GLIMPSES OF SLAVERY.

THERE are some things an author has a right to assume. I am perfectly justified in asserting, as a fact, that the earth moves round the sun, though, in company with nineteen-twentieths of my readers, I am utterly unacquainted with the grounds on which Galileo's discovery was established. So I do not consider it necessary to prove to my readers that slavery is a bad thing. If their knowledge of the world, and their experience of their own hearts, does not teach them what tyrants we should all be if we held irresponsible power over our fellow-creatures, let them study the records and evidence of the anti-slavery reports in the days before emancipation; and if they are not convinced that slavery is an evil to master as well as slave, I hardly know what to say to them. As to the people-if there be any such in England-who bond fide believe the stories such as I have read in Blackwood's veracious pages, of slaves with gold watches, and monies in the savingsbanks, and an intelligent preference for slavery, I can

no more argue with them than with lunatics of any other description.

It is not necessary—at least, I hope and trust it is not necessary to demonstrate the evils of slavery to the vast majority of my readers. During my residence in the States, I had neither opportunity nor inclination to make researches into the cruelties of the slavery system. The sight of misery one cannot in any way relieve is a very painful one; and personally I have such a hatred of slavery, that, while in the Slave States, I always preferred to give myself the benefit of the doubt, and try to fancy, as long as it was possible for me to do so, that the negroes I came across were free negroes, not slaves. I see little good in quoting the individual cases of cruelty or barbarity which I heard reported privately. I had not the power to trace out the truth of any particular instance, and I doubt the use of quoting exceptional instances. Like every traveller, however, who keeps his eyes open, and who is willing to see what passes before him, I caught some glimpses of the slavery system. Let me point out a few which are matters of public notoriety, resting on unquestionable documentary evidence, not on hearsay report. There may be little, perhaps, of novelty in them, but there are some facts which should be kept before the world in season and out of season; and of such, in my mind, are the facts about slavery.

Of course we all know, or if we do not know it is

not for want of telling, that the slaves are contented and happy, and have no wish for freedom. It may be so; but if so, it is hard to explain why the papers of the Slave States are filled with advertisements of runaway slaves. Every day, for instance, in the Baltimore Sun, which I used to see constantly at Washington, there appeared a row of advertisements, of which the following may be taken as types :

"3d March, 1862.

25 dollars (57.) reward. Ran away, March 2d, from "the farm of Mrs. S. B. Mayo, in Anne Arundel county,

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negro boy, John Stewart. He is 19 or 20 years of age; 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high; very prominent "mouth and large front teeth; light complexion; has 66 a stupid look when spoken to; his father lives in "Annapolis. Any one who will arrest and secure him " in jail can receive the above reward.

"T. H. GAITHER, Howard Co"."

Mr. Gaither is the owner of John Stewart, of light complexion, and had hired him to Mrs. Mayo. Doubtless, on his delivery at home, the misguided lad would have the fatted calf killed for him, in honour of the prodigal's return.

"13th March, 1862.

"200 dollars reward (407.). Ran away from the sub"scriber, living in the upper part of Calvert county, in September last, my negro man Thomas, who calls

“himself Thomas Jones. He is about 5 feet 6 to 9 "inches high; dark chestnut colour; stout and well “built; very likely; large white teeth; with full suit "of hair (plaited when he left home); the whites of "his eyes show very much when spoken to; had on "white fuiled (sic) cloth peajacket, dark cloth pantaloons, and cloth cap. I have no doubt that he is in or about Washington or Bladensburgh, as he left a day or two before Colonel Cowdin's regiment left;

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or, if in Baltimore, he is with the Jones' or Kayes', "his free relatives. I will give the above reward, if "taken out of the State of Maryland or the district "of Columbia; one hundred dollars if taken in the "district of Columbia, or any county of the State

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except Calvert; and fifty dollars if taken in Calvert

county. In either case, to be delivered to me or "secured in jail, so that I get him again.

It is melancholy to reflect, that six months' absence from the delights of home should have failed to convince Thomas of his mistake. What can one expect of a human being valued at 407. sterling, and provided with cloth pantaloons, who prefers the society of mean free men of colour to involuntary servitude, and who, reversing the example of Mr. Herbert of Clytha, has actually the audacity to appropriate the name of

Jones? It is really pleasant to consider that Jonathan Y. Barber, of Friendship, does not yet despair of Thomas's repentance. It is not every slave who has been demoralized by permission to use a surname, as the next advertisement will teach us :

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"20th March, 1862.

"180 dollars (367.) reward. Ran away from the subscriber, near Bladensburgh, boy Anthony, commonly called 'Toney.' He is 5 feet 5 inches high; very black; short hair; grum countenance when spoken 66 to; with a small scar over one of his eyes. Went away with a black jacket and United States' buttons on it, casinet pants, and yellow gauntlet gloves. "will give 180 dollars to any one who will bring him "home to me.

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"FIELDER MAGRUDER."

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Probably a short experience of the sorrows of freedom will amend "Toney's" moral nature, and teach him to look pleasant when spoken to by Fielder Magruder.

But to me the saddest of all these exhibitions of human depravity was contained in an advertisement which appeared for days together. It was as short as it was sad :

"15th March, 1862.

"Ran away from the subscriber, 13th March, negro woman, Ellen, aged about forty years, and her boy