THE SLAVE-MART — ARRAY OF THE SLAVES. 321 



boast of liberty and a free government is but a farce. 

 Sncb persons do not merit being dignified by tbe 

 notice of honest men, which they court ; and, whether 

 it be in the form of a favorable mention or a criti- 

 cism, is all one to them, so long as it gives them 

 publicity. As they cater for the morbid literary ap- 

 petites of the sycophantic courtiers of the Old World, 

 who are only too eager to pick holes in our beautiful 

 and, to them, unattainable system of government, 

 a notice, to these horror fabricators, answers all 

 the purposes of an advertisement; so I shall bid 

 them farewell, only exhorting Americans to cry 

 shame on such scorpions. 



To return to the slave-mart. As I before said, 

 there were two rostrums erected, on each of which 

 an auctioneer was busily employed crying the merits 

 of the merchandise, and eagerly soliciting a bid ; both 

 were crying the same article — the second repeating, 

 word for word, all that his superior said in regard to 

 the price and quality of the article put up. 



The slaves w^ere gathered and arranged in groups 

 close by the rostrums. Neither sex had any other 

 covering than the breech-cloth, so as to display the 

 mucular system to the utmost advantage. The pur- 

 chasers, who for the most part are French planters, 

 walk in amongst them, examine their muscles, teeth, 

 and joints, make them leap to show their activity, 

 and in every way that their experience suggests 

 satisfy themselves with respect to the availability of 

 the slave. Their almost nude condition displays to 

 advantage their erect and symmetrical forms, and in 

 the women particularly, those points for which the 

 females of the East are so justly celebrated. 



V 



