"
"This shows," said I, "how God has set one thing over against another,
in this world. You and Mrs. Worth and myself would rather be the poor
honest 'watchman,' or earn our 'seventy-five cents a week,' with
'Mattie,' or even, with the loving sister who writes this letter, 'not'
have 'earned a half-dollar this winter,' than be the 'sleekest' of
well-fed slaves.
"Yet, when we are summing up the evils of slavery in the form of
indictments, we must honestly confess that it is no small thing to feed
a whole laboring class in one half of a great country with bread enough
and to spare."
Mrs. North asked if I had ever seen a slave-mart, or if I knew much by
observation of the domestic slave-trade.
"Yes," said I, "and it is in connection with this feature of slavery
that we at the North are most easily and most painfully affected. Some
of the most agonizing scenes are enacted at these auctions. They are a
part of slavery; so is the domestic slave-trade, which is the necessary
removal of the slaves from places where they cannot have employment, to
regions where their labor is in demand. In no other way can they be
disposed of, unless they are at once freed; and with many the evils of
the domestic slave-trade are the most powerful argument in favor of
emancipation.
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