“To HOPE H. SLAUGHTER, Slave Trader, Baltimore: 

“Since thou courteously allowed me, in company with my friend, J.G.  Whittier, to visit thy slave establishment in the city of Baltimore, some weeks since, I have often felt a desire to address a few lines to thee.  I need not, perhaps, say that my feelings were painfully exercised in looking over thy buildings, fitted up with bolts and bars, for the reception of human beings for sale.  A sense of the misery and suffering of the unfortunate slaves, who have been from time to time confined there—­of their separation from home and kindred—­and of the dreary prospect before them of a life of unrequited toil in the South and South West—­rested heavily upon me.  I could there realize the true nature of the system of slavery.  I was in a market-house for human flesh, where humanity is degraded to a level with the brute; and where children of our common Father in Heaven, and for whom our blessed Redeemer offered up the atoning sacrifice of his blood, were bargained for and sold like beasts that perish.  And when I regarded thee as the merchant in this dreadful traffic, and heard thee offer remarks, which might in some degree be considered as an apology for thy business, calling our attention to the cleanly state of the apartments, the wholesome provisions, et cet.; and especially when I heard thee declare that thou hadst been educated by a pious mother—­that thou wast never addicted to swearing or other immoralities—­and that thy business was a legalized one—­that thou didst nothing contrary to law—­and that, while in thy possession, the poor creatures were treated kindly—­that families were not separated,[A] et cet.,—­I was glad to perceive some evidence that the nature of thy employment had not extinguished the voice of conscience within thee.  In thy sentiments, and in the manner of their utterance, I thought I could see that truth had not left itself without a witness in thy breast, and that a sense of the wrongfulness of thy occupation still disturbed thee.

[Footnote A:  “The latter remark, of course, applies only to the time they remained with thee.  For, on the day we visited thy establishment, a friend with whom I was dining informed me, that a few days before a woman and child had been sold to thee, whose husband and father was a free man, who, in his distress, had been offering to bind himself for a term of years, in order to raise the sum (I think $800) demanded for them; but, as he had been unable to do so, my friend had no doubt they had been sent off with the very lot of slaves, which, we were told by thyself had just been forwarded to New Orleans from thy prison. Who is most guilty in this atrocious transaction—­the slave owner, who sold thee the woman and child at Baltimore—­thou, the transporter of them for ever from their husband and parent—­the purchasers of the mother and child at New Orleans, where they may be for ever separated from each