University of Virginia Library

39. XXXIX.

Having terminated my last letter with one of my
usual digressions, before entering upon the subject
with which I had intended to fill its pages, I will
now pursue my original design, and introduce you
into one of the great slave-marts of the south-west.

A mile from Natchez we came to a cluster of
rough wooden buildings, in the angle of two roads,
in front of which several saddle-horses, either tied
or held by servants, indicated a place of popular
resort.

“This is the slave market,” said my companion,
pointing to a building in the rear; and alighting,
we left our horses in charge of a neatly dressed
yellow boy belonging to the establishment. Entering
through a wide gate into a narrow court-yard,
partially enclosed by low buildings, a scene of a
novel character was at once presented. A line of
negroes, commencing at the entrance with the tallest,
who was not more than five feet eight or nine
inches in height—for negroes are a low rather than
a tall race of men—down to a little fellow about
ten years of age, extended in a semicircle around
the right side of the yard. There were in all about
forty. Each was dressed in the usual uniform of
slaves, when in market, consisting of a fashionably
shaped, black fur hat, roundabout and trowsers of
coarse corduroy velvet, precisely such as are worn
by Irish labourers, when they first “come over the
water;” good vests, strong shoes, and white cotton
shirts, completed their equipment. This dress they
lay aside after they are sold, or wear out as soon
as may be; for the negro dislikes to retain the indication
of his having recently been in the market.
With their hats in their hands, which hung down
by their sides, they stood perfectly still, and in close
order, while some gentlemen were passing from
one to another examining for the purpose of buying.
With the exception of displaying their teeth when
addressed, and rolling their great white eyes about
the court—they were so many statues of the most
glossy ebony. As we entered the mart, one of the
slave merchants—for a “lot” of slaves is usually

accompanied, if not owned, by two or three individuals—approached
us, saying “Good morning, gentlemen!
Would you like to examine my lot of boys?[16]
I have as fine a lot as ever came into market.”—
We approached them, one of us as a curious spectator,
the other as a purchaser; and as my friend
passed along the line, with a scrutinizing eye—giving
that singular look, peculiar to the buyer of slaves
as he glances from head to foot over each individual
—the passive subjects of his observations betrayed
no other signs of curiosity than that evinced by an
occasional glance. The entrance of a stranger into
a mart is by no means an unimportant event to the
slave, for every stranger may soon become his master
and command his future destinies. But negroes
are seldom strongly affected by any circumstances,
and their reflections never give them much uneasiness.
To the generality of them, life is mere animal
existence, passed in physical exertion or enjoyment.
This is the case with the field hands in particular,
and more so with the females than the males,
who through a long life seldom see any other white
person than their master or overseer, or any other
gentleman's dwelling than the “great hus,” the
“white house” of these little domestic empires in
which they are the subjects. To this class a change
of masters is a matter of indifference;—they are handed
from one to another with the passiveness of a purchased
horse. These constitute the lowest rank of
slaves, and lowest grade in the scale of the human
species. Domestic and city slaves form classes of a
superior order, though each constitutes a distinct class
by itself. I shall speak of these more fully hereafter.

“For what service in particular did you want to
buy?” inquired the “trader of my friend, “A coachman.”
“There is one I think may suit you, sir,”
said he; “George, step out here.” Forthwith a
light-coloured negro, with a fine figure and good
face, bating an enormous pair of lips, advanced a
step from the line, and looked with some degree of
intelligence, though with an air of indifference, upon
his intended purchaser.

“How old are you, George?” he inquired. “I
don't recollect, sir, 'zactly—b'lieve I'm somewere
`bout twenty-dree.”' “Where were you raised?”
“On master R—'s farm in Wirginny.” “Then
you are a Virginia negro.” “Yes, master, me full
blood Wirginny.” “Did you drive your master's
carriage?” “Yes, master, I drove ole missus' carage,
more dan four year.” “Have you a wife?”
“Yes, master, I lef' young wife in Richmond, but I
got new wife here in de lot. I wishy you buy her,
master, if you gwine to buy me.”

Then came a series of the usual questions from
the intended purchaser. “Let me see your teeth
—your tongue—open your hands—roll up your
sleeves—have you a good appetite? are you good
tempered? “Me get mad sometime,” replied George
to the last query, “but neber wid my horses.” “What
do you ask for this boy, sir?” inquired the planter,
after putting a few more questions to the unusually
loquacious slave. “I have held him at one thousand
dollars, but I will take nine hundred and

seventy-five cash. The bargain was in a few minutes
concluded, and my companion took the negro
at nine hundred and fifty, giving negotiable paper
—the customary way of paying for slaves—at four
months. It is, however, generally understood, that
if servants prove unqualified for the particular service
for which they are bought, the sale is dissolved.
So there is in general perfect safety in purchasing
servants untried, and merely on the warrant of the
seller. George, in the meanwhile, stood by, with
his hat in his hand, apparently unconcerned in the
negotiations going on, and when the trader said to
him, “George, the gentleman has bought you; get
ready to go with him,” he appeared gratified at the
tidings, and smiled upon his companions apparently
quite pleased, and then bounded off to the buildings
for his little bundle. In a few minutes he returned
and took leave of several of his companions, who,
having been drawn up into line only to be shown to
purchasers, were now once more at liberty, and
moving about the court, all the visiters having left
except my friend and myself. “You mighty lucky,
George” said one, congratulating him, “to get sol so
quick.” Oh, you neber min', Charly,” replied the
delighted George; “your turn come soon too.”

“You know who you' master be—whar he live?”
said another. “No, not zactly; he lib on plantation
some whar here 'bout.” After taking leave of
his companions, George came, hat in hand, very
respectfully, to his purchaser, and said, “Young
master, you never be sorry for buy George; I make
you a good servant. But—beg pardon, master—

but—if master would be so good as buy Jane—”
“Who is Jane?”—“My wife, since I come from
Wirginny. She good wife and a good girl—she
good seamstress an' good nurse—make de nice
shirts and ebery ting.”

“Where is she, George?” “Here she be, master,”
said he, pointing to a bright mulatto girl, about
eighteen, with a genteel figure and a lively countenance,
who was waiting with anxiety the reply of
the planter. Opposite to the line of males was also
a line of females, extended along the left side of
the court. They were about twenty in number,
dressed in neat calico frocks, white aprons and
capes, and fancy kerchiefs, tied in a mode peculiar
to the negress, upon their heads. Their whole appearance
was extremely neat and “tidy.” They
could not be disciplined to the grave silence observed
by the males, but were constantly laughing
and chattering with each other in suppressed voices,
and appeared to take, generally, a livelier interest
in the transactions in which all were equally concerned.
The planter approached this line of female
slaves, and inquired of the girl her capabilities as
seamstress, nurse, and ironer. Her price was seven
hundred and fifty dollars. He said he would take
her to his family; and if the ladies were pleased
with her, he would purchase her. The poor girl
was as much delighted as though already purchased;
and, at the command of the trader, went to
prepare herself to leave the mart. Some other negroes
were purchased, several of whom appeared
merely powerful combinations of bone and muscle,

and the only idea suggested to the mind, in gazing
upon them, was of remarkable physical energy.
In the dull eye and fleshy mouth there was no expression
indicative of intellect.

It is the popular opinion, both at the north and
south, that the negro is inferior in intellect to the
white man. This opinion is not, however, founded
upon just experience. The African intellect has
never been developed. Individuals, indeed, have
been educated, whose acquirements certainly reflect
honour upon the race. Uneducated negroes have
also exhibited indications of strong intellectual vigour.
And because, in both instances, the negro
has shown himself still inferior to the white man,
he is unhesitatingly pronounced an inferior being,
irremediably so, in the estimation of his judges, by
the operation of organic laws. That the African
intellect, in its present state, is inferior to that of
the European, is undeniable: but that, by any peculiarity
in his organized system, a necessary inferiority
ensues, will not so readily be admitted.
Physiologists have agreed, that physical peculiarities
may be communicated from generation to generation;
and it is no less certain that mental talents
may thus be transmitted also. Dr. King, in speaking
of the fatality which attended the house of Stuart,
says, “If I were to ascribe their calamities to
another cause” (than evil fate), “or endeavour to
account for them by any natural means, I should
think they were chiefly owing to a certain obstinacy
of temper, which appears to have been hereditary,
and inherent in all the Stuarts, except Charles the

second.” The Brahmins are much superior in intellect
to all the other castes in Hindostan; and it
is mentioned, says Combe, by the missionaries, as
an ascertained fact, that the children of the Brahmins
are naturally more acute, intelligent, and docile,
than those of the inferior castes, age and other
circumstances being equal. “Parents,” says Dr.
Gregory, “frequently live again in their offspring.
It is certain that children resemble their parents,
not only in countenance and in the form of the
body, but in mental dispositions and in their virtues
and vices. The haughty “gens Claudia” transmitted
the peculiar mental character of its founder
through six centuries, and in the tyrannical Nero
again lived the imperious Appius Claudius.” If
this theory be correct, there is something more to be
done before African intellect can be fairly developed.
If culture will expand the intellect of the untutored
negro—take one of the present generation for instance
—according to this theory, which experience proves
to be true, it is certain that he will transmit to his offspring
an intellectual organization, so to speak, superior
to that which was transmitted to himself by his
parent; the mind of the offspring will be a less rude
soil for mental cultivation than was his father's;
and when his education is commenced, he will be
one step in the scale of intellect in advance of his
parents at the same period. When he arrives at
maturity, he will, under equal circumstances, be
mentally superior to his progenitors at the same period
of their lives. His offspring will be superior
to himself, and their offspring yet a grade higher in
the scale of intelligence, and standing, perhaps, upon
the very line drawn between human and angelic
intellect. His mind will bear comparison with that
of the white man; and, morally and intellectually,
he will stand beside him as his equal.

This is mere theory, but it is theory based upon
the operation of laws whose general principles cannot
be controverted: and when the negro, by the
emancipation of his species, has opportunity for the
culture of his own mind—which, if he is disposed
to neglect, the philanthopist will not be—a few generations
will leave no traces of those mental shackles,
which, like chains loaded upon the body, have
so long borne him down to a level with the brute.
Till time proves this original equi-mental organization
of the white man and the negro, which opinion
fact has been strengthening for two or three generations
in individual instances, it is due, both to
philanthropy and justice, to suspend the sentence
which condemns him as a being less than man.

Shortly before leaving the slave mart—a handsome
carriage drove up, from which alighted an elderly
lady, who, leaning on the arm of a youth, entered
the court. After looking at and questioning
in a kind tone several of the female slaves, she purchased
two, a young mother and her child, and in
a few minutes afterward, at the solicitation of the
youth, purchased the husband of the girl, and all
three, with happy faces—happier, that they were not
to be separated—flew to get their little parcels, and
rode away with their mistress,—the wife and child
sitting within the carriage on the front seat—and

the man on the coach-box beside the coachman. We
soon after mounted our horses, and with George and
his wife walking on before us with elastic steps, returned
to town. The slave market, which is the
subject of this letter, I have since frequently visited,
as well as four or five others in the vicinity of
Natchez, where several hundred slaves of all ages,
colours, and conditions, of both sexes, were exposed
for sale. I have conversed with a great number of
them, from the liveliest to the most sullen, and my
impression, which is daily strengthened by a more intimate
knowledge of their species, is, that the negro
is not dissatisfied with his condition—that it is seldom
or never the subject of his thoughts—that he regards
it as his destiny, as much as a home about
the poles is the Laplander's; nor does he pine after
freedom more than the other after the green hills and
sunny skies of Italy. They find themselves first
existing in this state, and pass through life without
questioning the justice of their allotment, which, if
they think at all, they suppose a natural one. Had
the American slave once enjoyed freedom, these circumstances
would be changed. But there is probably
not one among them, except some venerable
African, who has realized what it is to be free. So
long as he has had any consciousness, he is conscious
of having been a slave, and he fulfils his duties as
such, without stopping from time to time to put the
question to himself, “Is this my original destiny?
Was my first ancestor created a slave?” With as
much propriety might the haughty white man query
if more exalted physical beauty and perfection were
not once his, and whether man was not originally
winged! There are, of course, individual exceptions
to this general remark, but in the present
darkened state of negro intellect, these exceptions
are very few.

During the time they remain in the mart for sale,
few men pass their time with more apparent contentment.
There are two extensive markets for
slaves, opposite to each other, on the road to Washington,
three miles from Natchez. These I have
passed at least once a week for more than a year,
and I have always seen the slaves either dancing to
the sound of the violin, played by one of their number,
playing at marbles, quoits, practising gymnastics,
lounging, sleeping in the sun, or idling about
the door, while their masters, the “slave traders,” regardless
of them, were playing at cards or backgammon,
smoking or sitting about the door conversing
together, or with a buyer; their presence not
producing the least restraint upon the noisy merriment
around them. But when a purchaser stops
and desires to look at the “lot,” the slaves at once
leave their several amusements, and draw up into a
line, for inspection and purchase; and when the stranger
leaves, taking with him one or more of their
number, to whom they bid a cheerful good-bye,
they return to their former pursuits wholly unimpressed
by the event that has just taken place.

Negroes, when brought into market, are always
anxious to be sold; and to be sold first is a great
desideratum, for in their estimation it is an evidence
of their superiority. “None but poor nigger stay

for be sol' last.” Hence, when a purchaser enters,
they strive to appear before him to the best advantage,
and by their manner assiduously invite attention
to themselves. There are but two things
which at all depress the mind of the slave in market;
these are, the possibility of obtaining a bad master,
and that of being separated from their relations.
The first, however, seldom troubles them, and the
degree in which they are governed by this apprehension
depends wholly upon their former treatment.
With individuals who have been blessed
with a partial master it may weigh much, but with
the generality of slaves it is a light consideration.
The latter apprehension is in a great measure lessened
by a certainty of being sold together to the
same individual, if possible. It is a rule seldom
deviated from, to sell families and relations together,
if practicable, and if not, at least to masters
residing in the neighbourhood of each other. A
negro trader, in my presence, refused to sell a negro
girl, for whom a planter offered a high price,
because he would not also purchase her sister—
“for,” said the trader, “they are much attached to
each other, and when their mother died I promised
her I would not part them.”

Relatives, except husband and wife, often prefer
being sold to different masters in the same neighbourhood.
This is to be attributed to the roving
propensity of their race, which induces them to prefer
a separation of this nature, for a pretence to
visit from one plantation to another on Sabbaths
and Christmas holydays, at which season the slaves

have a temporary freedom for several days. Then
the highways, lanes, and streets, in town and country,
are filled with gay parties on foot or on plough-horses,
caparisoned for the occasion, as happy as
the total absence of care, thoughtlessness of to-morrow,
plenty of whiskey, and a cessation of all
labour, can make them.