The Great Slave Market
In a late number of the Albany Patriot, is a letter from a gentleman in the city of Washington, addressed to the editor, from which we take the following paragraphs:
‘This year, over 5000 have already been sold in our dens of diabolism, and many more heart-strings will be broken before the winter sets in, by sundering all the ties of life to meet the demands for human victims in the Louisiana market. In Florida, also, the demand has been greatly increased by the diabolical law, to ‘encourage the armed settlement’ of that slavery-cursed territory, and thus increase the political weight of the slave system in the councils of our country.
Scenes have taken place in Washington this summer, that would make the devil blush through the darkness of the pit, if he had been caught in them. A fortnight ago last Tuesday, no less than SIXTY HUMAN BEINGS were carried right by the Capitol yard to a slave ship! The men were chained in couples, and fastened to a log chain, as it is common in this region. The women walked by their side. The little children were carried along in wagons.’
(Liberator, Nov 17, 1843, pg 4)
