"

The old man also showed me letters from other individuals, and one from
the Rev. Matthew A. Turner, pastor of Asbury Chapel, where himself and his
daughters were members. He was himself free, but his wife was a slave.
Those two daughters were two out of fifteen children he had raised for the
owner of his wife. These two girls had been sold, along with four
brothers, to the traders, for an attempt to escape to the North, and gain
their freedom.

On the next Sabbath evening, I threw the case before my people, and the
first fifty dollars of the sum was raised to restore the old man his
daughters. Subsequently the case was taken up under the management of a
committee of ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, consisting of
the Rev. Gr. Peck, D.D., Rev. E.E. Griswold, and Rev. D. Curry, and the
entire sum of 2,250 dollars, (L450.) was raised for two girls, fourteen
and sixteen years of age!

But why this enormous sum for two mere children? Ah, reader, they were
reared under the mildest form of slavery known to the laws of Maryland!
The mother is an invalid, and allowed to live with her free husband; but
she is a woman of excellent mind, and has bestowed great pains upon her
daughters. If you would know, then, why these girls were held at such a
price, even to their own father, read the following extract of a letter
from one who was actively engaged in behalf of them, and who had several
interviews with the traders to induce them to reduce the price, but
without success. Writing from Washington, D.C., September 12th, 1848, this
gentleman says to William Harned, "The truth is, _and is confessed to be,
that their destination is prostitution_; of this you would be satisfied on
seeing them: they are of elegant form, and fine faces."

And such, dear reader, is the sad fate of hundreds of my young
countrywomen, natives of my native state. Such is the fate of many who are
not only reared under the mildest form of slavery, but of those who have
been made acquainted with the milder system of the Prince of Peace.

When Christians, and Christian ministers, then, talk about the "mildest
form of slavery,"--"Christian masters," &c., I say my feelings are
outraged. It is a great mistake to offer these as an extenuation of the
system. It is calculated to mislead the public mind. The opinion seems to
prevail, that the negro, after having toiled as a slave for centuries to
enrich his white brother, to lay the foundation of his prou