he simply said he was unwilling
to take any further risk with them. Bruin also refused to listen to any
proposals, saying he had long had his eyes on the family and could get
twice what he paid for them in the New Orleans market.

They were first taken to the slave pens at Alexandria, where they remained
nearly a month. Here the girls were required to do the washing for a dozen
or more men with the assistance of their brothers and were at length put
aboard a steamboat and taken to Baltimore where they remained three weeks.
Through the exertions of friends at Washington, $900 was given towards
their freedom by a grandson of John Jacob Astor, and this was appropriated
towards the ransom of Richard, as his wife and children were said to be ill
and suffering at Washington. The money arrived on the morning they were to
sail for New Orleans but they had all been put aboard the brig _Union_,
which was ready to sail, and the trader refused to allow Richard to be
taken off. The voyage to New Orleans covered a period of seven days, during
which much discomfort and suffering were experienced. There were eleven
women in the party, all of whom were forced to live in one small apartment,
and the men numbering thirty-five or forty, in another not much larger.
Most of them being unaccustomed to travel by water were afflicted with all
the horrors of sea-sickness. Emily's suffering from this cause was most
pitiable and so serious was her condition at one time that the boys feared
she would die. The brothers, however, as in all circumstances, were very
kind and would tenderly carry her out on deck whenever the heat in their
close quarters became too oppressive and would buy little comforts that
were in their reach and minister in all possible ways to her relief.

In due course they arrived at New Orleans and were immediately initiated
into the horrors of a Georgia pen. The girls were required to spend much
time in the show room, where purchasers came to examine them carefully with
a view to buying them. On one occasion a youthful dandy had applied for a
young person whom he wished to install as housekeeper and the trader
decided that Emily would just about meet the requirements, but when he
called her she was found to be indulging in a fit of weeping. The youth,
therefore, refused to consider her, saying that he had no room for the
snuffles in his house. The loss of this transaction so incensed the
trader, who said he had been offered $1,