peculators,
breeders, traders, and brokers in human bodies and souls,--sets the
thing before the eyes of the civilized world in a more tangible form,
though the thing done be, after all, in its nature, the same; that is,
appropriating one set of human beings to the use and improvement of
another without any regard to their own."

"I never thought of the matter in this light," said Miss Ophelia.

"Well, I've travelled in England some, and I've looked over a good many
documents as to the state of their lower classes; and I really think
there is no denying Alfred, when he says that his slaves are better off
than a large class of the population of England. You see, you must not
infer, from what I have told you, that Alfred is what is called a hard
master; for he isn't. He is despotic, and unmerciful to insubordination;
he would shoot a fellow down with as little remorse as he would shoot
a buck, if he opposed him. But, in general, he takes a sort of pride in
having his slaves comfortably fed and accommodated.

"When I was with him, I insisted that he should do something for their
instruction; and, to please me, he did get a chaplain, and used to have
them catechized Sunday, though, I believe, in his heart, that he thought
it would do about as much good to set a chaplain over his dogs and
horses. And the fact is, that a mind stupefied and animalized by every
bad influence from the hour of birth, spending the whole of every
week-day in unreflecting toil, cannot be done much with by a few hours
on Sunday. The teachers of Sunday-schools among the manufacturing
population of England, and among plantation-hands in our country, could
perhaps testify to the same result, _there and here_. Yet some striking
exceptions there are among us, from the fact that the negro is naturally
more impressible to religious sentiment than the white."

"Well," said Miss Ophelia, "how came you to give up your plantation
life?"

"Well, we jogged on together some time, till Alfred saw plainly that
I was no planter. He thought it absurd, after he had reformed, and
altered, and improved everywhere, to suit my notions, that I still
remained unsatisfied. The fact was, it was, after all, the THING that
I hated--the using these men and women, the perpetuation of all this
ignorance, brutality and vice,--just to make money for me!

"Besides, I was always interfering in the details. Being myself one of
the laziest of mortals, I had altogether too much fell