it would almost break his wife's heart, and
that young master George would almost go beside himself; yet he sells
poor old Tom to this infamous negro trader, notwithstanding! Ah!
"murder will out," and falsehood will out, likewise. The statements of
Mrs. Stowe are inconsistent; they are sheer fabrications: the figments
of a diseased brain.

I will again remark, that strictly honest, upright negroes, those
remarkable for their good qualities, and those who are withal, negroes
of more than ordinary value, are never sold to negro traders. The
statement that Shelby was guilty of such an act, under the
circumstances, as detailed in the preceding pages, is too absurd, too
futile, too foolish to deceive or mislead any one who knows anything
about the institution of slavery in the South; or the customs, habits,
or manners of slaveholders. The work, however, was prepared for those
whoso minds were warped by prejudice, whose judgments were beclouded
and perverted by sectional hatred and bigotry, and whose imaginations
were bewildered and distempered by the reading of abolition
publications and novels. To such it has proved a treat, yea, they have
read it with avidity and delight.

Mrs. Stowe, presuming on the gullibility of her readers, has made
other statements that I will notice. The wife of this very
kind-hearted, humane and gentlemanly man, Shelby, had a maid-servant,
by name Eliza; and Eliza had an only child; a very remarkable boy
indeed! probably about five or six years of age; if there is any truth
in her tale. Eliza was a delicate bright mulatto girl; a great
favorite with her mistress; and her child of course a great favorite
with the entire family. But, as if determined to break his wife's
heart, Shelby sells Eliza's child also, to the negro trader, Haley.
Here is another, to say the least of it, very improbable statement. If
Shelby was the man that she represents him, he would have sold the
entire dozen woolly heads that were perched on the veranda railings,
on the morning after the transaction, before he would have sold the
only child of his wife's maid-servant. The estimation in which
maid-servants and their children are held by Southern ladies, is
probably unknown to most of my Northern readers. Unless driven to it
by dire necessity, a Southern gentleman would almost as soon part
with his own children, as with his wife's maid-servant, or her
children, except for crime. Eliza is represented by Mrs. Stowe as all
p