A swarm of imps, in human shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and agents of slave-traders--that gather in every country town of the state, watching for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to eat carrion) flocked in upon us, to ascertain if our masters had placed us in jail to be sold.
Such a set of debased and villainous creatures, I never saw before, and hope never to see again.

I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of _fiends_, fresh from _perdition_.

They laughed, leered, and grinned at us; saying, "Ah! boys, we've got you, havn't we?
So you were about to make your escape?
Where were you going to ?" After taunting us, and peering at us, as long as they liked, they one by one subjected us to an examination, with a view to ascertain our value; feeling our arms and legs, and shaking us by the shoulders to see if we were sound and healthy; impudently asking us, "how we would like to have them for masters ?" To such questions, we were, very much to their annoyance, quite dumb, disdaining to answer them.

For one, I detested the whisky-bloated gamblers in human flesh; and I believe I was as much detested by them in turn.

One fellow told me, "if he had me, he would cut the devil out of me pretty quick." These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern Christian public.