business; and, coming up to the
group, began to examine them systematically. From the moment that Tom
saw him approaching, he felt an immediate and revolting horror at him,
that increased as he came near. He was evidently, though short, of
gigantic strength. His round, bullet head, large, light-gray eyes,
with their shaggy, sandy eyebrows, and stiff, wiry, sun-burned hair,
were rather unprepossessing items, it is to be confessed; his large,
coarse mouth was distended with tobacco, the juice of which, from time
to time, he ejected from him with great decision and explosive force;
his hands were immensely large, hairy, sun-burned, freckled, and very
dirty, and garnished with long nails, in a very foul condition. This
man proceeded to a very free personal examination of the lot. He
seized Tom by the jaw, and pulled open his mouth to inspect his teeth;
made him strip up his sleeve to shew his muscle; turned him round,
made him jump and spring, to shew his paces.' Almost immediately, Tom
was ordered to mount the block. 'Tom stepped upon the block, gave a
few anxious looks round; all seemed mingled in a common, indistinct
noise--the clatter of the salesman crying off his qualifications in
French and English, the quick fire of French and English bids; and
almost in a moment came the final thump of the hammer, and the clear
ring on the last syllable of the word "_dollars_," as the auctioneer
announced his price, and Tom was made over.--He had a master!

'He was pushed from the block; the short, bullet-headed man, seizing
him roughly by the shoulder, pushed him to one side, saying, in a
harsh voice: "Stand there, _you_!"'

By his new and rude master, Tom was forthwith marched off; put on
board a vessel for a distant cotton-plantation on Red River; stripped
of his decent apparel by his savage owner, and dressed in the meanest
habiliments. The treatment of the poor negro was now most revolting.
He was wrought hard under a burning sun; half-starved; scourged;
loaded with the grossest abuse. All this ends in a rapid decline of
health; and his story terminates with an account of his death, his
last moments being dignified by a strong sentiment of piety, and of
forgiveness towards his inhuman taskmaster.

We have now presented a sufficiently ample abstract of _Uncle Tom's
Cabin_, a work which will undoubtedly be perused at length by all who
feel deeply on the subject of negro slavery. Of the authoress, Mrs H.
B. Stowe, it may be s