It was
forwarded by the free and independent gentleman who had caused it
to be amputated, with a polite request that he would place the
specimen in his 'collection.'
I could enlarge this catalogue with broken arms, and broken legs,
and gashed flesh, and missing teeth, and lacerated backs, and bites
of dogs, and brands of red-hot irons innumerable: but as my
readers will be sufficiently sickened and repelled already, I will
turn to another branch of the subject.
These advertisements, of which a similar collection might be made
for every year, and month, and week, and day; and which are coolly
read in families as things of course, and as a part of the current
news and small-talk; will serve to show how very much the slaves
profit by public opinion, and how tender it is in their behalf.
But it may be worth while to inquire how the slave-owners, and the
class of society to which great numbers of them belong, defer to
public opinion in their conduct, not to their slaves but to each
other; how they are accustomed to restrain their passions; what
their bearing is among themselves; whether they are fierce or
gentle; whether their social customs be brutal, sanguinary, and
violent, or bear the impress of civilisation and refinement.
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