I know), it is a pity that you have not an
opportunity of seeing the situation of those who are recognized as
slaves (all that are such don't wear the collar, you know, nor do all
that wear it show it); it is a black chapter, and no _joke_, I can tell
you.

You ask after the Sullys, and I am sorry to say that the little I saw or
heard of them previous to my leaving Philadelphia was not pleasant. He
had had some disagreeable contention with the St. George's Society about
the exhibition of his picture of the queen. The dispute ended, I
believe, in his painting two; the one for the society, and the other for
his own purposes of exhibition, sale or engraving. He spoke with delight
of having made your acquaintance, and of some evenings he spent at your
house. I think it very probable that he will revisit Europe; and I hope
for his sake that he will get to Italy....

F. A. B.

BUTLER'S ISLAND, Georgia, January 30th, 1839.
DEAREST EMILY,

I am told that a total change in my opinions upon slavery was
anticipated from my residence on a plantation; a statement which only
convinces me that one may live in the most intimate relations with
one's fellow-creatures, and really know nothing about them after all. On
what ground such an idea could be entertained I cannot conceive, or on
what part of my character it could be founded, to which (if I do not
mistake myself, even more than I am misunderstood by others) injustice
is the most revolting species of cruelty.

My dear friend, do not, do not repine, but rather rejoice for your
brother's own sake, that wealth is cut off from him at such a source as
slavery. [Mr. Fitzhugh had owned West Indian property, which his sister
thought had been rendered worthless by the emancipation of the slaves.]
It would be better in my mind to beg, and to see one's children beg,
than to live by these means, thinking of them as I do....

It seems to me as if the worst result of this system, fraught as it is
with bad ones, is the perversion of mind which it appears to engender in
those who uphold it. I remember how hard our Saviour pronounced it to be
for a rich man to enter into heaven, and as I look round upon these
rice-fields, with their population of human beings, each one of whom is
valued at so much silver and gold, and listen to the beat of that
steam-mill, which I heard commended the other day as a "m