“The next day was the Sabbath.  The bells called the people to the different places of worship.  Methodists sang, and Baptists immersed, and Presbyterians sprinkled, and Episcopalians read their prayers, while the ministers of the various sects preached that Christ died for all; yet there were some twenty-five or thirty of us poor creatures confined in the ‘Negro Pen’ awaiting the close of the Holy Sabbath, and the dawn of another day, to be again taken into the market, there to be examined like so many beasts of burden.  I need not tell you with what anxiety we waited for the advent of another day.  On Monday we were again brought out, and placed in rows to be inspected; and fortunately for me, I was sold before we had been on the stand an hour.  I was purchased by a gentleman residing in the city, for a waiting-maid for his wife, who was just on the eve of starting for Mobile, to pay a visit to a near relation.  I was then dressed to suit the situation of a maid-servant; and, upon the whole, I thought that in my new dress I looked as much the lady as my mistress.

“On the passage to Mobile, who should I see among the passengers, but the tall, long-haired man that had eyed me so closely in the slave-market a few days before.  His eyes were again on me, and he appeared anxious to speak to me, and I as reluctant to be spoken to.  The first evening after leaving New Orleans, soon after twilight had let her curtain down, and pinned it with a star, and while I was seated on the deck of the boat, near the ladies’ cabin, looking upon the rippled waves, and the reflection of the moon upon the sea, all at once I saw the tall young man standing by my side.  I immediately rose from my seat, and was in the act of returning to the cabin, when he in a broken accent said, ’Stop a moment; I wish to have a word with you.  I am your friend.’  I stopped and looked him full in the face, and he said, ’I saw you some days since in the slave-market, and I intended to have purchased you to save you from the condition of a slave.  I called on Monday, but you had been sold and had left the market.  I inquired and learned who the purchaser was, and that you had to go to Mobile, so I resolved to follow you.  If you are willing, I will try and buy you from your present owner, and you shall be free.’  Although this was said in an honest and off-hand manner, I could not believe the man to be sincere in what he said.  ‘Why should you wish to set me free?’ I asked.  ’I had an only sister,’ he replied, ’who died three years ago in France, and you are so much like her, that had I not known of her death, I would most certainly have taken you for her.’  ’However much I may resemble your sister, you are aware that I am not her, and why take so much interest in one whom you never saw before?’ ‘The love,’ said he, ’which I had for my sister is transferred to you.’  I had all along suspected that the man was a knave, and this profession of love confirmed me in my former belief, and I turned away and left him.