churches, whose tall spires look like so many signals pointing to heaven, but whose ministers preach that slavery is a God-ordained institution!
The slaves were speedily separated, and taken along by their respective masters. Jennings, the slave-speculator, who had purchased Agnes
