Hagars Daughter | Page 3

of which was covered with bits of glass, so that there could be no passage over it without great personal injury. The rooms in this building resembled prison cells, and in the office were to be seen iron collars, hobbles, handcuffs, thumbscrews, cowhides, chains, gags and yokes.
Walker's servant Pompey had charge of fitting the stock for the market-place. Pompey had been so long under the instructions of the heartless speculator that he appeared perfectly indifferent to the heart-rending scenes which daily confronted him.
On this particular morning, Walker brought in a number of customers to view his stock; among them a noted divine, who was considered deeply religious. The slaves were congregated in a back yard enclosed by the high wall before referred to. There were swings and benches, which made the place very much like a New England schoolyard.
Among themselves the Negroes talked. There was one woman who had been separated from her husband, and another woman whose looks expressed the anguish of her heart. There was old "Uncle Jeems," with his whiskers off, his face clean shaven, and all his gray hairs plucked out, ready to be sold for ten years younger than he was. There was Tobias, a gentleman's body servant educated at Paris, in medicine, along with his late master, sold to the speculator because of his intelligence and the temptation which the confusion of the times offered for him to attempt an escape from bondage.
"O, my God!" cried one woman, "send dy angel down once mo' ter tell me dat you's gwine ter keep yer word, Massa Lord."
"O Lord, we's been a-watchin' an' a-prayin', but de 'liverer done fergit us!" cried another, as she rocked her body violently back and forth.
It was now ten o' clock, and the daily examination of the stock began with the entrance of Walker and several customers.
"What are you wiping your eyes for?" inquired a fat, red-faced man, with a white hat set on one side of his head and a cigar in his mouth, of the woman seated on a bench.
"'Cause I left my mon behin'."
"Oh, if I buy you, I'll furnish you with a better man than you left. I've got lots of young bucks on my farm," replied the man.
"I don't want anudder mon, an' I tell you, massa, I nebber will hab anudder mon."
"What's your name?" asked a man in a straw hat, of a Negro standing with arms folded across his breast and leaning against the wall.
"Aaron, sar."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-five."
"Where were you raised?"
"In Virginny, sar."
"How many men have owned you?"
"Fo."
"Do you enjoy good health?"
"Yas, sar."
"Whipped much?"
"No, sar. I s'pose I didn't desarve it, sar."
"I must see your back, so as to know how much you've been whipped, before I conclude a bargain."
"Cum, unharness yoseff, ole boy. Don't you hear the gemman say he wants to zammin yer?" said Pompey.
The speculator, meanwhile, was showing particular attention to the most noted and influential physician of Charleston. The doctor picked out a man and a woman as articles that he desired for his plantation, and Walker proceeded to examine them.
"Well, my boy, speak up and tell the doctor what's your name."
"Sam, sar, is my name."
"How old are you?"
"Ef I live ter see next corn plantin' I'll be twenty-seven, or thirty, or thirty-five, I dunno which."
"Ha, ha ha! Well, doctor, this is a green boy. Are you sound?"
"Yas, sar; I spec' I is."
"Open your mouth, and let me see your teeth. I allers judge a nigger's age by his teeth, same as I do a hoss. Good appetite?"
"Yas, sar."
"Get out on that plank and dance. I want to see how supple you are."
"I don't like to dance, massa; I'se got religion."
"Got religion, have you? So much the better. I like to deal in the gospel, doctor. He'll suit you. Now, my gal, what's your name?"
"I is Big Jane, sar."
"How old are you?"
"Don' know, sar; but I was born at sweet pertater time."
"Well, do you know who made you?"
"I hev heard who it was in de Bible, but I done fergit de gemman's name."
"Well, doctor, this is the greenest lot of niggers I've had for some time, but you may have Sam for a thousand dollars and Jane for nine hundred. They are worth all I ask for them."
"Well, Walter, I reckon I'll take them," replied the doctor.
"I'll put the handcuffs on 'em, and then you can pay me."
"Why," remarked the doctor, "there comes Reverend Pinchen."
"It is Mr. Pinchen as I live; jest the very man I want to see." As the reverend gentleman entered the enclosure, the trader grasped his hand, saying: "Why, how do you do, Mr. Pinchen? Come down to Charleston to the Convention, I s'pose? Glorious time, sir, glorious; but it will be gloriouser when the new government has spread our institootions all over the conquered