the age of the slave is taken into consideration.  Nobody will give as much for an old negro as he will for a young one in the prime of life.  Tom was an old man, and Shelby had in his possession a number of young negroes.  These facts alone stamp falsehood on the face of Mrs. Stowe’s tale.  Secondly, the physical force or power of the negro, and his apparent health, are taken into consideration.  The purchaser, if he knows nothing about the qualities of negroes, will give the highest price for those (judging from appearances) that can perform the most labor.  Now, is it reasonable to suppose, that a purchaser would have given as much for poor old Tom, as he would have given for a negro who was twenty-five or thirty years of age?  There are from twenty to twenty-five years difference in the ages of the negroes, and there is a proportionate difference in their values.  Reader, what do you suppose is the value of twenty years’ labor in dollars and cents?  Well, whatever it is, poor old Tom was precisely that amount less valuable, than many other negroes in the possession of Shelby; and yet Mrs. Stowe tells us that Shelby sold Tom, because he could get a higher price for him than any other negro in his possession.  Why?  Because of his good qualities.  I have clearly and indisputably shown that Tom’s good qualities did not enhance his value one cent with Haley.  And at the same time, Tom was worth more to Shelby than any half dozen negroes on the farm.  How absurd!  Was a more barefaced, palpable, glaring and malicious falsehood ever fabricated?  I am sorry that justice to my countrymen, my friends and my relatives, requires at my hands, an expose of this low, scurrilous production, entitled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”  This is a fair sample of abolitionism.  But I am not done with Uncle Tom.  Mrs. Stowe tells us that he was a great favorite with Mrs. Shelby, and Shelby knew of course that it would almost break his wife’s heart, and that young master George would almost go beside himself; yet he sells poor old Tom to this infamous negro trader, notwithstanding!  Ah! “murder will out,” and falsehood will out, likewise.  The statements of Mrs. Stowe are inconsistent; they are sheer fabrications:  the figments of a diseased brain.

I will again remark, that strictly honest, upright negroes, those remarkable for their good qualities, and those who are withal, negroes of more than ordinary value, are never sold to negro traders.  The statement that Shelby was guilty of such an act, under the circumstances, as detailed in the preceding pages, is too absurd, too futile, too foolish to deceive or mislead any one who knows anything about the institution of slavery in the South; or the customs, habits, or manners of slaveholders.  The work, however, was prepared for those whoso minds were warped by prejudice, whose judgments were beclouded and perverted by sectional hatred and bigotry, and whose imaginations were bewildered and distempered by the reading of abolition publications and novels.  To such it has proved a treat, yea, they have read it with avidity and delight.