Anti-slavery

When I returned from a short wnlk out of town lo visit Princeton College, the ":;r;ng" had ommenced. Astand had been formod n front of one of the stores-, with dry goods boxes, and the auctioncer was waïtin$ for another :'article" to "cry off." While I was forcing my way thro' the crowd which had collected, I never shall forgfit a femnle form I chanced to espy among a gronp of " hpraan cattle." Had I nol been before apprwed of iheie being a "white slave" at Princeton, nnd had not seen her among her sable bretheren and sisters. I should not have thought of her being of A frican descent, much less her being a slave. - Her complexion was lighter lhan many a gif] who lms nota drop of Afrioan blood in her veins, her form was slight and symme'rical, nnd her features decidedly Anglo Sa.xon, her hair black nnd g!osy, long, and neatly done up belund wiihaj comb, hereyes blue, her no=e bordering on the Gred.in, hut Hps sniall and a'most "hóni'ïd" enough tosweeten even a a Poei's iimgination. And then the exprnssion of her counlennnce. I will not Bttëmpt to describe it ; would to heaven the doughfaced aristncrats of the North, wlio boast the purity of their Anglo Saxon blood, could have seen hei' ihen. - She lookeH ns though she feit thnt man hand brnnded sluve on that brow, whfire God had wriiten inlclligence. My nttention was drawri froin this fair "chnltel" to the stand, by the harsh voioe of the auctioneer, "Who'll give u a bid for this little ehp?" as a little fellow abcut ten or twelve years old, mountfd the stand. He appeared active nnd quite intelligent, and the bids carne faster thnn usunl. Í thonglit, I knew not whetlier correctly, that lhe little fellow was on the auctioneer's tabla for the first time, tit ho hnd scarcoly glanced BPOtind upon those frozen heirted men, befo re the tears coursed " thick and Tast" down his snbla cheeks. It semed to me that I could penétrate his (ear-sufiused evos, and hear the langmge of his juvenile, yet noble spirit. "For the first time I lee] the hiller meaning ofthe word slave. I, boy as I am. must be böugffl and soldlike the hogthat wallows in the streets. I must work until I die likr a brut." And thnn it jemed as 'hough a ray oflinpelit Up his gluorny heart, for the tears ceased to flow, and his engle eye followedthe bids, scanhing the feature of him, who, if his bid were the hst, w-mild lehismasler for the coming year. I f'incied I could rend in his S)pnking eyes, "Sorne day I'll be fres, I wil', so ,'ielp me God of the poor Slave." The 1 ast bid came at length, with lhe auctinneei-'s "once - twice - thre-e-e - times," and the hammet caitie down. Soon tlie auctionepi-'s voice again rose nbove the r.oise and burile of the crowd, "who will give us n bid for Georgia?" - But I will not dwel! upon each particular ense; one more onlv, I will nttempt to describe. An old gray headed woman approached and ïtopppd without nttempting to climb upon the stand. "Comeup liere on tbs stand, old gall!" shonld the auctioneer, wilh n voice loud and harsh enough to almost raise thedead."I cdn't," ■he mildly replied, "í ara old and lame." With asistance, however, she got upon the stand. "How mucli do I hear for this old gall?" cried the auctionper, "she's not very spryt can't wnrk in the field, but'll be handy about the house, to cook, nurse, make fires, nnd may chop a little wood; hotv much do I hear, I say?" The price of a first rate field hand was from 80 to 90 dollars per yenr, and when the bids increased in amount on tho old lady, ti!I they began ta talk o? 17 or 20 dollars.she could keep still no Jonger. "For heaven's sake don't bid bigher, yon know 1 can't earn half tbat - I've worked myselr al most 10 death for you- you can sce Pm all broka down - I can't do bu. linie- 'speet soon to dip, nnd then poor old nigger woman enn rest- don't for mercy sake bid more. I ríon't ask it 'cause I work, hard all my life- wear myself out to work, nnd want to live like a whita larly, now Pm old- no! I 'speet to work on til! I drop n my grave-. 'flold on, old gall. let me talk awliile," growled the auctioneer, nnd a wild laugli rose from that heartlesscrowd. He need not have interrupTed hei-, for her bosom heaved, and already heart-rending sobj choked her utterance. God of Ileaven!" thought 1. "nm I among savnges in Ihestreets of Algiers, or on some benighted isle of ihe icean, over which broods a moral gloom, never piercerf !y onesoüiary ray of civilization?" No! I am in free America,ovev which blazes, perpetual noon, and in nll the burning, dazzling brilliancy of the nineteenth centnry, the 5Jun of civiliza, tion and Chrhtianity ! Not a choH of kindly sympadiy, in all that crowd, vibrated at the simple yet touchingly eloquent appeal of that poor old negrfiSS. Sick at heart, I left them, for I had ?een enough of a "nigger hiring." I had just turned the cornor of one of the si reets, when I was attracted by a smal! crowd, and with half a glance discovered it to be another "hiring" on a stnoll scale. "Come, brother Jackson, can't you give us a bid for this boy?" said the crier, slapping his boy, as he called him, on the shoulder. And who wns the crier? 'Twas (God knows I blush to pen it) none other than Faiher Mansfield, the very oracle ofllie Baptist cliurch ín all that región, and "brothe.r Jackson" was one of his spiritual flock. That crier as one of the "Sons ofLevi," who ueekly ministered nt the sacred altar in the Temple of the Living God. Yes, he was one of the leaders of the Greal American "Church Militant."- They nll rally at the same watchword, are marshalled in the same common host, mui march to " glorious viclory" under the same banner, from whose ''broad and sweeping folds," g]eam3 in al! the dazzling refulgence of the Eternal Throne,the tugged cross Calvary. These southern brethren cast "of theii abunda nee" into the same Trer.sury of the Lord, too, and then go home to wring more oftheir accu raed go!d" from the crushcd and blreding image oí their Makor. Ah! "'tis n biting sarcasm" on tha religión of the mcek and lowly Jesús," a "bitter satire" upon the Gospel of Him whocrune "to undo the heavy burdena, and let the oppresed go free." That day's scènes were written on my young heart with a pen of ron, and the deeper probably, for that "the ihoughls that brea! he," could not, f I consuhed my own personal snfcty, find uiterance in "Words ihr.t burn." My lïps must be hermetically sealed. A beatitiful commentary upon our fnr-famed f reedom of speech! Not a drop of sympathy could escape from the sealed fountainsin. my own breast for the heart-broken slave. I could onlv swear efernal hostility to tho "Patriorched lnstitution," as the young Ilannibnl did tothe " Imperial City." And yet noW that ï am again on my own Ohio soi!, the proudst position my youthful fancy enn picture to itself.wonld be, to be on humble instrument in making the Tyrant slavery tremble on his iron throne, in Break ing down thegates of his gloomy prison-house, in senditig the political cerberenn door-keepers, howlng to thedeepest rocesses of his dismal cavern, in setting my brethren free, and in letting them enjoy with us the benign influencaof eiinlizalion and Ckristianily, as it so proLidly gleams on us from ouc