“Can I appeal to one whose feelings are more ready to be enlisted in a good cause?  I think not.  I wish now to enlist your feelings in something that concerns myself.  It is to save two interesting children-who, though our eyes may at times be blinded to facts, I cannot forget are nearly allied to me by birth and association-from the grasp of slavery.  Misfortune never comes alone; nor, in this instance, need I recount ours to you.  Of my own I will say but little; the least is best.  Into wedlock I have been sold to one it were impossible for me to love; he cannot cherish the respect due to my feelings.  His associations are of the coarsest, and his heartless treatment beyond my endurance.  He subjects me to the meanest grievances; makes my position more degraded than that of the slave upon whom he gratifies his lusts.  Had my parents saved me from such a monster-I cannot call him less-they would have saved me many a painful reflection.  As for his riches-I know not whether they really exist-they are destined only to serve his lowest passions.  With him misfortune is a crime; and I am made to suffer under his taunts about the disappearance of my brother, the poverty of my parents.

“You are well aware of the verdict of the jury, and the affirmation of the Court of Appeal, upon those dear children.  The decree orders them to be sold in the market, for the benefit of my uncle’s creditors:  this is the day, the fatal day, the sale takes place.  Let me beseech of you, as you have it in your power, to induce the deacon to purchase them.  O, save them from the fate that awaits them!  You know my uncle’s errors; you know also his goodness of heart; you can sympathise with him in his sudden downfall.  Then the affection he has for Annette is unbounded.  No father could be more dotingly fond of his legitimate child.  But you know what our laws are-what they force us to do against our better inclinations.  Annette’s mother, poor wretch, has fled, and M’Carstrow charges me with being accessory to her escape:  I cannot, nor will I, deny it, while my most ardent prayer invokes her future happiness.  That she has saved herself from a life of shame I cannot doubt; and if I have failed to carry out a promise I made her before her departure-that of rescuing her child-the satisfaction of knowing that she at least is enjoying the reward of freedom partially repays my feelings.  Let me entreat you to repair to the city, and, at least, rescue Annette from that life of shame and disgrace now pending over her-a shame and disgrace no less black in the sight of heaven because society tolerates it as among the common things of social life.

“I am now almost heart-broken, and fear it will soon be my lot to be driven from under the roof of Colonel M’Carstrow, which is no longer a home, but a mere place of durance to me.  It would be needless for me here to recount his conduct.  Were I differently constituted I might tolerate his abuse, and accept a ruffian’s recompense in consideration of his wealth.