, whenever or wherever he might meet him, though it might be in a
crowded assembly, where the lives of innocent persons were endangered.

A case of this kind happened in Kentucky, where the belligerent parties
met in a large concourse of people, the majority of them women and
children; but the combat ensued, regardless of consequences. One woman was
shot through the face, but that was not worthy of notice, for she was
only a _colored woman_; and in that, as in other slave States, the laws
give to the white population the liberty to trample under foot the claims
of all such persons to justice. Justly indignant ladies present
remonstrated, but all to no purpose. The Governor of the State was there
and was in danger of being wounded by their flying bullets, and it is
possible that if he had been in the place of the poor African, some action
would have been taken, and laws made to protect the people against such
inhuman practices. But I must return to Capt. Helm and the vendue.

The sale continued for several days, during which there was no such thing
as rest or sleep or one quiet moment on the premises. As was customary in
that State, Capt. Helm provided the food and drink for all who came, and
of course a great many came to drink and revel and not to buy; and that
class generally took the night time for their hideous outbreaks, when
the more respectable class had retired to their beds or to their homes.
And many foul deeds and cruel outrages were committed; nor could the
perpetrators be detected or brought to justice. Nothing could be done
but to submit quietly to their depredations.

One peaceable old slave was killed by having his head split open with an
ax. He was found in the morning lying in the yard, with the bloody
instrument of death by his side. This occasioned some excitement
among the slaves, but as the white people paid but little attention to it,
it soon passed off, and the sorrowful slaves put the old man's remains in
a rough box, and conveyed them to their last resting-place.

After the sale was over, the slaves were allowed a holiday, with
permission to go and visit their friends and relatives previous to their
departure for their new home in a strange land.

The slaves generally on Capt. Helm's plantation looked upon this removal
as the greatest hardship they had ever met; the severest trial they had
ever endured; and the separation from our old home and fellow-slaves,
from our relatives and the old St