"
"How glad all this makes me feel," said he, "that I am not troubled with
slaves. If we do not like our servants or apprentices, we can get rid of
them."
"Then," said I, "you surely ought to pity those who are bound to their
slaves and have to put up with a thousand things which you say we can
escape by changing our help."
"But," said he, "can they not sell off their slaves when they please?"
"Suppose, however," said I, "that they happen to be humane, as Mr. North
is, and as we all are in the Free States! and that they are unwilling to
turn off a poor helpless creature for her faults, to be sold, and to go
they know not where!"
"Slavery," said Mr. North, "is surely a great curse. I am so glad that I
live under free institutions."
"Who made us to differ from the South in this respect? How came those
blacks there? Whose ships, whose money, imported them? You remember that
it was by the votes of Free States, that the importation of slaves was
continued for eight years beyond the time when the Southern States had
voted in the Convention that it should cease. And now what would you
have the South do with the slaves, to-day?"
"Set them all free," said he, "'break every yoke; proclaim liberty to
the captives, the opening of the prison-doors to them that are bound.
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