THE FATE OF A HANDSOME SLAVE (From the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 846, 10 September 1853, Page 4

THE FATE OF A HANDSOME SLAVE (From the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.)

Among those unfortunates guilty of loving freedom too well was a beautiful young quadroon girl, named Emily Russell, whose mother is now living in New York. The writer has seen and conversed with her. She is a pious woman, highly respected, a member of the Christian Church. By the avails of her own industry she purchased her freedom, and also redeemed from bondage some of her children. Emily was a resident of Washington, D. C, a place which belong?, not to any state, but to the United* States j she was held as a slave. She was of a gentle disposition and amiable manners ; she bad been early touched with a sense of religious things, and was on the very point of uniting herself to the Christian Church ; but her heart yearned after her widowed mother and after her freedom, and so, on the fatal night when all other poor victims sought escape by the Pearl, the child Emily went also among them. They were taken. The sin of the poor girl was inexpiable. Because she longed for her mother's arms and liberty, she could not be forgiven. Nothing would do for such a sin, but to throw her into the hands of the trader. She also was thrown into Bruin's and Hill's gaol, in Alexandria. Her poor mother in New York received the following letter from her. Head it,

Christian mother, and think what If your daughter had written it to you ! "Alexandria, Jan. 22, 1850. " My dear Mother, — I take this opportunity of writing to inform you that I am in Bruin's gaol ; and Aunt Sally and all her children, and Aunt Hager and all her children, and grandmother it almost crazy. My dear mother will you please to come on as soon at you can. 1 expect to go away very shortly. Oh mother, my dear mother, come now and see your distressed and heartbroken daughter once f Mother, my dear mother, do not forsake me, for I feel desolate. Please to come now. Your daughter, Emily Russell. "P.S. — If you do not come as far as Alexandria, come t« Washington, and do what you can," The letter, blotted and teat' soiled, was brought by the poor washerwoman to some Christian friendt in New York, and shown' to them. " What do you suppose they will ask 1 for her ?'* was the question. All that she bad, her little bouse, her little furniture, her small earnings — all these poor Nancy was willing to throw in ; butall these were but as a drop in the bucket. The first thing to be done, then, was to ascertain what Emily could be redeemed for ; and as it may be an interesting item in American trade, we give the reply of the traders in full : — " Alexandria, Jan. 31, 1850. " Dear Sir, — When 1 received your letter I had not bought the negroes you spoke of, but since that time I have bought them. All that I hare to say about the matter is, that we paid very high ior the negroes and cannot afford tosell the girl Emily for less than 1800 dollars. This may seem a high price to you, but, cotton being very high, consequently slaves are high. We have two or three offers for Emily from the gentlemen of the south. She is said to be the finest looking woman in this country. As for Hager and her seven children we will take 2500 dollars for them. Sally and her four children, we will take for them 2800 dollars. You may seem a little surprised at the difference in prices, but the difference in the negroes make the difference id price. We expect to start south with the negroes on Bth February, and if you intend to do anything, you had better do it soon. " Yours, respectfully, " Bruin and Hili." This letter came to New York before the case of the Edmonsons bad called attention to this subject. The enormous price asked entirely discouraged effort, and before anything of importance was done, they heard that the coffin had departed, and Emily with it. Hear, Q, heavens, and give ear, 0, earth ! Let it be known in all the countries of the earth that the price of a Christian girl in America when she is set up to be sold to a life of shame is from 1800 to 2000 dollars ; and yet judicatories in tbe Church of Christ have said in solemn conclave that American slavery, as it is. is no evil 1* From tbe table of the sacrament and tbe sanctuary of the Church of Christ this girl was torn away, and because her beauty was a saleable article in the slave market in New Orleans ! Perhaps some northern apologist for slavery will say she was kindly treated here — not handcuffed by the wrist, to a chain, and forced to walk, as articles less choice are ; that a waggon was provided, and that she rode ; and that food abundant was given her to eat, and that her clothing was warm and comfortable, and, therefore, no j barm was done. We have heard it told us, again and again, there is no harm in slavery, if one is only warm enough, and full fed, and comfortable. It is true that the slave-woman has no protection from the foulest dishonour and the utmost insulc that can be- offered to womanhood — none whatever in law or Gospel ; but so long as she bag enough to eat and to wear, our Christian fathers a nd mothers tell us it is not so bad { Poor Emily could not think so. There was no eye to pity, and none to help. The food of her accursed lot did not nourish her : the warmest clothing could not keep the chill of slavery from her heart. In the middle of the overland passage, sick, weary, heart-broken, the child laid her down and died. By that lonely pillow there tvas no mother, but there was one friend who loveth at all times, and who is closer than a brother. Could our eyes be touched by the seal of faith, where others see only the wilderness and the dying girl, we, perhaps, should see one clothed in celestial beauty, waiting for that' short agony to be over, that He might redeem her from all iniquity, and present her faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Even the hard-hearted trader was touched with her sad fate, and we are credibly informed that ho was sorry be had taken her. Bruin and Hill wrote to New York that the girl Emily was dead. The Quaker, William Harned, w<?nt with the letter to break the news to her mother. Since she had given up all hope of redeeming her daughter from the dreadful doom to which she had been sold, the helpless mother had dropped like a stricken woman. She no longer lifted up her head, or appeared to take any interest in life. When Mr. Harned called on her, she asked eagerly "Have you heard anything from my daughter?" " Yes, I have," was the reply. " a letter from Brnin and Hill." "And what is the news ?" He thought it b*st to give a direct answer — " Emily is dead." The poor mother clasped her hands, and looking upwards, said " the Lord be thanked ! He has heard my prayer at last I And now, will it be said that this is an exceptional case — that it happens one time in a thousand ? Though we know this it the foulest of falsehoods, and that the case is only a specimen of what is acting every day in the American slave trade, yet, for argument's sake, let us for once admit it to be true. If only onqe in this nation, under the protection of our law, a Christian girl bad been torn from tbe altar and the communion table, and sold to tbe foulest shame and dishonour, would that have been a slight sin ?

* The words of the Georgia Annual Conference: — Resolved — " That slavery, as it exists in the United States, is not a moral evil."