Any man with money (let him be ever such a
rough brute), can buy a beautiful and virtuous
girl, and force her to live with him in a criminal
connexion; and as the law says a slave shall
have no higher appeal than the mere will of the
master, she cannot escape, unless it be by flight or
death.
In endeavouring to reconcile a girl to her fate,
the master sometimes says that he would marry
her if it was not unlawful.* However, he will
always consider her to be his wife, and will treat
her as such; and she, on the other hand, may
regard him as her lawful husband; and if they
have any children, they will be free and well edu-
cated.
I am in duty bound to add, that while a great
majority of such men care nothing for the happi-
ness of the women with whom they live, nor for
the children of whom they are the fathers, there
are those to be found, even in that heterogeneous
mass of licentious monsters, who are true to their
pledges. But as the woman and her children are
legally the property of the man, who stands in the
anomalous relation to them of husband and father,
as well as master, they are liable to be seized and
sold for his debts, should he become involved.
There are several cases on record where such
persons have been sold and separated for life. I
know of some myself, but I have only space to
glance at one.
I knew a very humane and wealthy gentleman,
that bought a woman, with whom he lived as his
* It is unlawful in the slave States for any one of purely
European descent to intermarry with a person of African ex-
traction; though a white man may live with as many coloured
women as he pleases without materially damaging his reputa-
tion in Southern society.
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