Clotel, or The Presidents Daughter | Page 5

as our slaves are, is
civilly a separation by death; and they believe that, in the sight of God,
it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such cases would
be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships and strong
temptation, but to church-censure for acting in obedience to their
masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a regulation at
variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit of that command
which regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves are not free
agents; and a dissolution by death is not more entirely without their
consent, and beyond their control than by such separation."
Although marriage, as the above indicates, is a matter which the
slaveholders do not think is of any importance, or of any binding force
with their slaves; yet it would be doing that degraded class an injustice,
not to acknowledge that many of them do regard it as a sacred
obligation, and show a willingness to obey the commands of God on
this subject. Marriage is, indeed, the first and most important institution
of human existence--the foundation of all civilisation and culture--the
root of church and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart
formed among mankind; and for many persons the only relation in
which they feel the true sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for
every human virtue, since each of these is developed from the love and
confidence which here predominate. It unites all which ennobles and
beautifies life,--sympathy, kindness of will and deed, gratitude,
devotion, and every delicate, intimate feeling. As the only asylum for
true education, it is the first and last sanctuary of human culture. As
husband and wife, through each other become conscious of complete
humanity, and every human feeling, and every human virtue; so
children, at their first awakening in the fond covenant of love between
parents, both of whom are tenderly concerned for the same object, find
an image of complete humanity leagued in free love. The spirit of love

which prevails between them acts with creative power upon the young
mind, and awakens every germ of goodness within it. This invisible
and incalculable influence of parental life acts more upon the child than
all the efforts of education, whether by means of instruction, precept, or
exhortation. If this be a true picture of the vast influence for good of the
institution of marriage, what must be the moral degradation of that
people to whom marriage is denied? Not content with depriving them
of all the higher and holier enjoyments of this relation, by degrading
and darkening their souls, the slaveholder denies to his victim even that
slight alleviation of his misery, which would result from the marriage
relation being protected by law and public opinion. Such is the
influence of slavery in the United States, that the ministers of religion,
even in the so-called free states, are the mere echoes, instead of the
correctors, of public sentiment. We have thought it advisable to show
that the present system of chattel slavery in America undermines the
entire social condition of man, so as to prepare the reader for the
following narrative of slave life, in that otherwise happy and
prosperous country.
In all the large towns in the Southern States, there is a class of slaves
who are permitted to hire their time of their owners, and for which they
pay a high price. These are mulatto women, or quadroons, as they are
familiarly known, and are distinguished for their fascinating beauty.
The handsomest usually pays the highest price for her time. Many of
these women are the favourites of persons who furnish them with the
means of paying their owners, and not a few are dressed in the most
extravagant manner. Reader, when you take into consideration the fact,
that amongst the slave population no safeguard is thrown around virtue,
and no inducement held out to slave women to be chaste, you will not
be surprised when we tell you that immorality and vice pervade the
cities of the Southern States in a manner unknown in the cities and
towns of the Northern States. Indeed most of the slave women have no
higher aspiration than that of becoming the finely-dressed mistress of
some white man. And at Negro balls and parties, this class of women
usually cut the greatest figure.
At the close of the year, the following advertisement appeared in a

newspaper published in Richmond, the capital of the state of
Virginia:--"Notice: Thirty-eight Negroes will be offered for sale on
Monday, November 10th, at twelve o'clock, being the entire stock of
the late John Graves, Esq. The Negroes are in good condition, some of
them very prime; among them are several mechanics, able-bodied field
hands, ploughboys, and women with children at