PHYSICIANS AND SLAVERY.
Physicians, as a class, are equal to any profession in intellectual culture, humanity, and accomplished manners. The Christian ministry are greatly indebted to them for their professional services to themselves and families, and for the kindness and cheerfulness with which their labors are bestowed, and always free of charge. The Doctors of Medicine of the United States give away annually to the clergy not less, perhaps, than $100,000 in professional services, besides contributing in money, for charitable purposes, as much as any other class according to their wealth. Personally, I am specially indebted to them for their kindness to me in various sections of the country, having for years suffered from bilious affections and bleeding of the lungs. Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist physicians have treated me with equal attention and Christian kindness. Had they charged me for their services the same rates paid by those unconnected with the ministry, I could not have supported my family. A braver set of men have never lived. The hero meets death with sword and plume. The presence of brave comrades and the soul-stirring strains of martial music, nerve him for the contest. The approving smile of his government rests upon him, and the pen of the historian is ready to embalm his name on the pages of his country's history. Who could not die thus? The physician coolly meets the pestilence at the midnight hour, in the lone cabin, or in the alleys of crowded cities, while the darts of death are flying thick around him. If he survives, it is regarded as a mere business transaction, and his noblest sacrifices and impulses are set down to the account of dollars and cents. If he dies, the grave too often covers his fame and name among men. In the South, colored people, free or slave, are treated kindly by physicians in their professional capacity. No hut is too lowly for them to enter. In this respect, they put to shame many preachers, and Bible and Tract agents, who avoid the hut of the negro, but visit the white man next door. What preacher ever thinks, in his pastoral visits among his flock, of calling and praying with his despised sheep? Yet surely they need his pastoral attention more than any other class committed to his care.
THE TRUE THEORY, OR SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.
An educated farmer, who was a native of one of the Southern States, and a member of the M. E. Church, related to me his experience with regard to slavery and emancipation, in substance as follows: He owned several valuable slaves when he began his farming, and treated them with great kindness; but soon his troubles commenced. One slave would come to him with charges against another. He did not know which to believe. Things would be stolen. His slaves would idle away their time when they could. The farmer would often find meat and potatoes secreted about the premises in a decayed condition; an evidence that they were not wanted by the thief, when stolen. He at last detected one of the thieves, and threatened to sell him; but his wife interceded, and he forgave him. Yet theft was as common as ever. He was worried and perplexed, yet did not despair. He looked into his own bosom, and found that Hope was the motive-power of his actions; that his labors were stimulated by the prospect of reward, of something that he could call his own. Applying this to the slave, he said to himself: "He is a man of like passions with myself. He works under the influence of despair and force. He has no motive to be honest or to labor." It then occurred to him that the system must be wrong; contrary to the whole nature of man. He determined to set his slaves free at a certain age. He called them all together, and told them what he had determined to do; and proposed to them that, at the commencement of the New Year, he wished them all to become partners with him in farming. He was to have so much for his part of the produce of the farm, and the balance was to be divided equally among themselves; and he knew, if they would be industrious, they might lay up money, so that, when they were free, they would have something to commence business with for themselves.
They cheerfully agreed to the proposition. He said that he never saw such a change as that which followed. There was no more stealing; and if one commenced to idle his time, the others would tell him that it was not fair for them to do the work, while he shared the produce equally with themselves. So to work he would go.
The master began to experience what happiness was, and made more money than he did before. Several of his slaves became men of property and usefulness among the free colored community. Said a gentleman of Alabama to me: "You may imagine our fears, on our large plantations of 300 or 400 negroes, where frequently there are not more than ten or twelve white persons." Had that gentleman set them free, and given them a certain portion of the cotton crop, he might have slept sweetly, without any fear of the midnight assassin.
SLAVE DROVES.
In all our county towns are located negro-traders or their agents. If any one doubts this fact, let him read their advertisements in the county papers. Thursdays and Saturdays are the public days in the towns. A great deal of property is sold from various parts of the county at Court House doors, at sheriff's sale. At these auctions, numbers of slaves are sold. The trader or his agent is always present. He also attends the public vendues of deceased persons, where hogs, mules, horses, and negroes are sold. He is also very attentive to private calls from men at their houses. When he has collected a drove of negroes, he starts for the South. Such are the facilities for travel now, that he does not collect so great a number at a time as formerly.
If the reader will take a good map of Maryland, he will find that the Pocomoke River divides Worcester from Somerset County, for more than twenty miles above its mouth. A traveler wishing to go to Norfolk, Va., from Princess Anne, the county town of Somerset, would have to cross this river at the Ferry about a mile above New Town, through which he must pass to Eastville, Va., and thence to Norfolk. To the Ferry my father removed in 1824, where he had bought property. It was here that I spent several years of my life. It was here that I witnessed some of the scenes which I will now attempt to describe, and which are so deeply pictured on my memory as to cast a gloom over the associations of my youthful home.
Picture the following scene, which I have often witnessed: One or two negro-buyers, mounted on horses, with pistols peeping from their pockets, with large loaded whips in their hands, and cursing the slaves with deep oaths. A large two or four-horse wagon, laden with women and children. Negro men walking, handcuffed and chained around the ankle, two and two; and when the two men were not of the same height, the chains were very painful; or, if the negro was very large, the foot-cuff too small for his ankle, he suffered great agony. I have seen them, at the Ferry, under the necessity of violating the decencies of nature before the women, not being permitted to retire. The first drove I saw, after the love of Christ was shed abroad in my heart, caused me to wring my hands in deep agony. It cast a gloom over me for several days. Slaves from Somerset County could follow their friends as far as the Ferry; here they had to part. Here I have seen mothers part with their children, and brothers with their sisters. Here I have heard them bid adieu thus: "Farewell, mother;" "farewell, child;" "farewell, John;" "farewell, Bill;" and then rend the air with their cries and lamentations. Dear reader, is it unreasonable that I should feel deeply on this subject? This infamous traffic is still carried on in every part of Maryland, but not in so vulgar a