The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive/Chapter 13
The next day I was to be sold. There was to be a public sale of slaves, and several besides myself, were to be disposed of. I was fettered and handcuffed, and taken to market. "The rest of the merchandise was already collected; but it was some time before the sale began, and I occupied the interval in looking about me. Several of the groups attracted my particular attention.
The first that caught my eye, was an old man whose head was completely white, and a pretty littlé girl, his granddaughter, as he told me, about ten or twelve years old. Both the old man and the little girl had iron collars about their necks, which were connected by a heavy chain. One would have imagined, that the old age of the man, and the youth of the girl, would have made such savage precautions unnecessary. But their master, so far as I could learn, had resolved to sell them in a fit of passion, and the chains perhaps were intended more for punishment than security.
A man and his wife with an infant in her arms, stood next to the old man and his daughter. "The man and wife were quite young, and apparently fond of each other; at least, they seemed very much distressed at the idea of falling into the hands of different purchasers. "The woman now and then would address some one or other of the company, who seemed to indicate an intention of buying. She would beg them to purchase herself and her husband; and she ran over, with great volubility, the good qualities of both. "The man looked on the ground, and preserved a moody and sullen silence.
There was another group of eight or ten men and women, who seemed to regard the sale with as much unconcern, as if they were merely spectators. They laughed, and talked, and jested with one another with as much gaiety as any of the company. An apologist for tyranny, would no doubt, rejoice in such a spectacle, and would be emboldened to argue, that after all being sold at public auction is not so terrible a thing, as some weak people are apt to imagine. The argument would be quite as sound as any that the slave-holder ever uses; and for ingenuity and conclusiveness, deserves to be compared with that of the philosopher, who having seen through the grates of a prison, a parcel of condemned criminals laughing and jesting together, concluded that the expectation of being hung, must have something in it very exhilarating.
The truth is, that the human mind, in its eager, though too often unavailing struggle after happiness, will still make the most of its means; — and even in the valley of despair, or under the ribs of death itself, still strives to create some matter of enjoyment. Even the slave will sing at his task; he can laugh too, though he find himself sold like an ox in the market. The tyrant discovers that all his wrongs and oppressions have not been able to extinguish in the soul of his victim, the capability of enjoyment; and he points you to these outbursts of a nature not yet totally subdued, and dares to boast of the happiness he causes!
But to be sold, is not always a laughing matter. The first bargain which the auctioneer offered to the company, was a man apparently about thirty, with a. fine, open, prepossessing countenance. He had no expectation of being sold, till the moment he was placed upon the table; for it appeared that his master who lived near the city, had lured him to town under the delusive pretext of an intention to hire him out to some one of the citizens. When the poor fellow found that he was actually to be sold, he was seized with such a trembling that he could scarcely support himself. He shook from head to foot; and his face indicated the greatest terror and distress. The two principal bidders, — and they seemed to enter into a pretty warm competition, — were a gentleman of the neighborhood, who appeared to know the poor fellow on sale, and a dashing, buckish young man, who, it was said, was a slave-trader from South Carolina, who had come to purchase slaves for that market.
As the sale proceeded, it was curious, but at the same time most distressing, to observe the anxiety of the unhappy slave. When the slave-trader took the lead, his jaw fell, his eyes rolled wildly, and he seemed the very picture of despair; but when the Virginian bid higher, a gleam of pleasure shot across his face, the tears ran down his cheeks, and his earnest "God bless you, master!" was enough to touch the hardest heart. He interrupted the sale by his cries and vociferations, and not even the whip could keep him still. He called upon his favorite bidder by name, and entreated him to persevere, by every motive he could think of. He promised to serve him faithfully to the last minute of his life, and work himself to death in his service, if he would only buy him, only save him from being wholly separated from his wife and children, and sent away — he knew not whither — from the place where he was born' and raised, and where, as he said, he had always behaved well, and borne a good character. Not that he had any particular objections to the other gentleman either, — for the poor fellow began to see the danger of offending a man who was likely to become his master; — no doubt he was a very fine gentleman too; but he was a stranger, and would take him out of the country, and carry him far away from his wife and children; — and as he mentioned them, his voice sunk, choked and interrupted, to an inarticulate sobbing.
The bidders kept up the contest with much spirit. The man was evidently a first-rate hand. Aside from this, the Virginian seemed touched by the poor fellow's entreaties, and dropped some hints about slave-traders, which put his opponent into a violent passion, and came near ending in a quarrel. The interposition of the by-standers, kept the competitors apart; — but the slave-trader, whose passions were roused, swore that he would have the ‘boy,' cost what he might, if it were only to teach him a little good manners. One or two of the company cried shame, and called upon the slave-trader to leave off bidding, and suffer the poor fellow to remain in the country. He replied with an oath and a sneer, that he was not fool enough to be bamboozled by any such nonsense; and immediately rose fifty dollars on the last bid. This was more than the Virginian could afford to sacrifice to a fit of good nature, and piqued and chagrined, he yielded up the contest. The auctioneer knocked off the purchase; and the man, more dead than alive, was delivered into the hands of the slave-trader's attendants, who received orders to give him twenty lashes on the spot, for his "cursed ill-manneredly Virginian insolence."
The sneering emphasis, with which this was spoken, created no little sensation among the by-standers; but as the slave-trader strutted about with his hand on his dirk handle, and as two pistols might plainly be seen sticking out of his pockets, nobody saw fit to question this provoking exercise of ‘his sacred right of property,' and the sale proceeded as before.
At length came my turn. I was stripped half naked, the better to show my joints and muscles, and placed upon' the table or platform, on which the subject of the sale was exposed to the examination of the purchasers. I was whirled about, my limbs were felt, and my capabilities discussed, in a slang much like that of a company of horsejockeys. Various were the remarks that were made upon me. One fellow declared that I had "a savage sullen look;"? another swore that my eye was "devilish malicious;" a third remarked that these light-colored fellows were all rascals; — to which the auctioneer replied, that he never knew a slave of any smartness who was not a rogue.
Abundance of questions were put me, as to where I was raised, ‘why I was sold, and what I was fit for. To all these inquiries I made the shortest and most indefinite answers. I was not in a humor to gratify this curiosity; and I had none of that ambition to bring a high price, so common among slaves, the last and lowest form in which is displayed that love of superiority, which exercises so principal an influence over the feelings and the actions of men.
Mr Stubbs kept in the back ground, and said nothing. He had his own reasons, I suppose, for this reserve. The auctioneer did his best. According to his account, there was not a stronger, more laborious, docile and obedient servant to be bought in all the States. Notwithstanding all these praises, a suspicion seemed to spread itself that my master had some reasons for selling me, which he did not think fit to avow. One suggested that I must be consumptive; another thought it likely I was subject to fits; while a third expressed the opinion that I was an unruly fellow and "mighty hard to manage." "The scars on my back tended to confirm these suspicions; and I was knocked off, at last, at a very low price, to a portly, smiling old gentleman, by name, major Thornton.
No sooner had the auctioneer's hammer struck upon the table, than my new master spoke kindly to me, and ordered my irons to be taken off. Against this, Mr Stubbs and the auctioneer remonstrated very earnestly; and assured the purchaser that if he unchained me, he did it at his own risk. "I know it," replied my new master, "the risk is mine, — but I will never own a servant who wants to run away from me."