t, need not to be recorded
here. The works of some of them are an enduring monument of praise, and
their perpetual record shall be found in the grateful hearts of the
redeemed bondman.

Few persons have had greater facilities for becoming acquainted with
slavery, in all its horrible aspects, than William W. Brown. He
has been behind the curtain. He has visited its secret chambers. Its
iron has entered his own soul. The dearest ties of nature have been
riven in his own person. A mother has been cruelly scourged before his
own eyes. A father,--alas! slaves have no father. A brother has been
made the subject of its tender mercies. A sister has been given up to
the irresponsible control of the pale-faced oppressor. This nation looks
on approvingly. The American Union sanctions the deed. The Constitution
shields the criminals. American religion sanctifies the crime. But the
tide is turning. Already, a mighty under-current is sweeping onward. The
voice of warning, of remonstrance, of rebuke, of entreaty, has gone
forth. Hand is linked in hand, and heart mingles with heart, in this
great work of the slave's deliverance.

The convulsive throes of the monster, even now, give evidence of deep
wounds.

The writer of this Narrative was hired by his master to a
"_soul-driver_," and has witnessed all the horrors of the traffic, from
the buying up of human cattle in the slave-breeding States, which
produced a constant scene of separating the victims from all those whom
they loved, to their final sale in the southern market, to be worked up
in seven years, or given over to minister to the lust of southern
_Christians_.

Many harrowing scenes are graphically portrayed; and yet with that
simplicity and ingenuousness which carries with it a conviction of the
truthfulness of the picture.

This book will do much to unmask those who have "clothed themselves in
the livery of the court of heaven" to cover up the enormity of their
deeds.

During the past three years, the author has devoted his entire energies
to the anti-slavery cause. Laboring under all the disabilities and
disadvantages growing out of his education in slavery--subjected, as he
had been from his birth, to all the wrongs and deprivations incident to
his condition--he yet went forth, impelled to the work by a love of
liberty--stimulated by the remembrance of his own sufferings--urged on
by the consideration that a mother, brothers, and sister, were still
grinding in the