EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF HENRY HULL
Memoir of the Life and Religious Labours of Henry Hull. Philadelphia: Friends' Book Store, 1873.
Stereotyped edition. Pages 124 - 125.
This Document is on The Quaker Writings Home Page.
Stopping at an inn upon the road, I heard of the death of George Washington, the late president of
the United States. He was a good example to statesmen and those in office; appearing to have the
welfare of the community in view, rather than the honour of men or the profits of office. The day
was an unpleasant one for traveling, by reason of the abundance of snow that fell, being more than
twelves inches deep, a circumstance very unusual in this country. The Quarterly Meeting as Bush
was large, and through Divine condescension proved a good time. Here my companion, Joshua
Lord, left me, in order to return home by land with Daniel Haviland, and Samuel Miles agrees to
accompany me to Charleston. We had two meetings near Edisto, and then rode into the city and put
up at Daniel Latham's where we were kindly entertained. We had a meeting with the few Friends
resident there, and those from the north and east who board here during the winter; also one with the
inhabitants more generally, both held in the house belonging to Friends. The crying injustice and
cruelty of slavery, had frequently engaged my attention during the course of this journey; but never
more than while I was in this place, where this oppressed race are very numerous, and are
frequently sold at auction like cattle. At one of these sales I was much affected, in hearing a young
coloured man pleading his cause. His aged father and mother, and his wife and child, were all
mounted upon a state, so that they might be seen by bidders; they being about to be sold. The young
man stepped up and stood by them, but was soon ordered down. He said he wanted to be sold with
the, - but was told that he could not, as it was a sale to satisfy a mortgage upon the others, in which
he was not included. He pleaded with very affecting and moving language, to show how hard it
was to be separated form his family; but it was all to no purpose. When he saw that his prayers were
unheeded, and that the others would be sold without him, he burst into a flood of tears, and in the
anguish of his feelings besought them rather to kill him; for, said he, I had rather die than be
separated from my family - upon which he was dragged off the scaffold and driven away. The
company went on bidding, apparently as unaffected as though the auctioneer had been selling sheep,
while the screams and prayers of the aged parents, and the bereaved wife with her infant in her
arms, went up to heaven in behalf of themselves, and especially for the poor young man, who had
been so inhumanly torn away form the. Besides these victims to cruel and antichristian avarice,
there was a large number more confined in a cellar, which were brought and and sold to different
purchasers. Thus it is, that near relatives are often violently separated, never more to see each other
in this world!!!