Physicians came to the aid of the wounded man who at first thought he might recover, but in a climate like that of Virginia it was impossible.  His friends did all they could to save him, but the poor wretch lingered a few days and died.  Thus ended the life of a bad man and a hard master.

And who will wonder, if his slaves rejoiced to hear of his death?  If they must be sold to pay his debts, they could not fall into the hands of a more heartless tyrant.  Who then can blame those feeble women and helpless children, long held as chattels in his iron grasp, if they are grateful that the man-stealer is no more?

This Ford was a fair specimen of that class, known in more modern parlance as a “Border Ruffian.”  Such as are at this time endeavoring, by their swaggering and bullying, to cast on the fair fields of Kansas the deep curse of Slavery—­a curse which, like the poison of the deadly Upas, blights all within its influence:  the colored and the white man, the slave and the master.  We were thankful, however, that no more lives were lost during the vendue, which was commenced with the stock; this occupied two days.

The reader will see that we had cause to be grateful, when he takes into consideration that drinking and fighting was the order of the day, and drunkenness and carousing the order of the night.

Then too, the practice of dueling was carried on in all its hideous barbarity.  If a gentleman thought himself insulted, he would immediately challenge the offender to mortal combat, and if he refused to do so, then the insulted gentleman felt bound by that barbarous code of honor, to take his life, whenever or wherever he might meet him, though it might be in a crowded assembly, where the lives of innocent persons were endangered.

A case of this kind happened in Kentucky, where the belligerent parties met in a large concourse of people, the majority of them women and children; but the combat ensued, regardless of consequences.  One woman was shot through the face, but that was not worthy of notice, for she was only a colored woman; and in that, as in other slave States, the laws give to the white population the liberty to trample under foot the claims of all such persons to justice.  Justly indignant ladies present remonstrated, but all to no purpose.  The Governor of the State was there and was in danger of being wounded by their flying bullets, and it is possible that if he had been in the place of the poor African, some action would have been taken, and laws made to protect the people against such inhuman practices.  But I must return to Capt.  Helm and the vendue.

The sale continued for several days, during which there was no such thing as rest or sleep or one quiet moment on the premises.  As was customary in that State, Capt.  Helm provided the food and drink for all who came, and of course a great many came to drink and revel and not to buy; and that class generally took the night time for their hideous outbreaks, when the more respectable class had retired to their beds or to their homes.  And many foul deeds and cruel outrages were committed; nor could the perpetrators be detected or brought to justice.  Nothing could be done but to submit quietly to their depredations.