The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  slave-trade; that he would look over the exchange files of some

  newspaper, and for a month or two, endeavour to keep some

  inventory of the number of human beings, with hearts, hopes,

  and affections like his own, who are constantly subjected to all

  the uncertainties and mutations of property relation. The writer

  is sure that he could not do it long without a generous desire

  being excited in his bosom to become, not an apologist for, but

  a reformer of, these institutions of his country.

  These papers of South Carolina are not exceptional ones;

  they may be matched by hundreds of papers from any other

  State.

  Let the reader now stop one minute, and look over again

  these two weeks' advertisements. This is not novel-writing--

  this is fact. See these human beings tumbled promiscuously

  out before the public with horses, mules, second-hand buggies,

  cotton-seed, bedsteads, &c., &c.; and Christian ladies, in the

  same newspaper, saying that they prayerfully study God's word,

  and believe their institutions have his sanction! Does he suppose

  that here, in these two weeks, there have been no scenes of

  suffering?--Imagine the distress of these families--the nights of

  anxiety of these mothers and children, wives, and husbands,

  when these sales are about to take place! Imagine the scenes

  of the sales! A young lady, a friend of the writer, who spent

  a winter in Carolina, described to her the sale of a woman and

  her children. When the little girl, seven years of age, was put

  on the block, she fell into spasms with fear and excitement. She

  was taken off--recovered and put back--the spasms came back

  --three times the experiment was tried, and at last the sale of

  the child was deferred!

  See also the following, from Dr. Elwood Harvey, editor of a

  western paper, to the Pennsylvania Freeman, Dec. 25, 1846:--

  We attended a sale of land and other property, near Petersburg, Virginia, and

  unexpectedly saw slaves sold at public auction. The slaves were told they would not

  be sold, and were collected in front of the quarters, gazing on the assembled

  multitude. The land being sold, the auctioneer's loud voice was heard, “Bring

  up the niggers!” A shade of astonishment and affright passed over their faces, as

  they stared first at each other, and then at the crowd of purchasers, whose attention

  was now directed to them. When the horrible truth was revealed to their minds

  that they were to be sold, and nearest relations and friends parted for ever, the

  effect was indescribably agonizing. Women snatched up their babes, and ran

  screaming into the huts. Children hid behind the huts and trees, and the men

  stood in mute despair. The auctioneer stood on the portico of the house, and

  the “men and boys” were ranging in the yard for inspection. It was announced

  that no warranty of soundness was given, and purchasers must examine for them-

  selves. A few old men were sold at prices from thirteen to twenty-five dollars,

  and it was painful to see old men, bowed with years of toil and suffering, stand up

  to be the jest of brutal tyrants and to hear them tell their disease and worthless-

  ness, fearing that they would be bought by traders for the Southern market.

  A white boy, about fifteen years old, was placed on the stand. His hair was

  brown and straight, his skin exactly the same hue as other white persons, and no

  discernible trace of negro features in his countenance.

  Some vulgar jests were passed on his colour, and two hundred dollars were

  bid for him; but the audience said “that it was not enough to begin on for such

  a likely young nigger.” Several remarked that they “would not have him as a

  gift.” Some said a white nigger was more trouble than he was worth. One man

  said it was wrong to sell white people. I asked him if it was more wrong than to

  sell black people. He made no reply. Before he was sold, his mother rushed

  from the house upon the portico, crying, in frantic grief, “My son! Oh, my boy!

  They will take away my dear--.” Here her voice was lost, as she was rudely

  pushed back, and the door closed. The sale was not for a moment interrupted,

  and none of the crowd appeared to be in the least affected by the scene. The

  poor boy, afraid to cry before so many strangers, who showed no signs of sym-

  pathy or pity, trembled, and wiped the tears from his cheeks with his sleeves.

  He was sold for about two hundred and fifty dollars. During the sale, the quarters

  resounded with cries and lamentations that made my heart ache. A woman was

  next called by name. She gave her infant one wild embrace before leaving it with

  an old woman, and hastened mechanically to obey the call; but stopped, threw

  her arms aloft, screamed, and was unable to move.

  One of my companions touched my shoulder and said, “Come, let us leave

  here; I can bear no more.” We left the ground. The man who drove our car-

  riage from Petersburg had two sons who belonged to the estate--small boys. He

  obtained a promise that they should not be sold. He was asked if they were his

  only children; he answered, “All that's left of eight.” Three others had been

  sold to the South, and he would never see or hear from them again.

  As Northern people do not see such things, they should hear of them

  often enough to keep them awake to the sufferings of the victims of their

  indifference.

  Such are the common incidents, not the admitted cruelties, of

  an institution which people have brought themselves to feel is

  in accordance with God's word!

  Suppose it be conceded now that “the family relation is

  protected, as far as possible.” The question still arises, How

  far is it possible? Advertisements of sales to the number of

  those we have quoted, more or less, appear from week to week

  in the same papers, in the same neighbourhood; and professional

  traders make it their business to attend them, and buy up

  victims. Now, if the inhabitants of a given neighbourhood

  charge themselves with the care to see that no families are

  separated in this whirl of auctioneering, one would fancy

  that they could have very little else to do. It is a fact, and a

  most honourable one to our common human nature, that the

  distress and anguish of these poor helpless creatures does often

  raise up for them friends among the generous-hearted. Southern

  men often go to the extent of their means, and beyond their

  means, to arrest the cruel operations of trade, and relieve cases

  of individual distress. There are men at the South who could

  tell, if they would, how, when they have spent the last dollar

  that they thought they could afford on one week, they have been

  importuned by precisely such a case the next, and been unable

  to meet it. There are masters at the South who could tell, if

  they would, how they have stood and bid against a trader, to

  redeem some poor slave of their own, till the bidding was

  perfectly ruinous, and they have been obliged to give up by

  sheer necessity. Good-natured auctioneers know very well how

  they have often been entreated to connive at keeping a poor


  fellow out of the trader's clutches; and how sometimes they

  succeed, and sometimes they do not.

  The very struggle and effort which generous Southern men

  make to stop the regular course of trade only shows them the

  hopelessness of the effort. We fully concede that many of them

  do as much or more than any of us would do under similar

  circumstances; and yet they know that what they do amounts,

  after all, to the merest trifle.

  But let us still further reason upon the testimony of advertise-

  ments. What is to be understood by the following, of the

  Memphis Eagle and Inquirer, Saturday, Nov. 13, 1852? Under

  the editorial motto, “Liberty and Union, now and for ever,”

  come the following illustrations:--

  I have just received from the East 75 assorted A No. 1 negroes. Call soon, if

  you want to get the first choice.

  Benj. Little.

  I will pay as high cash prices for a few likely young negroes as any trader in

  this city. Also, will receive and sell on commission at Byrd Hill's old stand, on

  Adams-street, Memphis.

  Benj. Little.

  We will pay the highest cash price for all good negroes offered. We invite all

  those having negroes for sale to call on us at our mart, opposite the lower steam-

  boat landing. We will also have a large lot of Virginia negroes for sale in the

  fall. We have as safe a jail as any in the country, where we can keep negroes

  safe for those that wish them kept.

  Bolton, Dickins, & Co.

  Under the head of Advertisement No. 1, let us humbly

  inquire what “assorted A No. 1 Negroes” means. Is it likely

  that it means negroes sold in families? What is meant by the

  invitation, “Call soon if you want to get the first choice?”

  So much for Advertisement No. 1. Let us now propound

  a few questions to the initiated on No. 2. What does Mr.

  Benjamin Little mean by saying that he “will pay as high a

  cash price for a few likely young negroes as any trader in the

  city?” Do families commonly consist exclusively of “likely

  young negroes?”

  On the third advertisement we are also desirous of some

  information. Messrs. Bolton, Dickins, & Co. state that they

  expect to receive a large lot of Virginian negroes in the fall.

  Unfortunate Messrs. Bolton, Dickins, & Co.! Do you sup-

  pose that Virginia families will sell their negroes? Have you

  read Mr. J. Thornton Randolph's last novel, and have you not

  learned that old Virginia families never sell to traders? and,

  more than that, that they always club together and buy up the

  negroes that are for sale in their neighbourhood, and the traders

  when they appear on the ground are hustled off with very little

  ceremony? One would really think that you had got your

  impressions on the subject from “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” For

  we are told that all who derive their views of slavery from this

  book “regard the families of slaves as utterly unsettled and

  vagrant.”*

  But before we recover from our astonishment on reading

  this, we take up the Natchez (Mississippi) Courier of Nov.

  20th, 1852, and there read:

  The undersigned would respectfully state to the public that he has leased the

  stand in the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, for a term of years, and that he

  intends to keep a large lot of NEGROES on hand during the year. He will sell

  as low or lower than any other trader at this place or in New Orleans.

  He has just arrived from Virginia with a very likely lot of Field Men and

  Women; also, House Servants, three Cooks, and a Carpenter. Call and see.

  A fine Buggy Horse, a Saddle Horse, and a Carryall, on hand, and for sale.

  Thomas G. James.

  Natchez, Sept. 28, 1852.

  Where in the world did this lucky Mr. Thos. G. James get

  this likely Virginia “assortment?” Probably in some county

  which Mr. Thornton Randolph never visited. And had no

  families been separated to form the assortment? We hear of a

  lot of field men and women. Where are their children? We

  hear of a lot of house-servants--of “three cooks,” and “one

  carpenter,” as well as a “fine buggy horse.” Had these unfor-

  tunate cooks and carpenters no relations? Did no sad natural

  tears stream down their dark cheeks when they were being

  “assorted” for the Natchez market? Does no mournful heart

  among them yearn to the song of

  Oh, carry me back to old Virginny?

  Still further, we see in the same paper the following:

  Fresh Arrivals Weekly.--Having established ourselves at the Forks of the

  Road, near Natchez, for a term of years, we have now on hand, and intend to keep

  throughout the entire year, a large and well-selected stock of Negroes, consisting

  of field-hands, house-servants, mechanics, cooks, seamstresses, washers, ironers, &c.,

  which we can and will sell as low or lower than any other house here or in New

  Orleans.

  Persons wishing to purchase would do well to call on us before making pur-

  chases elsewhere, as our regular arrivals will keep us supplied with a good and

  general assortment. Our terms are liberal. Give us a call.

  Griffin & Pullam.

  Natchez, Oct. 15, 1852.--6m.

  “Free Trader and Concordia Intelligencer” copy as above.

  Indeed! Messrs. Griffin and Pullam, it seems, are equally

  fortunate! They are having fresh supplies weekly, and are

  going to keep a large, well-selected stock constantly on hand,

  to wit, “field-hands, house-servants, mechanics, cooks, seam-

  stresses, washers, ironers, etc.”

  Let us respectfully inquire what is the process by which

  a trader acquires a well-selected stock. He goes to Virginia

  to select. He has had orders, say, for one dozen cooks, for

  half a dozen carpenters, for so many house-servants, &c. &c.

  Each one of these individuals have their own ties; besides

  being cooks, carpenters, and house-servants, they are also

  fathers, mothers, husbands, wives; but what of that? They

  must be selected--it is an assortment that is wanted. The

  gentleman who has ordered a cook does not, of course, want

  her five children; and the planter who has ordered a carpenter

  does not want the cook, his wife. A carpenter is an expensive

  article, at any rate, as they cost from a thousand to fifteen

  hundred dollars; and a man who has to pay out this sum for

  him cannot always afford himself the luxury of indulging his

  humanity; and as to the children, they must be left in the

  slave-raising State. For when the ready-raised article is im-

  ported weekly into Natchez or New Orleans, is it likely that the

  inhabitants will encumber themselves with the labour of raising

  children? No; there must be division of labour in all well

  ordered business. The Northern slave States raise the article,

  and the Southern ones consume it.

  The extracts have been taken from the papers of the more

  Southern States. If, now, the reader has any curiosity to ex-

  plore the selecting process in the Northern States, the daily

  prints will further enlighten him. In the Daily Virg
inian of

  November 19th, 1852, Mr. J. B. McLendon thus announces to

  the Old Dominion that he has settled himself down to attend to

  the selecting process:

  The subscriber, having located in Lynchburg, is giving the highest cash prices

  for negroes between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Those having negroes for sale

  may find it to their interest to call on him at the Washington Hotel, Lynchburg,

  or address him by letter.

  All communications will receive prompt attention.

  Nov. 5.--dly. J. B. McLendon.

  Mr. McLendon distinctly announces that he is not going to

  take any children under ten of years age, nor any grown people

  over thirty. Likely young negroes are what he is after:--

  families, of course, never separated!

  Again, in the same paper, Mr. Seth Woodroof is desirous of

  keeping up the recollection in the community that he also is in

  the market, as it would appear he has been some time past.

  He, likewise, wants negroes between ten and thirty years of

  age; but his views turn rather on mechanics, blacksmiths, and

  carpenters--witness his hand:

  The subscriber continues in market for Negroes, of both sexes, between the

  ages of 10 and 30 years, including Mechanics, such as Blacksmiths, Carpenters,

  and will pay the highest market prices in cash. His office is a newly-erected

  brick building on 1st or Lynch-street, immediately in rear of the Farmers'

  Bank, where he is prepared (having erected buildings with that view) to board

  negroes sent to Lynchburg for sale, or otherwise, on as moderate terms, and keep

  them as secure, as if they were placed in the jail of the Corporation.

  Aug. 26. Seth Woodroof.

  There is no manner of doubt that this Mr. Seth Woodroof

  is a gentleman of humanity, and wishes to avoid the separation

  of families as much as possible. Doubtless he ardently wishes

  that all his blacksmiths and carpenters would be considerate,

  and never have any children under ten years of age; but, if

  the thoughtless dogs have got them, what's a humane man to

  do? He has to fill out Mr. This, That, and the Other's order

  --that's a clear case; and therefore John and Sam must take