roused my sympathies
very much. I could not speak to her, for the past and the future were
too plainly told in her face. I spoke to another, a bright-looking girl
of twelve. 'Where were you raised?'--'In Kentucky.'--'And why are you to
be sold?'--'The trader came to Kentucky, bought me, and brought me
here.' I thought what right had I to be homesick, when that poor girl
had left all her kindred for life without her consent.

"I could hold my tongue and look around without much outward show of
disgust, but to talk pleasantly to the trader I could not consent. He
told me that he had been brought up in the business, but he thought it a
pity.

"No buyers were present, so there was no examination that was painful to
look upon.

"The slaves were intelligent-looking, and very healthy and neat in
appearance. Those who belonged to one owner were dressed alike--some in
striped pink and white dresses, others in plaid, all a little showy. The
men were in thick trousers and coarse dark-blue jackets.

"April 5. We have been this morning to a negro church. We found it a
miserable-looking house, mostly unpainted and unplastered, but well
filled with the swarthy faces. They were singing when we entered; we
were pointed to a good seat.

"There may have been fifty persons present, all well dressed; the women
in the fanciful checkered headdresses so much favored by the negro race,
the men in clean collars, nankin trousers, and dark coats. All showed
that they were well kept and well fed.

"The audience was increased by new comers frequently, and these,
whatever the exercise might be, shook hands with those around them as
they seated themselves, and joined immediately in the services. The
singing was by the whole congregation, the minister lining out the hymns
as in the early times in New England.

"Several persons carried on the exercises from the pulpit, and in the
prayers and sermon the audience took an active part, responding in
groans, 'Oh, yes,' or 'Amen,' sometimes performing a kind of chant to
accompany the words.... A negro minister said in his prayer, 'O God, we
are not for much talking.' I was delighted at the prospect of a short
discourse, but I found his 'not much talking' exactly corresponded to 'a
good deal' in my use of words. He talked for a full hour.

"There was something pleasing in the earnestness of the preacher and the
sympathetic feeling of the audience, but their peculiar condition was
not alluded to, and