42
A NEGRO MOTHER.
of this, it is said that in*Africa husbands will sell their wives and children, brothers their sisters, mothers their daughters, for a mere trifle. I am aware that such has been the case, particularly in times of scarcity, when part of a family has been disposed of to provide food for the rest. The Capuchin friars, in their mission to Congo, mention, that one day hearing a man making a great outcry, and saying, “ I have no wife, no child, no brother ! Miserable wretch that I am ! I once had all these, but I sold them ;" they asked him the reason for his acting so. “ To purchase drink," was the reply ; “ and if I had them again, I should do the same." But this is a single circumstance ; possibly, such an utter want of feeling would not be found in the rest of the tribe. Why should not love pervade the breast of the black as well as the white ? That it does do so, may be proved by many pathetic instances. A master of slaves in Kingston, Jamaica, owned a negro who was the mother of two fine little boys. Being in want of cash, the master disposed of one. The poor mother, in the agony of maternal feeling at having her offspring thus turned from her, made a hideous lamentation ; and for this crime, as it was termed, her owner commanded her to receive a severe flogging. She had still one, however, left, and she would sit for hours, holding it in her arms, and pouring upon its unconscious ear her tale of sorrow. But alas ! the spoiler came again : her master wanted more money, and regardless of the heart-rending cries of the distracted mother, who begged him not to take her last, her best-beloved, the child was sold. This utter bereavement “ turned her heart within her," and caused “ the light of madness" to kindle in her eye. A short time ago, I was speaking to an old woman whom I knew when she was a slave upon M'Kinnon's estate ; and among other questions, I asked her, “ Juncho," (her name,) "are you happier now than when you was a slave—are you better off now than you was then ? or would you be satisfied