| A Slave Auction by William Howard Russell The auctioneer, who was an ill-favoured, dissipated-looking rascal, had his «articel» beside him on, not in, a deal packing-case, a stout young negro, badly dressed and ill-shod, who stood with all his goods fastened in a small bundle in his hand, looking out at the small and listless gathering of men, who, whistling and chewing, had moved out from the shady side of the street as they saw the man put up. The chattel character of slavery in the States renders it most repulsive. What a pity the nigger is not polypoid, so that he could be put up in junks, and each junk should reproduce itself. «A man in a cart, some volunteers in coarse uniforms, a few Irish labourers in a long van, and four or five men in the usual black coat, satin waistcoat and black hat, constituted the audience, whom the auctioneer addressed volubly: «A prime field hand! Just look at him - good-natered, well-tempered; no marks, nary signs of bad about him! En-i-ne hunthered - only nine-hun-therd and fifty dol'rs for 'em! Why, it's quite rad-aklous! Nine hundred and fifty dol'rs! I can't raly - That's good. Thank you, sir. Twenty-five bid-nine-hun-therd and fifty dol'rs for 'em and seventy-five dol'rs for this mist useful hand.» The price rose to one thousand dollars, at which the useful hand was knocked down to one of the black hats near me. The auctioneer and the negro and his buyer all walked off together to settle the transaction, and the crowd moved away. «The nigger went cheap», said one of them to a companion, as he walked towards the shade. «Yes sirr! Niggers is cheap now - that's a fact.» I must admit that I felt myself indulging in a sort of reflection whether it would not be nice to own a man as absolutely as one might possess a horse, to hold him subject to my will and pleasure as if he were a brute beast without the power of kicking or biting - to make him work for me - to hold his fate in my hands; but the thought was for a moment. It was followed by disgust.» |
