them were lying stretched on the bare boards; and among the
rest, mothers with young children at their breasts, of which they seemed
passionately fond. They were all doomed to remain on the spot, like
sheep in a pen, till they were sold; they have no apartment to retire
to, no bed to repose on, no covering to protect them; they sit naked all
day, and lie naked all night, on the bare boards, or benches, where we
saw them exhibited.

"Among the objects that attracted my attention in this place were some
young boys, who seemed to have formed a society together. I observed
several times in passing by, that the same little group was collected
near a barred window; they seemed very fond of each other, and their
kindly feelings were never interrupted by peevishness; indeed, the
temperament of a negro child is generally so sound, that he is not
affected by those little morbid sensations, which are the frequent cause
of crossness and ill-temper in our children. I do not remember that
I ever saw a young black fretful, or out of humor; certainly never
displaying those ferocious fits of petty passion, in which the superior
nature of infant whites indulges. I sometimes brought cakes and fruit in
my pocket, and handed them in to the group. It was quite delightful to
observe the generous and disinterested manner in which they distributed
them. There was no scrambling with one another; no selfish reservation
to themselves. The child to whom I happened to give them, took them so
gently, looked so thankfully, and distributed them so generously, that
I could not help thinking that God had compensated their dusky hue, by
a more than usual human portion of amiable qualities."

Several negroes in Jamaica were to be hung. One of them was offered his
life, if he would hang the others; he preferred death. A negro slave who
was ordered to do it, asked time to prepare; he went into his cabin,
chopped off his right hand with an axe, and then came back, saying he
was ready.

Sutcliff in his Travels, speaks of meeting a coffle of slaves in
Maryland, one of whom had voluntarily gone into slavery, in hopes of
meeting her husband, who was a free black and had been stolen by
kidnappers. The poor creature was in treacherous hands, and it is a
great chance whether she ever saw her husband again.

An affecting instance of negro friendship may be found in 1 Bay's
Report, 260-3. A female slave in South Carolina was allowed to work out
in the town, on con