[ Autographs ] SPECTACULAR SLAVE AUCTION DESCRIPTION A wel-written, 56pp. 4to. journal in both pen and pencil, kept by a traveling salesman going throughout the Southeast between Jan. 18 and Feb. 16, 1847, with many observations of life in the South, including the most detailed description of a slave auction we have seen in private hands.This part of the narrative begins on Feb. 4, in part: "...At Williamston [North Carolina] ...on the 4th, a cold, dreary winter day,20 likely negroes were sold at auction...By middle of the afternoon the streets are pretty well speckled with drunkards... Cotton...and corn being very high, the sale brings a crowd of farmers & some negro dealers. The sale was in front of the Courthouse. A ring was made and Dick was called, an old boy about 50 years old: `How old are you?' `Don't know how old I am' said he surely, for the fact that he was olddecreased his value, & unless they bring a high price they seem very mad. He was struck off at E275. The next, a very likely feller, about 20, went for E850, very high. There were 6 or 8 women & children in the lot. None seemed to care about it...I saw tears from one woman with a child about a year old, & two others 4 to 8, around her. The children were very bright, intelligent looking, sold for E200 to E350.Young women E475 to E550. `Now', said the administrator: `Whoever buysthese two children , 3 and 4 years old, ought to buy the mothe.' & thebidders seemed to acquiesce, for they let the lot go low...Those who spoke of the sale...expressed themselves glad that they were all sold to good masters. A smooth conscience may oil the domestic institution..The slave is better off than the free negro, but this putting them into the ring don't look right. It is selling human beings, flesh & blood...The people looking on the scene seemed a little ashamed of it ..The negroes themselves do not mind it much. The buyers would generally talk with them. If a farmer's name is bad...every negro in the county knows it. They will tell him frankly that they don't want to live with him and that is sufficient, unless the buyer be a trader,a negro's evil genius...A slave is never sold in this section unless he or she is a bad servant...or unless the master becomes insolvent. They hold on to their slaves to the last...After this sale a trade came in town...bought and sold about there, did not go off with drovesto the new states ...he was a 6 1/2 foot, slackjawed, cadaverous, tobacco chewing fellow, and with my aversion to the profession operating to some extent...he was a villainous looking man. I am not an abolitionist...but before I would deal in negros from county to county, state to state, I would ...go on a slaver to the coast of Africa, after new crops...". Much more, including a detailed description of a duel with knives, very good.