The _American_ slave trade is carried on in the most open manner in this
city. We paid a visit to the establishment of an extensive slave dealer,
a large new building in one of the principal streets. The proprietor
received us with great courtesy, and permitted us to inspect the
premises. Cleanliness and order were every where visible, and, might we
judge from the specimens of food shewn us, the animal wants of the
slaves are not neglected. There were only five or six negroes _in
stock_, but the proprietor told us he had sometimes three or four
hundred there, and had shipped off a cargo to New Orleans a few days
before. That city is the market where the highest price is generally
obtained for them. The premises are strongly secured with bolts and
bars, and the rooms in which the negroes are confined, surround an open
court yard, where they are permitted to take the air. We were
accompanied and kindly introduced by an individual who has often been
engaged in preventing negroes from being illegally enslaved; and the
proprietor of the establishment expressed his approval of his efforts,
and that when such cases come before himself in the way of trade, he was
accustomed to send them to our friend for investigation; he added that
slaves would often come to him, and ask him to purchase them, and that
he was the means of transferring them from worse masters to better; that
he never parted families, though of course he could not control their
fate, either before they came into his hands, or after they left him.
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