Nellie did not awake the next morning till the sun had ascended high up into the heavens, and covered the earth with his golden light.

Amy, the chamber maid, had the room well warmed, and had been long waiting impatiently for the young sleeper to awake.

“Missus, time to git up, breafus' ready, been waiten long time for you.”

Nellie opened her eyes upon the Ethiopian maid, and beholding her bright countenance, her smiling face and ivory teeth, was reminded of the fact that she was in the land of slavery. When she stepped upon the thick warm carpet and advanced to the fire, and gazed around upon the many comforts that met her view, and became cognizant of the dusky Amy's attentions, having, for their object, her comfort, her convictions of Southern life and manners were materially modified. She had not yet discovered that blight she expected to behold imprinted by slavery upon everything, animate and inanimate, on manners, customs and habits. She had expected to see a cold remorseless tyranny, a grinding aristocracy; and a dumb, despairing, revengeful slave population. She had expected proud hauteur, overbearing and heartless despotism on the one hand, and cringing servility, composed of hopeless fear and smothered wrath, on the other. She had expected to see moss-grown decay, and evidences of an effeminate civilization, instead of warm, genial comfort, general satisfaction and happiness, and universal signs of confidence, love and prosperity.

Nellie had been accustomed to wait entirely on herself at home. Here she finds a chair placed by the fire for her, polite hands warm her shoes and stockings and hand them to her. Her garments are likewise warmed and handed to her. Nimble fingers aid in adjusting her attire, the water is poured into the bowl for her, and a towel is extended to her, and when the last touch of arrangement has been given to her hair, skilful hands slip her morning dress over her head, and with a few expert manipulations, complete her attire, and leave her ready to descend to the breakfast table.

“You looks, mighty nice dis mornin' Miss, I bound Mas' George 'praise you, and think you mighty sweet when he sees you. Dis dress mighty purty, I 'specks you gib it to me when you go home. Gwine to have big weddin' to-morrow night ma'am, Misses been busy 'bout it all de mornin'. Jacob and Phebe gwine to marry, and uncle Jesse gwine to 'form de sarimony, and me and Elsey gwine to be de tendunts wid Sam and Guss,” &c. Thus the jubilant girl ran on in a strain of intelligence to the surprise and pleasure of Nellie, till she descended to the dining room.

After breakfast, Nellie and her young cousin, Alice Thompson, walked to the front porch. The day was one of those rich, hazy autumnal days, all flooded with glorious sunshine, and mellowed by a soft Southern breeze so common to our Southern climate. They then walked to the back door, and gazed for a while on the magnificent live oaks, and majestic magnolias, that shaded the back yard.

On all sides, elegance, comfort and plenty were visible, accompanied with contentment, peace and happiness. Nellie's eye, with a delight bordering on rapture, took in the glories of the whole scene: its fields, its fences, its trees, its shrubs, its houses, its gardens, its evidences of solid prosperity and comfort; and she mentally contrasted it with her own prim, precise, economical home. She contrasted the cold calculating manners of the North, with the open, warm, genial habits of the South. She arrayed the hired indifferent services of “white helps,” with their frequent “warnings,” with the confiding filial obedience of Southern slaves, jumping with a smile to perform a behest. She could not help comparing the cold, selfish relations existing between mistress and servant in New England, and the open, warm, friendly, confiding feeling manifested between the slaves and their owners. Here was a master and mistress engaged in preparations at considerable trouble and expense, to furnish a sumptuous supper and appropriate dressing to gratify two slaves who were going to be married. Nellie was surprised, but could not be blind to these things.

She and Alice took a walk among the negro cabins, and the ebony damsels crowded around and followed them with the greatest glee imaginable, now and then one venturing a remark at which all the rest would giggle immoderately; and when Nellie thought proper to engage in some slight badinage, the universal merriment seemed to reach its utmost hight. Nellie had never seen such merry servants. Not one seemed borne down with that mighty incubus of care and oppression she had expected; but decked out in bright colors, and new shoes, and flaming “head handkerchers,” they followed her as entirely free from care and liberty-longing as school children upon any academy lawn.

“You Jim! aint you comin' along wid dem chips?” Thus resounded from the vicinage of her huge pot, the voice of “Aunt Fanny.” It was “Aunt Fanny's” business to cook for the “chilern,” and take care of them, the latter she did most effectually by ruling them with a rod of birch. Her large pot is filled with meat, greens and “dumplings,” and the “taters” are wrapped in the ashes. When at twelve o'clock, all are ready, she deals out to all according to her “resarved rights,” that is to say, she has a half dozen or more large trays and basins, filled with the contents of the pot, around which gather from three to five of the little Africans, and seating themselves, eat till they are all satisfied.

“You, Jim,” says Aunt Fanny, as she saw Nellie approaching, “aint you comin' long wid dem chips? I see you foolin' long dar, sir, never mind, I whip you for dat sho's you born; you see if I don't now.” While “Aunt Fanny” is very good naturedly explaining to Nellie how she cooks for and takes care of “de chilern,” and was very proud of being so honored by the attention of “young miss,” Jim approaches the pot with his basket of chips, wholly unobserved by “Aunt Fanny,” whose kind heart has already forgotten the threat, and getting on his knees, throws the chips somewhere near about the fire, while he gazes all the time, with open mouth, into the face of Nellie.

Twenty or thirty little darkies gather around her, all fat and saucy, jolly and lively, and not in the least disconcerted, they gaze into her face, and laugh and stare, with the whites of their eyes upturned and their mouths spread from—side to side.

“Do they get enough to eat, aunty?”

“God bless your soul, chile, plenty; I stuffs 'em, see how fat dey is.”

“Where do you get the food?”

“I gits it from de smoke-house every mornin'. Boss weighs it out, and I biles de middlin', and greens and dumplins for 'em in de pot, an cooks de taters in de ashes. Plenty, dey gets nuff, sho.”

Thus pleasantly and swiftly the time glided away with Nellie. Late in the afternoon Mr. Mortimer came over to take tea and make the acquaintance of Mrs. Norton and her daughter. He was the friend and neighbor, and intimate associate of Mr. Thompson, and was always a welcome guest in his family. He was of medium height, and very graceful, with an intellectual cast of features. He was intelligent and agreeable, commanding fine conversational powers, and a high-toned gentleman of unexceptional moral character. The elegance, courteousness and affability displayed by Mr. M. during the evening, made time pass in the family circle with unwonted celerity, and all seemed disappointed when the hour of eleven arrived and their young friend took his leave.

After his departure no remarks were made as to the young visitor. Mr. and Mrs. T. waited for their relatives to say how they were pleased, and Mrs. Norton waited for Nellie; she from choice, or design, was silent. To tell the whole truth, she was very favorably impressed, but would not commit herself till a better and more thorough acquaintance with his true character. “Make haste to be slow in forming your opinion of young men,” was her father's favorite proverb, and she believed it was correct and acted upon it.

Saturday, the wedding day, dawned upon the world in cloudless glory. It was a jubilant holiday for all the servants on the plantation of Mr. Thompson.

The bride-groom expectant was Jacob, now foreman of the plantation. He had been promoted to the important post of “driver” for his fidelity and honesty. He was about twenty-five, of a yellow complexion, and as dashing and good humored a fellow as you find in a day's drive. He devotedly loved his master and mistress, and would have died for Miss Alice. Phebe was about twenty-six, and was Mrs. T.'s house-maid, a quiet, respectful woman, who knew her duty and always did it well. Her complexion was dark.

They were about to consummate a long cherished attachment, and both the master and mistress thought fit to grace the occasion with their presence, and invited their guests also to enjoy this, to them, novel scene.

Mr. Mortimer, having come over by special invitation, joined the party, who proceeded to the neat double cabin whose larger room had been cleanly swept and neatly arranged, and on whose wide hearth a bright fire was blazing.

Negro weddings are more stately and solemn than one would naturally suppose. Negroes are impressible creatures, and are easily affected by aught of the august.

The whites stopped in front of the door, rather than crowd through the anxious mass of lookers-on, but they enjoyed a tolerable view, and heard all that was said.

The door of the little room was thrown open, and one couple elegantly dressed, entered, ranging themselves on the right; then another couple, ranging themselves towards the left; these were followed by Jacob and Phebe. Each female attendant wore a white muslin dress, with white flowers in their hair, all tidily arranged by Mrs. Thompson, Alice and Nellie. Each male was dressed in broadcloth, with shining boots, ruffled shirts, standing collars and white gloves, with their pocket handkerchiefs but half concealed in their breast pockets. Phebe was tastefully dressed in white, with slippers and a long white veil; altogether she presented an elegant appearance. Jacob was done up in a new suit of broad cloth, a present, for the occasion from his master; he wore a white vest, gloves and cravat, and with a fair personal appearance, was the ne plus ultra of negro elegance.

Not a sound was heard, all were silent and still as the grave. “Uncle Jesse” advanced, with book in hand; there was a solemnity of appearance about his face and demeanor highly instructive and impressive. After a moment's pause, to collect his thoughts and appear dignified, he began:

“God made Adam fust, be staid long time in the garden 'thout a wife, but he wan't satisfied and happy, though he have every other thing he want. Then God say, it no good for the man that he be alone, I make a help meet for him, to comfort him in sickness and nus him in trouble, and to talk to him when he lonesome. So God make Eve outen Adam's rib, and say, she bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, and for this cause a man shall quit he father and mother, and stay with his wife. Any body present got any objections to this lady and gentleman bein' married into holy matrimony, so they now make it known or hold their peace forevermore. Once, twice, thrice—no objection.

“Jacob, take Phebe by the hand. Do you brother Jacob take Phebe to be your lovin' and true wife? Will you love her like Abraham loved Sarah, treat her kind like Isaac did Rebecca, be faithful to her like Zacharias was to Elizabeth, and not cleave to no other woman but her, till she die—do you?” A graceful bow and a scrape of the foot, was the affirmative response.

“Do you, sister Phebe, take brother Jacob to be your lone husband. To honor him as Sarah did Abraham, and obey him as Rebecca did Isaac, and nus him, and comfort him as Elizabeth did Zacharias, and always cleave to no other man till be dead—do you?” A quick courtesy was the response. “Then I pronounce you husband and wife, with the blessing of God to live together forever. Amen.”

Great confusion followed as each one pressed forward to wish the newly married couple “much joy.” Many efforts at wit were made, and a general scene of hilarity ensued, which was kept up till supper was announced. The repast was not less sumptuous than elegant. The “bride's cake” was exquisitely beautiful.

“Uncle Jssse” asked a blessing at the table, at the conclusion of which each bowed his head and scraped his foot. It was interesting to see the young “gen'men,” waiting on the “ladies,” as they handed round the table first one dish and then another.

But the scene after supper, far surpassed anything which had preceded it. The “playing songs,” and kissing, the joyous peels of laughter, the continuous gleeful mirth, the “uproarious” outbursts of merriment, beggar all description, I therefore lay down my pen, and leave the reader to imagine, what must have been the impressions on the mind of Miss Nellie Norton, just from New England.

If you have never witnessed one of these scenes, be assured, kind reader, it is good for dyspepsia, a certain cure for the “blues,” and will make a preacher laugh.

But we leave the negroes to play and sing what they please, and as long as they please, to fiddle, “pat Juba,” and dance and have a merry time generally, if they like. The hour is late and we must prepare for the Sabbath, when we are again to meet some of these happy Ethiopians, but under different circumstances.

On arriving at the house, Mr. Thompson opened his mail, which pressing engagements since its arrival at sun down, had prevented.

“A letter for Nellie,” he exclaimed. She came bounding to his side, and opened and read with great eagerness, the following note:

“O Mother, it's from Mr. Pratt, and be is in Savannah, come because his health failed, and wants to come out and see us. Uncle, can't you send for him in the morning, and let him come out to-morrow?”

“Shall I send for him on Sabbath, Nellie?”

“O yes, uncle, it's no harm under the circumstances to send for a poor sick preacher to get out and enjoy a little fresh country air, is it?”

“Well, just as you say. I don't think you would survive till Monday, so I will have the carriage off early. Write him a note, that we will expect him early to dinner; a cold dinner, enjoyed by warm hearted friends.” Nellie tripped away to pen the note, while Mr. Thompson went to inform Jack that he must go up to the city early in the morning, with the carriage, to bring out a gentleman who was at the Pulaski House.

At one o'clock, on Sabbath, Dr. Pratt arrived. He was met at the carriage by Nellie, and her mother, and Mr. Thompson. Mr. T. extended to him a cordial welcome, and invited him to make his house his home while at the South. In this invitation, Mrs. T., after being introduced to the Doctor, cordially united. Dr. Pratt was surprised at the open hearted frankness and generosity of his new friend. It was his first trip South, and he was not prepared to believe there was anywhere to be found such whole souled generosity, much less among the slaveocracy.

If the reader desires a description of Daniel B. Pratt, D. D., they can just imagine a short, stout man, with large blue eyes, a bald head, a fair skin, and a large roman nose, with a polite and easy address, and a real “down Easter's” brogue, compressed lips, erect head, rather inclined to throw it back, with a large natural protuberance on the top of the head. He was phronologically a man of self-will, self-esteem, and great firmness, amounting to stubbornness.

At three o'clock Mr. Thompson asked Dr. Pratt if he would accompany him and Nellie to the negro church to witness a negro Sunday School and Prayer meeting. He readily consented. A walk of near a half mile brought them to a neat little painted house with glass windows, and a bell. On entering they found about thirty negro children, all in clean clothes, some with hats and some with bonnets, and some bare headed, seated on the front benches.

A white lady was sitting near. She was a worthy young lady, and I must honor my readers with an introduction to her.

Miss Kate Nelson was the governess in the family of Mr. Thompson. She was “to the manor born,” a true Georgian lady. She was thoroughly educated, graceful, dignified and intelligent, modest and retiring, but not bashful. She knew her duty, and as a conscientious christian, was always found laboring to discharge it. It was her custom, at Mr. T.'s request, to teach his young negroes, orally, every Sabbath afternoon, and learn them to sing. In catechising them, she asked the question and then answered it, and made all the pupils repeat it after her two or three times till they could remember it. They displayed an accurate knowledge of the creation, flood, calling of Abraham, the ten commandments, &c. In learning them to sing, it was her custom to read the first line of the verse, then have them all repeat it, then read the other in like manner, then repeat both together, and so through the song, singing each verse as soon as they could repeat it. I observed that Miss Nelson seemed partial to those songs which had a chorous, and the school seemed to sing them with greater zeal.

The little ones all sang with open mouths and extended voices. It was really refreshing to see and hear them. They were always delighted with the exercises, and engaged in them with their whole soul and mind. They felt complimented when honored with the presence of “Mas' George,” which was not unfrequent.

The New England clergyman was surprised, but was evidently reluctant to believe that any “good thing could come out of Nazareth.” He expressed no approbation, for the sin of slavery could not be atoned for, in his estimation, by anything which the master could do. Nellie was delighted, “enthused,” carried away with the scene. She was extravagant in her praise, and her generous young heart the impulses she so eloquently expressed.

Before the exercises closed, the house was moderately filled with adult people, who had come in to attend the prayer meeting.

As soon as the Sabbath School exercises were concluded, the children were dismissed, to go home or remain as they pleased. Many of them moved to seats a little in the rear, and soon all was still and quiet.

Dick, the chorister, lined out and led in singing—

Mrs. Norton and Nellie were delighted to see their pastor. It was really refreshing to see a Northern face in their temporary Southern home, and to meet one congenial spirit, who could enter into all their feelings, and with whom they could converse freely on the subject of slavery. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, too, were glad to receive and entertain the pastor of their relatives, and finding him an educated gentleman of extensive and varied information, he was a most welcome guest.

He frequently rode with Mr. T. over his farm and saw his negroes at their work. He saw their toil and sweat, and heard their cheerful songs and merry laughter. He asked a great number of questions as to their dispositions, contentment, subordination, morals, &c.

Turning to Mr. Thompson, one day, as they rode along, he said, “I am surprised to find a man of Northern birth and education holding men, women and children in involuntary servitude.” “Why?” said Mr. T. “Because Solomon said, ‘train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,’ and I know you were trained differently from your present practice?” “True,” said Mr. T., “but Solomon did not say, train up a child in the way he should not go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. If he is trained rightly he will not depart from it, but if wrongly, he may be led by a kind Providence to discover his error and abandon it. My early education on the subject of slavery was all wrong. I have by the goodness of an all-wise Providence been led to discover and abandon the error.”

“You do not pretend to defend slavery as right, do you?”

“If I did not, I should abandon it before another day.”

“Well, I suppose I need not be surprised, for there is no telling what an influence prejudice, or cupidity, may exert in forming the conclusions of the human mind.”

“Nor early education and fanaticism,”said Mr. T. They had both arrived at the gate, and alighting from their horses, the conversation ceased.

After a moment's absence in his room, Mr. Pratt took his seat in the parlor. Nellie was just finishing a very difficult piece of music on the piano, and was soon seated near her pastor.

“You have had a pleasant ride this morning, I hope,” she said as she drew near him.

“The ride was pleasant, but I have brought all my sympathy for the poor suffering negro with me, and find it is going to be a ‘thorn in the flesh,’ a ‘body of death,’ clining to me. It will greatly mar, if not entirely destroy, the pleasure of my visit South.”

“Do you think the negroes here are as unhappy as you expected to find them, before you came?” said Nellie.

“They do not seem to be so, but it may be they are too well trained to show their discontent before strangers. They seem as cheerful as laborers in wheat harvest. They talk, and laugh, and sing, and pat, and dance, and appear not to feel their bondage, but this cannot be possible. The bare idea that they are slaves fills me with horror.”

“But do you think them capable of doing as well for themselves, if they were free, as they are now doing in a state of slavery? To test the matter, how do they compare, in prosperity and happiness, with the free negroes in New England?”

“Very favorably, I must confess. No doubt but they are better fed and clothed, and are less liable to temptation and vicious habits. But they are slaves and have no rights. The system of bondage has taken away from them the heritage bequeathed to them by their Creator. All men are born free and equal, and no one should dare infringe upon the universal rights of man.”

“But”, said Nellie, “as yow seem to think the infringement of these rights ‘feeds and clothes’ them better than freedom does, and that ‘they are less liable to temptation and vicious habits’—in a word, makes their condition better than it otherwise could be, is it not a mercy, rather than an injustice, to hold them in such servitude?”

“What do you mean, Nellie?” Has your short stay already poisoned your mind with abominable pro-slavery sentiments? You talk like a Southern slaveholder.”

“O, no,” said Nellie, “these were impressions made upon my mind by observing uncle's servants, and I wanted an answer to the argument. I have observed them in their domestic duties, in their festivals, in their sports and past times, and in their religious devotions, and I am sure I never saw a laboring class at the North so happy, so uniformly cheerful, or more ‘fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,’ and the suggestion has occurred to me, that after all, bondage may be the condition assigned them by Providence.”

“You astonish me, Nellie! God is a holy, just and merciful being, and could never, either by His word or providence, sanction so unholy a thing as slavery. The Bible teaches no such thing, and if it did—well I think I should have to appeal to the higher law of conscience.”

Nellie looked thoughtfully at him for a moment, and then asked with much seriousness, “Mr. Pratt, is the authority of conscience superior to the authority of the Bible?”

“That is a theologico-metaphysical question, the discussion of which we will defer to another time,” was Mr. P.'s reply.

Nellie manifested no further surprise at this ignoring of the word of God as supreme authority on all moral subjects. She had heard it often before, and had been pretty well educated in the same views; but the struggles she had recently experienced had made too deep an impression on her mind to be soon forgotten. She thought it best to give a slight turn to the conversation, and so remarked, “Uncle and I have agreed to investigate the subject of slavery from the Bible; we have had one evening's conversation, and I must confess some surprise at the plausibility of his arguments. The truth is, I am unable to meet the question upon scriptural grounds, though I am certainly not so well versed in the Bible as I ought to be. As you are to spend several days with us, by your permission, I will turn over my part of the discussion to you. I am sure you are a whole hearted abolitionist, and certainly will be an overmatch for my pro-slavery uncle. Will you thus relieve me, and permit me to sit by as an interested listener?”

“Certainly, if your uncle has no objection. And who knows but I may be sent here by Providence to convince a christian slave holder of his error; and that he, by liberating his slaves may rebuke this “sum of villainies,” and set his neighbors a worthy example. If he is not lost to all reason, I shall be able to convince him, I am sure. Argument, sarcasm and ridicule, have great power. Then he can not stand before such men as Wayland, and against the moral rebuke of the civilized world. I am ready at once, to enter upon the discussion.”

Mr. Thompson entered just as the clergyman ceased speaking.

Nellie lost no time in introducing the subject. “Well, uncle, I have engaged Mr. Pratt as my representative in our Bible discussions on slavery. He has consented to take my place, if you have objection, and as you are so confident of your ability to justify very from the Bible, I feel sure you will consent to the arrangement. Your Southern chivalry will naturally desire a foeman worthy of your steel.”

“Thank you, Nellie. I am pleased with the arrangement. I shall have a double advantage in Mr. Pratt. A scholar fully able to understand the meaning of the Divine word, and a christian with moral honesty enough always to concede a point when fairly established from the infallible source of truth. I can only express surprise that a student of the Bible should not already have so far satisfied himself on the subject as to admit without further investigation, that slavery is a divine institution, that it is of God.”

“So far from this, sir,” said Mr. Pratt, “I believe it is the institution of Satan, and only permitted to exist for a short time, like other sins which are forbidden, as a scourge to our race, as a trial to us, to prove man, and see what are the depths of depravity which exist in his heart. I am only surprised to see a man of your intelligence and professed piety, holding slaves. To see you guilty of such injustice to your fellow beings as to hold them in bondage, forging chains and riveting them upon them, and crushing out their manhood with the “weight of servitude.”

“Do you believe,” said Mr. T., “that the negro is less a man in his southern bondage, than he is in his African idolatry and superstition? Do you believe his contact with the social and religious elements of southern society, though restricted by slavery, has degraded him beneath the Bushman, the Hottentot, the Cannibal, or even below the somewhat more elevated Central Africans, who bow down daily to their household gods, and who in their superstition, lay on the funeral pile, the surviving widow to be consumed with the body of her deceased husband? Do you think the enlightened and christian slave, is less happy, less contented, less elevated in the scale of moral existence, than his ancestors were in the dark land of Ham? Your familiarity with ethmology, has long since taught you that southern slaves are the happiest of all their race, and approximate more nearly the great object for which God has created man. This being undeniably true, then where is the injustice of which you speak? Is it doing a man injustice to enlighten his ignorance, to teach him how to enjoy the social relations of life, to deliver him out of barbarism and introduce him into civilized life, to break the fetters of idolatry and superstition, and teach him the knowledge of the true God, to take his being and fill it with all those holier purposes, desires and aspirations, which have been so long exiled by the reigning demon of darkness? If this be injustice, then sir, do we plead guilty to the charge, not otherwise.”

“Injustice is done a man,” said Mr. Pratt, “when his natural or acquired rights are taken from him, no matter what these rights are, or whether he uses them or abuses them; if he should misuse them, the wrong is to himself.”

“I suppose then,” said Mr. Thompson, “if a man purchase a gun to shoot himself, and I knowing that fact, take it away, I do him an act of injustice, by taking away from him the power to commit suicide. If a man threatens the life of another, the officer who arrests and imprisons him, thereby preventing murder, does injustice by stopping the abuse of physical liberty; or if a woman, in a violent passion is about to beat her child to death, and I seize hold of her, and by constraint dispossess her of the freedom to kill her child, I do her injustice. Or to put a very plain case, when a man becomes so depraved that he is not restrained from the violation of law, and a court imprisons him as a felon, it does him injustice. Or if an individual refuses to pay his just debts, and his creditors by due process of law, imprison him, they do him an act of legal injustice. Sir, is this your sense of justice? You cannot deny that these are legitimate deductions from your premises.”

“O, that is not what he meant, uncle,” said Nellie, rather impatiently, as she saw her representative had committed himself too far, and that her uncle was making him appear the advocate of a most licentious and wicked freedom, and taking from society all lawful means of self-protection.

“I mean, sir, that God has made ‘all men free and equal,’ and any infringement of this freedom and equality, except for the maintenance of law and order, is an act of injustice, and one at which a pious man should shudder.”

“You take for granted the very point in issue, and quote from the Declaration of Independence instead of the Bible. God did not make all men free and equal. He has enslaved some by placing them in bondage to others. Ham manifested the wicked traits which afterwards developed themselves in his descendants, and on this account Heaven forged the chains of slavery and placed them upon him, using his father, Noah, as His agent. Hear Him: ‘Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant’ Thus when there was but one family on earth, a portion of it was doomed to servitude. A ‘servant of servants,’ the menial, the slave of servants. Now, was this slavery? If so, was it of Satan or of God? If of God, has he made all men free and equal? Were Ham and Japhet made equal, when one was placed over the other? Were both made free when one was put under slavery to the other? There is a great deal of prating nonsense in the world claiming very high and respectable paternity.”

“But let us take a step further, and see how the Divine institution of slavery was afterwards regulated under ‘father Abraham,’ who owned perhaps a thousand slaves. When the covenant of circumcision was instituted, God told him ‘He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised.’ Here was a recognition and a ceremonial regulation of the institution. One of the servants of this ‘father of the faithful,’ afterwards recognized slavery as the ordination of God, although himself being in bondage under the divine decree. He said, ‘And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, he is become great; and He hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and man servants and maid servants.’ They were not hired servants, for they were born in his house and bought with his money, just as Southerners hold slaves. This honored slave of Abraham did not look upon the institution which held him in bondage as an evil, but a blessing, ‘the Lord hath blessed my Master greatly.’ But again look at the light in which the law recognized it. In Exodus it is said, ‘If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money.‘ Now if such a law as this were found upon a Southern statute book, the world would be filled with holy horror, at its inhumanity; yet such is the enactment of Him who doeth all things well. Here too is a recognition by the divine law, of the property of one man in another, one man is the money, the chattel of another. Again the sickly sensibilities of erring man, are shocked at the revealed will of the King of all the earth. Uzza feared to trust the tottering ark to the Lord, and put forth his hand to save it, but his presumption was punished by instant death. Let us take timely warning. What God gives we will receive, what he commands, we will obey, what he withholds we will not covet. We are always safe under the guidance of unerring wisdom. ‘It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good unto him.’”

Nellie took her seat at the piano and played Home, Sweet Home, with the variations, in exquisite style. Mr. Pratt then requested her to sing one of their favorite congregational hymns, which she did quite to the taste and satisfaction of all present. Her mother took silent pleasure in the scientific performance of her accomplished daughter, while the uncle and aunt freely expressed their admiration for the accomplishments of their loved relative.

The two matrons, the mother and aunt of Nellie, would have been pleased to lead the conversation of the evening, and engage the attention of those present on the various styles of music, and the new improvements which had been made in singing, &c., since their day. They would have greatly enjoyed a suspension of the discussion of slavery, and given themselves up to a social converse. Neither saw any probability of an early termination of the engagement, or that either was open to conviction by the other. But they did not feel that it would be very polite in them to assume the prominence of leading the conversation of the evening.

Mrs. Norton wanted her brother convinced of his error, if he were in one. She had always heard that slavery was wrong, and had taken it for granted, as she had never before heard it denied, but she had never investigated it. Her pastor, she supposed, had done so, and she believed he had talents enough to understand the subject, and honesty sufficient to tell the truth, and she therefore believed what he had always preached on the subject, without giving herself any further trouble. If he were wrong, the sin was upon him. He was paid to teach, and it was his business to know that all he taught was true; her business was to listen, receive and practice. On moral and religious subjects he was employed to do her thinking, and it was not her business to call in question whether it was correctly done or not. Thus have many good souls been led into a thousand snares by the ignorance, prejudice or bigotry of others. If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Mrs. Thompson having been raised to slavery, and being a conscientious, intelligent woman, felt no doubt whatever that her husband would be able to vindicate slavery from the Bible, against all attacks that could be made on it. She had gone through all the scriptural proofs with her husband years before, and as new abolition arguments were brought out it was their custom to carry them to the Bible and see if they would stand before its light. She therefore felt sure that her husband would be able to justify slavery before any one whose eyes were not blinded, and whose heart was not hardened against the holy revelation of the King of heaven on this subject. But as she saw no prospect of convincing Mr. Pratt that slavery was right, she could conceive of no real good that would come of the discussion; but as a good wife she held her peace. Nellie, however, was anxious for the discussion to continue. She began to doubt whether slavery was a “sin of such appalling magnitude.” She did not see from her stand-point of observation that it “crushed the moral and intellectual natures” of the negroes: but she believed the reverse to be true. It elevated, it lifted up, it expanded the intellect and refined the moral sensibilities of these children of Canaan. She had seen some very intelligent and sensible ones among them, and bright exemplars of the principles of our holy religion, and she could not devise how an evil tree could bear such good fruit, how a bitter fountain could send forth such sweet waters, how an institution cursed of God and man, could prove such a blessing. Besides, in her struggles of conscience, she had determined to commit her faith to the Bible and cleave to it as the only anchor of safety, and unfailing and immutable source of truth. She still sympathized with her pastor, and could not yet say that slavery was right. Her early education had made such strong impressions on her mind that they clung to her with wonderful tenacity, and she entertained an undefined hope that her pastor would find some scriptural escape from those texts referred to by her uncle.

“Moses, the great Jewish law-giver, was an abolitionist,” said Mr. Pratt.

All present were startled at the announcement, and looked the surprise they felt. He continued: “If he had not have intended to abolish it, he would not have enunciated this law, which is found in Deut. xxiii: 15,16—‘Thou shalt not deliver unto his master, the servant that is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall choose, in one of the gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.’ How could slavery long exist where escapes were frequent and recovery by the master forbidden by law, and that law strictly enforced by the people as their law-giver required? This, sir, is not the language of a pro-slavery man. You Southerners never use it; you hate the men that do. This is an anti-fugitive law, enacted for the gradual and peaceable extirpation of slavery. Here, also, is a Divine justification for the Northern States, which have enacted laws against the return of fugitive slaves to their Southern masters. Then call us no more a lawless horde, a mobocratic people, for resisting laws which contravene the enactments of heaven. It is a violation of the revealed will of God, to return a fugitive slave; and a constitution and laws which require it are iniquitous and ought to be resisted. It is demanded by humanity, by religion, by all that is holy, that they should be resisted. A government which enforces by law a violation of the Divine will, has forfeited its right to national existence. An institution which requires for its perpetuity a conflict with the revealed law of God, should never for one moment be tolerated among an enlightened and civilized, much less a christian people. The institution is unjust, ungodly, diabolical, and deserves the perpetual anathemas of every philanthropist upon the face of the earth. Why does God stay his vengeance from the implacable and unmitigated oppressions and iniquities of the South?”

Mr. T. smiled at the ardor of the parson, and felt that he had often heard at the North as high sounding words with as little truth, and had frequently before listened, unmoved, to as eloquent nonsense.

Such exhibitions of “zeal without knowledge” were common occurrences “beyond the line.” As Mr. P. seemed to have exhausted his vocabulary, Nellie turned to her uncle to see if he was not overwhelmed with the argument. He replied:

“God has either enacted slavery, or He has not. He either countenances the institution, or He does not. He is not on both sides of the question, as you seem to think. He has not said and unsaid, done and undone. He has not given slavery to his people and then ordered its abolition. He is not so changeable, so fickle as that. ‘I am God, and I change not.’

“Let us, however, consider this celebrated text, upon which you base your triumphant vindication of the fanaticism of the North. Of whom was it spoken, and to whom?

“Evidently of the heathen, and to the Israelites. God was giving them a diversity of rules of conduct for their government, in their social and national relations to the tribes who were the original inhabitants of Canaan. Hence his instructions to the Hebrews not to return a fugitive slave to his heathen master. The Israelites could not have been commanded to detain a slave who had run away from themselves; to withhold their own property from their own use. This would seem unreasonable; indeed, it would be preposterous. But if a slave ran away from his heathen master for cruel treatment, he being innocent, and having sought refuge among the Israelites, from an unjust and cruel master, whose right it was by the custom of heathen nations at that time, to maim or murder him, then were the humane and merciful Hebrews to offer him such protection as justice and mercy required.

“This you will find, upon investigation, to be the opinion of our oldest and best commentators upon this subject. But to say that the Hebrews must detain the property of the Hebrews, that the Israelites must be a refuge for the slaves of the Israelites, is simply nonsense.

“Every man would draw his sword against his neighbor, and, instead of obeying the paternal injunction of Joseph: ‘See that ye fall not out by the way,’ there would have been endless civil wars; they would have been like the wicked, to whom ‘there is no peace.’

“There may have been three reasons for this law against the return of fugitive slaves. 1. The heathen had no divine right for holding slaves, as the Hebrews did. They had made slaves of prisoners taken in war; ‘might was right’ with them. 2. They were a wicked and cruel people; slavery with them was connected with, and subject to the very worst developments of cruelty and inhumanity, and the masters being in the ‘deep, dark, death-damps’ of heathenism, there was no possibility of any knowledge of the true God being imparted to them. 3. As the Hebrews understood the rights of masters over their slaves, they would never have interfered, even with this cruel form of vassalage, without a divine injunction, specially given, requiring it. Even to this day, you find no abolitionists among the more learned and intelligent Hebrews. Now, if we admit your interpretation to be correct, we are required to believe that one passage of Scripture authorizes us to hold slaves, and another takes it away; that the Divine Being who authorizes his people in one statute to purchase and hold bondmen ‘forever,’ in another place denies the existence of any such right. Indeed, that Moses intended in the same code of laws to establish and abolish slavery; with one hand to set up, and with the other to strike down the institution; to say and unsay; to enact and repeal; to enforce and revoke; to grant rights and then destroy them. Now it is easy enough to see how Sumner or Channing, Parker or Beecher, would dispose of this difficulty, by an appeal to the higher law of conscience, or by a total rejection of the Bible and its great Author, on account of abolition sentiments and precepts, but you take the Bible, the whole Bible, as true, and as consistent with itself, you do not believe it is self-contradictory. How you can dispose of it, I am at a loss to know, if you attempt to harmonize your construction with the Scriptures I have quoted, and with your own and Dr. Wayland's admissions. If your construction is right, why did the angel say, ‘Hagar, Sarah's maid, whence comest thou, and whither wilt thou go?’ And when she said, ‘I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarai,’ why did he say ‘Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands?’ Had he who had been in the presence of the Holy and Just One, taught by infinite wisdom, sent on a mission of love, mercy and justice, been kept ignorant of the fact that slavery was iniquitous, and that fugitives should be detained from their master's? Or did he commit a blunder and do his errand badly? Or was he unfaithful to his Divine Master? Or must you not admit that he was sent for the very purpose of reclaiming this runaway slave, and sending her back to her lawful mistress. The latter alone can be true.

“Then if an angel of God, a messenger of heaven, did right in returning one, you would do wrong in retaining the other, unless, indeed, you of the North are the Israelites, and we of the South the heathens—you alone possessing the knowledge of the true God, and we in the ‘death of damps’ of idolatry—you the merciful, and we the unjust, iniquitous murderers of our slaves. Perhaps abolitionists ‘are the people, and wisdom will die with them.’ Perhaps they are the christians, and the only humane and philanthropic people in the universe. If one should listen at their unmeasured denunciations against us, their unsparing abuse, and consummate dictation, he would hardly conclude otherwise than that they thought themselves infallible in judgment, unerring in their conclusions, without sin in their lives, and surrounded by a heaven of purity at home where no more righteousness was needed; that slavery was indeed ‘the sum of all villainies,’ the sin of the age and the crime of the earth, and they were responsible, physically, morally and politically, for its extinction, and that nothing else was to be done until this was accomplished. This great revolution is to be brought about, not by the power of moral suasion, not by the melting appeals of the Gospel of love, not by the ‘spirit of meekness,’ not by any of the means used by the great Redeemer to reclaim man from his errors, but rather as Rehoboam would enforce the subjection of the tribes of Israel, with a whip of scorpions.”