ster Andrew. He was distinguished for cruelty and intemperance.
Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. Master
Andrew was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his reckless
mismanagement and profligate dissipation, wasted a large portion of old
master's property. To fall into his hands, was, therefore, considered
merely as the first step toward being sold away to the far south. He
would spend his fortune in a few years, and his farms and slaves would
be sold, we thought, at public outcry; and we should be hurried away
to the cotton fields, and rice swamps, of the sunny south. This was the
cause of deep consternation.
The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have less
attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, than have
the slaves. Their freedom to go and come,{138} to be here and there,
as they list, prevents any extravagant attachment to any one particular
place, in their case. On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has
no choice, no goal, no destination; but is pegged down to a single spot,
and must take root here, or nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere,
comes, generally, in the shape of a threat, and in punishment of crime.
It is, therefore, attended with fear and dread. A slave seldom thinks
of bettering his condition by being sold, and hence he looks upon
separation from his native place, with none of the enthusiasm which
animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they contemplate a life in
the far west, or in some distant country where they intend to rise to
wealth and distinction. Nor can those from whom they separate, give them
up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each
other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing
one that he is removed from his native place. Then, too, there is
correspondence, and there is, at least, the hope of reunion, because
reunion is _possible_. But, with the slave, all these mitigating
circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement in his condition
_probable_,--no correspondence _possible_,--no reunion attainable. His
going out into the world, is like a living man going into the tomb, who,
with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife,
children and friends of kindred tie.
In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our circumstances,
I probably suffered more than most of my fellow servants. I had known
what it was to expe
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