ed girl, was the daughter of _free_ parents in
Washington city--the capital of the freest nation under heaven! She
lived with her parents till the death of her mother. One day, when she
was near the Potomac Bridge, the sheriff overtook her, and told her
that she must go with him. She inquired what for? He made no reply, but
told her to come along, and took her immediately to a slave-auction.
Mary told him she was free; but he contradicted her, and the sale
proceeded. The auctioneer soon sold her for 350 dollars to a
Mississippi trader. She was first taken to jail; and after a few hours
was handcuffed, chained to a _man-slave_, and started in a drove of
about forty for New Orleans. Her handcuffs made her wrists swell so
much that at night they were obliged to take them off, and put fetters
round her ankles. In the morning the handcuffs were again put on. Thus
they travelled for two weeks, wading rivers, whipped up all day, and
beaten at night if they had not performed the prescribed distance. She
frequently waded rivers in her chains, with water up to her waist. The
month was October, and the air cold and frosty. After she had travelled
thus twelve or fifteen days, her arms and ankles had become so swollen
that she felt as if she could go no further. They had no beds, usually
sleeping in barns, sometimes out on the naked ground; and such were her
misery and pain that she could only lie and cry all night. Still she
was driven on for another week; and every time the trader caught her
crying he beat her, uttering fearful curses. If he caught her praying,
he said, he would "give her _hell_." Mary was a member of the Methodist
Church in Washington. There were several pious people in the company;
and at night, when the driver found them melancholy and disposed to
pray, he had a fiddle brought, and made them dance in their chains,
whipping them till they complied. Mary at length became so weak that
she really could travel on foot no further. Her feeble frame was
exhausted, and sank beneath accumulated sufferings. She was seized with
a burning fever; and the diabolical trader--not moved with pity, but
only fearing he should lose her--placed her for the remainder of the
way in a waggon. Arriving at Natchez, they were all offered for sale.
Mary, being still sick, begged she might be sold to a kind master.
Sometimes she made this request in the hearing of purchasers, but was
always insulted for it, and afterwards punished by her crue