this town is seated, I stepped into one of the large
tobacco warehouses which are built here, for the
reception and inspection of that plant, before it is
permitted to be exported. On entering into con-
versation with an inspector, as he was employed in
looking over a parcel of tobacco, he lamented the
licenciousness which he remarked so generally
prevailed in this town. He said, that in his remem-
brance, the principal part of the inhabitants were
emigrants from Scotland, and that it was consi-
dered so reproachful to the white inhabitants, if
they were found to have an illicit connection with
their female slaves, that their neighbours would
shun the company of such, as of persons with
whom it was a reproach to be acquainted. The
case was now so much altered that, he believed,
there were but few slave holders in the place who
were free from guilt in this respect: and that it
was now thought but little of. Such was the bru-
tality and hardness of heart which this evil pro-
duced, that some amongst them paid no more
regard to selling their own children, by their
female slaves, or even their brothers and sisters, in
the same line, than they would do to the disposal
of a cow or a horse, or any other property in the
brute creation. To so low a degree of degrada-
tion does the system of negro slavery sink the white
inhabitants, who are unhappily engaged in it.