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4 Patrick Henry Patrick Henry 5
friends and debts fast enough, but Patrick could not than usual buzz of interest and attention as a young
make a living. Patrick could not run a store. , So Lancashire lass was placed upon the block. She
William went back to his father's law court and was the highest type of slavery requirements, her
Patrick went back to his roan horse and to his movements denoting health and strength, and be-
forests. And it is doubtful if the society of James- sides she was undeniably attractive, even pretty.
town would ever have looked upon Patrick again She was one of those unfortunates who had done
if it had not been for the same reason that Adam no wrong, save to come within the scope of that
was enmeshed-a woman. The woman in this case barbarous law of the' day, that yoke from which
was a young girl-Doxey. Doxey, the tavern keep- the civilized world had not as yet freed itself. The
er's daughter. Doxey, the barmaid, a young miss bidding took on a new zest, it became more spirited.
scarcely 20 years of age, whose roguish eyes had A young miss, being no less a personage than the
ensnared all the dandies of Jam es town and the sur- Governor's daughter, was constantly pinching the
rounding country. But there was and will be no arm of her escort as he rose in the price of his bids
denying, good reader, where the affections of Doxey and they became higher and higher. It finally set-
lay. The dandies with their canes and jeweled snuff tled down to two bidders, the young Miss and Lige
boxes and their fine equipage meant nothing to Wethersby, a huge bulk of a man, all animal, all
Doxey. Doxey loved Patrick and Patrick loved brute, who, as he defiantly snapped out his bids,
Doxey. But there was Patrick's _.ne'er' do well na- gripped the stock of his whip. He was getting near
ture and there was Doxey's father, an obdurate and the topmost mark to which he could go and again
hard headed old Tory, a misguided Englishman, sell at a profit, for Lige Wethersby trafficked in
playing, as many other good Englishmen did, into human souls. Still higher and higher the price be-
the hands of King George. And did · he not, where came. The young slave girl looked appealingly at
Patrick was concerned, have full justice on his side? the young Miss. The young Miss again pressed the
He loved his motherless daughter, Doxey, as he had arm of her escort. She had played all she had and
a right to do. And was not Patrick Henry a proven all she could raise. The figure was away above
no account fisherman lout? normal, but Lige W ethersby was no longer bidding
to buy and sell, at least, not to sell at once, not to
The auction block had been occupied and vacated sell until he had broken the spirit of this slave girl
many times and the slaves who were sold were in devil, whose eyes defied him, not to sell until he
the hands of their masters ; some were hard visaged had first broken her in mind and body, for the slave
characters with rebellion stamped all over them, laws were lax and much winked at in those days
some meek and ashamed, but all of them sturdy when our forefathers were working at the civiliza-
and strong. The old world knew what kind of ma- tion of the human race.
terial to send to the new world. There was a more
