ence and
sensibilities which characterize the wives and daughters of the poorest
classes equally with the richest in New England, it is most amazing that
men should overlook such misery at their own doors--nay, should forsake
their own kith and kin who are suffering under it--the mother who bore
them, the sisters who love them with all a sister's tender and
solicitous love, and run off to emancipate the fattest, sleekest, most
contented and unambitious race under heaven."

"This shows," said I, "how God has set one thing over against another,
in this world. You and Mrs. Worth and myself would rather be the poor
honest 'watchman,' or earn our 'seventy-five cents a week,' with
'Mattie,' or even, with the loving sister who writes this letter, 'not'
have 'earned a half-dollar this winter,' than be the 'sleekest' of
well-fed slaves.

"Yet, when we are summing up the evils of slavery in the form of
indictments, we must honestly confess that it is no small thing to feed
a whole laboring class in one half of a great country with bread enough
and to spare."

Mrs. North asked if I had ever seen a slave-mart, or if I knew much by
observation of the domestic slave-trade.

"Yes," said I, "and it is in connection with this feature of slavery
that we at the North are most easily and most painfully affected. Some
of the most agonizing scenes are enacted at these auctions. They are a
part of slavery; so is the domestic slave-trade, which is the necessary
removal of the slaves from places where they cannot have employment, to
regions where their labor is in demand. In no other way can they be
disposed of, unless they are at once freed; and with many the evils of
the domestic slave-trade are the most powerful argument in favor of
emancipation. That there are grievous trials and sorrows, as well as
wrongs and violence, in the disposal of slaves, is known to all. As to
those who are to remain within the State, we are told to go, if we will,
and inquire into the history of slaves who are to be publicly sold, and
take the number of cases in which a wanton disregard of a slave's
feelings can be detected. An owner is compelled to part with his
property in his slave; or, the slave is taken for debt; estates are to
be divided; an owner dies intestate; titles are to be settled,
mortgages foreclosed, the number of the household is to be reduced; and
for these and numerous other reasons new owners are to be sought for the
slaves. Here is a man