Harriet Beecher Stowe : Three Novels (24 page)

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Authors: Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Page 142
XII.
Select Incident of Lawful Trade
"In Ramah there was a voice heard,weeping, and lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted."
M
R
. Haley and Tom jogged onward in their wagon, each, for a time, absorbed in his own reflections. Now, the reflections of two men sitting side by side are a curious thing,seated on the same seat, having the same eyes, ears, hands and organs of all sorts, and having pass before their eyes the same objects,it is wonderful what a variety we shall find in these same reflections!
As, for example, Mr. Haley: he thought first of Tom's length, and breadth, and height, and what he would sell for, if he was kept fat and in good case till he got him into market. He thought of how he should make out his gang; he thought of the respective market value of certain suppositious men and women and children who were to compose it, and other kindred topics of the business; then he thought of himself, and how humane he was, that whereas other men chained their "niggers" hand and foot both, he only put fetters on the feet, and left Tom the use of his hands, as long as he behaved well; and he sighed to think how ungrateful human nature was, so that there was even room to doubt whether Tom appreciated his mercies. He had been taken in so by "niggers" whom he had favored; but still he was astonished to consider how good-natured he yet remained!
As to Tom, he was thinking over some words of an unfashionable old book, which kept running through his head, again and again, as follows: "We have here no continuing city, but we seek one to come; wherefore God himself is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared for us a city." These words of an ancient volume, got up principally by "ignorant and unlearned men," have, through all time, kept up, somehow, a strange sort of power over the minds of

 

Page 143
poor, simple fellows, like Tom. They stir up the soul from its depths, and rouse, as with trumpet call, courage, energy, and enthusiasm, where before was only the blackness of despair.
Mr. Haley pulled out of his pocket sundry newspapers, and began looking over their advertisements, with absorbed interest. He was not a remarkably fluent reader, and was in the habit of reading in a sort of recitative half-aloud, by way of calling in his ears to verify the deductions of his eyes. In this tone he slowly recited the following paragraph:
"E
XECUTOR'S
S
ALE
,N
EGROES
!Agreeably to order of court, will be sold, on Tuesday, February 20, before the Court-house door, in the town of Washington, Kentucky, the following negroes: Hagar, aged 60; John, aged 30; Ben, aged 21; Saul, aged 25; Albert, aged 14. Sold for the benefit of the creditors and heirs of the estate of Jesse Blutchford, Esq.
S
AMUEL
M
ORRIS
,
T
HOMAS
F
LINT
,
Executors."
"This yer I must look at," said he to Tom, for want of somebody else to talk to.
"Ye see, I 'm going to get up a prime gang to take down with ye, Tom; it'll make it sociable and pleasant like,good company will, ye know. We must drive right to Washington first and foremost, and then I 'll clap you into jail, while I does the business."
Tom received this agreeable intelligence quite meekly; simply wondering, in his own heart, how many of these doomed men had wives and children, and whether they would feel as he did about leaving them. It is to be confessed, too, that the naïve, off-hand information that he was to be thrown into jail by no means produced an agreeable impression on a poor fellow who had always prided himself on a strictly honest and upright course of life. Yes, Tom, we must confess it, was rather proud of his honesty, poor fellow,not having very much else to be proud of;if he had belonged to some of the higher walks of society, he, perhaps, would never have been reduced to such straits. However, the day wore on, and the evening saw Haley and Tom comfortably accommodated in Washington,the one in a tavern, and the other in a jail.

 

Page 144
About eleven o'clock the next day, a mixed throng was gathered around the court-house steps,smoking, chewing, spitting, swearing, and conversing, according to their respective tastes and turns,waiting for the auction to commence. The men and women to be sold sat in a group apart, talking in a low tone to each other. The woman who had been advertised by the name of Hagar was a regular African in feature and figure. She might have been sixty, but was older than that by hard work and disease, was partially blind, and somewhat crippled with rheumatism. By her side stood her only remaining son, Albert, a bright-looking little fellow of fourteen years. The boy was the only survivor of a large family, who had been successively sold away from her to a southern market. The mother held on to him with both her shaking hands, and eyed with intense trepidation every one who walked up to examine him.
''Don't be feard, Aunt Hagar," said the oldest of the men, "I spoke to Mas'r Thomas 'bout it, and he thought he might manage to sell you in a lot both together."
"Dey need n't call me worn out yet," said she, lifting her shaking hands. "I can cook yet, and scrub, and scour,I 'm wuth a buying, if I do come cheap;tell em dat ar,you
tell
em," she added, earnestly.
Haley here forced his way into the group, walked up to the old man, pulled his mouth open and looked in, felt of his teeth, made him stand and straighten himself, bend his back, and perform various evolutions to show his muscles; and then passed on to the next, and put him through the same trial. Walking up last to the boy, he felt of his arms, straightened his hands, and looked at his fingers, and made him jump, to show his agility.
"He an't gwine to be sold widout me!" said the old woman, with passionate eagerness; "he and I goes in a lot together; I 's rail strong yet, Mas'r, and can do heaps o' work,heaps on it, Mas'r."
"On plantation?" said Haley, with a contemptuous glance. "Likely story!" and, as if satisfied with his examination, he walked out and looked, and stood with his hands in his pocket, his cigar in his mouth, and his hat cocked on one side, ready for action.

 

Page 145
"What think of 'em?" said a man who had been following Haley's examination, as if to make up his own mind from it.
"Wal," said Haley, spitting, "I shall put in, I think, for the youngerly one and the boy."
"They want to sell the boy and the old woman together," said the man.
"Find it a tight pull;why, she's an old rack o' bones,not worth her salt."
"You would n't, then?" said the man.
"Anybody 'd be a fool 't would. She 's half blind, crooked with rheumatis, and foolish to boot."
"Some buys up these yer old critturs, and ses there's a sight more wear in 'em than a body 'd think," said the man, reflectively.
"No go, 't all," said Haley; "would n't take her for a present,fact,I 've
seen,
now."
"Wal, 't is kinder pity, now, not to buy her with her son,her heart seems so sot on him,s'pose they fling her in cheap."
"Them that's got money to spend that ar way, it's all well enough. I shall bid off on that ar boy for a plantation-hand;would n't be bothered with her, no way,not if they'd give her to me," said Haley.
"She 'll take on desp't," said the man.
"Nat'lly, she will," said the trader, coolly.
The conversation was here interrupted by a busy hum in the audience; and the auctioneer, a short, bustling, important fellow, elbowed his way into the crowd. The old woman drew in her breath, and caught instinctively at her son.
"Keep close to yer mammy, Albert,close,dey 'll put us up togedder," she said.
"O, mammy, I 'm feard they won't," said the boy.
"Dey must, child; I can't live, no ways, if they don't," said the old creature, vehemently.
The stentorian tones of the auctioneer, calling out to clear the way, now announced that the sale was about to commence. A place was cleared, and the bidding began. The different men on the list were soon knocked off at prices which showed a pretty brisk demand in the market; two of them fell to Haley.

 

Page 146
"Come, now, young un," said the auctioneer, giving the boy a touch with his hammer, "be up and show your springs, now."
"Put us two up togedder, togedder,do please, Mas'r," said the old woman, holding fast to her boy.
"Be off," said the man, gruffly, pushing her hands away; "you come last. Now, darkey, spring;" and, with the word, he pushed the boy toward the block, while a deep, heavy groan rose behind him. The boy paused, and looked back; but there was no time to stay, and, dashing the tears from his large, bright eyes, he was up in a moment.
His fine figure, alert limbs, and bright face, raised an instant competition, and half a dozen bids simultaneously met the ear of the auctioneer. Anxious, half-frightened, he looked from side to side, as he heard the clatter of contending bids,now here, now there,till the hammer fell. Haley had got him. He was pushed from the block toward his new master, but stopped one moment, and looked back, when his poor old mother, trembling in every limb, held out her shaking hands toward him.
"Buy me too, Mas'r, for de dear Lord's sake!buy me,I shall die if you don't!"
"You 'll die if I do, that's the kink of it," said Haley,"no!" And he turned on his heel.
The bidding for the poor old creature was summary. The man who had addressed Haley, and who seemed not destitute of compassion, bought her for a trifle, and the spectators began to disperse.
The poor victims of the sale, who had been brought up in one place together for years, gathered round the despairing old mother, whose agony was pitiful to see.
"Could n't dey leave me one? Mas'r allers said I should have one,he did," she repeated over and over, in heart-broken tones.
"Trust in the Lord, Aunt Hagar," said the oldest of the men, sorrowfully.
"What good will it do?" said she, sobbing passionately.
"Mother, mother,don't! don't!" said the boy. "They say you's got a good master."
"I don't care,I don't care. O, Albert! oh, my boy! you's my last baby. Lord, how ken I?"

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