rmined. "But was
she not fiendish, or beside herself with passion?" No, she
was most tender and affectionate, and all her passion was
that of a _mother's fondest love_. I reasoned with her, said
the preacher; tried to awaken a sense of guilt, and lead her
to repentance and to Christ. But there was no remorse, no
desire of pardon, no reception of Christ or his religion. To
her it was a religion of _slavery_, more cruel than death.
And where had she lived? where thus taught? Not down among
the rice swamps of Georgia, or on the banks of Red River. No,
but within sixteen miles of the Queen City of the West! In a
nominally Christian family--whose master was most liberal in
support of the Gospel, and whose mistress was a communicant
at the Lord's table, and a professed follower of Christ!
Here, in this family, where slavery is found in its mildest
form, she had been kept in ignorance of God's will and word,
and learned to know that the mildest form of American
slavery, at this day of Christian civilization and Democratic
liberty, was worse than death itself! She had learned by an
experience of many years, that it was so bad she had rather
take the life of her own dearest child, without the hope of
Heaven for herself, than that _it_ should experience its
unutterable agonies, which were to be found even in a
Christian family! But here are her two little boys, of eight
and ten years of age. Taking the eldest boy by the hand, the
preacher said to him, kindly and gently, "Come here, my boy;
what is your name?" "Tom, sir." "Yes, _Thomas_." "No sir,
_Tom_." "Well, Tom, how old are you?" "Three _months_." "And
how old is your little brother?" "Six _months_, sir!" "And
have you no other name but Tom?" "No." "What is your father's
name?" "Haven't got any!" "Who made you, Tom?" "Nobody!" "Did
you ever hear of God or Jesus Christ?" "No, sir." And this
was slavery in its best estate. By and by the aged couple,
and the young man and his wife, the remaining children, with
the master, and the dead body of the little one, were
escorted through the streets of the Queen City of the West by
a _national guard of armed men_, back to the great and
chivalrous State of old Kentucky and away to the shambles of
the South--back to a life-long servitude of hopeless d