The older two he had sold, one at a time, as they became saleable or got in his way.

On the sale of the first, the mother "took on so that he was obliged to flog her almost to death before she gave up." But he had made her understand that their children were to be sold, at his convenience, and that he "would not have more than three little niggers about the house at one time." After that first lesson she had been "reasonable." Our hostess, a Kentucky lady, used to lament the loss of two boys--"two of the beautifulest boys!" They were the sons of her bachelor uncle, who had had a passion for Liza, one of his father's slaves, a tall, handsome quadroon, who rejected his suit and was in love with Jo, a fellow slave.

To punish both, the young master had Jo tied up and lashed until he fainted, while Liza was held so that she must witness the torture, until insensibility came to her relief.

This was done three times, when Jo was sold, and Liza herself bound to the whipping-post, and lashed until she yielded, and became the mother of those two beautiful boys.
"But," added her biographer, "she never smiled after Jo was sold, took consumption and died when her youngest boy was two months old.

They were the beautifulest boys I ever laid eyes on, and uncle sot great store by them.