ke up their account in a future day: _"When he maketh inquisition for
blood, he forgetteth not the cry of the humble!"_

CHAPTER XXXI

The Middle Passage

"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon
iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously,
and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more
righteous than he?"--HAB. 1: 13.

On the lower part of a small, mean boat, on the Red river, Tom
sat,--chains on his wrists, chains on his feet, and a weight heavier
than chains lay on his heart. All had faded from his sky,--moon and
star; all had passed by him, as the trees and banks were now passing,
to return no more. Kentucky home, with wife and children, and indulgent
owners; St. Clare home, with all its refinements and splendors; the
golden head of Eva, with its saint-like eyes; the proud, gay, handsome,
seemingly careless, yet ever-kind St. Clare; hours of ease and indulgent
leisure,--all gone! and in place thereof, _what_ remains?

It is one of the bitterest apportionments of a lot of slavery, that
the negro, sympathetic and assimilative, after acquiring, in a refined
family, the tastes and feelings which form the atmosphere of such a
place, is not the less liable to become the bond-slave of the coarsest
and most brutal,--just as a chair or table, which once decorated the
superb saloon, comes, at last, battered and defaced, to the barroom of
some filthy tavern, or some low haunt of vulgar debauchery. The great
difference is, that the table and chair cannot feel, and the _man_ can;
for even a legal enactment that he shall be "taken, reputed, adjudged in
law, to be a chattel personal," cannot blot out his soul, with its own
private little world of memories, hopes, loves, fears, and desires.

Mr. Simon Legree, Tom's master, had purchased slaves at one place
and another, in New Orleans, to the number of eight, and driven them,
handcuffed, in couples of two and two, down to the good steamer Pirate,
which lay at the levee, ready for a trip up the Red river.

Having got them fairly on board, and the boat being off, he came round,
with that air of efficiency which ever characterized him, to take a
review of them. Stopping opposite to Tom, who had been attired for sale
in his best broadcloth suit, with well-starched linen and shining boots,
he briefly expressed himself as follows:

"Stand up."

Tom stood up.

"Take off that stock!" and, as Tom, enc