hold subordinate situations under them.
We were hardly prepared, therefore, on reaching this pen to be received,
in the absence of the master, by a good-looking coloured housekeeper,
with a face as full of kindness and benevolence as one could wish to
see, but "the pen" had yesterday been cleared out, with the exception of
one woman with her six little children, the youngest only a year old,
and two young brothers, neither of whom the dealer had sold, as he had
been unable to find a purchaser who would take them without separating
them, and he was determined not to sell them till he could. In the case
both of the woman and of the two boys, their sale to the dealer had been
caused by the bankruptcy of the owner. The woman had a husband, but
having a different master, he retained his place, and his master
promised that when his wife got a new home he would send him to join
her.

No doubt this separation of families is a crying evil, and perhaps the
greatest practical one, as respects hardship, to which the system is
necessarily subject; but certainly, from what we have seen and heard
to-day, it does not seem to be harshly done, and pains are taken to
avoid it: the woman said she had been always kindly treated, and there
was not the slightest difficulty made by the dark duenna to our
conversing with the slaves as freely as we liked, and she left us with
the whole group. The woman took us to see her baby, and we found it in a
large and well ventilated room, and she said they had always as much and
as good food as they could wish. She said she was forty-five years old,
and had ten children living, but the four eldest were grown up. The
eldest of those she had with her was a little girl of about thirteen;
she said, in answer to a question from papa, that the children had made
a great piece of work at parting with their father, but the woman
herself seemed quite cheerful and satisfied with her prospects.

On our journey here there were a great many slaves in the car with us,
coming to pass their Sunday at Lexington. They seemed exceedingly merry,
and one, whom papa sat next, said he had accumulated $950, and that when
he got $1900, he would be able to purchase his freedom. He said his
master was a rich man, having $300,000, and that he was very well
treated; but that some masters did behave very badly to their slaves,
and often beat them whether they deserved it or not. From the specimen
we had of those in the cars, they see