e, well fed, well cleaned, tended, and looked after, that it may
come to sale sleek, and strong, and shining. A slave-warehouse in New
Orleans is a house externally not much unlike many others, kept with
neatness; and where every day you may see arranged, under a sort of shed
along the outside, rows of men and women, who stand there as a sign of
the property sold within.

Then you shall be courteously entreated to call and examine, and shall
find an abundance of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, fathers,
mothers, and young children, to be "sold separately, or in lots to suit
the convenience of the purchaser;" and that soul immortal, once bought
with blood and anguish by the Son of God, when the earth shook, and the
rocks rent, and the graves were opened, can be sold, leased, mortgaged,
exchanged for groceries or dry goods, to suit the phases of trade, or
the fancy of the purchaser.

It was a day or two after the conversation between Marie and Miss
Ophelia, that Tom, Adolph, and about half a dozen others of the St.
Clare estate, were turned over to the loving kindness of Mr. Skeggs, the
keeper of a depot on ---- street, to await the auction, next day.

Tom had with him quite a sizable trunk full of clothing, as had most
others of them. They were ushered, for the night, into a long room,
where many other men, of all ages, sizes, and shades of complexion, were
assembled, and from which roars of laughter and unthinking merriment
were proceeding.

"Ah, ha! that's right. Go it, boys,--go it!" said Mr. Skeggs, the
keeper. "My people are always so merry! Sambo, I see!" he said,
speaking approvingly to a burly negro who was performing tricks of low
buffoonery, which occasioned the shouts which Tom had heard.

As might be imagined, Tom was in no humor to join these proceedings;
and, therefore, setting his trunk as far as possible from the noisy
group, he sat down on it, and leaned his face against the wall.

The dealers in the human article make scrupulous and systematic efforts
to promote noisy mirth among them, as a means of drowning reflection,
and rendering them insensible to their condition. The whole object of
the training to which the negro is put, from the time he is sold in
the northern market till he arrives south, is systematically directed
towards making him callous, unthinking, and brutal. The slave-dealer
collects his gang in Virginia or Kentucky, and drives them to some
convenient, healthy place,--often a w