give an instance. While we were conversing with the lessee we observed a negro woman with two children leaning against the railing of the verandah. Her countenance wore so sad a look that we asked for the cause. The story was mournful enough. She had been sick. Another woman had come into her house to attend to her work. Her husband, Tony, had taken a fancy to the other woman. After a while he had gone away and “married her.” She had insisted upon his remaining with her. He had done so for some time, and then gone off again to live with the other wife. Where was her husband? “He was in the meeting house yonder, praying.” Of course, they had been slaves and but recently left the “old plantation,” where such things were little more than matters of course.
The vices of the negro are the vices of the slave. When “Tony” will know what it is to be a freeman, he will know also that it will not do to have two wives and to go praying while one of his wives, with her and his children, are standing by the side of the meeting house weeping over his inconstancy.
Observer
