UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
173
I written to hear from you all. Mr. Bigelow,I ment, he proceeded to New Y'ork,and,havingtaken
hope you will not forgetme. You know it was out free papers, to show that he was a citizen,he
not my fault that I am here. I hope you will went on to
Washington city, where he arrivedthe
name me to Mr. Geden, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Bailey,
second day of April țhe same year, and put
to help me out of it. I believethat if up
theywould at Gadsby'sHotel. Soon after he arrived he felt
make the least move to it that itcould be done. unwell,and went to bed.
I long to hear from my familyhow they are getting
While suffering with severe pain șome persons
along. You will pleaseto write to me just came in,and,seeingthe condition he was in, proposed
to let me know how they are gettingalong. You
to givehim some medicine,and did so.
can write to me.
This is the lastthingof which he had any recollection,
I remain your humble servant,
until he found himself chained to the floor
Thomas Ducket. of Williams' slave-pen in this city, and handcuffed.
In the course of a few hours,James H.
You can direct your letters to Thomas Ducket,
Burch, a slave-dealer, came in,and the colored
in care of Mr. Samuel T. Harrison, Louisiana,
man asked him to take the irons off from
near Bayou Goula. For
him,and
God's sake let me hear
wanted to know
from you all. My wife and children
why theywere
are not out
put on, Burch
told him it was none of his business. The colored
of my mind day nor night.]
man said he was free,and toldwhere he was born.
CHAPTER
KIDNAPPING.
VIII.
The principle which
human being may lawfully
propertyleads directly to
beings; and that trade has, among
the temptation to
of kidnapping.
trader is generally a man of coarse
nature and low associations, hard-hearted,
women and children are all the time being
precipitated into slavery in this way.
The recent case of Northropțried in
Washington,D. C, throws lighton this
fearfulsubject Ṭhe following account is
abridged from the New York Times:
To go back a step in the narrativețhe man
wrote a letter,in June, 1841, to HenryB. Northrop,
of the State of New York,dated and postmarked
Solomon Northropis a free colored citizen of
at New Orleans,stating that he had been
the United States ; he was born in Essex county, kidnappedand was on board a vessel, but was unable
New York, about the year 1808 ; became early a to state what his destination was ; but requesting
resident of Washingtoncounty,and married there
Mr. N. to aid him in recovering his freedom,
in 1829. His father and mother resided in the if possibleṂr. N. was unable to do anything
county of Washingtonabout fifty years, tilltheir in his behalf,in consequence of not knowing
decease,and were both free. With his wife and where he had gone, and not beingable to find
children he resided at SaratogaSpringsin the any trace of him. His placeof residence remained
winter of 1841,and while there was employedby
unknown until the mpnth of September
two gentlemen to drive a team South,at the rate last,when the followingletter was received by
of a dollar a day. In fulfilment of his employ-his friends:
Burch called in a man by the name of Ebenezer
the man and laid
Rodbury,and they two stripped
him across a bench,Rodburyholding;him down
by his wrists. Burch whipped him with a paddle
until he broke that,and then with a cat-o'-
nine-tails, givinghim a hundred lashes ; and he
swore he would killhim if he ever stated to any
one that he was a free man. From that time foi?-
ward the man
says he did not communicate the
fact from fear,either that he was a free man, oi
what his name was, until the last summer. He
was kept in the slave-penabout ten days, when
he, with others,was taken out of the pen in the
night by Burch, handcuffed and shackled,and
taken down the river by a steamboat,and then to
declares that one
hold another as
the trade in human
its other horrible results,
Richmond,where ho,with forty-eight others,was
the crime
put
The
on board the brigOrleans. There Burch left
them. The brigsailed for New Orleans,and on
arriving there,before she was fastened to the
and recklessof rightor honor. He who is wharf,Theophilus Freeman,another slave-dealer,
belonging
not so is an exception, rather than a specimen.
the city of New Orleans,and who in
1833 had been a partner with Burch in the slavetrade,came
to the wharf,and received the slaves
If he has anythingood about him
when he beginsthe business, it may well be as they were landed, under his direction. This
man was
seen that he isin a fair way to lose it.
immediately taken byFreeman and shut
up
Around the trader are continually
in his pen in that city. He was taken sick
passing
with the small-poximmediatelyafter getting
and repassingmen and women who there,and was sent to a hospital, where he lay
would be worth to him thousands of dollars two or three weeks. When he had sufficiently
in recovered to
the way
"
of trade, who leave the
belongto a
hospital, Freeman declined
class whose rightsnobodyrespects, and
to sell him to any person in that vicinity, and sold
him to a Mr. Ford,who resided in
Rapides Parish,
who. if reduced to slavery, could not easilyLouisiana,where he was taken and lived more
make their word good against him. The than a
year, and worked as a carpenter,working
probability isthat hundreds of free men and with Ford at that business.
Ford became involved, and had to sell him. A
Mr. Tibaut became the purchaserḤe, in a short
time,sold him to Edwin Eppes,in BayouBeouf,
about one hundred and thirtymiles from the
mouth of Red river,where Eppes has retained
him on a cotton plantation since the year 1843.