‘What! sold his own daughter!’ I exclaimed.

’Why, yes.  She was my daughter, too, you know; so she was his property, and so he couldn’t hinder them from taking her.’

‘How he must have felt!’ I exclaimed.

She caught me up quickly. ’Felt! why, you know how a father must feel in such a case.  It broke him down worse than ever.  Yes, we felt bad enough when they carried Jane away.  Well, she was bought by the principal creditor; he was a rich man, with a large plantation, and a wife and children, and lots of slaves, and he kept Jane at the house, to sew for him, and by-and-by she had a child that was almost as white as his other children.  You see,’ she added apologetically, ’Jane didn’t know it was wrong; she was only a poor sinner, who didn’t know nothing.  She had never been to church or learned any thing, and I didn’t know much either then.  It was only when I came North and joined the church, that I began to know about such things.  But I grieved day and night for Jane, that I couldn’t get her back.  Well, for a time we were out of debt, you see, and I persuaded my husband to come right up North, for fear he should get into debt again, and they should seize the boy too; so we came to Cincinnati, and we got the boy a place there, and he’s doing very well.

’There I joined the Church; but I couldn’t help thinking of Jane, and grieving after her all the time, and I prayed to the Lord for her, and I prayed and prayed, and by-and-by, I don’t know how it happened, but her master let her bring the child and come and pay me a visit.  It seemed as if the Lord had blinded him, so that he did not know that if she came North, she might be free.  He was that stupid, he had not the least suspicion that she’d stay; he thought she’d come right back to him.  And when she did not come, he wrote to her, and wrote again; and when still she didn’t come, he came himself to fetch her.  But I took care to have Jane out of the way, and saw him myself.  And he coaxed and persuaded, and he stormed and he threatened; oh! he was awful mad.  But I jist shook my fist in his face, and said, ’You ole slaveholder, you, you jist go back to ole Virginny; you niver git my daughter agin!’’

As she uttered these words, Sallie compressed her mouth with a look of dogged resolution; her black eyes glowed with smothered anger, and she shook her fist energetically in the air, as if the phantom of the Virginian slaveholder were still before her.  After a pause, she recovered herself and continued: 

’How he did go on!  He cursed and he swore; but it was of no manner of use; I’d nothin’ else to say to him, and by-and-by he had to go away; you see, he couldn’t do nothin’, because Jane had come North with his consent.  So Jane and I, we came up here, and we get what work we can, and take care of the child, and nurse the old man.  He’s miserable! he don’t often leave his bed, and he’s not likely to get much better, for he’s old and completely broke.’