VISIT TO A SLAVE AUCTION. From the Utica Morning Herald.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 827, 1 June 1855, Page 2 (Supplement)

VISIT TO A SLAVE AUCTION. From the Uti ca Morning Herald.

New Orleans, ISth Jan., 1855.— 1 have just returned (says a correspondent) from a slave auction. The more prominent beauties of the "Institution" are perpetually thrusting themselves upon one, " will he, nil he." lus little dreamed two hours ago of attending a "negro auction" as I did of taking a trip to the moon. Let me tell you how it came about : — I was sauntering along St. Louis-street (in the French part), when I observed a crowd of negroes, composed of men, women, and children, marching, under the escort of a white man to the St. Louis Hotel. A moment af- • terwaids, I observed another gang going in the same direction, and soon utter a third. I had the curiosity to follow them, and as I entered the rotunda of the hotel, I observed, I should presume, no less than. 150 negroes ranged in iront of the different auctioneer's stands. Operations had not yet commenced. Fresh lots of negioes were constantly coming in, and the various dealers w ere making examinations of the different articles on exhibition. The immense rotunda— an elegant and most fashionable affair — was thronged with speculators, buyei->, dealers, and lookers-on. Some were smoking their Havanas — some were taking their toddies — and some were chattering on politics, the money market and the weather, 'ihe auctioneeis were slowly walking to and iro upon their elevated rostrums, like men v\ho appreciate their importance, and occasionally stopping to answer an inquiry from a. customer. The laugh, the joke, the stinging repartee, the sunny smile, the coidial greeting of friends, the courteous auctioneers, the elegant hall, the flash of fashion, ami the atmosphere of gentility pervading the gay throng ; — how unlike the horrors of my gloomy imaginings. Yet what amazing callousness ! The clock strikes 12 ! A change comes over the spirit of the scene. The batons of the auctioneers, brought down against the solid marble, act with the potency of magic upon the babbling throng. Four auctioneers, in four several sections of the rotunda, hammering away ■with frightful volubility, and still more tiightful gesticulation, at four hcveial parcels of human chatties. These four gentlemen are shouting at th« top of their ■voices, alternately in French and English, as if each mads a point of striving to diown the voices of the others. But the gentleman on my right seems to carry off the honours both as respects strength of lungs and rapidity of utterance. I wish, dear reader, you were standing near me, for I can give you but a very indifferent daguerreotype of the efforts of the popular stump orator. lie is now engaged in hauling upon the block a feeble negro woman with a sad and sickly countenance. Ilaving placed her in the proper position, with rather more expedition 1 than gentleness, with commendable candour he informs the spectators that this girl (she is aged at least forty) ib also pretending to be sick, and does not therefore warrant her. He sells her, however, at a low figure — some 400 dollars — and the next instant her place is supplied by a fine-looking, bright-eyed young mullatto woman, with an infant almost perfectly white in her arms. He inlorms his patrons that this girl is named Ann, aged 22, and fiee from the diseases and vices designated by law ; and proceeds alternately in French and English, somewhat thus : How much for the girl ? Quant donnez me pour cette Esclave ? How much do I hear for this splendid girl ? Five hundred— Cinque cents — seven hundred— six cents. Gentlemen, look at this girl ! Good nurse and seamstress. Do I hear one thousand ? One thousand is offered — one thousand — going— sold to Cash, one thousand. Next is sold for 1200 dollars, a plantation hand, named Jim , then a boy, aged about 50, named Tom, for 1000 dollars ; then two boys— mullattoes, first-rate coopers, for 1500 dollars each ; then a family composed of a mother and four children, the latter all mulattoes, for 2500 dollars. Our eloquent friend having disposed of his entire lot, proceeded, without hardly a moment's interruption, to sell a lot of real estate, &c. f The three other gentlemen auctioneers were driving on an equally flourishing, though not so rapid a trade. X>nepjf .them— a very handsome, youngish-looking man i — was devoting himself exclusively to the sale of a young mulatto woman. On the block, at the time I approached his stand, was one of the most beautiful young women I ever saw. She was aged about sixteen years, was dressed in a cheap, striped woollen gown, and bareheaded. I could not discover a single mark of the African about her features. She was much whiter than the average of northern white women ; her form was graceful in the extreme, and she carried in her head a pair of eyes that pierced one through and through. Unlike many of her captives, she seemed fully sensible of her' degraded position, and shrank with true maiden timidity ,lroni the impudent gaze of the hard-featured throng about her. Sensitive reader ! what do you think became of that beau-

tiful girl s She was struck off for 1250 dollais to ore of the most lecherous-looking old biutes lever setejoon. | God shield the helpless victim of that bad man's, pow er — it may be, ere novr, that bad man's — lust J But I was destined a moment after to witness a far sadder, raoie heart-rending scene. A noble-looking mulatto woman \vas» sitting upon a bench holding in her arms two little children— one an infant, and the other a beautiful bright-eyed little boy of some seven or eight years. Her face ore a troubled and frighttul loi k, as if she was conscious that some gi eat ewl was about to befall her. When her turn to be sold came, she ascended the platform, the babe in her arms and the little boy clinging to her skittß. The auctioneer offeied to sell the lot together, buj no responsible bids having been made, the ! mother and littls boy were put up separately and sold I to separate parties — the one going to Texas, and the other to Mississippi. The final separation of the mother and child took place a few minutes afterwards. I shall never forget the horror and agony of that parting. The poor frantic mother begged and implored of " masse r" to buy little Jemmie too, and I will do him the justice to say that he was much moved by her appeals, and when she found that her appeals were in uun, she burst forth in the roost frantic wails that ever despair gave utterance to. At last, mother and child were forcibly sepai ated and hurried off, to see each other no more on rarth. My heart is not adamant, and I execrated with more than forma ardour a system that could even permit such fiendish atrocities. 1 Thus I saw with my own eyes — thus had I thrust upon me atnost — two of the most detestable and horj rible featuips of the slave system — the sale of beautiful j young woiacn to lustful male owners, and the forcible sepaiation of parents -from their offspring. These things have been grossly denitd by Northern prints and Northern clergy, That they are exceptional I believe to be true ; but that they are tolerated in any civilized or Christian community, is a sad commentary upon the humanity of the age. | And these scenes in the rotunda of the most fashionable hotel in the city ! The air is soft and balmy, and <the day is as beautiful as ever gladdened the heart of man. The golden sunshine, streaming through the I crystal dome, b.ithcs the spacious hall m a flood of radiance. Above, around this mart of human souls, a guy and giddy throng are holding joyoiu revelry. The great hotel is thronged with wealth and beauty, and the , music ot piano and guitar are blending w ith the still ' sweeter music of glad voices. Above the din of hot and dusty streets, and above the hoarser din ot the mart bc- > low, is heard the loud laugh and heartful glee of the apostles of pleaf ure. Gay equipages are drawing up before the stately pile and fair women and bra^e men are pioiully disappearing through its portals to swell the throng. Within these sumptuous halls— amid that gay and gleeful throng— amid that flash of beauty, fashion, and wealth, where so many splendours are gatheied together — who would dream that under the same broad dome, and in th° effulgence of the same golden sunlight — crime and sin, and despair, were holding hii;h revel ? Who would dieam that the former drew thtir susterance from the latter ? Well, well ; the scene draws its own moral. Life is made up uf startling contrasts. Splendour and misery, joy and sorrow, magnificence and beggary, march ever side by side If one wears the crown, some other must wear the cross. Wherever the sun shines, there also creeps the shadow. It is, after all, better to suffer the gloom of the shadow than be without sunshine. The scene of 4I Uncle Tom's" sale, after the death of St. Clair, I ought sooner to have mentioned, ii the place I have above attempted to po srtray. Mra. dtowu has depicted it faithfully and well.