thin face, and chaste in his conversation. Born in Boston, passing through her public schools, a good student, and a lover of literature, he has a cultivated understanding, and has collected together more facts, on the race with whom he is identified, than any other man of our acquaintance. An ardent admirer of Wendell Phillips, he seems as much attached to that distinguished orator as Boswell was to Johnson. Mr. Nell's devotion to his race is not surpassed by any man living.
JOHN SELLA MARTIN.
J. Sella Martin is a native of Charlotte, North
Carolina, and was born on the 27th of September,
1832. His mother was a slave, and by the laws of
the state the child follows the condition of the mother.
Young Martin sustained the double but incongruous
relation to his owner of master and son. At the tender
age of six years, the boy, together with his mother and
an only sister, was taken from the old homestead at
midnight, and carried to Columbus, Georgia, where
they were exposed for sale. Here they were separated,
the mother and daughter being purchased by one man,
and Sella by another. The latter had the good fortune,
however, to fall into the hands of an old bachelor,
with whom he lived, in the capacity of valet de chambre,
until he was eighteen years old. His opportunities,
while with him, for acquiring a knowledge of books
and the world generally, were far better than usually
fall to the lot of the most favored house servants.
Both master and slave boarded at the principal hotel
