Old England. The slaves
are carried down in companies, varying in number from 20 to 500. Men of
considerable capital are engaged in the traffic. Go into the principal
towns on the Mississippi, and you will find these negro traders in the
bar-rooms boasting of their adroitness in driving human flesh, and
describing the process by which they succeed in "_taming down_ the
spirit of a _refractory_ negro." Here, then, were human beings,
children of our common Father, bone of our bone, and flesh of our
flesh, classed with the brutes that perish,--nay, degraded below them,
and placed under the surveillance of dogs. The horrors of such a system
it is impossible to exaggerate.

The majority of our fellow-passengers did nothing but gamble, eat,
drink, smoke, and spit, from morning till night. In the afternoon a
dispute arose between two of them about ten dollars, which the one
maintained he had won from the other. One of the two quickly drew out
his Bowie knife, and would certainly have stabbed the other but for the
intervention of the boat's officers. When the whites have so little
hesitation in shedding each other's blood, we cannot be surprised at
the indifference with which negro life is put an end to. "A rencontre
took place last week," says the _New Orleans Delta_, "between the
overseer of Mr. A. Collins (a planter in our vicinity) and one of the
negroes. It seems the overseer wished to chastise the negro for some
offence, and the negro resisted and struck the overseer with a spade.
The overseer grappled with him, and called some of the negroes to his
assistance; but, perceiving that the negroes were not willing to assist
him, he drew his knife, and stabbed the negro to the heart. A coroner's
inquest has been held, and a verdict given in accordance with the
circumstances, declaring the overseer justifiable."

The 14th of February was Sunday. My Baptist friend, when engaging his
passage, had given the captain a hint that, when the Sabbath came, he
should like to have divine service on board. Nothing, however, was now
said about it. Not, I think, that the officers of the boat would have
disliked it; but, considering the general character of their
passengers, they perhaps thought it would have been only "casting
pearls before swine." One passenger indeed, who _said_ he was a
Congregationalist, expressed to my friend a wish to have worship; but
he was playing at cards every day, and was in other respects no great
credit to Co