ECTS--MASTER AULD'S EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF
SLAVERY--CITY SLAVES--PLANTATION SLAVES--THE CONTRAST--EXCEPTIONS--MR.
HAMILTON'S TWO SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY--MRS. HAMILTON'S CRUEL
TREATMENT OF THEM--THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED--NO POWER MUST COME
BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER.

Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which almost
raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of summer;
walled in on all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops of
hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at every street corner; with new
and strange objects glaring upon me at every step, and with startling
sounds reaching my ears from all directions, I for a time thought that,
after all, the home plantation was a more desirable place of residence
than my home on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country eyes and ears
were confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my chief trouble.
They chased me, and called me _"Eastern Shore man,"_ till really I
almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to undergo a sort
of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I did much better. My new
mistress happily proved to be all she _seemed_ to be, when, with her
husband, she met me at{111} the door, with a most beaming, benignant
countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind,
gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and
feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally
characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind "Miss"
Sophia's manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never been
a slaveholder, but had--a thing quite unusual in the south--depended
almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the
dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural
goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an
angel into a demon. I hardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha,"
as I used to call Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the
plantation; I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach
her as I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang down
my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no pride to scorn
me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to inspire me with fear? I
therefore soon learned to regard her as something more akin to a mother,
than a slaveholding mistress. The crouching s