them, and that
he was the means of transferring them from worse masters to better; that
he never parted families, though of course he could not control their
fate, either before they came into his hands, or after they left him. He
said he frequently left his concerns for weeks together, under the care
of his head slave, whose wife he had made free, and promised the same
boon to him, if he conducted himself well a few years longer. I thought
it right to intimate my view of the nature of slavery and the slave
trade, and that I deemed it wholly inconsistent with the plain precept
"do unto others as ye would they should do unto you." This he did not
attempt to controvert, yet he stated in extenuation, that the law
permitted the trade in slaves, though he should be as willing as any one
to have the system abolished, if the State would grant them compensation
for their property. He farther said, that he was born in a slave State,
that his mother had been for fifty years a member of the Wesleyan body,
and that though he had not joined a Christian church himself, he had
never sworn an oath, nor committed an immoral act in his life. He also
shewed, I think, convincingly, that dealing in slaves was not worse than
slave holding. On leaving the premises, we found the door of his office
had been locked upon us during this conference. I subsequently learned
that this person, though living in considerable style, was not generally
received in respectable society, and that a lady whom he had lately
married, was shunned by her former acquaintance. Such is the testimony
of the slave-holders of Baltimore against slave dealing, by which they
condemn themselves in the sight of God and man, and add the guilt of
hypocrisy to their own sin. Some time afterwards I addressed the
following letter to this individual, which was published in many of the
American papers:

"To HOPE H. SLAUGHTER, _Slave Trader, Baltimore_:

"Since thou courteously allowed me, in company with my friend,
J.G. Whittier, to visit thy slave establishment in the city of
Baltimore, some weeks since, I have often felt a desire to
address a few lines to thee. I need not, perhaps, say that my
feelings were painfully exercised in looking over thy buildings,
fitted up with bolts and bars, for the reception of human beings
for sale. A sense of the misery and suffering of the unfortunate
slaves, who have been from time to time confined there--o