ded in his favor, and the House adjourned till the
beginning of the following week.

In the afternoon, I proceeded, by a steam packet, with one of my
friends, to Alexandria, about six miles distant, on the other side of
the Potomac. A merchant, to whom I had an introduction, kindly
accompanied us to a slave-trading establishment there, which is
considered the principal one in the District. The proprietor was absent;
but the person in charge, a stout, middle-aged man, with a good-natured
countenance, that little indicated his employment, readily consented to
show us over the establishment. On passing behind the house, we looked
through a grated iron door, into a square court or yard, with very high
walls, in which were about fifty slaves. Some of the younger ones were
dancing to a fiddle, an affecting proof, in their situation, of the
degradation caused by slavery. There were others, who seemed a prey to
silent dejection. Among these was a woman, who had run away from her
master twelve years ago, and had married and lived ever since as a free
person. She was at last discovered, taken and sold, along with her
child, and would shortly be shipped to New Orleans, unless her husband
could raise the means of her redemption, which we understood he was
endeavoring to do. If he failed, they are lost to him for ever. Another
melancholy looking woman was here with her nine children, the whole
family having been sold away from their husband and father, to this
slave-dealer, for two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. This
unfeeling separation is but the beginning of their sorrows. They will,
in all probability, be re-sold at New Orleans, scattered and divided,
until not perhaps two of them are left together. The most able-bodied
negro I saw, cost the slave-dealer six hundred and eighty-five dollars.

Our guide told us that they sometimes sent from this house from fifteen
hundred to two thousand slaves to the South in a year, and that they
occasionally had three hundred to four hundred at once in their
possession. That the trade was not now so brisk, but that prices were
rising. The return and profits of this traffic appear to be entirely
regulated by the fluctuations in the value of the cotton. Women are
worth one-third less than men. But one instance of complete escape ever
occurred from these premises, though some of the slaves were
occasionally trusted out in the fields. He showed us the substantial
clothing, shoes, &c., wit