ake care how he intercedes farther for so
formidable a virago! How can one treat such arguments seriously?

4. She is not a native of the colony, and he knows of no relation she has
there.

True: But was it not her home (so far as a slave can have a home) for
thirteen or fourteen years? Were not the connexions, friendships, and
associations of her mature life formed there? Was it not there she hoped
to spend her latter years in domestic tranquillity with her husband, free
from the lash of the taskmaster? These considerations may appear light to
Mr. Wood, but they are every thing to this poor woman.

5. He induced her, he says, to take a husband, a short time before she
left Antigua, and gave them a comfortable house in his yard, &c. &c.

This paragraph merits attention. He "_induced her to take a husband_?" If
the fact were true, what brutality of mind and manners does it not
indicate among these slave-holders? They refuse to legalize the marriages
of their slaves, but _induce_ them to form such temporary connexions as
may suit the owner's conveniency, just as they would pair the lower
animals; and this man has the effrontery to tell us so! Mary, however,
tells a very different story, (see page 17;) and her assertion,
independently of other proof, is at least as credible as Mr. Wood's. The
reader will judge for himself as to the preponderance of internal evidence
in the conflicting statements.

6. He alleges that she was, before marriage, licentious, and even depraved
in her conduct, and unfaithful to her husband afterwards.

These are serious charges. But if true, or even partially true, how comes
it that a person so correct in his family hours and arrangements as Mr.
Wood professes to be, and who expresses so edifying a horror of
licentiousness, could reconcile it to his conscience to keep in the bosom
of his family so _depraved_, as well as so _troublesome_ a character for
at least thirteen years, and confide to her for long periods too the
charge of his house and the care of his children--for such I shall shew to
have been the facts? How can he account for not having rid himself with
all speed, of so disreputable an inmate--he who values her loss so little
"in a pecuniary point of view?" How can he account for having sold _five
other slaves_ in that period, and yet have retained this shocking
woman--nay, even have refused to sell her, on more than one occasion, when
offered her full value? It could not be from