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No. 10.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER.
AMERICA]^, SLAVERY
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THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER.
AMERICAN SLAVERY
AS IT IS:
M
TESTIMONY
A THOUSAND WITNESSES.
" Behold the wicked abommations that they do !" — ^Ezekiel, viii. 9.
"The righteous considereth the cause of the poor; but the wicked regardeth not to know it." — ^Prov. 29, 7.
"True humanity consists not in a squeamish ear, but in listening to the story of human suffering and endea-
voring to reUeve it." — Charles James Fox.
N E W Y 0 R K :
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
OFFICE, No. 143 NASSAU STREET.
18 3 9.
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This periodical contains 7 sheets — postage, under 100 miles, 10| cts. ; over 100 miles, 17^ cents.
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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.
A MAJORITY of the facts and testimony contained in this work rests upon the autliority of
SLAVEHOLDERS, whoso names and residences are given to the public, as vouchers for the truth of
their statements. That they should utter falsehoods, for the sake of proclaiming their
own infamy, is not probable.
Their testimony is taken, mainly, from recent newspapers, published in the slave states. Most
of those papers will be deposited at the office of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 143 Nas-
sau street, New- York City. Those who think the atrocities, which they describe, incredible,
are invited to call and read for themselves. We regret that all of the original papers are not in
oar possession. The idea of preserving them on file for the inspection of the incredulous, and the
curious, did not occur to us until after the preparation of the work was in a state of forwardness j
in consequence of this, some of the papers cannot be recovered. Nearly all of them, however
have been preserved. In all cases the name of the paper is given, and, with very few excep-
tions, the place and time, (year, month, and day) of publication. Some of the extracts, however
not being made with reference to this work, and before its publication was contemplated, are
without date ; but this class of extracts is exceedingly small, probably not a thirtieth of the whole
The statements, not deriv^ from the papers and other periodicals, letters, books, &c., pub-
lislied by slaveholders, have been furnished by individuals who have resided in slave states, many
of whom are natives of those states, and have been slaveholders. The names, residences, &c.
of the witnesses generally are given. A number of them, however, stOl reside in slave states ;—
to publish their names would be, in most cases, to make them the victims of popular fury.
Neio~Y<yrk, May 4, 1839.
NOTE.
The Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, w^hile tendering their grate-
ful acknowledgments, in the name of American Abolitionists, and in behalf of the slave, to those
who have furnished for this publication the result of their residence and travel in the slave states ol
this Union, annoimce their determination to publish, from time to time, as they may have the ma-
terials and the funds, tracts, containing well authenticated facts, testimony, personal narratives,
&c. fully setting forth the condition of American slaves. In order that they maybe furnished with
the requisite materials, they invite all who have had personal knowledge of the condition of slaves
in any of the states of this Union, to forward their testimony with their names and residences. To
prevent imposition, it is indispensable that persons forwarding testimony, who are not personally
known to any of the Executive Committee, or to the Secretaries or Editors of the American Anti-
Slavery Society, should furnish references to some person or persons of respectability, with whom, if
necessary, the Committee may communicate respecting the writer.
Facts and testimony respecting the condition of slaves, in all respects, are desired ; their food,
(kinds, quahty, and quantitj'^,) clothing, lodging, dwellings, hours of labor and rest, kinds of labor,
with the mode of exaction, supervision, &c. — the number and time of meals each day, treatment
when sick, regulations respecting their social intercourse, marriage and domestic ties, the system
of torture to which they are subjected, with its various modes ; and in detail, their intellectual
and moral condition. Great care should be observed in the statement of facts. Well-weighed
testimony and well-authenticated facts, with a responsible name, the Committee earnestly desire
and call for. Thousands of persons in the free states have ample knowledge on this subject, de-
rived from their own observation in the midst of slavery. Will such hold their peace ? T hat which
maketh manifest is light; he who keepeth his candle under a bushel at such a time and in such
a cause as this, forges fetters for himself, as well as for the slave. Let no one withhold his testi-
mony because others have already testified to similar facts. The value of testimony is by no
means to be measured by the novelty of the horrors which it describes. Corroborative testimony,
— facts, similar to those established by the testimony of others, — is highly valuable. Who that
can give it and has a heart of flesh, will refuse to the slave so small a boon ?
Communications maybe addressed to Theodore D. Weld, 143 Nassau-street, New York.
New York, May, 1839.
CONTENTS.
Introduction. — 7-10.
Twenty-seven hundred thousand free born citizens of
t'le U. S. in slaverj', 7 : Tender mercies of slaveliolders, 8 :
Abominations of slavery, 9: Character of the testimo-
ny, 9-10.
Personal Narratives— Part I. pp. 10-27.
Narrative of Nehemiah Caulkins, 102 ; North
Carolina slavery, 11 ; Methodist preaching slavedriver,
Galloway, 12 : Women at child-birth, 12 : Slaves
at labor, 12 : Clotliing of slaves, 13 ; Allowance of
provisions, 13 ; Slave-fetters, 1.3 ; Cruelties to slaves, 13,
14, 15 , Burying a slave alive, 15 ; Licentiousness of Slave-
holders, 15, 16 ; Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, with his " hands
tied," 16 ; Preachers cringe to slavery, 15 ; Nakedness of
slaves, 16 ; Slave-huts, 16 ; Means of subsistence for
slaves, 16, 17 ; Slaves' prayer, 17.
Narrrative of Rev. Horace Moolton, 17 ; Labor
of Uie slaves, 13 ; Tasks, 18 ; Whipping posts, 18 ; Food,
1? : Houses, 19 ; Clothing, 19 ; Punishments, 19, 20 ;
Scenes of horror, 20 ; Constables, savage and brutal, 20 ;
Patrols. 20; Cruelties at night, 20,21 ; Paddle-torturing;
20 ; Cat-hauling, 21 ; Branding witli hot iron, 21 ; Murder
witli unpunity, 21 ; Iron collars, yokes, clogs, and bells, 21.
Narrative of Sarah M.Grimke, 22; Barbarous Treat-
ment of slaves, 22 ; Converted slave, 22 ; Professor of reli-
gion, near death, tortured his slave for visiting his com-
panion, 33 ; Counterpart of James Williams' description of
Larriiuore's wife, 23 ; Head of runaway slave on a pole,
23 ; Governor of North Carolina left his sick slave to per-
ish, 23 ; Cruelty to Women slaves, 34 ; Christian slave a
niartjT for Jesus, 24.
Testimony of Rev. John Graham, 25 ; Twenty-seven
slaves whipped, 26.
Testimony of William Poe, 26 ; Hams whipped a
gul to death, 26 ; Captain of the U. S. Navy murdered
his boy, was tried and acquitted, 26 ; Overseer burut a
slave, 26 ; Cruelties to slaves, 26.
Privations of the slaves, pp. 27 — 44-
FOOD, 28-31 ; Suffering from hunger, 28 ; Rationsi in
the U. S. Army, &c , 32 ; Prison rations, 33-34 ; Testimo-
ny, 34, S5. LABOR, 35 ; Slaves are overworked, 35 ; Wit-
nesses, 35, 36 ; Henry Clay, 37 ; Child-bearing prevented,
37 ; Dr. Channing, 38 ; Sacrifice of a set of hands every
seven years, 33 ; Testimony, 39 ; Laws of Georgia, Louis-
iana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia, 39.
CLOTHING, 40 ; Witnesses, 40, 41 ; Advertisements,
41 ; Testimony, 41 ; Field-hands, 41 ; Nudity of slaves,
42 ; John Randolph's legacy to Essex and Hetty, 43.
DWELLINGS, 42 ; Witnesses, 43 : Slaves are wi-etchedly
sheltered and lodged, 43. TREATMENT OF THE
SICK, 44.
Personal Narratives, Part II. pp 45-57.
Testimony of the Rev. "Wiilliam T. Allan. 45;
Woman delivered of a dead child, being whipped, 46 ;
Slaves shot by Hilton, 46 ; Cruelties to slaves, 46 ; Whii)-
ping post, 46 ; Assaults, and maimings, 46, 47 ; Mur-
ders, 47; Puryear, "the Devil," 47; Overseers always
armed, 44 ; Licentiousness of Overseers, 47 ; " Bend your
backs," 47 ; Mrs. H., a Presbyterian, desirous to cut Arthur
Tappau's tliroat, 47 ; Clothing, Huts, and Herding of
slaves, 47 ; Iron yokes with prongs, 47 ; Marriage un-
known among slaves, 46 ; Presbyterian minister at Huiats-
ville, 47 ; Concubinage in Preacher's house, 47 ; Slavery,
the great wrong, 47.
Narrative of William Lfftwich, 48, 49 ; Slave's life,
48, 49.
Testimony of Lemuel Sapington, 49 ; Nakedmcss of
slaves, 49 ; Traffic in slaves, 49.
Testimony of Mrs. Lowry, 50 ; Long, a professor of
religion killed three men, 50 ; Salt water applied to
wounds to keep them from putrefaction, 50.
Testimony or William C. Gildersleeve, 50 ; Acts of
cruelty, 50.
Testimony of Hiram White, 51 ; Woman with a child
chained to her neck, 51 ; Amalgamation, and mulatto
children, 51.
Testimony of John M. Nelson, 51 ; Rev. Conrad
Speece influenced Alexander Nelson when dying not to
emancipate his slaves, 52 ; George Bourne opposed slavery in
1810, 52.
Testimony of Angelina Grimke Weld, 52 ; House-
servants, 52 ; Slave-driving female professors of religion at
Charleston, S. C., 53 ; Whipping women and prayer in the
same room, 53 ; Tread-mills, 53 ; Slaveholding religion,
34 ; Slave-driving mistress prayed for the divine blessing
upon her whipping of an aged woman, 54 ; Girl killed with
impunity, 54 ; Jewish law, 54 ; Barbarities, 54 ; Medical
attendance upo'i slaves, 35 ; Young man beaten to epilepsy
and insanity, 55 ; Mistresses flog their slaves, 55; Blood-
bought luxuries, 55 ; Borrowing of slaves, 55 ; Meals of
slaves, 53 ; All comfort of slaves disregarded, 36 ; Severance
of companion lovers, 56 ; Separation of parents and children,
56 ; Slave espionage, 57 ; Sufferings of slaves, 57 ; Horrors
of slavery indescribable, 56.
Testimony of Cruelty inflicted upon slaves, -57;
Colonization Society, 60 ; Emancipation Society of North
Carolina, 60 ; Kentucky, 61.
PUNISHMENTS, 62-72 ; Floggings, 62; Witnesses and
Testimony, 62, 63.
Slave Driving, 69 ; Droves of slaves, 70.
Cruelty to Slaves, 70 ; Slaves like Stock without a
shelter, 71 ; " Six pound paddle," 71.
Tortures of slaves. Iron collars, chai'is, fetters, and
hand-cuffs, 72-76 : Advertisements for fugitive slaves, 73 :
Testimony, 74, 75: Iron head-frame, 76: Chain coffles,
76 ; Droves of ' human cattle,' 76 : Washington, the Na-
tional slave market, 76 : Testimony of James K. Pauld-
ing, Secretary of the Navy ; Literary fraud and preteaided
prophecy by Mr. Paulding, 77 : Brandings, Maimings, and
Gun-shot wounds, 77 : Witnesses and Testimony, 77-82:
Mr. Sevier, senator of the U. S. 79: Judge Hitchcock, ot
Mobile, 79 : Commendable fidelity to truth in the advertisa-
ments of slaveholders, 82 : Thomas Aylethorpe cut off" a
slave's ear, and sent it to Lewis Tappan, S3 : Advettiae-
mants for runaway slaves with their teeth muti-
lated, 83, 84 ; Excessive cruelty to slaves, 85 : Slaves
burned alive, 86 : Mr. Turner, a slave-butcher, 87 :
Slaves roasted and flogged, 87: Cruelties common, 83:
Fugitive slaves, 88 : Slaves forced to eat tobacco worms,
88 : Baptist Christians escaping from slavery, 88 ; Chris-
tian whipped for praying, 88 : James K. Paulding's testi-
mony, 89 : Slave driven to death, 89 : Coroner's inquest on
Harney's murdered female slave, 89: Man-stealing en-
couraged by law, 90 : Trial for a murdered slave, 90 : Fe-
male slave whipped to death, and durmg the torture deliv-
ered of a dead infant. 90 : Slaves murdered, 90,91,92:
Slave driven to death, 92 : Slaves killed with impimity,
93 : George, a slave, chopped piece-meal, and burnt by
Lilbum Lewis, 92 ; Retributive justice in the awful death
of Lilbum Lewis, 94 : Trial of Isham Lewis, a slave mur-
derer, 94. ^ , _ _.^
VI
Contents.
Personal Narratives — Part hi. Page 94-109.
Narrative of Rev. Francis Hawley, 94 ; Plantations,
94 ; Overseers, 95 ; No appeal from Overseers to Masters,
95.
Clothing, 95 ; Nudity of slaves, 95.
WoEK, 95 ; Cotton-picking, 96 ; Mothers of slaves, 96 ;
Presbyterian minister killed his slave, 96 ; Methodist co-
lored preacher hung, 96 ; Licentiousness, 97 ; Slave-traffic,
97 ; N^ight in a Slaveholder's house, 97 ; Twelve slaves
murdered, 97 ; Slave driving Baptist preachers, 97 ; Hunt-
ing of runaways slaves, 97 ; Amalgamation, 97.
Testimony of Reuben C. Macy, and Richard Macy, 98.
Whipping of slaves, 98, 99. Testimony of Eleazer Powel,
99 ; Overseer of Hinds Stuart, shot a slave for opposing the
torture of his female companion, 100.
Testimony of Rev. William Scales, 100. Three slaves
murdered with impunity, 100 ; Separation of lovers, par-
ents, and children, 101.
Testimony of Jos. Im, 101. Mrs. T. a Presbyterian kind
w^oman- killer, 101; Female slave whipped to deatli, 101;
Food, 101 ; Nakedness of slaves, 101 ; Old man flogged
after praying for his tyrant, 101 ; Slave-huts not as comfort-
able as pig- sties, 101.
Testimony op Rev. Phineas Smith, 101. Texas, 102 ;
Suit for the value of slave ' property,' 102 ; Anson Jones,
Ambassador from Texas, 102 ; No trial or punishment for
the r.iurder of slaves, 102 ; Slave-hunting in Texas, 102 ;
Suffering drives the slaves to despair and suicide, 102.
Testimony OF Phil'n Bliss, 102. Ignorance of northern
citizens respecting slavery, 102,Betting upon crops, 103 ; E.x-
tcnt and cruelty of the punishment of slaves, 103 ; Slavehold-
ers excuse their cruelties by the example of Preacliers,
and professors of religion, and NortJiern citizens, 104 ; Novel
torture, eulogized by a professor of rehgion, 104 ; Whips as
common as the plough, 104 ; Ladies use cowhides, with
shovel and tongs, 104.
Testimony of Rev. Wm. A. Chapin, 105. Slave-labor,
lfl5 ; Starvation of slaves, 105 ; Slaves lacerated, without
clothing, and \\'ithout food, 105.
Testimony of T. M. Macy, 105. Cotton plantations on St.
Simon's Island, 105 ; Cultivntion of rice, 106 ; No time for
relaxation, 106; Sabbatli a nominal rest, 106; Clothing,
106 ; Flogging, 106.
Testimony of F. C. Macy, 106. Slave cabins, 106 ; Food,
106 ; Whipping every day, 106 ; Treatment of slaves as
brutes, 106 ; Slave-boys fight for slaveholder's amusementi
107 ; Amalgamation comnio'i, 107.
Testimony of a Clergyman, 107. Natchez, 107 ; ' Lie
dovm,' for whipping, 107 ; Slave-huntuig, 108 ; ' Ball and
oitaiii' men, 108 ; Whipping at the same time, on three
plantations, 108 ; Hours of Labor, 108 ; Christians slave-
hunting, 108 ; Many runaway slaves annually shot, 108 ;
Slaves in the stocks, 108 ; Slave-branding, 108.
Oondition of Slaves, 108. Slavery is unmixed cruelty,
108; Fear the only motive of slaves, 109; Pain is the
means, not the end of slave-driving, 109 ; Characters of
Slave drivers and Overseers, brutal, sensual, and violent,
109 ; Ownership of human beings utterly destroys tkeir
comfort, 109.
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED :— Page 120—210.
I. Such cruelties are incredible, 110. Slaves deemed to
')e working animals, or merchandize ; and called ' Stock,'
' Increase,' ' Breeders,' ' Drivers,' ' Propesty,' ' Human
cattle,' 110 ; Testimony of Thomas Jefferson, 110 ; Slaves
worse treated than quadrupeds. 111, 112 ; Contrast between
the usage of slaves and animals, 112; Testimony, 112!
Northern incredulity discreditable to consistency, 112 ;
Religious persecutions, 113 ; Recent ' Lynchings,' and Riots,
in the United States, 113 ; Many outrageous Felonies perpe-
trated with impunity, 113; Large faith of the objectors who
' can't believe,' 114 ; 'Uoe faces,' and' Dough faces,' 114 ;
Slave-drivers acknowledge their own enormities, 114;
Slave plantations in Alabama. Louisiana, and Mississippi,
' second only to hell,' 114 ; Legislature of North Carolina,
115 ; Incredulity discreditable to intelligence, 115 ; Abuse of
power in the state, and churches, 115 ; Legal restraints, 116 ;
American slaveholders possess absolute power, 116; Slaves
deprived of the safeguards oflaw,116; Mutual aversion be-
tween the oppressor and the slave, 116 ; Cruelty the product
of arbitrary power, 117 ; Testimony of Thomas Jefferson,
117 ; Judge Tucker, 117 ; Presbyterian Synod of South
Carolina, and Georgia, 117 ; General William H. Harrison,
117; President Edwards, 118 ; Montesquieu, 118; Wilber-
force, 118 ; Whitbread, 118 ; Characters, 118, 121.
Objection H.— " Slaveholders protest that they treat their
slaves well.'' 121 Not testimony but opinion, 122; 'Good
treatment' of slaves,' 123 ; Novel form of cruelty, 125 .
Objection IU — " Slaveholders are proverbial for their
kmdness, and generosity, 125; Hospitality and benevolence
contrasted, 125, 126 ; Slaveholders in Congress, respecting
Texas and Hayti, 126 ; ' Fictitious kindness and hospitality,'
128.
Objf.ction IV. — " Northern visitors at the south testify
that the slaves are not cruelly treated," 128. Testimony,
128,129; ' Gubner poisened,' 129 ; Fiela-hands, 130; Par-
lor slaves, 130 ; Chief Justice Durell, 131.
Objection V.—" It is for the interest of the masters to
treat their slaves well," 132; Testimony, 133. Rev. J. N
Maffitt, 134 ; Masters interest to treat cruelly the great body
of the slaves, 134, 13S ; Various classes of slaves, 135, 136 ;
Hired slaves, 130 ; Advertisements, 136, 1.37.
Objection VI-.—" Slaves multiply ; a proof that they are
not inhumanly treated, and are in a comfortable condition,
139. Testimony, 139; Martin VanBuren, 139; Foreign
slave trade, 1.39 ; ' Beware of Kidnappers,' 140 ; ' Citizens
sold as slaves,' 141 ; Kidnapping at New Orleans, 141 ; Slave
breeders, 142.
Objection VII. — " Public opinion is a protection to the
slave, 143." Decision of the Supreme Court of North and
South Carolina, 143; ' Protection of slaves,' 143; Mischiev-
ous effects of ' public opinion' concerning slaveiy, 144 ;
Lawsof different states, 144 ; Heart of slaveholders, 145 ;
Reasons for enacting the laws conceming cruelties tn
slaves, 147 ; ' Moderate correction,' 148 ; Hypocrisy and
malignity of slave laws, 148 ; Testimony of slaves excluded,
149 ; Capital crimes for slaves, 149 ; ' Slaveholding brutali-
ty,' worse than that of Caligula, 149 ; Public opinion destroys
fundamental rights, 150; Character of slaveholders' adver-
tisements, l.=i2 ; Public opinion is diabolical, 152, 154 ;
Brutal Indecency, 154 ; Murder of slaves by law, 155, 156 ;
Judge Lawless, 157 ; Slave-hunting, 159, 160 ; Health of
slaves, 161 ; Acclimation of slaves, 162 ; Liberty of Slaves
162 ; Kidnapping of free citizens, 162 ; Law of Louisiana,
163 ; Friends', memorial, 164 ; Domestic slaveiy, 164 ; Ad-
vertisements, 164, 167 ; Childhood,old age, 167; Inhumani
ty, 169; Butchering dead slaves, 169; South Carolina
Medical college, 169 ; Charleston Medical Infirmaiy, 172 ;
Advertisements, 172, 173 ; Slave murders, 173 ; John Ran-
dolph, 173; Charleston slave auctions, 174 ; ' Never lose a
day's work,' 174 ; Stocks, 175 ; Slave-breeding, 175 ; Ljmcli
law, 175 ; Slaves murdered,176 ; Slavery among Christians,
176, 180 ; Licentiousness encouraged by preachers, ISO ;
'Fine old preacher who dealt in slaves,' 180; Cruelty to
slaves by professors of religion, ISl ; Slave-breeding, 182;
Daniel O'Connel, and Andrew Stevenson, 182 ; Virginia a
negro raising menagerie, 182 ■ Legislature of Virginia, 182;
Colonization Society,183; Inter-state slave traffic, 184; Bat-
tles in Congress, 184; Duelling, 185; Cock-fighting, 186;
Horse-racing, 186 ; Ignorance of slaveholders, 187 i 'Slave-
holding civiltzation, and morality,' 188; Arkansas, 188;
Slave driving ruffians, 189, 190 ; Missouri, 191 ; Alabama,
192 ; Butcheries hi Mississippi, 194 ; Louisiana, 198 ; Ten-
nessee, 200 ; Fatal Affray in Colum'iia, 201 ; Presentment
of the Grand Juiy of Shelby County, 202 ; Testimony of
Bishop Smith of Kentucky, 204, 206.
Atlantic Slaveholding Region, '206. Georgia, 206 ;
North Carolina, 209 ; Trading with Negroes, 209 ; Conclu-
sion, 210.
INTRODUCTION.
Reader, you are empaiinelled as a juror to try
a. plain case and bring in an honest verdict. ,
Tlie question at issue is not one of law, but of
fact — "What is tlie actual condition of the
slaves in the United States ?" A plainer case
never went to a jury. Look at it. Twenty-
seven HUNDRED THOUSAND PERSONS in this Coun-
try, men, women, and children, are in slavery.
Is slavery, as a condition for human beings,
good, bad, or indifferent? We submit the
question VN^ithout argument. You have common
sense, and conscience, and a human heart ; — pro-
nounce upon it. You have a wife, or a husband,
a child, a father, a mother, a brother or a sister —
make the case your own, make it theirs, and
bring in your verdict. The case of Human
Rights against Slavery has been adjudicated in
the court of conscience times innumerable. The
same verdict has always been rendered — " Guil-
ty;" the same sentence has always been pro-
nounced, " Let it be accursed ;" and human na-
ture, with her million echoes, has rung it round
the world in every language under heaven, " Let
it be accursed. Let it be accursed." His heart is
false to human nature, who will not say "Amen."
There is not a man on earth who does not be-
lieve that slavery is a curse. Human beings
may be inconsistent, but himian nature is true
to herself. She has uttered her testimony
against slavery with a shriek ever since the mon-
ster was begotten ; and till it perishes amidst the
execrations of the universe, she will traverse
the world on its track, dealing her bolts upon its
head, and dashing against it her condemning
brand. W"e repeat it, every man knows that
slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, his lips
libel his heart. Try him ; clank the chains in
his ears, and tell him they are for him. Give
him an hour to prepare his wife and children for
a life of slavery. Bid him make haste and get
ready their necks for the yoke, and their wrists
for the coffle chains, then look at his pale lips and
trembling knees, and you have nature's testimony
against slavery.
Two millions seven hundred thousand persons
in these States are in this condition. They were
made slaves and are held such by force, and by
being put in fear, and this for no crime ! Reader,
what have you to say of such treatment ? Is it
right, just, benevolent ? Suppose I should seize
you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the
field, and make you work without pay as long as
you live, would that be justice and kindness, or
monstrous injustice and cruelty? Now, every
body knows that the slaveholders do these things
to the slaves every day, and yet it is stoutly af-
firmed that they treat them well and kindly, and
that their tender regard for their slaves restrains
the masters from inflicting cruelties upon them.
We shall go into no metaphysics to show the
absurdity of this pretence. The man who rohs
you every day, is, forsooth, quite too tender-
hearted ever to cuff or kick you ! True, he can
snatch your money, but he does it gently lest he
should hurt you. He can empty your pockets
without qualms, but if your stomach is empty, it
cuts him to the quick. He can make you work
a life time without pay, but loves you too well
to let you go hungry. He fleeces you of your
rights with a relish, but is shocked if you work
bareheaded in summer, or in winter without
warm stockings. He can make you go without
your liberty, but never without a sliirt. He can
crush, in you, all hope of bettering your condition,
by vowing that you shall die his slave, but though
he can coolly torture your feelings, he is too com-
passionate to lacerate your back — he can break
your heart, but he is very tender of yom- skin.
He can strip you of all protection and thus ex-
pose you to all outrages, but if you are exposed
to the weather, half clad and half sheltered, how
yeam his tender bowels ! What ! slaveholders
talk of treating men well, and yet not only rob
them of all they get, and as fast as they get it,
but rob them of themselves, also ; their very hands
and feet, all their muscles, and Umbs, and senses,
their bodies and minds, their time and liberty and
earnings, their free speech and rights of con-
8
Introduction.
science, their right to acquire knowledge, and
property, and reputation ; — and yet they, who
plunder them of all these, would fain make us
believe that their soft hearts ooze out so lovingly
toward their slaves that they always keep them
well housed and well clad, never push them too
hard in the field, never make their dear backs
smart, nor let their dear stomachs get empty.
But there is no end to these absurdities.
Are slaveholders dunces, or do they take all
the rest of the world to be, that they think
to bandage our eyes with such thin gauzes ?
Protesting their kind regard for those whom
they hourly plunder of all they have and all
they get ! What ! when they have seized their
victims, and annihilated all their rights, still
claim to be the special guardians of their happi-
ness .' Plunderers of their liberty, yet the careful
suppliers of their wants ? Robbers of their earn-
ings, yet watchful sentinels round their interests,
and kind providers of their comforts ? Filching all
their time, yet granting generous donations for rest
and sleep ? Stealing the use of their muscles, yet
thoughtful of their ease ? Putting them imder driv.
ers, yet careful that they are not hard-pushed ?
Too humane forsooth to stint the stomachs of
their slaves, yet force their minds to starve, and
brandish over them pains and penalties, if they
dare to reach forth for the smallest crumb of
knowledge, even a letter of the alphabet !
It is no marvel that slaveholders are always
talking of their kind treatment of their slaves.
The only marvel is, that men of sense can be
gulled by such professions. Despots always insist
that they are merciful. The greatest tyrants that
ever dripped with blood have assumed the titles
of " most gracious," " most clement," " most
merciful," &c., and have ordered their crouching
vassals to accost them thus. When did not vice
lay claim to those virtues which are the opposites
of its habitual crimes ? The guilty, according to
their own showing, are always innocent, and
cowards brave, and drunkards sober, and harlots
chaste, and pickpockets honest to a fault. Every
body understands this. When a man's tongue
grows thick, and he begins to hiccough and walk
cross-legged, we expect him, as a matter of course,
to protest that he is not drunk ; so when a man is
always singing the praises of his own honesty, we
instinctively watch his movements and look out
for our pocket-books. Whoever is simple enough
to be hoaxed by such professions, should never be
trusted in the streets without somebody to take
care of him. Human nature works out in slave-
holders just as it does in other men, and in Ame-
rican slaveholders just as in English, French,
Tmkish, Algerine, Roman and Grecian. The
Spartans boasted of their kindness to their slaves,
■while they whipped them to death by thousands at
the altars of their gods. The Romans lauded
their own mild treatment of their bondmen, while
they branded their names on their flesh with hot
irons, and when old, threw them into their fish
ponds, or like Cato " the Just," starved them to
death. It is the boast of the Turks that they
treat their slaves as though they were their chil-
dren, yet their common name for them is " dogs,"
and for the merest trifles, their feet are bastina-
doed to a jelly, or their heads clipped off with the
scimetar. The Portuguese pride themselves on
their gentle bearing toward their slaves, yet the
streets of Rio Janeiro are filled with naked men
and women yoked in pairs to carts and wagons,
and whipped by drivers like beasts of burden.
Slaveholders, the world over, have sung the
praises of their tender mercies towards their
slaves. Even the wretches that plied the African
slave trade, tried to rebut Clarkson's proofs of
their cruelties, by speeches, affidavits, and pub-
lished pamphlets, setting forth the accommoda-
tions of the " middle passage," and their kind
attentions to the comfort of those whom they
had stolen from their homes, and kept stowed
away under hatches, during a voyage of four
thousand mOes. So, according to the testimony
of the autocrat of the Russias, he exercises great
clemency towards the Poles, though he exiles
them by thousands to the snows of Siberia, and
tramples them down by millions, at home. Who
discredits the atrocities perpetrated by Ovando in
Hispaniola, Pizarro in Peru, and Cortez in Mexi-
co,— ^because they filled the ears of the Spanish
Court with protestations of their benignant rule ?
While they were yoking the enslaved natives
like beasts to the draught, working them to death
by thousands in their mines, hunting them with
bloodhounds, torturing them on racks, and
broiling them on beds of coals, their representa-
tions to the mother country teemed with eulogies
of their parental sway ! The bloody atrocities of
PhOip II., in the expulsion of his Moorish sub-
jects, are matters of imperishable history. Who
disbelieves or doubts them ? And yet his cour-
tiers magnified his virtues and chanted his cle-
mency and his mercy, while the wail of a million
victims, smitten down by a tempest of fire and
slaughter let loose at his bidding, rose above the
Tc Deums that thundered from all Spain's cathe-
drals. Wlien Louis XIV. revoked the edict of
Nantz, and proclaimed two millions of his sub-
jects free plunder for persecution, — when from
the English channel to the Pyrennees the man-
gled bodies of the Protestants were dragged on
reeking hurdles by a shouting populace, he.claim.
ed to be " the father of his people," and wrote
himself " His most Christian Majesty."
But we will not anticipate topics, the full dis-
cussion of which more naturally follows than
Introduction.
9
precedes the inquiry into tlie actual condition and
treatment of slaves in the United States.
As slaveholders and their apologists are volun-
teer witnesses in their own cause, and are flood-
ing the world with testimony that their slaves
are kindly treated ; that they are well fed, well
clothed, well housed, well lodged, moderately
worked, and boimtifully provided with all things
needful for their comfort, we propose — first, to dis-
prove their assertions by the teetimony of a multi-
tude of impartial witnesses, and then to put slave-
holders themselves through a course of cross-ques-
tioning which shall draw their condemnation out
of their own mouths. We will prove that the slaves
in the United States are treated with barbarous in-
humanity ; that they are overworked, underfed,
wretchedly clad and lodged, and have insufficient
sleep ; that they are often made to wear round
their necks iron collars armed with prongs, to
drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while
working in the field, and to wear yokes, and bells,
and iron horns ; that they are often kept confined
in the stocks day and night for weeks together,
made to wear gags in their mouths for hours or
days, have some of their front teeth torn out or
broken off, that they may be easily detected
when they run away ; that they are frequently
flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper
rubbed into their lacerated flesh, and hot brine,
spirits of turpentine, &c., poured over the gashes
to increase the torture ; that they are often strip-
ped naked, their backs and limbs cut with knives,
bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of
blows with the paddle, and terribly torn by the
claws of cats, drawn over them by their tormen-
tors ; that they are often hunted with blood hounds
and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by
dogs; that they are often suspended by the
arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and
when revived by restoratives, beaten again till
they faint, and sometimes till they die ; that their
ears are often cut off", their eyes knocked out,
their bones broken, their flesh branded with red
hot irons ; that they are mailed, mutilated and
burned to death over slow iiren. All these things,
and more, and worse, we shaJi prove. Reader,
we know whereof we aiSrm, we have Vi^eighed
it well; viore and icorse WE "WILL PROVE.
Mark these word=, and read on ; we will establish
all these facts by the tescimony of scores and hun-
dreds of eye witnessse?, by the testimony of slave-
holders in all parts of the slave states, by slavehold-
ing members of Congress and of state legisla-
tures, by ambassadors to foreign courts, by
judges, by doetors of divinity, and clergy-
men of all denominations, by merchants,
mechanics, lawyers and physicians, by presi-
dents and professors in colleges and profes-
sional seminaries, by planters, overseers and
drivers. We shall show, not merely that such
deeds are committed, but that they are frequent ;
not done in corners, but before the sun ; not in one
of the slave states, but in all of them ; not perpe-
trated by brutal overseers and drivers merely, but
by magistrates, by legislators, by professors of
religion, by preachers of the gospel, by governors
of states, by " gentlemen of property and stand-
ing," and by delicate females moving in the
" highest circles of society." We know, full
well, the outcry that will be made by multitudes,
at these declarations ; the multiform cavils, the
flat denials, the charges of " exaggeration" and
" falsehood" so often bandied, the sneers of af
fected contempt at the credulity that can believe
such things, and the rage and imprecations
against those who give them currency. Wc
know, too, the threadbare sophistries by which
slaveholders and their apologists seek to evade
such testimony. If they admit that such deeds
are committed, they tell us that they are exceed-
ingly rare, and therefore furnish no grounds for
judging of the general treatment of slaves ; that
occasionally a brutal wretch in the free states
barbarously butchers his wife, but that no one
thinks of inferring from that, the general treat,
ment of wives at the North and West.
They tell us, also, that the slaveholders of the
South are proverbially hospitable, kind, and
generous, and it is incredible that they can per-
petrate such enormities upon human beings ; fur-
ther, that it is absurd to suppose that they would
thus injm-e their own property, that self interest
would prompt them to treat their slaves with
kindness, as none but fools and madmen wantonly
destroy their own property ; further, that Northern
visitors st the South come back testifying to the
kind <reatinent of the slaves, and that the slaves
theznselves corroborate such representations. All
these pleas, and scores of others, are bruited in
every corner of the free States ; and who that
hath eyes to see, has not sickened at t'he blind-
ness that saw not, at the palsy of heart that felt not,
or at the covv'ardice and sycophancy that dared
not expose such shallow fallacies. "We are not
to be turned from our purpose by such vapid bab-
blings. In their appropriate places, we propose
to consider these objections and various others,
and to show their emptiness and folly.
The foregoing declarations touching the inflic-
tions upon slaves, are not hap-hazard assertions,
nor the exaggerations of fiction conjured up to
carry a point ; nor are they the rhapsodies of en-
thusiasm, nor crude conclusions, jumped at by
hasty and imperfect investigation, nor the aim.
less outpourings either of sympathy or poetry ;
but they are proclamations of dehberate, well-
weighed convictions, produced by accumulations
of proof, by affirmations and affidavits, by writ-
10
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins.
ten testimonies and statements of a cloud of wit-
nesses who speak what they know and testify
what they have seen, and all these impregnably
fortified by proofs innumerable, in the relation of
the slaveholder to his slave, the nature of arbitrary
power, and the nature and history of man.
Of the witnesses whose testimony is embodied
in the following pages, a majority are slavehold.
ers, many of the remainder have been slaveholders,
but now reside in free States.
Another class whose testimony will be given,
consists of those who have furnished the results
of their own observation during periods of resi-
dence and travel in the slave States.
We will first present the reader with a few Per-
sonal Narratives furnished by individuals, na-
tives of slave states and others, embodying, in the
main, the results of their own observation in the
midst of slavery — facts and scenes of which they
were eye-witnesses.
In the next place, to give the reader as clear
and definite a view of the actual condition of
slaves as possible, we propose to make specific
points, to pass in review the various particulars
in the slave's condition, simply presenting suffi.
cient testimony under each head to settle the
question in every candid mind. The examination
will be conducted by stating distinct propositions,
and in the following order of topics.
1. The food of the slaves, the kinds, quality
AND quantity, ALSO, THE NUMBER AND TIME OF
meals each day, &c.
2. Their hours of labor and rest.
3. Their clothing.
4. Their dwellings.
5. Their privations and inflictions.
6. In conclusion, a variety of objections and
arguments ^vill be considered which are used
by the advocates of slavery to set aside the
force of testimony, and to show that the slaves
are kindly treated.
Between the larger divisions of the work, brief
personal narratives will be inserted, containing a
mass of facts and testimony, both general and
specific.
PERSONAL NARRATIVES.
Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, of Waterford, New
London Co., Connecticut, has furnished the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, with the following statements rela-
tive to the condition and treatment of slaves, in
the south eastern part of North Carolina. Most
of the facts related by Mr. Caulkins fell under
his personal observation. The air of candor
and honesty that pervades the narrativt, the
manner in which Mr. C. has drawTi il up, the
good sense, just views, conscience and heart
which it exhibits, are sufficient of themselves to
commend it to all who have ears to hear.
The Committee have no personal acquaintance
with Mr. Caulkins, but they have ample testimo-
nials from the most respectable sources ; all of
which represent him to be a man whose long es-
tabhshed character for sterling integrity, sound
moral principle and piety, have secured for him
the uniform respect and confidence of those who
know him.
Without further preface the following testimo-
nials are submitted to the reader.
" This may certify, that we the subscribers have lived
for a number of years past in the neighborhood with Mr.
Nehemiah Caulkins, and have no hesitation in stating that
we consider him a man of high respectability and that his
character for tnith and veracity is unimpeachable."
Peter Comstock. D. G. Otis.
A. F. Perkins, M.D. Philip Morgan.
Isaac Beebe. James Rogers, M. D."
LODOWICK Beebk.
Waterford, Ct.,Jan.l6th, 1839.
Mr. Comstock is a Justice of the Peace. Mr.
L. Beebe is the Town Clerk of Waterford. Mr.
J. Beebe is a member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Otis is a member of the Congregational
Church. Mr. Morgan is a Justice of the Peace,
and Messrs. Perkins and Rogers are designated by
their titles. All those gentlemen are citizens of
Waterford, Connecticut.
" To whom it may concern. This may certify that Mr.
Nehemiah Caulkins, of Waterford, in New London County,
is a near neighbor to the subscriber, and has been for many
years. 1 do consider him a man of vnquestionable veracity
and certify that he is so considered by people to whom he
is personally Icncwn. Edward K. Warren."
Jan. 15tft, 1839.
Mr. Warren is a Commissioner (Associate
Judge) of the Coonty Court, for New London
County.
" This may certify that Mr. Nehemiali Caulkins, of the
town of Waterford, County of New London, and State of
Connecticut, is a member of the first Baptist Church in said
Waterford, is in good sthnding, and is esteemed by us a
man of truth and veracity.
Francis Darrow, Pastorof said Church."
Waterford, Jan. l&th, 183Q.
" This may certify that Nenemiah Caulkins, of Water-
ford, lives near me, and I always esteemed him, and believe
him to be a man of truth and veracity.
Elisha Beckvfith."
Jan. nth, 1839.
Mr. Beckwith is a Justice of the Peace, a Post
Master, and a Deacon of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Dwight P. Janes, a member of the Second
Congregational Church in the city of New Lon-
don, in a recent letter, says ;
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins.
11
" Mr. Caulkins is a member of the Baptist Church
m Waterford, and in every respect a very worthy
citizen. I have labored with him in the Sabbath
School, and know him to be a man of active
piety. The most entire confidence may be placed
in tlie truth of his statements. Where he is
known, no one will call them in question."
We close these testimonials with an extract, of a
letter from William Bolles, Esq., a well known
and respected citizen of New London, Ct.
"Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins resides in the town
of Waterford, about six miles from this City.
His opportmiities to acquire exact knowledge in
relation to Slavery, in that section of our country.
to which his narrative is confined, have been very
great. He is a carpenter, and was employed
principally on the plantations, working at his
trade, being thus almost constantly in the com-
pany of the slaves as well as of their masters.
His full heart readily responded to the call, [for in-
formation relative to slavery,] for, as he expressed
it, he had long desired that others might know
what he had seen, being confident that a general
knowledge of facts as they exist, would greatly
promote the overthrow of the system. He is a
man of undoubted character ; and where known,
his statements need no corroboration.
Yours, &c. William Bolles.
NARRATIVE OF MR. CAULKINS.
I feel it my duty to tell some things that I
know about slavery, in order, if possible, to awak-
en more feeling at the North in behalf of the
slave. The treatment of the slaves on the plan-
tations where I had the greatest opportunity of
getting knowledge, loas not so bad as that on
some neighboring estates, where the owners
were noted for their cruelty. There were, how.
ever, other estates in the vicinity, where the
treatment was better; the slaves were better
clothed and fed, were not worked so hard, and
more attention was paid to their quarters.
The scenes that I have witnessed are enough
to harrow up the soul ; but could the slave be
permitted to teU the story of his sufferings, which
no white man, not linked with slavery, is alloiced
to know, the land would vomit out the horrible
system, slaveholders and all, if they would not
unclinch their grasp upon their defenceless vic-
tims.
I spent eleven winters, between the years
1824 and 1835, in the state of North Carolina,
mostly in the vicinity of Wilmington ; and four
out of the eleven on the estate of Mr. John
Swan, five or six miles from that place. There
were on his plantation about seventy slaves, male
and female : some were married, and others
lived together as man and wife, without even a
mock ceremony. With their owners generally,
it is a matter of indifference ; the marriage of
slaves not being recognized by the slave code.
The slaves, however, think much of being mar-
ried by a clergyman.
The cabins or huts of the slaves were small,
and were built principally by the slaves them-
selves, as they could find time on Sundays and
moonlight nights ; they went into the swamps,
cut the logs, backed or hauled them to the
quarters, and put up their cabins.
When I first knew Mr. Swan's plantation, his
overseer was a man who had been a Methodist
minister. He treated the slaves with great
cruelty. His reason for leaving the ministry
and becoming an overseer, as I was informed,
was this : his wife died, at which providence he
was so enraged, that he swore he woul»^. not
preach for the Lord another day. This man
continued on the plantation about three years ;
at the close of which, on settlement of accounts,
Mr. Swan owed him about ^400, for which he
turned him out a negro woman, and about twen-
ty acres of land. He built a log hut, and took
the woman to live with him ; since which, I
have been at his hut, and seen four or five mu-
latto children. He has been appointed a justice
of the peace, and his place as overseer was after-
wards occupied by a Mr. Galloway.
It is customary in that part of the country, ta
let the hogs run in the woods. On one occasion
a slave caught a pig about two months old, which
he carried to his quarters. The overseer, getting
information of the fact, went to the field where
he was at work, and ordered him to come to
him. The slave at once suspected it was some-
thing about the pig, and fearing punishment,
dropped his hoe and ran for the woods. He had
got but a few rods, when the overseer raised his
gun, loaded with duck shot, and brought him
down. It is a common practice for overseers to
go into the field armed with a gun or pistols, and
sometimes both. He was taken up by the
slaves and carried to the plantation hospital, and
the physician sent for. A physician was employ-
ed by the year to take care of the sick or wound-
ed slaves. In about six weeks this slave got bet-
ter, and was able to come out of the hospital.
He came to the mill where I was at work, and
asked me to examine his body, which I did, and
counted twenty-six duck shot still remaining in
his flesh, though the doctor had removed a num-
ber while he was laid up.
There was a slave on Mr. Swan's plantation,
by the name of Harry, who, during the absence
of his master, ran away and secreted himself in
the woods. This the slaves sometimes do, when
the master is absent for several weeks, to escape
the cruel treatment of the overseer. It is com-
mon for them to make preparations, by secreting
a mortar, a hatchet, some cooking utensils, and
whatever things they can get that will enable
them to live while they are in the woods or
swamps. Harry staid about three months, and
lived by robbing the rice grounds, and by such
other means as came in his way. The slaves
generally know where the runaway is secreted,
and visit him at night and on Sundays. On the
return of his master, some of the slaves were
sent for Harry. When he came home he was
seized and confined in the stocks. The stocks
were built in the bam, and consisted of two
heavy pieces of timber, ten or more feet in length,
and about seven inches wide ; the lower one, on
12
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins,
the floor, has a number of holes or places cut in
it, for the ancles ; the upper piece, being of the
same dimensions, is fastened at one end by a
hinge, and is brought dov/n after the ancles are
placed in the holes, and secured by a clasp and
padlock at the other end. In this manner the
person is left to sit on the floor. Harry was
kept in the stocks day and night for a week, and
flogged every morning. After this, he was taken
out one morning, a log chain fastened around his
neck, the two ends dragging on the ground, and
he sent to the field, to do his task with the other
slaves. At night he was again put in the stocks,
in the morning he was sent to the field in the
same manner, and thus dragged out another
week.
The overseer was a very miserly fellow, and
restricted his wife in what are considered the
comforts of life — such as tea, sugar, &c. To
make up for this, she set her wits to work, and, by
the help of a slave, named Joe, used lo take from
the plantation whatever she could conveniently,
and watch her opportunity during her husband's
absence, and send Joe to sell them and buy for
her such things as she directed. Once when
her husband was away, she told Joe to kill and
dress one of the pigs, sell it, and get her some tea,
sugar, &c. Joe did as he was bid, and she gave
him the ofFal for his services. When Galloway
returned, not suspecting his wife, he asked her if
she knew what had become of his pig. She told
him she sus2)ected one of the slaves, naming him,
had stolen it, for she had heard a pig squeal the
evening before. The overseer called the slave
up, and charged him with the theft. He denied
it, and said he knew nothing about it. The over-
seer still charged him with it, and told him he
would give him one week to think of it, and if he
did not confess the theft, or find out who did steal
the pig, he would flog every negro on the planta-
tion ; before the week was up it was ascertained
that Joe had killed the pig. He was called up
and questioned, and admitted that ho had done
so, and told the overseer that he did it by the or-
der of Mrs. Galloway, and that she directed him
to buy some sugar, &.c. with the money. Mrs.
Galloway gave Joe the lie ; and he was terribly
flogged. Joe told me he had been several times
to the smoke-house with Mrs. G, and taken hams
and sold them, which her husband told me he
supposed were stolen by the negroes on a neigh-
boring plantation. Mr. Swan, hearing of the cir-
cumstance, told me he believed Joe's story, but
that his statement would not be taken as proof ;
and if every slave on the plantation told the same
story it could not be received as evidence against
a white person.
To show the manner in which old and worn-
out slaves are sometimes treated, I will state a
fact Galloway owned a man about seventy
years of age. The old man was sick and went to
his hut ; laid himself down on some straw witi^
his feet to the fire, covered by a piece of an old
blanket, and there lay four or five days, groaning
m great distress, without any attention being paid
him by his master, until death ended his miseries ;
Tic was then taken out and buried with as little
ceremony and respect as would be paid to a brute.
There is a practice prevalent among the plant-
ers, of letting a negro off from severe and long-
continued punishment on account of the mterces.
sion of some white person, who pleads in his be-
half, that he believes the negro will behave better ;
that he promises well, and he believes he will
keep his promise, &c. The planters sometimes
get tired of punishing a negro, and, wanting his
services in the field, they get some white person
to come, and, in the presence of the slave, inter,
cede for him. At one time a negro, named
Charles, was confined in the stocks in the build-
ing where I was at work, and had been severely
whipped several times. He begged me to inter-
cede for him and try to get him released. I told
him I would ; and when his master came in to
whip him again, I went up to him and told him I
had been talking with Charles, and he had pro-
mised to behave better, &c., and requested him
not to punish him any more, but to let him go.
He then said to Charles, " As Mr. Caulkins has
been pleading for you, I will let you go on his
account ;" and accordingly released him.
Women are generally shown some little indul-
gence for three or four weeks previous to child-
birth ; they are at such times not often punished
if they do not finish the task assigned them ; it is,
in some cases, passed over with a severe repri-
mand, and sometimes without any notice being
taken of it. They are generally allowed four
weeks after the birth of a child, before they are
compelled to go into the field, they then take the
child with them, attended sometimes by a little
girl or boy, from the age of four to six, to take
care of it while the mother is at work. When
there is no child that can be spared, or not yoimg
enough for this service, the mother, after nursing,
lays it under a tree, or by the side of a fence, and
goes to her task, returning at stated intervals to
nurse it. While I was on this plantation, a little
negro girl, six years of age, destroyed the life of a
child about two months old, which was left in her
care. It seems this little nurse, so called, got
tired of her charge and the labor of carrjnng it to
the quarters at night, the mother being obliged to
work as long as she could see. One evening she
niu-sed the infant at sunset as usual, and sent it
to the quarters. The little girl, on her way home,
had to cross a run, or brook, which led down into
the swamp ; when she came to the brook she fol-
lowed it into the swamp, then took the infant and
plunged it head foremost into the water and mud,
where it stuck fast ; she there left it and went to
the negro quarters. When the mother came in
from the field, she asked the girl where the child
was ; she told her she had brought it home, but
did not know where it was ; the overseer was im-
mediately informed, search was made, and it was
found as above stated, and dead. The little girl
was shut up in the barn, and confined there two
or three weeks, wlien a speculator came along and
bought her for two hundred dollars.
The slaves are obliged to work from daylight
till dark, as long as they can see. When they
have tasks assigned, which is often the case, a
few of the strongest and most expert, sometimes
finish them before sunset ; others will be obliged
to work till eight or nine o'clock in the evening.
All must finish their tasks or take a flogging.
The whip and gun, or pistol, are companions of
the overseer ; the former he uses very frequently
upon the negroes, during their hours of labor,
Personal Narratives— Mr. Caulkins.
13
without regard to age or sex. Searcely a day
passed while I was on the plantation, in which
some of the slaves were not whipped ; I do not
mean that they were struck a few hiows merely, but
liad a set flogging. The same labor is commonly
assigned "to" men and women, — such as digging
ditches in the rice marshes, clearing up land,
chopping cord-wood, threshing, &c. I have
known the women go into the barn as soon as
they could sec in the morning, and work as late
as they could see at night, threshing rice with the
flail, (they now have a threshing machine,) and
when tliey could see to thresh no longer, they had
to gather up the rice, carry it up staks, and de-
posit it in the granary.
The allowance of clothing on this plantation to
each slave, was given out at Christmas for the
year, and consisted of one pair of coarse shoes,
and enough coarse cloth to make a jacket and
trowsers. If the man has a wife she makes it
up ; if not, it is made up in the house. The
slaves on this plantation, being near Wilmington,
procured themselves extra clothing by working
Sundays and moonlight nights, cutting cord-
wood in the swamps, which they had to back
about a quarter of a mile to the river ; they would
then get a permit from their master, and taking
the wood in their canoes, carry it to Wilmmgton,
and sell it to the vessels, or dispose of it as they
best could, and with the money buy an old jacket
of the sailors, some coarse cloth for a shirt, &c.
They sometimes gather the moss from the trees,
which they cleanse and take to market. The
women receive their allowance of the same kind of
cloth which the men have. This they make into
a frock ; if they have any under garments they
must procure them far themselves. When the
slaves get a permit to leave the plantation, they
sometimes make all ring again by singing the fol-
lowing significant ditty, which shows that after
all there is a flow of spirits in the human breast
which for a while, at least, enables them to forget
their wretchedness.*
Hurra, for good ole Massa,
He giv me de pass to go to de city
Hurra, for good ole Missis,
She bile de pot, and giv me de licker.
Huna, I'm goin to de city.
Every Saturday night the slaves receive their
allowance of provisions, which must last them
tOl the next Satm'day night. " Potatoe time," as
it is called, begins about the middle of July. The
slave may measure for himself, the overseer being
present, half a bushel of sweet potatoes, and
heap the measure as long as they will lie on ; I
have, however, seen the overseer, if he think the
negro is getting too many, kick the measure ; and
if any fall off", tell him he has got his measure.
No salt is furnished them to eat with their pota-
toes. When rice or corn is given, they give them
a little salt ; sometimes half a pint of molasses
is given, but not often. The quantity of rice,
which is of the small, broken, imsaleable kind, is
* Slaves sometimes sing, and so do convicts in jails under
sentence, and both for the same reason. Their singing
proves that they want to be happy not that they are so. It is
the means that they use to make tliemselves happy, not the
evidence tliat they are so aheady. Sometimes, doubtless,
the excitement of song whelms their misery in momentary
obUvion. He who argues from this that they have no con-
scious misery to forget, knows as little of human nature as
of slavery. — Editor.
one peck. When corn is given them, their allow,
ance is the same, and if they get it ground, (Mr.
Swan had a mill on his plantation,) they must
give one quart for grinding, thus reducing their
weekly allowance to seven quarts. When fish
(mullet) were plenty, they were allowed, in addi-
tion, one fish. As to meat, they seldom had any.
I do not think they had an allowance of meat
oftener than once in two or three months, and
then the quantity was very small. When they
went into the field to work, they took some of
the meal or rice and a pot with them ; the pots
were given to an old woman, who placed two
poles parallel, set the pots on them, and kindled
a fire underneath for cooking ; she took salt with
her and seasoned the messes as she thought pro-
per. When their breakfast was ready, which
was generally about ten or eleven o'clock, they
were called from labor, ate, and returned to work;
in the afternoon, dinner was prepared in the same
way. They had but tvi^o meals a day while in
the field ; if they wanted more, they cooked for
themselves after they returned to their quarters
at night. At the time of kiUing hogs on the
plantation, the pluck, entrails, and blood were
given to the slaves.
When I first went upon Mr. Swan's plantation,
I saw a slave in shackles or fetters, which were
fastened around each ankle and firmly riveted,
connected together by a chain. To the middle
of this chain he had fastened a string, so as in a
manner to suspend them and keep them from
gaUing his ankles. This slave, whose name was
Frank, was an intelligent, good looking man, and
a very good mechanic. There was nothing vi-
cious in his character, but he was one of those
high-spirited and daring men, that whips, chains,
fetters, and all the means of cruelty in the power
of slavery, could not subdue. Mr. S. had em-
ployed a Mr. Beckwith to repair a boat, and told
him Frank was a good mechanic, and he might
have his services. Frank was sent for, his shackles
still on. Mr. Beckwith set him to work making
trunnels, &c. I was employed in putting up a
building, and after Mr. Beckwith had done with
Frank, he was sent for to assist me. Mr. Swan
sent him to a blacksmith's shop and had his
shackles cut ofl" v/itli a cold chisel. Frank was
afterwards sold to a cotton planter.
I will relate one circumstance, which shows
the httle regard that is paid to the feelings of the
slave. During the time that Mr. Isaiah Rogers
was superintending the building of a rice machine,
one of the slaves complained of a severe tooth-
ache. Swan asked Mr. Rogers to take his ham-
mer and knock out the tooth.
There was a slave on the plantation named
Ben, a waiting man. I occupied a room in the
same hut, and had frequent conversations with
him. Ben was a kind-hearted man, and, I be-
lieve, a Christian ; he would always ask a bless-
ing before he sat down to eat, and was in the con-
stant practice of praying morning and night. —
One day when I was at the hut, Ben was sent
for to go to the house- Ben sighed deeply and
went. He soon returned with a girl about seven-
teen years of age, whom one of Mr. Swan's
daughters had ordered hun to flog. He brought
her into the room where I was, and told her to
stand there while he went into the next room : I
14
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins.
heard him groan again as he went. While there
I heard his voice, and he was engaged in prayer.
After a few minutes he returned with a large cow-
hide, and stood before the girl, without saying a
word. I concluded he wished me to leave the
hut, which I did ; and immediately after I heard
the girl scream. At every blow she would shriek,
" Do, Ben ! oh do, Ben !" This is a common ex-
pression of the slaves to the person whipping
them : " Do, Massa !" or, " Do, Missus !"
After she had gone, I asked Ben what she was
whipped for : he told me she had done something
to displease her young missus ; and in boxing
her ears, and otherwise beating her, she had
scratched her finger by a pin in the girl's dress,
for which she sent her to be flogged. I asked
him if he stripped her before flogging ; he said,
yes ; he did not like to do this, but was obliged
to : he said he was once ordered to whip a wo-
man, which he did without stripping her : on her
return to the house, her mistress exammed her
back ; and not seeing any marks, he was sent for,
and asked why he had not whipped her : he re-
plied that he had ; she said she saw no marks,
and asked him if he had made her pull lier clothes
off; he said, No. She then told him, that when
he whipped any more of the women, he must
make them strip off their clothes, as well as the
men, and flog them on their bare backs, or he
should be flogged himself.
Ben often appeared very gloomy and sad : I
have frequently heard him, when in his room,
mourning over his condition, and exclaim, " Poor
African slave ! Poor African slave !" Whipping
was so common an occurrence on this plantation,
that it would be too great a repetition to state
the many and severe floggings I have seen in-
flicted on the slaves. They were flogged for not
performing their tasks, for being careless, slow,
or not in time, for going to the fire to warm, &c.
&c. ; and it often seemed as if occasions were
sought as an excuse for punishing them.
On one occasion, I heard the overseer charge
the hands to be at a certain place the next morn-
ing at sun-rise. I was present in the morning,
in company with my brother, when the hands ar-
rived. Joe, the slave already spoken of, came
running, all out of breath, about five minutes be-
hind the time, when, without asking any ques-
tions, the overseer told him to take oiF his jacket.
Joe took oiF his jacket. He had on a piece of a
shirt ; he told him to take it off" : Joe took it off" :
he then whipped him with a heavy cow-hide full
six feet long. At every stroke Joe vi^ould spring
from the ground, and scream, " O my God ! Do,
Massa Galloway !" My brother was so exasper-
ated, that he turned to me and said, " If I were
Joe, I would kill tire overseer if 1 knew I should
be shot the next minute."
In the winter the horn blew at about four in
the morning, and all the threshers were required
to be at the threshing floor in fifteen minutes after.
Tlicy had to go about a quarter oi a mile from
their quarters. Galloway would stand near the
entrance, and all who did not come in time would
get a blow over the back or head as heavy as he
could strike. I have seen him, at such times,
follow after them, striking furiously a number of
blows, and every one followed by their screams.
I have seen the women go to iheir work after
such a flogging, crying and taking on most pite-
ously.
It is almost impossible to believe that human
nature can endure such hardships and sufierings
as the slaves have to go through : I have seen
them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail
out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate,
when they had to break the ice, and there stand
in the water among the ice until it was bailed
out. I have often known the hands to be taken
from the field, sent down the river in flats or boats
to Wilmington, absent from twenty-four to thirty
hours, without any thing to eat, no provision being
made for these occasions.
Galloway kept medicine on hand, that in case
any of the slaves were sick, he could give it to
them without sending for the physician ; but he
always kept a good look out that they did not
sham sickness. When any of them excited his
suspicions, he would make them take the medi-
cine in his presence, and would give them a rap
on the top of the head, to make them swallow it.
A man once came to him, of wliom he said he
was suspicious : he gave him two potions of salts,
and fastened him in the stocks for the night. His
medicine soon began to operate ; and there he lay
in all his filth till he was taken out the next day.
One day, Mr. Swan beat a slave severely, for
alleged carelessness in letting a boat get adrift.
The slave was told to seciu-e the boat : whether
he took sufiicient means for this purpose I do not
know ; he was not allowed to make any defence.
Mr. Swan called him up, and asked why he did
not secure the boat : he pulled oW his hat and be-
gan to tell his story. Swan told him he was a
damned bar, and commenced beating him over
the head with a hickory cane, and the slave re-
treated backwards ; Swan followed him about
two rods, threshing him over the head with the
hickory as he went.
As I was one day standing near some slaves
who were threshing, the driver, thinking one of
the women did not use her flail quick enough,
struck her over the head : the end of the whip
hit her in the eye. I thought at the time he had
put it out ; but, after poulticing and doctoring for
some days, she recovered. Speaking to him ahout
it, he said that he once struck a slave so as to put
one of her eyes entirely out.
A patrol is kept upon each estate, and every
slave fomid off" the plantation without a pass is
whipped on the spot. I knew a slave who started
without a pass, one night, for a neighboring
plantation, to see his wife : he was caught, tied
to a tree, and flogged. He stated his business to
the patrol, who was well acquainted with him,
but all to no purpose. I spoke to the patrol about
it afterwards : he said he knew the negro, that
he was a very clever fellow, but he had to whip
him ; for, if he let him pass, he must another, &c.
He stated that he had sometimes caught and flog-
ged four in a night.
In conversation with Mr. Swan about runaway
slaves, he stated to me the following fact : — A
slave, by the name of Luke, was owned in Wil-
mington; he was sold to a speculator and carried
to Georgia. After an absence of about two
months the slave returned ; he watched an oppor-
tunity to enter his old master's house when the
i family were absent, no one being at home but a
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins.
15
young waiting man. Luke went to tlie room
where his master kept his arms ; took his gun,
witli some ammunition, and went into the woods.
On the retmn of his master, the waiting man told
liim what had been done : tliis threw him into a
violent passion ; he swore he would kill Luke, or
lose his own life. He loaded another gun, took
two men, and made search, but could not find
him : he then advertised him, offering a large re-
ward if delivered to him or lodged in jail. His
neighbors, however, advised him to offer a reward
of two hmidred dollars for him dead or alive, which
he did. Nothing however was heard of him for
some months. Mr. Swan said, one of his slaves
ran away, and was gone eight or ten weeks ; on
his return he said he had found Luke, and that
he had a rifle, two pistols, and a sword.
I left the plantation in the spring, and returned
to the north ; when I went out again, the next
fall, I asked Mr. Swan if any thing had been
heard of Luke ; he said he was shot, and related
to me the manner of his death, as follows : — Luke
went to one of the plantations, and entered a hut
for something to eat. Being fatigued, he sat down
and fell asleep. There was only a woman in the
hut at the time : as soon as she found he was
asleep, she ran and told her master, who took his
rifle, and called two white men on another planta-
tion : the three, with their rifles, then went to the
hut, and posted themselves in different positions,
BO that they could watch the door. When Luke
waked up he went to the door to look out, and
saw them with their rifles, he stepped back and
raised his gun to his face. They called to liim
to surrender ; and stated that they had him in
their power, and said he had better give up. He
said he would not : and if they tried to take him,
he would kill one of them ; for, if he gave up, he
knew they would kill him, and he was determined
to seU his life as dear as he could. They told
him, if he should shoot one of them, the other
two would certainly kill him : he replied, he was
determined not to give up, and kept his gun mov-
ing from one to the other ; and while his rifle was
turned toward one, another, standing in a differ-
ent direction, shot him through the head, and he
fell lifeless to the ground.
There was another slave shot while I was
there ; this man had run away, and had been
living in the woods a long time, and it was not
known where he was, tiU one day he was dis-
covered by two men, who went on the large
island near Belvidere to himt turkeys ; they shot
him and carried his head home.
It is common to keep dogs on the plantations,
to pursue and catch runaway slaves. I was
once bitten by one of them. I went to the
overseer's house, the dog lay in the piazza, as
soon as I put my foot upon the floor, he sprang
and bit me just above the knee, but not severely ;
he tore my pantaloons badly. The overseer
apologized for his dog, saying he never knew
him to bite a white man before. He said he
once had a dog, when he hved on another planta-
tion, that was very useful to him in hunting run-
away negroes. He said that a slave on the
plantation once ran away ; as soon as he found
the course he took, he put the dog on the track,
and he soon came so close upon him that the man
had to climb a tree, he followed with his gun,
and brought the slave home.
The slaves have a great dread of being sold
and carried south. It is generally said, and I
have no doubt of its truth, that they are much
worse treated farther south.
The following are a few among the many facts
related to me while I lived among the slavehold-
er. The names of the planters and plantations,
I shall not give, as they did not come under my
own observation. I however place the fullest
confidence in their truth.
A planter not far from Mr. Swan's employed
an overseer to whom he paid $400 a year ; he be-
came dissatisfied with him, because he did not
drive the slaves hard enough, and get more work
out of them. He therefore sent to South
Carolina, or Georgia, and got a man to whom he
paid I beheve $800 a year. He proved to be a
cruel fellow, and drove the slaves almost to
death. There was a slave on this plantation,
who had repeatedly run away, and had been
severely flogged every time. The last time he
was caught, a hole was dug in the ground,
and he buried up to the chin, his arms being
secured down by his sides. He was kept in this
situation four or five days.
The following was told me by an intimate
friend ; it took place on a plantation containing
about one hundred slaves. One day the owner
ordered the women into the barn, he then went
in among them, whip in hand, and told them he
meant to flog them all to death ; they began immedi-
ately to cry out " What have I done Massa ?"
What have I done Massa ?" He replied ; " D — n
you, I will let you know what you have done,
you don't breed. T haven't had a young one from
one of you for several months." They told him
they could not breed Vv^hile they had to work in
the rice ditches. (The rice grounds are low and
marshy, and have to be drained, and while dig-
ging or clearing the ditches, the women had to
work in mud and water from one to two feet in
depth ; they were obliged to draw up and secure
their frocks about their waist, to keep them out
of the water, in this manner they frequently had
to work from daylight in the morning till it was
so dark they could see no longer.) After swear-
ing and threatening for some time, he told them to
tell the overseer's wife, when they got in that way,
and he would put them upon the land to work.
This same planter had a female slave who was
a member of the Methodist Church ; for a slave
she was intelligent and conscientious. He pro-
posed a criminal intercourse with her. She would
not comply. He left her and sent for the over-
seer, and told him to have her flogged. It was
done. Not long after, he renewed his proposal.
She again refused. She was again whipped.
He then told her why she had been twice flogged,
and told her he intended to whip her till she
should yield. The girl, seeing that her case
was hopeless, her back smarting with the scourg-
ing she had received, and dreading a repetition,
gave herself up to be the victim of his brutal lusts.
One of the slaves on another plantation, gave
birth to a child which lived but two or three
weeks. After its death the planter called the
woman to Mm, and asked her how she came to
16
Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins.
let the child die ; said it was all owing to her
carelessness, and that he meant to flog her for it.
She told, him with all the feeling of a mother,
the circiunstances of its death. But her story
availed her nothing against the savage brutality
of her master. She was severely whipped.
A healthy child four months old was then consid-
ered worth $100 in North Carolina.
The foregoing facts were related to me by
white persons of character and respectability.
The following fact was related to me on a plan-
tation where I have spent considerable time
and where the punishment was inflicted. I
have no doubt of its truth. A slave ran away
from his master, and got as far as Newbem.
He took provisions that lasted him a week ; but
having eaten all, he went to a house to get some-
thing to satisfy his hunger. A white man sus-
pecting him to be a runaway, demanded his pass:
as he had none he was seized and put in New-
bern jail. He was there advertised, his descrip-
tion given, &c. His master saw the advertise-
ment and sent for him ; when he was brought
back, his wrists were tied together and drawn over
his knees. A stick was then passed over his
arms and under his knees, and he secured in this
manner, his trowsers were then stripped down,
and he turned over on his side, and severely
beaten with the paddle, then turned over and
severely beaten on the other side, and then turn-
ed back again, and tortured by another bruising
and beating. He was afterwards kept in the
stocks a week, and whipped every morning.
To show the disgusting pollutions of slavery,
and how it covers with moral filth every thing it
touches, I will state two or three facts, which I
have on such evidence 1 cannot doubt their truth.
A planter offered a white man of my acqaintance
twenty dollars for every one of h.is female slaves,
whom he would get in the family way. This
offer was no doubt made for the purpose of im-
proving the stock, on the same principle that
farmers endeavour to improve their cattle by
crossing the breed.
Slaves belonging to merchants and others in
the city, often hire their own time, for which
they pay various prices per week or month, ac-
cording to the capacity of the slave. The fe-
males who thus hire their time, pursue various
modes to procure the money ; their masters mak-
ing no inquiry how they get it, provided the
money comes. If it is not regularly paid they
are flogged. Some take in washing, some cook
on board vessels, pick oakum, sell peanuts, &c.,
while others, younger and more comely, often
resort to the vilest pursuits. I knew a man from
the north who, though married to a respectable
southern woman, kept two of these mulatto girls
in an upper room at his store ; his wife told some
of her friends that he had not lodged at home
for two weeks together, I have seen these two
kept misses, as they are there called, at his store ;
he was afterv/ards stabbed in an attempt to ar-
rest a runaway slave, and died in about ten
days.
The clergy at the north cringe beneath the
corrupting influence of slavery, and their moral
courage is borne down by it. Not the hypocriti-
cal and unprincipled alone, but even such as can
hardly be supposed to be destit*^ of sincerity.
Going one morning to the Baptist Sunday
school, in Wilmington, in which I was engaged,
I fell in with the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, who
was going to the Presbyterian school. I asked
him how he could bear to see the little negro
children beating their hoops, hallooing, and run-
ning about the streets, as we then saw them,
their moral condition entirely neglected, while
the whites were so carefully gathered into the
schools. His reply was substantially this : — " I
can't bear it, Mr. Caulkins. I feel as deeply as any
one can on this subject, but what can I do ? My
HANDS ARE TIED."
Now, if Mr. Hunt was guilty of neglecting his
duty, as a servant of Him who never failed to re-
buke sin in high places, what shall be said of
those clergymen at the north, where the power
that closed his mouth is comparatively unfelt,
who refuse to tell their people how God abhois
oppression, and who seldom open their mouths on
this subject, but to denounce the friends of eman-
cipation, thus giving the strongest support to the
accursed system of slavery. I believe Mr. Hunt
has since become an agent of the Temperance
Society.
In stating the foregoing facts, my object has
been to show the practical workings of the sys-
tem of slavery, and if possible to correct the mis-
apprehension on this subject, so common at the
north. In doing this I am not at war with slave-
holders. No, my soul is moved for them as well
as for the poor slaves. May God send them re-
pentance to the acknowledgment of the truth I
Principle, on a subject of this nature, is dearer to
me than the applause of men, and should not be
sacrificed on any subject, even though the ties of
friendship may be broken. We have too long
been silent on this subject, the slave has been too
much considered, by our northern states, as being
kept by necessity in his present condition. — Were
we to ask, in the language of Pilate, " what evil
have they done" — we may search their history,
we cannot find that they have taken up arms
against our government, nor insulted us as a na-
tion— that they are thus compelled to drag out a
life in chains ! subjected to the most terrible inflic-
tions if in any way they manifest a wish to be
released. — Let us reverse the question. What evil
has been done to them by those who call them-
selves masters ? First let us look at their per-
sons, " neither clothed nor naked" — I have seen
instances where this phrase would not apply to
boys and girls, and that too in winter. I knew
one young man seventeen years of age, by the
name of Dave, on Mr. J. Swan's plantation,
worked day after day in the rice machine as nak-
ed as when he was born. The reason of his
being so, his master said in my hearing, was, that
he could not keep clothes on him — he would get
into the fire and burn them ofi".
Follow them next to their huts ; some with and
some without floors : — Go at night, view their
means of lodging, see them lying on benches,
some on the floor or ground, some sitting on stools,
dozing away the night ;— others, of younger age,
with a bare blanket wrapped about them ; and
one or two l}'ing in the ashes. These things I have
often seen with my own eyes.
Examine their means of subsistence, which
consists generally of seven quarts of meal or
Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton.
17
eight quarts of small rice for one wcclc ; then
follow them to their work, with driver and over-
seer pushing them to the utmost of their strength,
by threatening and whipping.
If they are sick from fatigue and exposure, go
to their huts, as I have often been, and see tliem
groaning under a bm-ning fever or pleurisy, lying
on some straw, their feet to the fire with barely a
blanket to cover them ; or on some boards nailed
together in form of a bedstead.
And after seeing all this, and hearing them
tell of tlieir sufFerings, need I ask, is there any
evil connected with their condition ? and if so ;
upon whom is it to be charged ? I answer for my-
self, and the reader can do the same. Our govern-
ment stands first chargeable for allowing slavery
to exist, under its own jurisdiction. Second, the
states for enacting laws to secure their victim.
Third, the slaveholder for carrying out such
enactments, in horrid form enough to chill the
blood. Fourth, every person who knows what
slavery is, and does not raise his voice against
tliis crying sin, but by silence gives consent to its
continuance, is chargeable with guilt in the sight
of God. " The blood of Zaeharias who was
slain between the temple and altar," says Christ,
" WILL I REQUIRE OF THIS GENERATION."
Look at the slave, his condition but little, if at
all, better than that of the brute ; chained down
by the law, and the will of his master ; and every
avenue closed against rehef ; and the names of
those who plead'for him, cast out as evil ; — must
not humanity let its voice be heard, and tell Israel
their transgressions and Judah their sins ?
May God look upon their afflictions, and deliver
them from their cruel task-masters ! I verily be-
lieve he will, if there be any efficacy in prayer. I
have been to their prayer meetings and with them
oftcred prayer in their behalf. I have heard some
of them in their huts before day-light praying in
their simple broken language, telling their hea-
venly Father of their trials in the following and
similar language.
" Fader in heaven, look upon do poor slave,
dat have to work all de daj' long, dat cant have
de time to pray only in de night, and den massa
mus not know it.* Fader, have mercy on massa
and missus. Fader, when shall poor slave get
through the world ! when will death come, and dc
poor slave go to heaven ;" and in their meetings
they frequentlj' add, " Fader, bless de white man
dat come to hear de slave pray, bless his familv,"
and so on. They uniformly begin' their meet-
ings by singing the following —
" And Hre we j'ct nlivn
To see each other's lace," &c.
Is the ear of the Most High deaf to the prayer
of the slave ? I do firmly believe that their "de-
liverance will come, and that the prayer of this
poor afflicted people will be answered.
Emancipation would be safe. I have had
eleven winters to learn the disposition of the
slaves, and am satisfied that they would peacea-
bly and cheerfully work for pay. Give them
education, equal and just laws, and they will be-
come a most interesting people. Oh, let a ciy
be raised which shall awaken the conscience of
this guilty nation, to demand for the slaves im-
mediate and unconditional emancipation.
Nehemiah Caulkins.
* At this time there was some fear of insurrection and
the slaves were forbidden to hold meetings.
NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY OF REV. HORACE MOULTON.
Mr. Moulton is an esteemed minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, in Marlborough,
Mass. He spent five years in Georgia, between
1817 and 1824. The following communication
has been recently received from him.
Marlborough, Mass., Feb. 18, 1839.
Dear Brother —
Yours of Feb. 2d, requesting me to write out a
few facts on the subject of slavery, as it exists
at the south, has come to hand. I hasten to
comply with your request. Were it not, how-
ever, for the claims of those " who are drawn
unto death," and the responsibility resting upon
me, in consequence of this request", I should for-
ever hold my peace. For I well know that I
shall bring upon myself a flood of persecution,
for attempting to speak out for the dumb. But
I am willing to be set at nought by men, if I
can be the means of promoting the welfare of
the oppressed of our land. I shall not relate
many particular cases of cruelty, though I
might a great number; but shall give some
general information as to their mode of treat-
ment, their food, clothing, dwellings, depriva-
tions, &,c.
Let me say, in the first place, that I spent
nearly five years in Savannah, Georgia, and in
3
its \'icinity, between the years 1817 and 1824.
My object in going to the south, was to engage
in making and burning brick ; but not immedi.
ately succeeding, I engaged in no business of
much profit until late in the winter, when I took
charge of a set of hands and went to work.
During my leisure, however, I was an observer,
at the auctions, upon the plantations, and in al-
most every department of business. The next
year, during the cold months, I had several two-
horse teams under my care, with which we used
to haul brick, boards, and other articles from the
wharf into the city, and cotton, rice, corn, and
wood from the country. This gave me an ex-
tensive acquaintance with merchants, mechanics
and planters. I had slaves under my control
some portions of every year when at the south.
All the brick-yards, except one, on vi'hich I was
engaged, were connected either with a corn field,
potatoe patch, rice field, cotton field, tan-works,
or with a wood lot. My business, usually, was
to take charge of the briek-raaking department.
At those jobs I have sometimes taken in charge
both tlie field and brick-yard hands. I have
been on the plantations in South Carolina, but
have never been an overseer of slaves in that
state, as has been said in the public papers.
I think the above facts and explanations are
18
Personal Narratives— Rev. Horace Moulton.
necessary to be connected with the account I
may give of slavery, that the reader may have
some knowledge of my acquaintance with
practical slavery : for many mechanics and
merchants vi'ho go to the South, and stay there
for years, know but little of the dark side of
slavery. My account of slavery will apply to
field Jiands, v;ho compose much the largest por-
tion of the black population, (probably ninc-
tenths,) and not to those who are kept for kitchen
maids, nurses, waiters, &c., about the houses of
the planters and public hotels, where persons
from the north obtain most of their knowledge
of the evils of slavery. I v.-ill nov/ proceed to
take up specific points.
THE LABOR OF THE SLAVES.
Males and females work together promiscuously
on all the plantations. On many plantations tasks
are given them. The best working hands can
have some leisure time ; but the feeble and imskil-
ful ones, together with slender females, have in-
deed a hard time of it, and very often answer for
the women liave been selected as the moulders
oi brick, instead of ihe men.
IL THE FOOD OF THE SLAVES.
It was a general custom, wherever I have been,
for the masters to give each of his slaves, male
and female, one peck of corn per week for their
food. This at fifty cents per bushel, which v;?.s
all that it was worth when I Vv'as there, would
amount to tv/elve and a half cents per week for
board per head.
It cost me upon an average, when at the south,
one dollar per day for board. The price of four,
teen bushels of com per week. This would make
my board equal in amount to the board oi forty. six
slaves .' This is all that good or bad masters al-
lov/ their slaves round about Savannah on the
plantations. One peck of gourd-seed corn is to
be measured out to each slave once every week.
One man with whom I labored, however, being
desirous to got all the work out of his hands
he could, before I left, (about fifty in number,)
bought for them every week, or twice a week, a
non-performance of tasks at the wJdpping.posts. beef's head from market. With this, they made a
None who worked with me had tasks at any
time. The rule was to work them from sun to
sun. But when I was burning brick, they were
obliged to take turns, and sit up all night about
every other night, and work all day. On one
plantation, where I spent a few weeks, the slaves
were called up to work long before daylight,
when business pressed, and worked mitil late at
night ; and sometimes some of them all night.
A large portion of the slaves are owned by mas-
ters who keep them on purpose to hire out — and
they usually let them to those who will give the
highest wages for them, irrespective of then-
mode of treatment ; and those who hire them,
will of course try to get the greatest possible
amount of work performed, with the least possi-
ble expense. Women are seen bringing their
infants into the field to their work, and leading
others who are not old enough to stay at the
cabins with safety. Wlien they get there, they
must set them down in the dirt, and go to work.
Sometimes they are left to cry until they fall
alseep. Others are left at home, shut up in their
huts. Now, is it not barbarous, that the mother,
with her child or children around her, half
starved, must be whipped at night if she does not
perform her task ? But so it is. Some who
have very young ones, fix a little sack, and place
the infants on their backs, and work. One
reason, I presume is, that they will not cry so
much when they can hear their mother's voice.
Another is, the mothers fear that the poison-
ous vipers and snakes will bite them. Trul)^ I
never knew any place where the land is so in-
fested with all kinds of the most venomous
snakes, as in the low lands round about Savan-
nah. The moccasin snakes, so called, and water
rattle-snakes — the bites of both of which are as
poisonous as our upland rattle-snakes at the
north, — are found in myriads about the stag-
nant waters and sv/amps of the South. The fe-
males, in order to secure their infants from these
poisonous snakes, do, as I have said, often work
with their infants on their backs. Females are
sometimes called to take the hardest part of the
work. On some brick yards where I have been,
soup in a large iron kettle, around which the
han-is came at meal-time, and dipping out the
soup, would mix it with their hommony, and eat it
as though it were a feast. This man permitted his
slavesto eat twice a day while I was doing a job for
him. He promised me a beaver liat and as good a
suit of clothes as could be bought in the city, if I
would accoraphsh so much for him before I return-
ed to the north ; giving me the entire control over
his slaves. Thus you may see the temptations
overseers sometimes have, to get all the work
they can out of the poor slaves. The above is an
exception to the general rule of feeding. For in
all other places where I worked and visited ; the
slaves had nothing from their masters but the corn,
or its equivalent in potatoes or rice, and to this,
they were not permitted to come but once a day.
The custom was to blow the horn early in the
morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go
to work, when commenced ; they continued work
until about eleven o'clock, A. M., when, at the
signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts,
made their fires, made their corn-meal into hom-
monv or cake, ate it, and went to work again at
the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or
until their tasks were done. Some cooked their
breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave
must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he
has done his work at night. There is generally
one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of
the slaves.
Some of the planters have no corn, others often
get out. The substitute for it is, the equivalent of
one peck of corn either in rice or sweet potatoes ;
neither of which is as good for the slaves as com.
They complain more of being faint, when fed on
rice or potatoes, than when fed on corn. I was
with one man a few weeks who gave me his
hands to do a job of work, and to save time one
cooked for all the rest. The following course was
taken, — Two crotched sticks were driven down at
one end of the yard, and a small pole being laid
on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on
the middle of the pole ; then made up a firo
under the kettle and boiled the hommony ; when
ready, the hands were called around this kettle
Persmal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton.
19
with their wooden plalcs and spoons. They dip-
ped out and ate standing aroutid the kettle, or sit-
tinn- upon the ground, as best suited their conve-
nience. When they had potatoes they took them
out wiih fiicir hands, and ate them. As soon as it
was thought they had had sufficient time to swal-
(ow their food they were called to their work again.
This was the only meal they ate through the day.
IVow think of the little, almost naked and half-
starved children, nibbling upon a piece of cold
Indian cake, or a potato ! Think of the poor fe-
male, just ready to be confined, without any thing
that can be called convenient or comfortable !
Think of the old toil-worn father and mother, with-
out any thing to eat but the coarsest of food, and
not half enough of that! then think of home.
When sick, their physicians are their masters and
overseers, in most cases, whose skill consists in
bleeding and in administering large potions of Ep-
som salts, when the whip and cursing will not
start them from their cabins.
The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poor-
est kind. They are not as good as those tempo-
rary shanties which are thrown up beside rail-
roads. They are erected with posts and crotches,
with but little or no frame-work about them.
They have no stoves or chimneys ; some of them
have something like a fireplace at one end, and a
board or two off at that side, or on the roof, to let
off the smoke. Others have nothing hke a fire-
place in them ; in these the fire is sometimes made
in the middle of the hut. These buildings have
but one apartment in them ; the places where
they pass in and out, sei-ve both for doors and
windows ; the sides and roofs are covered with
coarse, and in many instances with refuse boards.
In warm weather, especially in the spring, the
slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke, all
night, to drive away the gnats and musketoes,
which are very troublesome in all the low country
of the south ; so much so that the whites sleep
under frames with nets over them, knit so fine that
the musketoes cannot fly through them.
Some of the slaves have rugs to cover them
in the coldest weather, but I should think mnre
have not. During driving storms they frequently
have to run from one hut to another for shelter.
In the coldest weather, where they can get wood
or stumps, they keep up fires all night in their
huts, and lay around them, with their feet to-
wards the blaze. Men, women and children all
lie down together, in most instances. There may
be exceptions to the above statements in regard
to their houses, but so far as my observations
have extended, I have given a fair description,
and I have been on a large number of planta-
tions in Georgia and South Carolina up and down
the Savannah river. Their huts are generally
built compactly on the plantations, forming villa-
ges of huts, their size proportioned to the number
of slaves on them. In these miserable huts the
poor blacks are herded at night like swine, without
any conveniences of bedsteads, tables or chairs.
O misery to the fall ! to see the aged sire beating
off the swarms of gnats and musketoes in the
warm weather, and shivering in the straw, or
bending over a few coals in the winter, clothed
m rags. I should think males and females, both
lie down at night with their working clothes on
them. God alone knows how much the poor
slaves suffer for the want of convenient houses
to secure them from the piercing winds and howl-
ing storms of winter, especially the aged, sick
and dying. Although it is much warmer there
tlian here, }'et I suffered for a number of weeks
in the winter, almost as much in Georgia as I do
in Massachusetts.
IV. CLOTHING.
The masters [in Georgia] make a practice of
getting two suits of clothes for each slave per year,
a thick suit for winter, and a thin one for summer.
They provide also one pair of northern made sale
shoes for each slave in winter. These shoes usu-
ally begin to rip in a few weeks. The negroes'
mode of mending them is, to wire them together,
in many instances. Do our northern shoemakers
know that they are augmenting the sufferings of
the poor slaves with their almost good for nothing
sale shoes ? Inasmuch as it is done unto one of
those poor sufferers it is done unto our Saviour.
The above practice of clothing the slave is cus-
tomary to some extent. How many, however,
fail of this, God only knows. The children and
old slaves are, I should think, exceptions to the
above rule. The males and females have their
suits from the same cloth for their winter dresses.
These winter garments appear to be made of a
mixture of cotton and wool, very coarse and
sleazy. The whole suit for the men consists of
a pair of pantaloons and a short sailor-jacket,
without shirt, vest, hat. stockings, or any kind of
loose garments ! These, if worn steadily when
at work, would not probably last more than one
or two months ; therefore, for the sake of saving
them, many oi them work, especially in the sum-
mer, with no cleching on them except a cloth
tied round their waist, and almost all with nothing
more on them than pantaloons, and these fre-
quently so torn that they do not serve the pur-
poses of common decency. The women have
for clothing a short petticoat, and a short loose
gown, something like the male's sailor-jacket,
loithoiit any under garment, stockings, bonnets,
hoods, caps, or any kind of over-clothes. When
at work in warm weather, they usually strip off
the loose gown, and have nothing on but a short
petticoat with some kind of covering over their
breasts. Many children may be seen in the sum-
mer months as naked as they came into the world.
I think, as a whole, they suffer more for the want
of comfortable bed-clothes, than they do for wear-
ing apparel. It is true, that some by begging or
buying, have more clothes than above described,
but the masters provide them with no more. They
are miserable objects of pity. It may be said of
many of them, " I was naked and ye clothed me
not." It is enough to melt the hardest heart to
see the ragged mothers nursing their almost nak-
ed children, with but a morsel of the coarsest
food to eat. The Southern horses and dogs have
enough to eat and good care taken of them, but
Southern negroes, who can describe their misery ?
V. PUNISHMENTS.
The ordinary mode of punishing the slaves is
both cruel and barbarous. The masters seldom,
if ever, try to govern their slaves by moral infla-
20
Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace MouUon.
ence, but by whipping, kicking, beating, starving,
branding, cat-hauling, loading with irons, impris-
onino-, or by some other cruel mode of torturing.
They often boast of having invented some new
mode of torture, by which they have " tamed
the rascals." What is called a moderate flogging
at the south is horribly cruel. Should we whip
our horses for any offence as they whip their slaves
for small oiFences, we should expose ourselves to
the penalty of the law. The masters whip for the
smallest ofTcnees, such as not performing their
tasks, being caught by the guard or patrol by
night, orfor taking anything from the master's 3'ard
v.-ithout leave. For these, and the like crimes,
the slaves are whipped thirty-nine lashes, and
sometimes seventy or a hundred, on the bare back.
One slave, who was under my care, was whipped,
I think one hundred lashes, for getting a small
handful of wood from his master's yard without
leave. I heard an overseer boasting to this same
master that he gave one of the boys seventy lashes,
for not doing a job of work just as he thought it
ought to be done. The ov^mer of the slave ap-
peared to be pleased that the overseer had been so
faithful. The apology they make for whipping
so cruelly is, that it is to frighten the rest of the
gang. The mjisters say, that wliat we call an
ordinary flogging will not subdue the slaves ;
hence the most cruel and barbarous scourgings
ever witnessed by man are daily and hourly in-
flicted upon the naked bodies of these miserable
bondmen ; not by masters and negro-drivers only,
but by the constables in the common markets
and jailors in their yards.
When the slaves are wtiipped, either in public
or private, they have their hands fastened by the
WT-ists, with a rope or cord prepared for the pur-
pose : this being th^o^^^l over a beam, a limb of a
tree, or something else, the culprit is drawn up
and stretched by the arms as high as possible,
■without raising his feet from the ground or floor :
and sometimes they are made to stand on tip-toe ;
then the feet are made fast to something prepared
for them. In this distorted posture the monster
flies at them, sometimes in great rage, with his
implements of torture, and cuts on with all his
might, over the shoulders, under the arms, and
sometimes over the head and ears, or on parts of
the body where he can inflict the greatest torment.
Occasionally the whipper, especially if his victim
does not beg enough to suit him. while under the
lash, will fly into a passion, uttering the most hor-
rid oaths ; while the victim of his rage is crying,
at every stroke, " Lord have mercy ! Lord have
mercy !" The scenes exhibited at the whipping
post are awfully terrific and frightful to one whose
heart has not turned to stone ; I never could look
on but a moment. While under the lash, the
bleeding victim writhes in agony, convulsed with
torture. Thirty-nine lashes on the bare back,
which tear the skin at almost every stroke, is
what the South calls a very moderate punishment !
Many masters whip until they are tired — until
the back is a gore of blood — then rest upon it :
after a short cessation, get up and go at it again ;
and after having satiated their revenge in the blood
of their victims, they sometimes leave them tied,
for hours together, bleeding at every wound. —
Sometimes, after being whipped, they are bathed
with a brine of salt and water. Now and then a
master, but more frequently a mistress who ha."
no husband, will send them to jail a few days,
giving orders to have them whipped, so man>
lashes, once or twice a day. bometin-ics aftei
being whipped, some have been shut -up in b. darl;
place and deprived of food, in order to increase
their torments : and I have heard of some who
have, in such circumstances, died of their wounds
and starvation.
Such scenes of horror as above described are so
common in Georgia that they attract no atten-
tion. To threaten them with death, with break-
ing in their teeth or jaws, or cracking their heads,
is common talk, when scolding at the slaves. —
Those who run away from their masters and are '
caught again generally fare the worst. They are
generally lodged in jail, with instructions from the
ov/ner to have them cruelly whipped. Some or-
der the constables to whip them publicly in the
market. Constables at the south are generally
savage, brutal men. They have become so accus-
tomed to catching and whipping negroes, that
they are as fierce as tigers. Slaves who are ab-
sent from their yards, or plantations, after eight
o'clock P. M., and are taken by the guard in the
cities, or by the patrols in the country, are, if not
called for before nine o'clock A. M. the next day,
secured in prisons ; and hardly ever escape, until
their backs are torn up by the cow-hide. On
plantations, the evenings usually present scenes
of horror. Those slaves against whom charges are
preferred for not having performed their tasks,
and for various faults, must, after work-hours at
night, undergo their torments. I have often heard (
the sound of the lash, the curses of the whipper,
and the cries of the poor negro rending the air,
late in the evening, and long before day-light in
the morning.
It is very common for masters to say to the
overseers or drivers, "put it on to them," " don't
spare that fellow," " give that scoundrel one hun-
dred lashes," &c. Whipping the women when
in delicate circumstances, as they sometimes do,
without any regard to their entreaties or the en-
treaties of their nearest friends, is truly barbarous.
If negroes could testify, they would tell you of
instances of women being whipped until they
have miscarried at the whipping-post. I heard
of such things at the south — they are undoubted,
ly facts. Children are whipped unmercifully for
the smallest offences, and that before their mo-
thers. A- large proportion of the blacks have their
shoulders, backs, and arms all scarred up, and
not a few of them have had their heads laid open
with clubs, stones, and brick-bats, and with the
butt-end of whips and canes — some have had
their jaws broken, others their teeth knocked in or
out ; while others have had their ears cropped
and the sides of their cheeks gashed out. Some
of the poor creatures have lost the sight of one of
their eyes by the careless blows of the whipper,
or by some other violence.
But punishing of slaves as above described, is not
the only mode of torture. Some tie them up in
a very uneasy posture, where they must stand
all night, and they will then work them hard all
day — that is, work them hard all day and tor-
ment them all night. Others punish by fastening
them down on a log, or something else, and
strike them on the bare skin with a board paddle
Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton.
21
full of holes. This breaks tlie skin, I should
presume, at every hole where it comes in
contact with it. Others, wiicn other modes of
punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them
— that is, take a cat by the nape of the neck and
tail, or by the hind "legs, and drag the claws
across the back until satisfied. This kind of pun-
ishment poisons the flesh niucli worse than tlie
whip, and is more dreaded by the slave. Some
are branded by a hot iron, others have their
flesh cut out in large gashes, to mark them.
Some who are prone to run away, have iron fet.
ters riveted around their ancles, sometimes they
are put only on one foot, and are dragged on the
ground. Others have on large iron collars or
yokes upon their necks, or clogs riveted upon
their wrists or ancles. Some have bells put upon
them, himg upon a sort of frame to an iron collar.
Some masters fly into a rage at trifles and knock
down their negroes with their fists, or with the
first thing that they can get hold of. The whip-
lash-knots, or rawhide, have sometimes by a
reckless stroke reached round to the front of the
body and cut through to the bowels. One slave-
holder with whom I lived, whipped one of his
slaves one day, as many, I should think, as one
hundred lashes, and thefi turned the butt-end
and went to beating him over the head and cars,
and trtily I was amazed that the slave was not
killed on the spot. Not a few slaveholders whip
their slaves to death, and then say that they died
under a " moderate correction." I Vv'onder that
ten are not killed where one is ! Were they not
much hardier than the v/hites many more of
them must die than do. One young mulatto
man, with whom I was well acquainted, was
killed by his master in his yard with impanity.
I boarded at the same time near the place where
tliis glaring murder was committed, and knev/
the master well. He had a plantation, on
which he enacted, almost daily, cruel barbarities,
some of them, I was informed, more terrific, if
possible, than death itself. Little notice was
taken of this murder, and it all passed off" without
any action being taken against the murderer.
The masters used to try to make me whip their
negroes. They said I could not get along with
them without flogging them — but I found I could
get along better with them by coaxing and en-
couraging them than by beating and flogging
tliem. I had not a heart to beat and kick about
those beings ; although I had not grace in my
heart the three first years I was there, yet I sym-
pathised with the slaves. I never was guilty of
having but one whipped, and he was whipped
but eight or nine blows. The circumstances
were as follows : Several negroes were put under
my care, one spring, who were fresh from Congo
and Guinea. I could not understand them, nei-
ther could they me, in one word I spoke. I
therefore pointed to them to go to work ; all
obeyed me wilhngly but one — he refused. I told
the driver that he must tie him up and whip him.
After he had tied him, by the help of some others,
we struck him eight or nine blows, and he
yielded. I told the driver not to strike him ano-
ther blow. We untied him, and hs went to work,
and continued faithful all the time he was with
me. This one was not a sample, however — many
of them have such exalted views of freedom that
it IS hard work for the masters to whip them into
brutes, that is to subdue their noble spirits. The
negroes being put under my care, did not prevent
the masters from whipping them when they
pleased. But they never whipped much in my
presence. This work was usually left until J
had dismissed the hands. On the plantations,
the masters chose to have the slaves whipped in
the presence of all the hands, to strike them with
terror,
VI. RUNAWAYS.
Numbers of poor slaves run away from their
masters ; some of whom doubtless perish in the
swamps and other secret places, rather than re-
turn back again to their masters ; others stay
away until tlicy almost famish with hunger, and
then return home rather than die, while others
who abscond arc caught by the negro-hunters, in
various ways. Sometimes the master will hire
some of his most trusty negroes to secure any
stray negroes, who come on to their plantations,
for many come at night to beg food of their
friends on the plantations. The slaves assist
one another usually when they can, and not be
found out in it. The master can now and then,
however, get some of his hands to betray the run-
av/ays. Some obtain their living in hunting after
lost slaves. The most common way is to train
up young dogs to follow them. This can easily
be done by obliging a slave to go out into the
woods, and climb a tree, and then put the young
dog on his track, and with a little assistance he
can be taught to follow him to the tree, and when
found, of course the dog would bark at such
game as a poor negro on a tree. There was a
man hving in Savannah when I was there, who
kept a large number of dogs for no other pur-
pose than to hunt runaway negroes. And he
always had enough of this v/ork to do, for hun-
dreds of runaways are never found, but could he
get news soon after one had fled, he vv^as almost
sure to catch him. And this fear of the dogs re-
strains multitudes from running off.
When he went out on a himting excursion, to be
gone several days, he took several persons with him,
armed generally with rifles and followed by the
dogs. The dogs were as true to the track of a
negro, if one had passed recently, as a hound is
to the track of a fox when he has found it. When
the dogs draw near to their game, the slave must
turn and fight them or climb a tree. If the latt er,
the dogs will stay and bark until the pursuers
come. The blacks frequently deceive the dogs
by crossing and recrossing the creeks. Should
the hunters who have no dogs, start a slave from
his hiding place, and the slave not stop at the
hunter's call, he will shoot at him, as soon as he
would at a deer. Some masters advertise so much
for a runaway slave, dead or alive. It undoubt-
edly gives such more satisfaction to know that
their property is dead, than to know that it is
alive without being able to get it. Some slaves
run away who never mean to be taken alive, I
will mention one. He run off and was pursued
by the dogs, but having a weapon with him he
succeeded in killing two or three of the dogs ;
but was afterwards shot. He had declared, that
he never would be taken alive. The people
rejoiced at the death of the slave, but lamented
22
Personal Narratives — Sarah M. Grimke.
the death of the dogs, they were such ravenous
Imnters. Poor fellow, he fought for life and
liberty like a hero ; but the bullets brought him
down. A neg-ro can hardly walk unmolested
at the soutJi. — Every colored stranger that walks
the streets is suspected of being a runaway slave,
hence he must be inteiTOgated by every negro
hater v/hom he meets, and should he not have a
pass, he must be arrested and hurried off to jail.
Some masters boast that their slaves would not
be free if they could. How little they know of
their slaves ! They are all sighing and groaning
for freedom. May God hasten the time I
VII. CONFINEMENT AT NIGHT.
When the slaves have done their day's work,
they must be herded together like sheep in their
yards, or on their plantations. They have not as
much liberty as northern men have, who are
sent to jail for debt, for they have liberty to
walk a larger yard than the slaves have. The
slaves must all be at their homes precisely at
eight o'clock, p.m. At this hour the drums beat
in the cities, as a signal for everj' slave to be in
his den. In the country, the signal is given by
firing guns, or some other way by which they
may know the hour when to be at home. After
tliis hour, the guard in the cities, and patrols i.^
the country, being %vell armed, are on duty until
daylight in the morning. If they catch any
negroes during the night without a pass, they ari:
immediately seized and hurried away to the
guard-house, or if in the country to some place
of confinement, where they are kept until nine
o'clock, A. M., the next day, if not called for b}'
that time, they arc hurried off to jail, and there
remain until called for by their master and hia
jail and guard house fees paid. The guards and
patrols receive one dollar extra for every one
they can catch, who has not a pass from his
master, or overseer, but few masters will give
their slaves passes to be out at night unless on some
special business : notwithstanding, many venture
out, watching every step they take for the guard
or patrol, the consequence is, some are caught
almost every night, and some nights many are
taken ; some, fleeing after being hailed by the
watch, are shot down in attempting their escape,
others are crippled for life. I find I shall not be
able to write out more at present. My m.iniste-
rial duties are pressing, and if I delay this till the
next mail, I fear it will not be in season. Your
brother for those who are in bonds,
HOEACE MoULTON.
NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY OF SARAH M. GRIMKE.
Miss Grimke is a daughter of the late
Judge Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South
Carolina, and sister of the late Hon. Thomas S.
Grimke.
As I left my native state on account of slave-
ry, and deserted the home of my fathers to escape
the sound of the lash and the shrieks of tortured
victims, I would gladly bury in oblivion the re-
collection of those scenes with which I have been
famihar ; but this may not, cannot be ; they
come over my memory like gory spectres, and
implore me with resistless power, in the name of
a God of mercy, in the name of a crucified Sa.
vior, in the name of humanity ; for the sake of
the slaveholder, as well as the slave, to bear
witness to the horrors of the southern prison
house. I feel impelled by a sacred sense of
duty, by my obligations to my country, by sym-
pathy for the bleeding victims of tyranny and
lust, to give my testimony respecting the system
of American slavery, — to detail a few facts, most
of which came under my personal observation.
And here I may premise, that the actors in these
tragedies were all men and women of the high-
est respectability, and of the first families in
South Carolina, and, with one exception, citi.
zens of Charleston ; and that their cruelties did
not in the slightest degree affect their standing
in society.
A handsome mulatto woman, about 18 or 20
years of age, whose independent spirit could not
brook the degradation of slavery, was in the
habit of running away : for this offence she had
been repeatedly sent by her master and mistress
to be whipped by the keeper of the Charleston
.vork-house. This had been done with such in-
human severity, as to lacerate her back "in a
most shocking manner; a finger could not be
laid between the cuts. But the love of hberty
was too strong to be annihilated by torture ; and,
as a last resort, she was whipped at several dif-
ferent times, and kept a close prisoner. A heavy
iron collar, with three long prongs projecting
from it, was placed round her neck, and a
strong and sound front tooth was extracted, to
serve as a mark to describe her, in case of es.
cape. Her sufferings at this time were agoniz-
ing ; she could lie in no position but on her back,
which was sore from scourgings, as I can testify,
from persrnal inspection, and her only place of
rest was the floor, on a blanket. These outrages
were committed in a family where the mistress
daily read the scriptures, and assembled her
children for family worship. She was account-
ed, and was really, so far as alms-giving was
concerned, a charitable woman, and tender
hearted to the poor ; and yet this suffering slave,
who was the seamstress of the family, was con-
tinually in her presence, sitting in her chamber
to sew, or engaged in her other household work,
with her lacerated and bleeding back, her muti-
lated mouth, and heavy iron collar, without, so
far as appeared, exciting any feelings of com-
passion.
A highly intelligent slave, who panted after
freedom with ceaseless longings, made many at-
tempts to get possession of himself. For every
offence he was punished with extreme severity.
At one time he was tied up by his hands to a
tree, and whipped until his back was one gore
of blood. To this terrible infliction he was sub-
jected at intervals for several weeks, and kept
heavily ironed while at his work. His master
one day accused him of a fault, in the usual
terras dictated by passion and arbitrary power :
Personal Narratives— Sarah. M. Grimke,
•215
tlic man protested his innocence, but was not
t r. dited. He again repelled the charge with
hr.nost indignation. His master's temper rose
a uiost to frenzy; and seizing a fork, he macle a
d.adlv plunge at the breast of the skve. Ihe
man "beino- far his superior in strcngih, caught
his arm, and dashed the weapon on the floor.
His master grasped at his throat, but the slave
d <eii<racred himself, and rushed from the apart-
montr llaving made liis escape, he fled to the
woods : and after wandering about for manj'
months, living on roots and berries, and cndurmg
rverv hardship, he was arrested and committed
to -ail. Here he lay for a considerable time,
allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life,
whipped in the most shocking manner, and con-
fined in a cell so loathsome, that when his mas-
ter visited him, lie said the stench was enough
to knock a man down. The filth had never
been removed from the apartment since the poor
creature had been immured in it. Although a
black man, such had been the effect of starva-
tion and suffering, that his master declared he
hardlv recognized him— his complexion was so
yellow, and his hair, naturally thick and black,
had become red and scanty ; an infallible sign of
long continued living on bad and insufficient
food. Stripes, imprisonment, and the gnawings
of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit for a season ;
and, to use his master's own exulting expression,
he was " as humble as a dog." After a time lie
made another attempt to escape, and was absent
so long, that a reward was offered for him, dead
or alirc. He eluded every attempt to take him,
and his master, despairing of ever getting him
agam, offered to pardon him if he would return
home. It is always understood that such intel-
ligence will reach "the runaway ; and according-
ly, at the entreaties of his wife and mother, the
fuo-itive once more consented to return to his bit-
ter bondage. I believe this was the last effort to
obtain his' liberty. His heart became touched
with the power of the gospel; and the spirit
which no inflictions could subdue, bowed at the
cross of Jesus, and with the language on his
lips— "the cup that my father hath given me,
shall I not drink it ?" submitted to the yoke of
the oppressor, and wore his chains in unmurmur-
ing patience till death released him. The mas.
ter who perpetrated these wrongs upon his slave,
was one of the most influential and honored citi-
zens of South Carolina, and to his equals was
bland, and courteous, and benevolent even to a
proverb.
A slave who had been separated from his
wife, because it best suited the convenience of
his ovmer, ran away. He was taken up on the
plantation where his wife, to whom he was ten-
derly attached, then lived. His only object in
runnimj- away was to return to her — no other
fault was attributed to him. For this offence he
was confined in the stocks six weeks, in a mis-
ei-able hovel, not weather-tight. He received
fifty lashes weekly during that time, was allow-
ed food barely sufficient to sustain him, and when
released from confinement, was not permitted to
return to his wife. His master, although him-
self a husband and a father, was unmoved by
the touching appeals of the slave, who entreated
that he might only remain with his wife, promis-
ing to discharge his duties faithfully; his master
continued inexorable, and ho was torn from his
wife and family. The owner of this slave was *.
professing Christian, in full membership with the
church, and this circumstance occurred when lie
was confined to his chamber during his last ill-
ness.
A punishment dreaded more by the slaves
than whipping, unless it is unusually severe, is
one which was invented by a female acquaint-
ance of mine in Charleston — I heard her say so
with much satisfaction. It is standing on one
foot and holding the other in the hand. After-
wards it was improved upon, and a strap was
contrived to fasten around the ankle and pass
around the neck ; so that the least weight of the
foot resting on the strap would choke the person^
The pain occasioned by this unnatural position
was (Treat ; and when continued, as it sometimes
was, for an hour or more, produced intense
ao-ony. I heard this same woman say, that she
had the ears of her waiting maid slit for some
petty theft. This she told me in the presence of
the girl, who was standing in the room. She
often had the helpless victims of her cruelty se-
verely whipped, not scrupling herself to v/ield
the instrument of torture, and with her own
hands inflict severe chastisement. Her husband
was less inhuman than his wife, but he was often
goaded on by her to acts of great severity. In
his last illness I was sent for, and watched be-
side his death couch. The girl on Vv^hom he had
so often inflicted punishment, haunted his dying
hours; and when at length the king of terrors
approached, he shrieked in utter agony of spirit,
" Oh, the blackness of darkness, the black imps,
I can see them all around me — take them
away I" and amid such exclamations he expired.
These persons were of one of the first families in
Charleston.
A friend of mine, in Vs'hose veracity I have en-
tire confidence, told me that about two years ago,
a wom.an in Charleston with whom I was well
acquainted, had starved a female slave to death.
She was confined in a solitary apartment, kept
constantly tied, and condemned to the slow and
horrible death of starvation. This woman was
notoriously cruel. To those who have read the
narrative of James Williams I need only say, that
the character of young Larrimore's wife is an ex-
act description of this female tyrant, whose coun-
tenance was ever dressed in smiles when in the
presence of strangers, but whose heart was as the
nether millstone toward her slaves.
As I was traveling in the lower country m
South Carolina, a number of years since, my at-
tention was suddenly arrested by an exclamation
of hon-or from the " coachman, who called out,
" Lookthere, Miss Sarah, don't you see?"-I looked
in the direction he pointed, and saw a human
head stuck up on a high pole. On inquiry, I found
that a runaway slave, who was outlawed, had been
shot there, his head severed from his body, and
put upon the public highway, as a terror to deter
slaves from running away.
On a plantation in North Carolina, where I was
visiting, I happened one day, in my rambles, to
step into a negro cabin ; my compassion was in-
stantly called forth by the object which presented
itself. A slave, whose head was white with age,
24
Personal Narratives — Sarah M. Grimke.
was lying in one comer of the hovel ; he had un-
der his head a few filthy rags, but the boards were
his only bed, it was the depth of winter, and the
wind whistled through every part of the dilapi-
dated building — he opened his languid eyes when
I spoke, and in reply to my question, " What is the
matter ?" he said, " I am dying of a cancer in my
side." — As he removed the rags which covered the
sore, I found that it extended half round the body,
and was shockingly neglected. I inquired if he had
any nurse. " No, missey," was his answer, "butde
people (the slaves) very kind tome, dey often steal
time to run and see me and fetch me some
ting to eat ; if dey did not, I might starve."
The master and mistress of this man, who had
been worn out in their service, were remarkable
for their intelligence, and their hospitahty knew
no bounds towards those who were of their own
grade in society : the master had for some time
held the highest military office in North Carohna,
and not long previous to the time of which I
speak, was the Governor of the State.
On a plantation in South Carolina, I witnessed
a similar case of suffering — an aged woman suffer-
ing under an incurable disease in the same miser-
ably neglected situation. The " owner" of this
slave was proverbially kind to her negroes ; so
much so, that the planters in the neighborhood
said she spoiled them, and set a bad example,
which might produce discontent among the sur-
rovmding slaves ; yet I have seen this Vv'oman
tremble with rage, when her slaves displeased her,
and heard her use language to them which could
only be expected from an inmate of Bridewell ;
and have known her in a gust of passion send a
favorite slave to the workhouse to be severely
whipped.
Another fact occurs to me. A young woman
about eighteen, stated some circumstances rela-
tive to her young master, which were thought de-
rogatory to his character ; whether true or false, I
am unable to say ; she was threatened with
punishment, but persisted in affirming that she
had only spoken the truth. Fuiding her incorrigible,
it was concluded to send her to the Charleston
workhouse and have her whipt ; she pleaded in
vain for a commutation of her sentence, not so
much because she dreaded the actual suffering,
as because her delica,te mind shrunk from the
shocking exposure of her person to the eyes of
brutal and licentious men ; she declared to me that
death would be preferable ; but her entreaties
were vain, and as there was no means of escaping
but by running away, she resorted to it as a des-
perate remedy, for her timid nature never could
have braved the perils necessarily encountered by
fugitive slaves, had not her mind been tlurown into
a state of despair. — She was apprehended after a
few weeks, by two slave-catchers, in a deserted
12
house, and as it was late in the evening they con-
cluded to spend the night there. What inhuman
treatment she received from them has never been
revealed. They tied her with cords to tlieir bo-
dies, and supposing they had secured their victim,
soon fell into a deep sleep, probably rendered
more profound by intoxication and fatigue ; but
the miserable captive slumbered not ; by some
means she disengaged herself from her bonds, and
agahi fled through the lone wilderness. After a
few days she was discovered in a wretched hut,
wliich seemed to have been long uninhabited ;
she was speechless ; a raging fever consumed her
vitals, and when a physician saw her, he said she
was dying of a disease brought on by over fatigue ;
her mother was permitted to visit her, but ere she
reached her, the damps of death stood upon her
brow, and she had only the sad consolation of
looking on the death-struck form and convulsive
agonies of her child.
A beloved friend in South Carolina, the wife
of a slaveholder, with whom I often mingled my
tears, when helpless and hopeless we deplored
together the horrors of slavery, related to me
some years since the following circumstance.
On the plantation adjoining her husband's,
therewasa slave of pre-eminent piety. His master
was not a professor of religion, but the superior ex-
cellence of this disciple of Christ was not unmark-
ed by him, and I believe he was so sensible of the
good influence of his piety that he did not de-
prive him of the few religious privileges within
his reach. A planter was one day dining with
the owner of this slave, and in the course of con-
versation observed, that all profession of religion
among slaves was mere hypocrisy. The other as-
serted a contrary opinion, adding, I have a slave
who I believe would rather die than deny his Sa-
viour. This was ridiculed, and the master urged
to prove the assertion. He accordingly sent for
this man of God, and peremptorily ordered him
to deny his belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
slave pleaded to be excused, constantly affirming
that he would rather die than deny the Redeemer,
whose blood was shed for him. His master,
after vainly trying to induce obedience by threats,
had him terribly whipped. The fortitude of the
sufferer was not to be shaken ; he nobly reject-
ed the offer of exemption from further chastise-
ment at the expense of destroying his soul, and
this blessed martyr died in consequence of this
Severe infliction. Oh, how bright a gem will
this victim of irresponsible power be, in that
crown which sparkles on the Redeemer's brow ;
and that many such will cluster there, I have
not the shadow of a doubt.
Sarah M. Grimke.
Fort Lee, Bergen County,
New Jersey, ^rd Month, 2Gth, 1830.
Personal Narratives — Rev. John Graham.
25
TESTIMONY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN GRAHAM,
of Townscnd, Mass., who resided in S. Carolina,
from 1S31, to the latter part of 1833. Mr. Gra-
ham graduated at Amherst College in 1829,
spent some time at the Theological Seminary, in
New Haven, Ct., and went to South Carolina, for
his health in 1830. He resided principally on
the island of St. Helena, S. C, and most of the
time in the family of James Tripp, Esq., a
wealthy slave holding planter. During his
residence at St. Helena, he was engaged as an
instructor, and was most of the time the stated
preacher on the island. Mr. G. was extensively
known in Massachusetts ; and his fellow students
and instructors, at Amherst College, and at Yale
Theological Seminary, can bear testimony to
his integrity and moral worth. The following
are extracts of letters, which he wrote while in
South Carolina, to an intimate friend in Concord,
Massachusetts, who has kindly furnished them
for publication.
EXTRACTS.
Springfield, St. Helena IsL, S. C.,Oct. 22, 1832.
" Last night, about one o'clock, I was awaken-
ed by the report of a musket. I was out of bed
almost instantly. On opening my window, I
found the report proceeded from my host's cham-
ber. He had let off his pistol, which he usually
keeps by him night and day, at a slave, who had
come into the yard, and as it appears, had been
with one of his house servants. He did not hit
him. The ball, taken from a pine tree the next
mornmg, I will show you, should I be spared by
Providence ever to return to you. The house
servant was called to the master's chamber,
where he received 75 lashes, very severe too ; and
I could not only hear every lash, but each groan
which succeeded very distinctly as I lay in my
bed. What was then done with the servant I
know not. Nothing was said of this to me in
the morning and I presume it will ever be kept
from me with care, if I may judge of kindred
acts. I shall make no comment."
In the same letter, Mr. Graham says : —
" You ask me of my hostess" — then after
giving an idea of her character says : " To day,
she has I verily believe laid, in a very severe
manner too, more than 300 stripes, upon the
house servants," (17 in number.)
Darlington, Court House. S. C. March, 28th, 1838.
'' I walked up to the Court House to day,
where I heard one of the most interesting cases
I ever heard. I say interesting, on account of
its novelty to me, though it had no novelty for the
people, as such cases are of frequent occurrence.
The case was this : To know whether two
ladies, present in court, were white or black.
The ladies were dressed well, seemed modest,
and were retiring and neat in their look, having
blue eyes, black hair, and appeared to under-
stand much of the etiquette of southern behav-
iour.
4
"A man, more avaricious than humane, as is
the case with most of the rich planters, laid a
remote claim to those two modest, unassuming,
innocent and free young ladies as his property,
witli the design of putting them ' into the field,
and thus increasing his STOCK ! As well as
the people of Concord are known to be of a
peaceful disposition, and for their love of good
order, I verily behevc if a similar trial should be
brought forward there and conducted as this
was, the good people would drive the lawyers
out of the house. Such would be their indigna-
tion at their language, and at tJie mean under-hand-
ed manner of trying to ruin those young ladies,
as to their standing in society in this district,
if they could not succeed in dooming them for
life to the degraded condition of slavery, and all
its intolerable cruelties. Oh slavery ! if statues
of marble could curse you, they would speak.
If bricks could speak, they would all surely thun-
der out their anathemas against you, accursed
thing ! How many white sons and daughters,
have bled and groaned under the lash in this
sultry climate." &c.
Under date of March, 1832, Mr. G. writes,
" I have been doing what I hope never to be
called to do again, and what I fear I have badly
done, though performed to the best of my ability,
namely, sewing up a very bad wound made by a
wild hog. The slave was hunting wild hogs,
when one, being closely pursued, turned upon his
pursuer, who turning to run, was caught by the
animal, thrown down, and badly wounded in the
thigh. The wound is about five inches long and
very deep. It was made by the tusk of the ani-
mal. The slaves brought him to one of the huts
on Mr. Tripp's plantation and made every exer-
tion to stop the blood by filling the wound with
ashes,(their remedy for stopping blood) but finding
this to fail they came to me (there being no other
white person on the plantation, as it is now holi-
days) to know if I could stop the blood. I went
and found that the poor creature must bleed to
death unless it could be stopped soon. I called
for a needle and succeeded in sewing it up as
well as I could, and in stopping the blood. In
a short time his master, who had been sent for
came ; and oh, you would have shuddered if you
had heard the awful oaths that fell from his lips,
threatening in the same breath " to pay him for
that .'" I left him as soon as decency would per-
mit, with his hearty thanks that I had saved him
^500 ! Oh, may heaven protect the poor, suffer-
ing, fainting slave, and show his master his wan-
ton cruelty — oh slavery ! slavery !"
Under date of July, 1832, Mr. G. writes, " I
wish you could have been at the breakfast table
with me this morning to have seen and heard
what I saw and heard, not that I wish your ear
and heart and soul pained as mine is, 'with
every day's' observation 'of wrong and out-
rage' with which this place is filled, but that you
might have auricular and ocular evidence of the
cruelty of slavery, of cruelties that mortal lan-
guage can never describe — that you might see
the tender mercies of a hardened slaveholder,
one who bears the name of being one of the mild-
2G
Personal Narratives — Mr. Poe.
est and most merciful masters of which this isl-
and can boast. Oh, my friend, another is scream-
ing- under the lash, in the shed-room, but for
what I know not. The scene this morning was
truly distressing to me. It wa^j this : — After the
blessing was asked at the breakfast tabic, one of
the servants, a woman grown, in giving one of
the children some molasses, happened to pour out
a little more than usual, though not more than the
child usually eats. Her master was angry at the
petty and indifferent mistake, or slip of the hand.
He rose from the table, took both of her hands
in one of his, and with the other began to beat
her, first on one side of her head and then on the
other, and repeating this, till, as he said on sitting
down at table, it hurt his hand too much to con-
tinue it longer. Ho then took off his shoe, and
with the heel began in the same manner as
with his hand, till the poor creature could no
longer endure it without screeches and raising her
elbow as it is natural to ward off the blows. He
then called a great overgrown negro to hold her
hands behind her while he should wreak his ven-
geance upon the poor servant. In this position
he began again to beat the poor suffering wretch.
It now became intolerable to bear ; she fell,
screaming to me for help. After she fell, he beat
her until I thought she would have died in his
hands. She got up, however, went out and
washed off the blood and came in before we rose
from table, one of the most pitiable objects I
ever saw till I came to the South. Her ears
were almost as thick as my hand, her eyes aw-
fully blood. shotten, her lips, nose, cheeks, chin,
and whole head swollen so that no one would
have known it v/as Etta — and for all this, slic had
to turn round as she was going out and thank her
master .' Now, all this was done while I v/as sit-
ting at breakfast with the rest of the family.
Think you not 1 wished myself sitting with the
peaceful and happy circle around your table ?
Think of my feelings, but pity tiic poor negro
slave, who not only fans his cruel master when
he eats and sleeps, but bcais the stripes his ca-
price may inflict. Think of this, and let heaven
hear j^our prayers."
In a letter dated St. Helena Island, S. C, Def.
3, 1832, Mr. G. writes, " If a slave here complains
to his master, that his task is too great, his master
at once calls him a scoundrel and tells him it is
only because he has not enough to do, and orders
the driver to increase his task, however unable he
may be for the performance of it. I saw twekty-
SEVEN whipped at one time just because they did
not do more, when the poor creatures were so
tired that they could scarcely drag one foot after
the other."
TESTIMONY OF MR. WILLIAM POE.
Mr. Poe is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and
was formerly a slaveholder. He was for several
years a merchant in Richmond, and subsequently
in Lynchbm-g, Virginia. A few years since, he
emancipated his slaves, and removed to Hamil-
ton County, Ohio, near Cincinnati ; where he is
a highly respected ruling elder in the Presbyterian
church. He says, —
I am pained exceedingly, and nothing but my
duty to God, to the oppressors, and to the poor
dovm-trodden slaves, who go mourning all their
days, could move me to say a word. I will
state to you a few cases of the abuse of the
slaves, but time would fail, if I had language to
tell how many and great are the inflictions of
slavery, even in its mildest form.
Benjamin James Harris, a wealthy tobacconist
of Richmond, Virginia, whipped a slave girl
fifteen years old to death. While he was whip-
ping her, his wife heated a smoothing iron, put it
on her hody in various places, and burned her
severely. The verdict of the coroner's inquest
was, " Died of excessive whipping." He was
tried in Richmond, and acquitted. I attended
the trial. Some years after, this same Harris
whipped another slave to death. The man had
not done so much work as was required of him.
After a number of protracted and violent scourg-
ings, with short intervals between, the slave died
under the lash. Harris was tried, and again
acquitted, because none but blacks saw it done.
The same man afterwards whipped another slave
severely, for not doing work to please him. After
repeated and severe floggings in quick succes-
sion, for the same cause, the slave, i'l despair of
pleasing him, cut off his own hand. Harris soon
after became a bankrupt, went to New Orleans
to recruit his finances, failed, removed to Ken-
tucky, became a maniac, and died.
A captain in the United States' Navy, who
married a daughter of the collector of tlic port
of Richmond, and resided there, became offended
with his negro boy, took him into the meat
house, put him upon a stool, crossed his hands
before him, tied a rope to them, threw it over a
joist in the building, drew the boy up so that lie
could just stand on the stool with his toes, and
kept him in that position, flogging him severely
at intervals, until the boy became so exhausted
that he reeled off the stool, and swung by his
hands until he died. The master was tried and
acquitted.
In Goochland County, Virginia, an overseer
tied a slave to a tree, flogged him again and
again with great severity, then piled brush around
him, set it on fire, and burned him to death.
The overseer was tried and imprisoned. The
whole transaction may be found on the records
of the court.
In traveling, one day, from Petersburg to
Richmond, Virginia, I heard cries of distress at a
distance, on the road. I rode up, and found two
white men, beating a slave. One of them had
hold of a rope, which was passed under the bottom
of a fence; the other end was fastened around
the neck of the slave, who was thrown flat on.
the ground, on his face, with his back bared.
The other was beating him furiously with a
large hickory.
A slaveholder in Henrico County, Virginia,
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
27
had a slave who used frequently to work for mj^
father. One morning he came into the field with
his back completely cut up, and mangled from
his head to his heels. 1 he man was so stiff
and sore he could scarcely walk. This same
person o;ot offended with another of his slaves,
knocked him down, and struck out one of his
eyes with a maul. The eyes of several of his
slaves were injured by similar violence.
In Richmond, Virginia, a company occupied
as a dwelling a large warehouse. They got an-
o-r\- with a negro lad, one of their slaves, took
him into tiie cellar, tied his hands with a rope,
bored a hole through the floor, and passed the
rope up tln-oughit. Some of the family drew up the
boy, while others whipped. This they continued
until the boy died. The warehouse was owned
by a Mr. Whitlock, on the scite of one formerly
owned by a Mr. Philpot.
Joseph Chilton, a resident of Campbell County,
Virginia, purchased a quart of tanners' oil, for
the purpose, as he said, of putting it on one of
his negro's heads, that he had sometime previous
pitched or tarred over, for running away.
In the town of Lynchburg, Virginia, there was
a negro man put in prison, charged with having
pillaged some packages of goods, which he, as
head man of a boat, received at Richmond, to
be delivered at Lynchburg. The goods belonged
to A. B. Nichols, of Liberty, Bedford County,
Virginia. He came to L3'nchburg, and desired
the jailor to perm it him to whip the negro, to make
him confess, as there was no proof against him.
Mr. Williams, (I think that is his name,) a
pious Methodist man, a great stickler for law
and good order, professedly a great friend to the
black man, delivered the negro into the hands of
Nichols. Nichols told me that he took the slave,
tied his wrists together, then drew his arms down
so far below his knees as to permit a staff to
pass above the arms under the knees, thereby
placing the slave in a situation that he could not
move hand or foot. He then commenced his
bloody work, and continued, at intervals, until
500 blows were inflicted. I received this state-
ment from Nichols himself, who was, by the way,
a son of the land oj " steady habits," where there
are many like him, if we may judge from their
writings, sayings, and doings.
PRIVATIONS OF THE SLAVES.
I. FOOD.
We begin with the food of the slaves, because
if they are ill treated in this respect we may be
sure that they will be ill treated in other respects,
and generally in a greater degree. For a man
habitually to stint his dependents in their food, is
the extreme of meanness and cruelty, and the
greatest evidence he can give of utter indiffer-
ence to their comfort. The father who stints his
children or domestics, or the master his appren-
tices, or the employer his laborers, or the officer
liis soldiers, or the captain his crew, when able
to furnish them with sufficient food, is every
where looked upon as unfeeling and cruel. All
mankind agree to call such a character inhuman.
If any thing can move a hard heart, it is the ap-
peal of hunger. The Arab robber whose whole
life is a prowl for plunder, will freely divide his
camel's milk with the hungry stranger who halts
at his tent door, though he may have just waylaid
him and stripped him of his money. Even sava-
ges take pity on hunger. Who ever went fam-
ishing Irom an Indian's wigwam. As much as
hunger craves, is the Indian's free gift even
to an enemy. The necessity for food is such a
universal want, so constant, manifest and impe-
rative, that the heart is more touched with pity
by the plea of hunger, and more ready to supply
that want than any other. He who can habitu-
ally inflict on others the pain of hunger by giv-
ing them insufficient food, can habitually inflict
on them any other pain. He can kick and cuff
and flog and brand them, put them in irons or
the stocks, can overwork them, deprive them of
sleep, lacerate their backs, make them work with-
out clothing, and sleep without covering.
Other cruelties may be perpetrated in hot
blood and the act regretted as soon as done — the
feeling that prompts them is not a permanent
state of mind, but a violent impulse stung up by
sudden provocation. But he who habitually
withholds from his dependents sufficient suste-
nance, can plead no such palliation. The fact
itself shows, that his permanent state of mind
toward them is a brutal indifference to their
wants and sufferings — A state of mind which
will naturally, necessarily, show itself in innu-
merable privations and inflictions upon them,
when it can be done with impunity.
If, therefore, we ilnd upon examination, that
the slaveholders do not furnish their slaves with
sufficient food, and do thus habitually inflict upon
them the pain of hunger, we have a clue furnish-
ed to their treatment in other respects, and may
fairly infer habitual and severe privations and in-
flictions ; not merely from the fact that men are
quick to feel for those who suffer from hunger,
and perhaps more ready to relieve that want
than any other ; but also, because it is more for
the interest of the slaveholder to supply that
want than any other ; consequently, if the slave
suffer in this respect, he must as the general rule,
suffer 7nore in other respects.
We now proceed to show that the slaves have
28
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
insufficient food. This will be shown first from
the express declarations of slaveholders, and other
competent witnesses who are, or have been resi-
dents of slave states, that the slaves generally are
under-fed. And then, by the laws of slave states,
and by the testimony of slaveholders and others,
the kind, quantity, and quality, of their allowance
will be given, and the reader left to judge for
himself whether the slave must not be a suiFerer.
THE SLAVES SUFFER FROM HUNGER — DECLARATIONS OF SLAVE-HOLDERS AND 0TH2RS
WITNESSES.
Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slave hold-
sr, and for ten years, Member of
Congress from Virginia, in his speech
on tiie Missouri quefJtion. Jan 28th,
Rev. George Whitefield, in his letter,
to the slave holders of Md. Va. N C.
S. C. and Ga. published in Georgia, just
one hundred years ago, 1739.
Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, a
native of Tennessee, and for some year's
a preacher in slave states.
Report of the Gradual Emancipation
Society, of North Carolina, 1826. Sign-
ed Moses Swain, President, and Wil-
tjam Swain, Secretary.
TESTIMONY.
" By confining the slaves to the Southern states, where crops
are raised for exportation, and bread and meat are purchased,
you doom them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem in
the blacks where they are ill fed."
" My blood has frequently run cold within me, to think how
many of your slaves ftaiJe not sufficient food to eat ; they arc scarcely
permitted to pick up the crumbs, that fall from their master's table."
" Thousands of the slaves are pressed with the gnawings of
cruel hunger during their whole lives."
Speaking of the condition of slaves, in the eastern part of
that state, the report says, — " The master puts the unfortunate
wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their
sustenance, so that a great part oi ihem go half starved much of
the time."
Mr. Asa A. Stone, a Theological
Student, who resided near Natchez,
Miss., in 1834-5.
Thomas Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a
Slaveholder.
Jlr. Tobias Boudinot, St. Albans,
Ohio, a member of the Metliodist
Church. Mr. B. for some years navi-
gated the Mississippi.
President Edwards, the younger, in a
sermon before the Conn. Abolition So-
ciety, 1791.
Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist
Clergyman of Marlboro' Mass., who
lived five years in Georgia.
Rev. George Bourne, late editor of
the Protestant Vindicator, N. Y., who
was seven yeais pastor of a chuixh in
Virginia.
" On almost every plantation, the hands suffer more or less
from hunger at some seasons of almost every year. There is
always a good deal of suffering from hunger. On many planta-
tions, and particularly in Louisiana, the slaves are in a condition
of almost utter famishmerJ., during a great portion of the year."
" From various causes this [the slave's allowance of food] is
often not adequate to the support of a laboring man."
" The slaves down the Mississippi, are half-starved, the boats,
when they stop at night, are constantly boarded by slaves, begging
for something to eat."
" The slaves are supplied with barely enough to keep them
from starving."
" As a general thmg on the plantations, the slaves suffer ex-
tremely for the want of food."
" The slaves are deprived of needful sustenance.'
Hon. Rober. Tumbull, a slavehold-
er of Charleston, South Carolina.
Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa,
Beaver Co., Penn., who resided in Mis-
sissippi, in 1836-7.
Reuben G. Macy, a member of the
Society of Friends, Hudson, N. Y., who
resided in South Carolina.
Mr- William Leftwich, a native of
Virginia, and recently of Madison Co.,
Alabama, now member, of the Presby-
terian Church, Delhi, Ohio.
2. KINDS OF FOOD.
" The subsistence of the slaves consists, from March until
August, of corn ground into grits, or meal, made into what is
called hominy, or baked into corn bread. The other six months,
they are fed upon the sweet potatoe. Meat, when given, is only
by way of indulgence or favor."
" The food of the slaves was generally corn bread, and some,
times meat or molasses.''
" The slaves had no food allowed them besides corn, except,
ing at Christmas, when they had beef."
" On my uncle's plantation, the food of the slaves, was com
pone and a small allowance of meat."
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
29
William LvDD, Esq., of Minot, Mc, president i General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, and
>vii.i.i'^«i • -^ 1' , „ i_ - I task me to write out tor you ihc circumstances ot
of tlie American Peace Society, and formerly a
slaveholder of Florida, gives the following testi- |
mony as to the allowance of food to slaves.
" The usual food of the slaves was corn, with
a modicum of salt. In some cases the master
allowed no salt, but the slaves boiled the sea
water for salt in their little pots. For about
eight days near Christinas, i. e., from the Satur-
day evening before, to the Monday evening after
Christmas day, they were allowed some meat.
They always with one single exception ground
their corn in a hand-mill, and cooked their food
themselves.
Extract of a letter from Rev. D. C. Eastman,
a prt^cher of the Methodist Episcopal church,
in Fayet^, county, Ohio.
" In March, 1838, Mr. Thomas Larrimer, a
deacon of the Presbyterian church in Blooming-
bury, Fajette county, Ohio, Mr. G. S. Fullerton,
merchant, and member of the same church,
and Mr. William A. Ustick, an elder of the
same church, spent a night with a Mr. Shep-
herd, about 30 miles Nortk of Charleston, S.
C., on the Monk's corner load. He owned
five families of negroes, who, he said, were
fed from the same meal and meat tubs as himself,
but that 99 out of a 100 of all the slaves in that
county saw meat but once a year, which was on
Christmas holidays."
As an illustration of the inhuman experiments
snmetunes tried upon slaves, in respect to the kind
as well as the quality and quantity of their food, we
sohcit the attention of the reader to the testimony
of the late General Wade Hampton, of South
Carolina. General Hampton was for some
time commander in chief of the army on the
Canada frontier during the last war, and at the
time of his death, about three years since, was
the largest slaveholder in the United States. The
General's testimony is contained in the following
extract of a letter, just received from a distin.
guished clergymen in the west, extensively known
both as a preacher and a writer. His name is
the case — considering them well calculated to
illustrate two points in the history of slavery :
1st, That the habit of slaveholding dreadfully
blunts the feelings toward the slave, producing
such insensibility that his sufferings and death
are regarded with indifference. 2d, That the
slave often has insufficient food, both in quantity
and quality.
" I received my information from a lady in the
west of high respectability and great moral worth,
—but think it best to withhold her name, although
the statement was not made in confidence.
" My informant stated that she sat at dinner
once in company with General Wade Hampton,
and several others ; that the conversation turned
upon the treatment of their servants, &c. ; when
the General undertook to entertain the company
with the relation of an experiment he had made
in the feeding of his slaves on cotton seed. He
said that he first mingled one-fourth cotton seed
with three-fourths corn, on which they seemed to
thrive tolerably well ; that he then had measured
out to them equal quantities of each, which did
not seem to produce any important change ; af-
terwards he increased the quantity of cotton seed
to three.fourths, mingled with one-foiu-th corn,
and then he declared, with an oatli, that ' they
died like rotten sheep ! !' It is but justice to the
lady to state that she spoke of his conduct with
the utmost indignation ; and she mentioned also
that he received no countenance from the com-
pany present, but that aU seemed to look at each
other with astonishment. I give it to you just as I
received it from one who was present, and whose
character for veracity is unquestionable.
"It is proper to add that I had previously
formed an acquaintance with Dr. Witherspoon,
now of Alabama, if alive; whose former resi-
dence was in South Carolina ; from whom I re-
ceived a particular account of the manner of
feeding and treating slaves on the plantations of
General Wade Hampton, and others in the same
part of the State ; and certainly no one could
listen to the recital without concluding that such
masters and overseers as he described must have
hearts like the nether millstone. The cotton
seed experiment I had heard of before also, as
with the executive committee of the American
Anti-Slavery Society.
' You refer in your letter to a statement made
to you while in this place, respecting the late 1 informant."
having been made in other parts of the south ;
consequently, I was prepared to receive as true
the above statement, even if I had not been so
well acquainted with the high character of my
2. aUANTITY OF FOOD.
The legal allowance of food for slaves in North Carolina, is in the words of the law, " a quart
of com per day." See Haywood's Manual, 525. The legal allowance in Louisiana is more, a
barrel [flour barrel] of corn, (in the ear,) or its equivalent in other grain, and a pint of salt a month.
In the other slave states the amount of food for the slaves is left to the option of the master.
TESTIMONY.
Thos. Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a slave
holder, in his address before the Georgia
Presbytery, 1833.
The Maryland Journal, and Balti-
more Advertiser, May 30, 1788.
»♦ The quantity allowed by custom is a peck of com a week .'
" A single peck of corn a week, or the like measure of rice, is
the ordinary quantity of provision for a hard-working slave ; to
which a small quantity of meat is occasionally, though rarely,
added."
30
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
W. C. Giklerslesvc, Esq., a native of
Georgia, and Elder in the Presbyterian
Ciiurch, Willcsbarre, Penii.
Wm. liadd, of Minot, Maine, former-
ly a slaveliolder iu Florida.
Jlr. Jarvis Brewster, in his " Exposi-
tion of the treatment of slaves in the
Soutliern States," published in N.
Jersey, 1815.
Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist
Clergyman of Marlboro', JIass., who
lived five years in Georgia.
Mr. F. C. Macy, Nantucliet, Mass.,
who resided in Georgia iu 1820.
Mr. NehemiahCaulkins, amember of
the Baptist Church in Waterford,
Conu., who resided in North Carolina,
eleven winters.
William Savery, late of Philadelphia,
an eminent Minister of the Society of
Friends, who travelled extensively in
the slave states, on a Religious Visi-
tation, speaking of the subsistence of
the slaves, says, in his publislied
Journal,
The late John Parr ish, of Philadelphia,
another highly respected Minister of
the hbciety of Friends, who traversed
the South, on a similar mission, in
1804 and 5, says in bis " Remarks on
tlie slavery of Blacks ;"
" The weekly allowance to grown slaves on this plantation,
where I was best acquainted, was one peck of corn."
" The usual allowance of food was one quart of corn a day,
to a full task hand, with a modicum of salt ; kind masters allow-
ed a jpecA; o/corw a tcee^-; some masters allowed no salt."
" The allowance of provisions for the slaves, is one peck of
corn, in the grain, per week."
" In Georgia the planters give each slave only one peck of
their gourd seed corn per week, with a small quantity of salt."
" The food of the slaves was three pecks of potatos a week
during the potato season, and one jieck of corn, during the re-
mainder of the year."
" The subsistence of the slaves, consists of seven quarts of^teal
or eight quarts of small rice for one tce.ek J
" A peck of corn is their (the slaves,) miserabJo subsistence for
a week."
" They allow them but one peel of meal, for a whole week, in
some of the Southern states."
Richard Macy, Hudson, N., Y. a
Member of the Society of Friends, who
Jias resided in Georgia.
Rev. C. S. Renshaw, of Quincy, III.,
(the testimony of a Virginian.)
" Their usual allowance of food was one peck of corn per
week, which was dealt out to them every first day of the week.
They had nothing allowed them besides the corn, except one
quarter of beef at Christmas."
" The slaves are generally allowanced : a pint of corn meal
and a salt herring is the allowance, or in lieu of the herring a
" dab" of fat meat of about the same value. I have known tiie
sour milk, and clauber to be served out to the hands, when there
was an abundance of milk on the plantation. This is a luxury not
often afforded."
Testimony of Mr. George W, Westgate, member of the Congregational Church, of Quincy, Illi-
nois. Mr. W. has been engaged in the low country trade for twelve years, more than half of each
year, principally on the Mississippi, and its tributary streams in the south-western slave states.
" Feeding is not sufficient, let facts speak. On the coast, i. e. Natchez and the Gulf of Mexico,
the allowance was one barrel of ears of corn, and a pint of salt per month. They may cook this in
what manner they please, but it must be done after dark ; they have no day light to prepare it by.
Some few planters, but only a few, let them prepare their com on Saturday afternoon. Planters,
overseers, and negroes, have told me, that in pinching times, i. e. when corn is high, they did not
o-et near that quantity. In Miss., I know some planters who allowed their hands three and a halt
pounds of meat per week, when it was clieap. Many prepare their corn on the Sabbath, when they
are not worked on that day, which however is frequently the case on sugar plantations. There
are very many masters on " the coast" who will not suffer their slaves to come to the boats, be-
cause they steal molasses to barter for meat ; indeed they generally trade more or less with stolen
property. But it is impossible to find out what and when, as their articles of barter are of such
trifling importance. They would often come on board our boats to beg a bone, and would tell how
badly they were fed, that they were almost starved ; many a time I have set up all night, to pre-
vent them from steahng something to eat."
3. QUALITY OF FOOD.
Having ascertained the kind and quantity of food allowed to the slaves, it is important to know
something of its quality, that we may judge of the amount of sustenance which it contains. For,
if their provisions are of an inferior quality, or in a damaged state, then, power to sustain labor
must be greatly diminished.
TESTIMO.Vy.
WITNESSES.
Thomas Clay, Esq. of Georgia, in an
address to the Georgia Presbytery, 1834,
speaking of the quality of the corn given
to the slaves, says,
" There is often a defect here."
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
31
Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist
clergyman at Marlboro', Mass. aiid live
years a resident of Georgia.
Tlie "Western Jledical Reforiner,"
in ail article on the diseases peculiar to
negroes, by a Kentucky plijsician, says
oftiie diet' of the slaves;
Professor A. G. Smith , of the New
York Medical College ; formerly a phy-
sician in Louisville, Kentucky.
" Tlic food, or ' feed ' of slaves is generally of the poorest
kind."
" Thcv live on a coarse, crude, unicholesome diet."
I have myself known nnmerous instances of large families of
badly fed negroes swept off by a prevailing epidemic; and it is
well known to many intelligent planters in the south, that the best
method of preventing that horrible malady, Chachexia Africana,
is to feed the negroes with nutritious food.
4. NUMBER AND TIME OF MEALS EACH DAY.
In determinmo- whether or not the slaves suffer for want of food, the number of hours intervening,
and the labor performed between their meals, and the number of meals each day, should be taken
into consideration.
TESTIMONY.
" The slaves go to the field in the morning ; they carry with
them corn meal wet with water, and at noon build a fire on the
grotmd and bake it in the ashes. After the labors of the day
are over, they take their second meal of ash-cake."
WITNESSES.
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in
Elyria, Ohio, and member of tlie Presby-
terian churcn, who lived in Florida, in
1834, and 1835.
President Edwards, the younger.
Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Bea-
ver county, Perm., who resided in Mis-
sissippi in 1836 and 1837.
Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford,
Conn., who spent eleven winters in
North Carolina.
Rev. Phineas Smith, Centreville, N.
Y., who has hved at the south some
years.
Rev. C. S. Renshaw, Quincy, Illinois,
—the testimony of a Virginian.
" The slaves eat twice during the day."
" The slaves received tivo meals during the day. Those who
have their food cooked for them get their breakfast about eleven
o'clock, and their other meal after night."
" The breakfast of the slaves was generally about ten or eleven
o'clock."
" The slaves have usually two meals a day, viz : at eleven
o'clock and at night."
" The slaves have two meals a day. They breakfast at from
ten to eleven, A. M., and eat their supper at from six to nine or
ten at night, as the season and crops may be."
The preceding testimony establishes the fol-
lowing points.
1st. That the slaves are allowed, in general, no
meat. This appears from the fact, that in the
only slave states which regulate the slaves' rations
by law, (North Carolina and Louisiana,) the legal
ration contains no meat. Besides, the late Hon.
R. J. Turnbull, one of the largest planters in
South Carolina, says expressly, " meat, when
given, is only by the way of indulgence or favor."
It is shown also by the direct testimony recorded
above, of slaveholders and others, in all parts of
the slaveholding south and west, that the gene-
ral allowance on plantations is corn or meal and
salt merely. To this there are doubtless many
exceptions, but they are only exceptions ; the
number of slaveholders who furnish meat for
\ha\x field-hands, is small, in comparison with the
number of thos*; who do not. The house slaves,
that is, the cooks, chambermaids, waiters, &c.,
generally get some meat every day ; the remain-
der bits and bones of their masters' tables. But
that the great body of the slaves, those that
compose the field gangs, whose labor and expo-
sure, and consequent exhaustion, are vastly greater
than those of house slaves, toiling as they do from
day light till dark, in the fogs of the early morn-
ing, under the seorchings of mid- day, and amid
the damps of evening, are in general provided
with 720 meat, is abundantly established by the
preceding testimony.
Now we do not say that meat is necessary to
sustain men under hard and long continued labor,
nor that it is not. This is not a treatise on dietetics ;
but it is a notorious fact, that the medical facul-
ty in this country, with very few exceptions, do
most strenuously insist that it is necessary ; and
that working men in all parts of the country do
believe that meat is indispensable to sustain them,
even those who work within doors, and only ten
hours a day, every one knows. Further, it is no-
torious, that the slaveholders themselves believe
the daily use of meat to be absoltftely necessary
to the comfort, not merely of those who labor,
but of those who are idle, is proved by the fact
of meat being a part of the daily ration of food
provided for convicts in the prisons, in every one
of the slave states, except in those rare cases
where meat is expressly prohibited, and the con-
vict is, by watf of extra punishment confined to
32
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
bread and water ; he is occasionally, and for a lit-
tle time only, confined to bread and water; tliat
is, to the ordinary diet of slaves, with this differ-
ence in favor of the convict : his bread is made for
him, whereas the slave is forced to pound or grind
his own com and make his own bread, when ex-
hausted with toil.
The preceding testimony shows also, that
vegetables form generally no part of the slaves'
allowance. The sole food of the majority is corn :
at every meal — from day to day — from week to
week — from month to month, corn. In South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, the sweet pota-
to is, to a considerable extent, substituted for
corn during a part of the year.
2d. The preceding testimony proves conclu-
sively, that the quantity of food generally allow-
ed to a full-grown field-hand, is a peck of corn a
week, or a fraction over a quart and a gill of
corn a day. The legal ration of North Carolina
is less — in Louisiana it is more. Of the slave-
holders and other witnesses, who give the fore-
going testimony, the reader will perceive that no
one testifies to a larger allowance of corn than a
peck for a week ; though a number testify, that
within the circle of their knowledge, seven quarts
was the usual allowance. Frequently a small
quantity of meat is added ; but this, as has al-
ready been shown, is not the general rule for
field.hands. We may add, also, that in the sea-
son of '' pumpkins," " cimblins," " cabbages,"
" greens," &c., the slaves on small plantations
are, to some extent, furnished with those articles.
Now, without entering upon the vexed ques-
tion of how much food is necessary to sustain the
human system, under severe toil and exposure,
and without giving the opinions of physiologists
as to the insufficiency or sufficiency of the slaves'
allowance, we affirm that all civilized nations
have, in all ages, and in the most emphatic man-
ner, declared, that eight quarts of corn a week,
(the usual allowance of our slaves,) is utterly in-
sufficient to sustain the human body, under such
toil and exposure as that to which the slaves are
subjected.
To show this fully, it will be necessary to make
some estimates, and present some statistics.
And first, the northern reader must bear in mind,
that the com furnished to the slaves at the south,
is almost invariably the white gourd seed corn,
and that a quart of this kind of corn weighs five
or six ounces less than a quart of " flint com,"
the kind generally raised in the northern and
eastern states ; consequently a peck of the com
generally given to the slaves, would be only
equivalent to a fraction more than six quarts and
a pint of the corn commonly raised in the New
England States, New York, New Jersey, &:,c.
Now, what would be said of t''« northern capital.
ist, who should allow his laborers but six quart
and five gills of corn for a week's provisions ?
Further, it appears in evidence, that the corn
given to the slaves is often defective. This, the
reader will recollect, is the voluntary testimony
of Thomas Clay, Esq., the Georgia planter, whose
testimony is given above. When this is the
case, the amount of actual nutriment contained
in a peck of the " gourd seed," may not be more
than in five, or four, or even three quarts of
" flint corn."
As a quart of southern corn weighs at least
five ounces less than a quart of northern corn, it
requires little arithmetic to perceive, that the
daily allowance of the slave fed upon that kind
of corn, would contain about one third of a pound
less nutriment than though his daily ration were
the same quantity of northern com, which would
amount, in a year, to more than a hundred and
twenty pounds of human sustenance ! which
woxdd furnish the slave with his full allowance
of a peck of corn a week for two months I It is
unnecessary to add, that tliis difference in the
weight of the two kinds of corn, is an item too
important to be overlooked. As one quart of the
southern corn weighs one pound and eleven-six-
teenths of a pound, it follows that it would be
about one pound and six-eighths of a poimd. We
now sohcit the attention of the reader to the fol-
lowing unanimous testimony, of the civilized
world, to the utter insufficiency of this amount of
food to sustain human beings under labor. This
testimony is to be found in the laws of all civil-
ized nations, which regulate the rations of sol-
diers and sailors, disbursements made by govern-
ments for the support of citizens in times of pub-
lic calamity, the allowance to convicts in prisons,
&c. We will begin with the United States.
The daily ration for each United States' soldier,
established by act of Congress, May 30, 1796,
was the following : one pound of beef, one pound
of bread, half a gill of spirits ; and at the rate of
one quart of salt, two quarts of vinegar, two
pounds of soap, and one pound of candles to
every hundred rations. To those soldiers " vrho
were on the frontiers," (where the labor and ex-
posure were greater,) the ration was one pound
two ounces of beef and one pound two ounces of
bread. Laws U. S. vol. 3d, sec. 10, p. 431.
After an experiment of two years, the preced-
ing ration being found insufficient, it was in-
creased, by act of Congress, July 16, 1798, and
was as follows : beef one pound and a quarter,
bread one pound two ounces ; salt two quart?,
vinegar four quarts, soap four pounds, and can-
dles one and a half pounds to the hundred ra-
tions. The preceding allowance was afterwards
still further increased.
The present daily ration for the United States'
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
3»
soldiers, is, as wc loam from an advertisement of
Captain Fulton, of the United States' army, in a
late number of the Richmond (Va.) Enquirer, as
follows: one and a quarter pounds of beef, one
and three-sixteenths pounds of bread ; and at the
rate of eig!it quarts of beans, eight pounds of
sugar, four pounds of coffee, two quarts of salt,
four pomids of candles, and four pounds of soap,
to every hundred rations.
We have before us the daily rations provided
for the emigrating- Ottawa Indians, two }^ears
since, and for the emigrating Cherokees last fall.
They were the same — one pound of fresh beef,
one pound of flour, &c.
The daily ration for the United States' navy,
is fourteen ounces of bread, half a pound of beef,
six ounces of pork, three omices of rice, three
ounces of peas, one ounce of cheese, one ounce
of sugar, half an ounce of tea, one-third of a
gill molasses.
The daily ration in the British army is one and
a quarter pounds of beef, one pound of bread, &.c.
The daily ration in the French army is one
pound of beef, one and a half pounds of bread,
one pint of wuie, &c.
The common daily ration for foot soldiers on
the continent, is one pound of meat, and one and
a half pounds of bread.
The sea ration among the Portuguese, has be-
come the usual ration in the navies of European
powers generally. It is as follows : " one and a
half pounds of biscuit, one pound of salt meat,
one pint of wine, with some dried fish and
onions."
Prison Ratiox\s. — Before giving the usual
daily rations of food allowed to convicts, in the
principal prisons in the United States, we will
quote the testimony of the " American Prison
Discipline Society," which is as follows :
" The common allowance of food in the peni-
tentiaries, is equivalent to one pound of meat,
ONE pound of bread, AND 0x\E POUND OF VEGETA-
KLEs PER DAY. It Varies a little from this in some
of them, but it is generally equivalent to it."
Furst Report of American Prison Discipline So-
ciety, page 13.
The daily ration of food to each convict, m the
principal prisons in this country, is as ibllows :
In the New Hampshire State Prison, one and
a quarter pounds of meal, and fourteen ounces
of beef, for breakfast and dinner; and for sup-
per, a soup or porridge of potatos and beans, or
peas, the quantity not limited.
In the Vermont prison, the convicts are al-
lowed to eat as much as they wish.
In the Massachusetts' penitentiary, one and a
half pounds of bread, fourteen ounces of meat,
half a pint of potatos, and one gill cf molasses,
or one pint of milk.
In the Connecticut State Pri.son, one pound
of beef, one pound of bread, two and a half
pounds of potatos, half a gill of molasses, with
salt, pepper, and vinegar.
In the New York State Prison, at Auburn,
one pound of beef, twenty-two ounces of flour
and meal, half a gill of molasses; with two
quarts of rye, four quarts of salt, two quarts of
vinegar, one and a half ounces of pepper, and
two and a half bushels of potatos to every hun-
dred rations.
In the New York State Prison at Sing Sing,
one pound of beef, eighteen ounces of flour and
meal, besides potatos, rye coffee, and molasses.
In the New York City Prison, one pound of
beef, one pound of flour ; and three pecks of po-
tatos to every hundred rations, with other small
articles.
In the New Jersey State Prison, one pound
of bread, half a pound of beef, with potatos and
cabbage, (quantity not specified,) one gill of
molasses, and a bowl of mush for supper.
In the late Walnut Street Prison, Philadel-
phia, one and a half pounds of bread and meal,
half a pound of beef, one pint of potatos, one
gill of molasses, and half a gill of rye, for coffee.
In the Baltimore prison, we believe the ration
is the same with the preceding.
In the Pennsylvania Eastern Penitentiary, one
pound of bread and one pint of coffee for break-
fast, one pint of meat soup, with potatos without
limit, for dinner, and mush and molasses for sup.
per.
In the Penitentiary for the District of Colum-
bia, Washington city, one pound of beef, twelve
ounces of Indian meal, ten ounces of wheat flour,
half a gill of molasses ; with two quarts of rye,
four quarts of salt, four quarts of vinegar, and
two and a half bushels of potatos to every hun-
dred rations.
Rations in English Prisons. — The daily ra-
tion of food in the Bedfordshire Penitentiary, is
two pounds of bread; and if at hard labor, a
quart of soup for dinner.
In the Cambridge Coanty House of Correction,
three pounds of brc^ad, and one pint of beer.
In the MiJlbank General Penitentiary, one and
a half pounds of -ircad, one pound of potatos, six
ounces of beef with half a pint of broth there-
from.
In the Gloucestershire Penitentiary, one and a
half poivids of bread, three-fourths of a pint of
peas, made into soup, with beef, quantity not
sta'ed. Also gruel, made of vegetables, quantity
not stated, and one and a half ounces of oatmeal
mixed with it.
In the Leicestershire House of Correction, two
pounds of bread, and three pints of gruel ; and
when at hard labor, one pint of milk in addition.
34
Privations of the Slaves — Food.
and twice a week a pint of meat soup at dinner,
instead of gruel.
In the Buxton House of Correction, one and a
lialf pounds of bread, one and a half pints of
g^ruel, one and a half pints of soup, four-fifths of
a pound of potatos, and two-sevenths of an ounce
of beef.
Notwithstanding the preceding daily ration in
the Buxton Prison is about double the usual
daily allowance of our slaves, yet the visiting
physicians decided, that for those prisoners who
were required to work the tread-mill, it was en-
tirely insufficient. This question was considered
at length, and publicly discussed at the sessions
of the Surry magistrates, with the benefit of
medical advice ; which resulted in " large addi-
tions" to the rations of those who worked on the
tread-mill. See London Morning Chronicle,
Jan. 13, 1830.
To the preceding we add the ration of the Ro-
man slaves. The monthly allowance of food to
slaves in Rome was called " Dimensum." The
" Dimensum" was an allowance of wheat or
of other grain, which consisted of five modii a
month to each slave. Ainsworth, in his Latin
Dictionary estimates the modius, when used for
the measurement of grain, at a peck and a half
our measure, which would make the Roman
slave's allowance two quarts of grain a day, just
double the allowance provided for the slave by
law in North Carolina, and six quarts more per
week than the ordinary allowance of slaves in
the slave states generally, as already established
by the testimony of slaveholders themselves.
But it must by no means be overlooked that this
" dimensum," or monthly allowance, was far from
being the sole allowance of food to Roman slaves.
In addition to this, they had a stated daily allow-
ance {diarium) besides a monthly allowance of
money, amounting to about a cent a day.
Now without further trencliing on the reader's
time, we add, compare the preceding daily allow-
ances of food to soldiers and sailors in this and
other countries; to con^'icts in this and other
countries; to bodies of "migrants rationed at
public expense ; and finally, vi'ith the fixed al-
lowance given to Roman slaves, and we find the
states of this Union, the slave itates as well as
the free, the United States' goverijrnent, the dif-
ferent European governments, the ^Id Roman
empire, in fine, we may add, the worH, ancient
and modern, uniting in the testimony that to
furnish men at hard labor from daylight till dark
with but 1^ lbs. of corn per day, their sole susv,-
nance, is to murder tiiem by piece-bieal. The
reader will pei-ceive by examining the preceding
statistics that the average daily ration throughout
this country and Europe exceeds the usual slave's
allowance at least a pound a day; also that one-
third of this ration for soldiers and convicts in
the United States, and for soldiers and sailors in
Europe, is meat, generally beef ; whereas the al-
lowance of the mass of our slaves is corn, only.
Further, the convicts in our prisons are sheltered
from the heat of the sun, and from the damps of
the early morning and evening, from cold, rain,
&c. ; whereas, the great body of the slaves are
exposed to all of these, in their season, from day-
light till dark; besides this, they labor more
hours in the day than convicts, as will be shown
under another head, and are obhged to prepare
and cook their own food after they have finished
the labor of the day, while the convicts have
theirs prepared for them. These, with other cir-
cumstances, necessarily make larger and longer
draughts upon the strength of the slave, produce
consequently greater exliaustion, and demand a
larger amount of food to restore and sustain the
laborer than is required by the convict in his
briefer, less exposed, and less exliausting toils.
That the slaveholders themselves regard the
usual allowance of food to slaves as insufficient,
both in kind and quantity, for hard-working men,
is shown by the fact, that in all the slave states.
we believe without exception, white convicts at
hard labor, have a much larger allowance of food
than the usual one of slaves ; and generally more
than one third of this daily allowance is meat.
This conviction of slaveholders shows itself in
various forms. When persons wish to hire slaves
to labor on public works, in addition to the m-
ducement of high wages held out to masters to
hire out their slaves, the contractors pledge them-
selves that a certain amount of food shall be
given the slaves, taking care to specify a larger
amount than the usual allowance, and a part of
it meat.
The following advertisement is an illustration.
We copy it from the " Daily Georgian," Savan-
nah, Dec. 14, 1838.
NEGROES WANTED.
Tlie Contractors upon the Brunswick and AI-
atamaha Canal are desirous to hire a number of
prime Negro Men, from the 1st October next, for
fifteen months, until the 1st January, 1840. They
will pay at the rate of eighteen dollars per month
for each prime hand.
These negroes will be employed in the exca-
vation of the Canal. They will be provided with
three and a half pounds of pork or hacon, and
ten quarts of gourd seed corn per week, lodged in
comfortable shantees, and attended constantly by
a skilful physician.
J. H. COUPER,
p. M. Nightingale.
But we have direct testimony to this point.
The late Hon. John Taylor, of Caroline Co. Vir-
ginia, for many years Senator in Congress, and
for many years president of the Agricultural So-
Privations of the Slaves— Lahor.
35
ciety of the State, says in his "Agricultural Es-
says," No. 30, page 97, " Bread alone ought
NEVER TO BE CONSIDERED A SUFFICIENT DIET FOR
SLAVES EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT." He Urges Upon
the planters of Virginia to give their slaves, in ad-
dition to bread, " salt meat and vegetables," and
adds, " we shall be astonished to discover upon
trial, that this great comfort to them is a profit
to the master."
The Managers of the American Prison Disci-
pline Society, in their third Report, page 58, say,
" In the Penitentiaries generally, in the United
States, the animal food is equal to one pound of
meat per day for each convict."
Most of the actual suiForing from hunger on the
part of the slaves, is in the sugar and cotton-grow-
ing region, where the crops are exported an'd the
corn generaUy purchased from the upper country.
Where this is the case there cannot hut be suffer-
ing. The contingencies of bad crops, difficult
transportation, high prices, &c. &c., naturally
occasion short and often precarious allowances.
The following extract from a New Orleans paper
of April 26, 1837, affords an illustration. The
writer in describing the effects of the money
pressure in Mississippi, says :
" They, (the planters,) are now left without
provisions and the means of living and using their
industry, for the present year. In this dilemma,
planters whose crops have been from 100 to 700
bales, find themselves forced to sacrifice many of
their slaves in order to get the common necessaries
of life for the support of themselves and the rest of
their negroes. In many places, heavy planters
compel their slaves to fish Jor the means of sub.
sistence, rather than sell them at such ruinous
rates. There are at this moment THOUSANDS
OF SLAVES in Mississippi, that KNOW NOT
WHERE THE NEXT MORSEL IS TO
COME FROM. The master must be ruined to
save the wretches from being STARVED "
II. LABOR.
THE SLAVES ARE OVERWORKED.
BuT W w'^'^'v'^ VT^ ^^ '^' ''''"''"'' ""' ^^^"^^ '^^' '^' '^^^'^ ^^' obliged to be in the field
rains of 1 T^T^ f^ " !° """ ^'^'"^ "' ^^^'^^^"^ -^^' ^^ will present the express decla-
rations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are severely driven in the field.
%vitnesses.
testimony.
" Many owners of slaves, and others who have the manage-
ment of slaves, do confine them so closely at hard labor that they
have not sufficient time for natural rest.—See 2 Brevard's Di-
gest of the Laws of South Carohna, 243."
"So laborious is the task of raising, beating, and cleaning
rice, that had it been possible to obtain European servants in
sufficient numbers, thousands and tens of thousands must kave
perished."
"Is It not obvious that the way to render their situation more
comfortable, is to aUow them to be taken where there is not the
same motive to force the slave to incessant toil t^iat there is in
the country where cotton, sugar, and tobacco a-e raised for ex-
portation. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are
hard worked, that they may be rendered unproductive and the
race be prevented from increasing. * * * The proposed
measure would be extreme cruelty to the blacks. * « *
You would * * « doom them to hard labor."
" At the rolling of sugars, an intervaZ of from two to three
months, they work both night and day. Abridged of their sleep,
they scarce retire to rest during the whole period."
" The work is admitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves,)
requiring when the process is commenced to be pushed nisht
and day." *
The Senate and House of Represent
ativesof the State of South Carolina.
Historj- of Carolina.— Vol. 1, page
Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slavehold-
er, and member of Congress from Vir-
ginia, in his speech on the " Missouri
question," Jan. 28, 1820.
"Travels in Louisiana," translated
from the French by John Davies, Esq.
—Page 81.
The Western Review, No. 2,— article
" Agriculture of Louisiana."
W. (;. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of
Georgia, elder of the Presbyterian
church, Wilkesbarre, Penn.
" Overworked I know they (the slaves) are."
Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological stu- " Every body here knows overdriving to be one of the most
dent, near Natchez, Miss., in 1834 and common occurrences, the planters do not deny it. exceot ner
^^^- haps, to northerners." J ' P . P
Phii„,„„„ or r, . " During the cotton-picking season they usuallv labor in the
ElSSh^, w'g^o' & iS Si ti ^''t ^fu^^ ^^^ "^^l*^ «' the^dayhght, a/d then IpenT a good
J834 and 1835. part of the night in ginning and baling. The labor required is
very frequently excessive, and speedily impairs the constitution."
36
Privations of the Slaves — Labor.
WITNESSES. TESTIMONT-
Hoii. R. J. TumbuU of South Caroli- ! ^." *,^<^ pregnant women even on the plantation, and weak
na, a slaveholder, speaking of the har- Sind Sickly negroes incapable of other labor, are then inrecjui.
vesting of cotton, says : sition."
Asa A Stone, theological studpnt, a
riassical teacher near Natchez, Miss.,
1835.
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, of Famrin?-
ton, Ohio, who lived in Mississippi a
port of 1837 and 1838.
W. C. Gildersleeve, Esq., Wllkes-
baiTB, Penn., a native of Georgia.
Mr. William Leftvvich, a native of
Virginia and son of a slaveholder — he
has recently removed to Delhi, Hamil-
ton county Ohio.
Mr. Nehemiah Caulkius, Waterford,
Conn., a resident in North Carolina
eleven winters.
Mr. Eleazar Powel, Chippewa, Bea-
ver county, Penn., who lived in Slissis-
sippi in 1830 and 1837.
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Ely-
ria, Ohio, who resided in Florida in
1334 and 1835.
"Travels in Louisiana," page 87
Mr Henry E- Knapp, member of a
Christian church in Farinington, Ohio,
who lived in MiiMssiypi in 1S3' and
1828.
HOURS OF LABOR AND REST.
" It is a general rule on all regular plantations, that the slaves
be in the field as soon as it is light enough for them to see to
work, and remain there until it is so dark that they cannot see."
" It is the common rule for the slaves to be kept at work fif-
teen hours in the day, and in the time of picking cotton a certain
number of pounds is required of each. If this amount is not
brought in at night, the slave is whipped, and the nmnber of
pounds lacking is added to the next day's job ; this course is often
repeated from day to day."
" It was customary for the overseers to call out the gangs
long before day, say three o'clock, in the winter, while dressing
out the crops ; such work as could be done by fire hght (pitch
pine was abundant,) was provided."
" From daicn till dark, the slaves are required to bend to their
work."
" The slaves are obliged to work from daylight till dark, as
long as they can see."
" The slaves had to cook and cat their breakfa.st and be in the
field by daylight, and contirtue there till dark."
" The slaves commence labor by daylight in the morning, and
do not leave the field till dark in the evening."
" Both in summer and winter the slave must he in the field by
the first dawning of day."
" The slaves were made lo work, from as soon as they could
see in the nioniing, till as late as they could see at night. Some-
times they were made to v/ork till nine o'clock at night, in such
work as they could do, as burning cotton stalks, &,c."
A New Orleans paper, dated March 23, 182G,
says : " To judge from the activity reigning in
the coiton presses of the suburbs of St. Mary,
and the lahi hours during which their slaves
v/ork, the cot\on trade was never more brisk."
Mr. George W. Westgate, a member of the
Congregational Church at Quincy, Illinois, who
lived in the souta western slave states a num-
ber of years, saj-s, '• Th<5 slaves are driven to the
field in the morning about four o'clock, the gene-
ral calculation is to ^et them at work by day-
light ; the time for breakfast is between nine and
ten o'clock, this meal is sometimes eaten ' bite
and work,' others allow fifteen reinutes, and this
is the only rest the slave has whUe in the field.
I have never knoWn a case of stopping an hour,
in Louisiana ; in Mississippi the rule is milder,
though entirely subject to the •will of the master.
On cotton plantations, in cotton picking time, that
is from October to Christmas, each hand ht^s a
certain quantity to pick, and is flogged if his task
is not accomplished ; their tasks are such as to
keep them all the while busy."
The preceding testimony under this head has
sole reference to the actual labor of the slaves in
the field. In order to determine how many hom-s
are left for sleep, we must take into the account,
the time spent in going to and from tlie field,
which is often at a distance of one, two and
sometimes three miles ; also the time necessary
for pounding, or grinding their corn, and prepar-
ing, over night, their fijod for the next day ; also
the preparation of tools, getting fuel and prepar-
ing it, making fires and cooking their suppers, if
they have any, the occasional mending and wash-
ing of their clothes, &.c. Besides this, as everj
one knows who has lived on a soutliem planta-
tion, many little errands and chores are to be
done for their masters and mistresses, old and
yoimg, which have accumulated during the day
and been kept in reserve till the slaves return
from the field at night. To this we may add that
the slaves are social beings, and that dm'ing the
day, silence is generally enforced by the whip of
the overseer or driver.* When they return at
night, their pent up social feelings will seek vent,
it is a law of nature, and though the body may
be greatly worn with toil, this law cannot be
wholly stifled. Sharers of the same woes, they
arc drawn together by strong affinities, and seek
* We do not mean that tliey are not suffered to speak,
but, that, as conversation would be a hindrance to labor,
they are generally permitted to indulge in it but little.
Privations of the Slaves — Labor.
37
*thc society and sympathy of their fellows ; even
' " tired nature" will joyfully forego for a time
, needful rest, to minister to a want of its being
equally permanent and imperative as the want of
sleep, and as much more profound, at) the yearn-
ings of the higher nature surpass the instincts of
its animal appendage.
All these things make drafts upon iime. To
show how much of the slave's time, which is ab-
solutely indispensable for rest and sleep, is neces-
sarily spent in various labors after his return from
the lield at night, we subjoin a few testimonies.
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Farmington, Ohio,
who lived in IMississippi in the years 1837 and 38,
eays :
" On all the plantations where I was acquaint-
ed, the slaves were kept in the field till dark ; af-
ter which, tliose v.- ho had to grind then- own corn,
had that to attend to, get their supper, attend to
other family aftairs of their own and of their mas-
ter, such as bringing water, washing clothes, &c.
&c., and be in the field as soon as it was sufli-
ciently light to commence v/ork in the morning."
Mr. George W. Westgate, of Quincy, Illinois,
who has spent several years in the south western
slave states, says :
" Their time, after full dark until four o'clock
iu the morning is their own ; this fact alone
would seem to say they have sufficient rest, but
there are other things to be considered ; much of
their making, mending and washing of clothes,
preparing and cooking food, hauling and chop-
ping wood, fixing and preparing tools, and a va-
riety of little nameless jobs must be done between
those hours."
Philemon Bliss, Esq. of Elyria, Ohio, who re-
sided in Florida in 1834 and 5, gives the follow-
ing testimony :
'• After having finished their field labors, they
are occupied till nine or ten o'clock in doing
chores, such as grinding corn, (as all the corn in
the vicinity is ground by hand,) chopping wood,
taking care of horses, mules, tStc, and a thousand
things necessary to be done on a large plantation.
If any extra job is to be done, it must not hinder
the ' niggers' from their v.'ork, but must be
done in the night."
W. C. Gildersleeve, Esq., a native of Georgia,
an elder of the Presbyterian Church at Wilkes-
barre, says :
" The com is ground in a handmill by the slave
after his task is done — generally there is but one
mill on a plantation, and as but one can grind at
a time, the mill is going sometimes very late at
night.''''
We now present another class of facts and tes-
timony, showing that the slaves engaged in
raising the large staples, are overworked.
In September, 1834, the writer of this had an
interview with James G. Birney, Esq., who then
resided in Kentucky, having removed with his
family from Alabama the year before. A few
hours before that interview, and on the morning
of the same day, Mr. E. had spent a couple of
hoiu-s with Hon. Henry Clay, at his residence,
near Lexington. Mr. Birney remarked, that
Mr. Clay had just told him, he had lately been
led to mistrust certain estimates as to the in-
crease of the slave population in the far south
west — estimates which lie had presented, I think,
in a speech before the Colonization Society. He
now believed, that the births among the slaves in
that quarter were not equal to the deaths — and
that, of course, the slave population, independent
of immigration from the slave-selling states,
was not suslaining itself.
Among other facts stated by Mr. Clay, was
the following, which we copy verbatim from the
original memorandum, made at the time by Mr.
Birney, with which ho has kindly furnished uu.
" Sept. IG, 1834. — Hon. H. Clay, m a conver-
sation at his own house, on the subject of slave-
ry, informed me, that Hon. Outerbridge Horsey,
formerly a senator in Congress from the state of
Delav/are, and the owner of a sugar plantation
in Louisiana, dcclraed to him, that his overseer
v/orkcd his hands so closely, that one of the wo-
men brought forth a child whilst engaged in the
labors of the field.
"Also, that a few years since, he was at a brick
vard in the environs of New Orleans, in which
one Imndred hands v.cre employed ; among them
were from twenty to thirty young women, in the
prime of life. He v»-as told by the proprietor, that
there had not been a child born among them for
the last two or three years, althovgh they all had
husbands."
The preceding testimony of Mr. Clay, is
strongly corroborated by advertisements of
slaves, by Courts of Probate, and by executors
administering upon the estates of deceased per-
sons. Some of those advertisements for the sale
of slaves, contain the names, ages, accustomed
employment, &c., of all the slaves upon the
plantation of the deceased. These catalogues
show large numbers of young men and women,
almost all of them between twenty and thirty-
eight years old ; and yet the number of young
children is astonishingly small. We have laid
aside many lists of this kind, in looking over the
newspapers of the slaveholdiug states ; but the
two following are all we can lay our hands on
at present. One is in the " Planter's Intelligen-
cer," Alexandria, La., March 23, 1837, contain-
ing one hundred and thirty slaves ; and the other
in the New Orleans Bee, a fev/ days later, April
8, 1837, containing fifty-one slaves. The for-
mer is a " Probate sale" of the slaves belonging
to the estate of Mr. Charles S. Lee, deceased,
and is advertised by G. W. Keeton, Judge of the
Parish of Concordia, La. The sex, name, and
age of each slave are contained in the advertise-
ment, which fills two columns. The following
are some of the particulars.
38
Privations of the Slaves — Labor.
The whole number of slaves is one hundred
and thirty. Of these, only three are over forty
years old. There are thirty-five females between
the ages of sixteen and thirty-three, and yet there
are only thirteen children under the age of
thirteen years .'
It is impossible satisfactorily to account for
such a fact, on any other supposition, than that
these thirty-five females w^ere so overworked, or
underfed, or both, as to prevent child-bearing.
The other advertisement is that of a " Probate
sale," ordered by the Court of the Parish of Jef-
ferson— including the slaves of Mr. William
Gormley. The whole number of slaves is fifty.
one ; the sex, age, and accustomed labors of
each are given. The oldest of these slaves is but
thirty-nine years old : of the females, thirteen are
between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two, and
the oldest female is but thirty.eight — and yet
there are but two children under eight years
old .'
Another proof that the slaves in the south-
western states are over-worked, is the fact, that
so few of them live to old age, A large majori-
ty of them are old at middle age, and few live
beyond fifty-five. In one of the preceding ad-
vertisements, out of one hundred and thirty
slaves, only three are over forty years old ! In
the other, out of fifty-one slaves, only two are
over thirty-five ; the oldest is but thirty-nine, and
the way in which he is designated in the adver-
tisement, is an additional proof, that what to
others is " middle age," is to the slaves in the
south-west " old age :" he is advertised as " old
Jeffrey."
But the proof that the slave population of the
south-west is so over- worked that it cannot supply
its own waste, does not rest upon mere inferen-
tial evidence. The Agricultural Society of Ba-
ton Rouge, La., in its report, pubHshed in 1829,
furnishes a labored estimate of the amount of ex-
penditure necessarily incm-red in conducting " a
well-regulated sugar estate." In this estimate,
the annual net loss of slaves, over and above the
supply by propagation, is set down at two and a
HALF PER CENT ! The late Hon. Josiah S. Jobn-
son, a member of Congress from Louisiana, ad-
dressed a letter to the Secretary of the L^nited
States' Treasury, in 1830, containing a similar
estimate, apparently made with great care, and
going into minute details. Many items in this
estimate differ from the preceding ; but the esti-
mate of the annual decrease of the slaves on a
plantation was the same — two and a half per
cent!
The following testimony of Rev. Dr. Chan-
NiNG, of Boston, who resided some time in Vir-
ginia, shows that the over-working of slaves, to
such an extent as to abridge life, and cause a
decrease of population, is not confined to the far
south and south-west.
'' I heard of an estate managed by an individ
ual who was considered as singularly successful,
and who was able to govern the slaves without
the use of the whip. I was anxious to see him,
and trusted that some discovery had been made
favorable to humanity. I asked him how he
was able to dispense with corporal punishment.
He replied to me, with a very determined look,
' The slaves know that the work must be done,
and that it is better to do it without punishment
than with it.' In other words, the certainty and
dread of chastisement were so impressed on
them, that they never incurred it.
" I then found that the slaves on this well-
managed estate, decreased in number. I asked
the cause. He replied, with perfect frankness
and ease, ' The gang is not large enough for the
estate.' In other words, they were not equal to
the work of the plantation, and yet were 7nade to
do it, though with the certainty of abridging life.
" On this plantation the huts were uncom-
monly convenient. There was an unusual air
of neatness. A superficial observer would have
called the slaves happy. Yet they were living
under a severe, subduing discipline, and were
over-worked to a degree that shortened life." —
Channing on Slavery, page 162, first edition.
Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer of Elyria, Ohio,
who spent some time in Florida, gives the fol-
lowing testimony to the over-working of the
slaves :
"It is not uncommon for hands, in hurrying
times, beside working all day, to labor half the
night. This is usually the case on sugar planta-
tions, during the sugar-boiling season ; and on
cotton, during its gathering. Beside the regular
task of picking cotton, averaging of the short
staple, when the crop is good, 100 pounds a day
to the hand, the ginning (extrac^^'iig the seed,)
and baling was done in the night. Said Mr.
to me, while conversing upon the cus-
tomary labor of slaves, ' I work mj niggers in a
hmTying time till 11 or 12 o'clock at night, and
have them up by four in the morning.'
" Beside the common inducement, the desire of
gain, to make a large crop, the desire is increased
by that spirit of gambling, so common at the
south. It is very common to bet on the issue of
a crop. A, lays a wager that, from a given num-
ber of hands, he will make more cotton than B.
The wager is accepted, and then begins the con-
test ; and who bears the burden of it ? How
many tears, yea, how many broken constitutions,
and premature deaths, have been the effect of
this spirit ? From the desperate energy of pur-
pose with which the gambler pursues his object,
from the passions which the practice calls into
exercise, we might conjecture many. Such is
the fact. In Middle Florida, a hroken-ioinded
negro is more common than a broken-tcinded
horse ; though usually, when they are declared
unsound, or when their constitution is so broken
that their recovery is despaired of, they are ex-
ported to New Orleans, to drag out the remain-
der of their days in the cane-field and sugar
house. I would not insinuate that all planters
gamble upon their crops ; but I mention the
Privations of the Slaves — Labor.
39
practice as one of the common indiiccmrnts to
•push nio-"-crs.' Neither would I assert that all
planters Trivc tlie hands to the injury of their
health. I give it as a 'jreneml rule in the district
of Middle Florida, and I have no reason to think
that negroes arc driven worse there than in other
fertile sections. People there told me that the
situation of the slaves was far better than in Mis-
sissippi and Louisiana. And from comparing
the crops witJi those made in the latter states,
and for other reasons, I am convinced of the
truth of their statements."
Dr. Demming, a gentleman of high rcspectahili-
ty, residing in Ashland, Richland county, Ohio,
stated to Professor Wright, of New York city,
" That during a recent tour at the south, while
ascending the Ohio river, on the steamboat Fame,
he had an opportunity of conversing with a iVlr.
Dickinson, a resident of Pittsburg, m company
with a number of cotton-planters and slave-deal-
ers, from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Mr. Dickinson stated as a fact, that the sugar
planters upon the sugar coast in Louisiana had
ab-ertained, that, as it was usually necessary to
emp\oY about twice the amount of labor during
the botmg season, tJiat was required during the
season ot raising, they could, by excessive driv-
ing, day and night, dming the boiling season,
accomplish the whole labor with one set of hands.
By pursuing this plan, they could afford to sacri.
fice a set of hands once in seven years I He fur-
ther stated that this Horrible system was now
practised to a considerable extent ! The cor-
rectness of this statement was substantially ad-
mitted oy the slaveholders then on board."
The laVe Mr. Samuel Blackwell, a highly re-
spected citizen of Jersey city, opposite the city of
New York, and a member of the Presbyterian
church, visited many of the sugar plantations in
Louisiana a few years since; and having for
many years been tm owner of an extensive sugar
refinery in England, and subsequently in this
country, he had not on\y every facility afforded
him by the planters, for personal inspection of
all parts of the process of sugar-making, but re-
ceived from them the most unreserved commu-
nications, as to their management of their slaves.
Mr. B., after his return, frequently made the fol-
lowing statement to gentlemen of his acquain-
tance,—" That the planters generally declared
to him, that they were obliged so to over-work
their slaves during the sugar-making season, (from
eight to ten weeks,) as to use them up in seven
or eight years. For, said they, after the process
IS commenced, it must be pushed without cessa-
uon, night and day; and we cannot afford to
^eep a sufficient number of slaves to do the extra
A-ork at the time of sugar-making, as ve could
/lot profitably employ them the rest of the year." i
It is not only true of the sugar planters, but of
the slaveholders generally throughout the lar !
south and south west, that they believe it for their
interest to wear out the slaves by excessive toil in
eight or ten years after they put them into the
field.*
* Alexander Jones, Esq.. a large planter in West. Feliciana,
Louisiana, published a communication in the " North Ca-
rolina True American," Nov. 25, 1838, in which, speaking
Rev. Doctor Reed, of London, who went
through Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland in the
simimer of 1834, gives the following testimony:
" I was told confidently and from excellent
authority, that recently at a meeting of planters
in South Carolina, the question was seriously dis-
cussed whether the slave is more profitable to the
owner, if well fed, well clothed, and worked
litrhtly, or if made the most of at once, and ex-
hausted in some eight years. The decision was
in favor of the last alternative. That decision
will perhaps make many shudder. But to my
mind this is not the chief evil. The greater and
original evil is considering the slave as property.
If he is only property and my property, then I
have some right to ask how I may make that
property most available."
"Visit to the American Churches," by Rev. Urs. Reed
and Matthcsoii. Vol. 2. p. 173.
Rev. John O. Choules, recently pastor of the
Baptist Church at New Bedford, MassachusettP,
now of Buffalo, New York, made substantially
the following statement in a speech in Boston.
" While attending the Baptist Triennial Con-
vention at Richmond, Virgmia, in the spring of
1835, as a delegate from Massachusetts, I had
a conversation on slavery, with an officer of
the Baptist Church in that city, at whose house
I was a guest. I asked my host if he did not
apprehend that the slaves would eventually rise
and extermmate their masters.
" Why," said the gentleman, " I used to ap-
prehend such a catastrophe, but God has made a
providential opening, a inerciful safety valve, and
now I do not feel alarmed in the prospect of
what is coming. 'What do you mean, said Mr.
Choules, ' by providence opening a merciful safety
valve V Why, said the gentleman, I will tell
you ; the slave traders come from the cotton and
sugar plantations of the South and are w-illing to
buy up more slaves than we can part with. We
must keep a stock for the purpose of rearing
slaves, but we part with the most valuable, and
at the same time, the most dangerous, and the
demand is very constant and likely to be so, for
when they go to these southern states, the average
existence is only five years 1"
Monsieur C. C. Robin, a highly intelligent
French gentleman, who resided in Louisiana
from 1802 to 1806, and published a volume of
travels, gives the following testimony to the over-
working of the slaves there :
" I have besn a witness, that after the fatigue
of the day, their labors have been prolonged se-
veral hours by the light of the moon ; and then,
before they could think of rest, they must pound
and cook their corn ; and yet, long before day,
I an implacable scold, whip in hand, would arouse
! them from their slumbers. Thus, of more than
' of the horses employed in the mills on the plantations for gin-
1 ning cotton, he sayi, they " are much whipped and jaded ;
I and adds, " In fact, this service is so severe on horses as to
1 shorten their lives in many instances, if not actually Kill
them in gear." , „
Those who work one kind of their " live stock so as to
" shorten their lives," or " kill them in gear," would not
1 stick at doing the same thing to another kind.
40
Privations of (he Slaves — Clothing.
twenty negroes, who in twenty years shonld have
doubled, the numhei icas reduced to four or five."
In conclusion we add, that slaveholders have
in the most jjublic and emphatic manner declared
themselves guilty of barbarous inhumanity toward
their slaves in exacting from them such lovg
continued daily labor. The Legislatures of
Maryland, Virginia and Georgia, have passed
laws providing that convicts in their state prisons
and penitentiaries, " shall be employed in work
each day in the year except Sundays, not ex-
ceeding eight hours, in the months of November,
December, and January; nine liours, in the
months of February and October, and ten hours
in the rest of the year." Now contrast this legal
exaction of labor from convicts with the exaction
from plaves as established by the precedino- tes-
timony. The reader perceives that the amount
of time, in which by the preceding laws of Mary-
land, Virginia, and Georgia, the convicts in theis
prisons are required to labor, is on an average
during the year but little more than nine hours
daily. Whereas, the laws of South Carolina
permit the master to compel his slaves to work
FIFTEEN HOURS in the twenty-four, in summer,
and FOURTEEN in the winter — which v.'ould be in
winter, from daybreak in the morning until fowr
hours after sunset! — See 2 Brevard's Digest, 243.
The other slave states, except Louisiana, have
no laws respecting the labor of slaves, conse.
quently if the master should work his slaves day
and night ^vithout sleep till they drop dead, he
violates no law .'
The law of Louisiana provides for the slaves
but TWO AND A HALF HOURS in the twenty-four for
" rest !" See law of Louisiana, act of July 7.
1806, Martin's Digest 6. 10—12.
in. CLOTHING.
We propose to show under this head, that the clothing of the slaves by day, and their covering by
night, are inadequate, either for comfort or decency.
WITNESSES.
Hon. T. T. Bouldin, a slave-holder,
and member of Consress from Virginia,
in a speech in Congress, Feb. 16, 1835.
George Buchanan, M. D., of Balti-
more, member of the American Philo-
sopliical Society, in an oration at Balti-
more, July 4, 1791.
Wm. Savery of Philadelpliia an
eminent Minister of the Society of
Friends, who went through the PouUi-
ern states in 1791, on a reliftious visit;
after leaving Savannah, Ga., we iind
the following entrj' in his journal, 6th,
month, 28, 1791.
Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Oliio, a
native of Teraicssee.
John Parrish, late of Philadelphia, a
highly esteemed minister in the Society
of Friends, who travelled through the
South in 18W.
Rev. Pliineas Smith. Centreville, Alle-
paiiy, Co., N. Y. Mr. S. has just re-
turned from a residence of several
years at the south, cliiefly in Virginia,
Louisiana, and among the American
settlers in Texas.
Wra. Ladd, Esq., of Minot, Maine,
recently a slaveholder in Florida.
A Kentucky physician, writing in
the Western Medical Reformer, in ISois,
on the diseases peculiar to slaves, says.
TESTIMONY.
Mr. Bouldin said " he Icneic that many negroes had died from
exposure to Aveather," and added, " thej are clad in z. flimsy
fabric, that will turn neither icind nor water. ^'
" The slaves, naked and starved, often fall victim? to the
mclemencies of the weather."
" We rode through many rice swamps, where ihe blacks were
very numerous, great droves of these poor slaj'cs, working up to
the middle in water, men and women nearlv naked."
" In every slave-holding state, many slaves suffer extremely,
both while they labor and while thej sleep, for want of clothing
to keep them warm."
" It is shocking to the feelings of humanity, in travelling
through some of those states, to see those poor objects, [slaves,]
especially in the inclement season, in rags^ and trembling with
the cold." ....
" They suffer them, both male and female, to go icithout cloth-
ing at the age of ten and twelve years."
" The apparel of the slaves, is of the coarsest sort and exceed-
ingly deficient in quantity. I have been on many plantations,
where children of eiglit and ten years old, were in a state of
perfect nudity. Slaves are in general wretchedly clad."
" They were allowed two suits of clothes a year, viz. one pair
of trowsers with a shirt or frock of osnaburgh for summer ;
and for winter, one pair of trowsers, and a jacket of negro cloth,
with a baize sh/rt and a pair of shoes. Some allowed hats, and
some did not ; and they were generally, I believe, allowed one
blanket in tv o years. Garments of similar materials were allow-
ed the women."
They are imperfectly clothed both summer and winter;'
Privatiofis of the Slaves— Clothing.
41
Mr. Stephen E. Maltby, Inspector o'
(>ro\isions, Skeneateles, N. Y., who rd-
Klded sometime in Alabama.
Rouban G. Macy, Hudson, IS'. V .
membar of tlie Society of Friends, who
resided in Soutli Carolina, iu 1818 and
19.
Mr. Lemuel Sapin»ton, of Lancaster,
Ps., a native of Mar} land, and fornier-
ly a slaveholder
Philemon BIW, Esq., a lawyer in
Elyria, Ohio, who lived iu Florida in
1834 and 35
Richard Macy, a member of the
Society of Friends, Hudson, N. Y., who
has lived in Georgia.
W. C. Gildersleeve, Esq., Wilkesbarre,
Pa., a native of Georgia.
" I was at Himtprillc, Alabama, in 1818-19, I frequently saw
slaves on and around tho public square, with hardly a rag of
clothing on them, and in a great many instances with but a single
garment botli in summer and in winter ; generally the only bed.
dino- of the slaves was a blanket."
" Their clothing consisted of a pair of trowsers and jacket,
made of ' negro cloth.' The women a petticoat, a very short
' short-crown,' and nothing else, the same kind of cloth ; some of
the women had an old pair of shoes, but they generally went
hanjootr
" Their clothing is often made by themselves after night,
though sometimes assisted by the old women, who are no longer
able to do out-door work ; consequently it is harsh and uncom-
fortable. And I have very frequently seen those who had not
attained the age of twelve years go nahed."
" It is very common to see the younger class of slaves up to
eio-ht or ten without any clothing, and most generally the labor-
ing men wear no shirts in the warm season. The perfect nudi-
ty of the younger slaves is so familiar to the whites of both
sexes, that they seem to witness it with perfect indifference.
I may add that the aged and feeble often suffer from cold."
" For bedding each slave was allowed one blanket, in which
they rolled themselves up. I examined their houses, but could
not find any thing like a bed."
" It is an every day eight to see women as well as men, with
no other covering than a few filthy rags fastened above the hips,
reaching midway to the ankles. 1 never knew any kind of cover-
ing for the head given. Children of both sexes, from infancy to
ten years are seen in companies on the plantations, in a state of
perfect nudity. This was so common that the most refined
and delicate beheld them unmoved."
Mr. William Leftwich, a native of
Viiginia, now a member of the Presby-
terian Church, in Delhi, Ohio.
Advertisements like the following from the
'' New Orleans Bee," May 31, 1837, are com-
mon in the southern papers.
" 10 DOLLARS REWARD.— Ranaway, the
slave Solomon, about 28 years of age ; badly
CLOTHED. The above reward will be paid on
application to Fernandez tWHrriNG, No. 20, St.
Louis St.
RANAWAY from the subscriber the negress
Fanny, always badly dressed, she is about 25 or
26 vears sold. John Macoln, 117 S. Ann st.
The Darien (Ga.), Telegraph, of Jan. 24, 1837,
in an editorial article, hitting off the aristocracy
of the planters, incidentally lets out some secrets,
about the usual clothing oi the slaves. The editor
says, — " The planter looks down, with the most
sovereign contempt, on the merchant and the
storekeeper. He deems himself a lord, because
he gets his two or three ragged servants, 1o row
him to his plantation everj' day, that he may in-
spect the labor of his hands."
The following is an extract from a letter lately
received from Rev. C. S. Renshaw, of Quincy,
Illinois.
" I am sorry to be obliged to give more testi-
mony without the name. An individual in whom
I have great confidence, gave me the following
facts. That I am not alone in placing confi-
dence In him, I subjoin a testimonial from Dr.
Richard Eells, Deacon of the Congregational
Chm-ch, of Quincy, and Rev. Mr. Fisher, Baptist
Minister of Quincy.
6
" The only bedding of the slaves generally consists of two old
blankets."
" We have been acquainted with the brother
who has communicated to you some facts that
fell under his observation, whilst in his native
state ; he is a professed follower of our Lord,
and we have great confidence in him as a man
of integrity, discretion, and strict Christian prin-
ciple. Richard Eells.
Ezra Fisher.
Quincy, Jan. 9th, 1839.
Testimony. — " I lived for thirty years in Vir-
ginia, and have travelled extensively through
Fauquier, Culpepper, Jefferson, Stafford, Albe-
marle and Charlotte Counties ; my remarks apply
to these Counties.
" The negro houses are miserably poor, general-
ly they are a shelter from neither the wind, the
rain, nor the snow, and the earth is the floor.
There are exceptions to this rule, but they are
only exceptions ; you may sometimes see pim-
cheon floor, but never, or almost never a plank
floor. The slaves are generally without beds or
bedsteads ; some few have cribs that they fastsn
up for themselves in the comer of the hut. Their
bed-clothes are a nest of rags thrown upon a crib,
or in the corner ; sometimes there are three or
four families in one small cabin. Where the
slaveholders have more than one family, they put
them in the same quarter till it is filled, then
build another. I have seen exceptions to this,
when only one family would occupy a hut, and
where were tolerably comfortable bed-clothes.
" Most of the slaves in these counties are mise-
42
Privations of the S/aues— TJlothing.
rably clad. I have known slaves who went with-
out shoes all winter, perfectly barefoot. Tiie
feet of many of them are frozen. As a general
fact the planters do not serve out to their slaves,
drawers, or any under clothing, or vests, or over-
coats. Slaves sometimes, by working at night
and on Sundays, get better things than their mas-
ters serve to them.
" Whilst these things are true of JieldJiands, it
is also true that many slaveholders clothe their
waiters and coachmen like gentlemen. I do not
think there is any difference between the slaves
of professing Christians and others ; at all events,
it is so small as to be scarcely noticeable.
" I have seen men and women at work in the
field more than half naked : and more than once
in passing, when the overseer was not near, they
would stop and draw round them a tattered coat
or some ribbons of a skirt to hide their nakedness
and shame from the stranger's eye."
Mr. George W. Westgate, a member of the
Congregational Church in Quincy, Illinois, who
has spent the larger part of twelve years navigat-
ing the rivers of the south-western slave states
with keel boats, as a trader, gives the following
testimony as to the clothing and lodging of the
slaves.
" In Lower Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisi.
ana, the clothing of the slaves is wretchedly
poor ; and grows worse as you go south, in
the order of the states I have named. The only
material is cotton bagging, i. e. bagging in which
cotton is baled, not bagging made of cotton. In
Louisiana, especially in the lower country, I
have frequently seen them with nothing but a
tattered coat, not sufficient to hide their naked-
ness. In winter their clothing seldom serves the
purpose of comfort, and frequently not even of
decent covering. In Louisiana the planters never
think of serving out shoes to slaves. In Missis-
sippi they give one pair a year generally. I never
sav? or heard of an instance of masters allowing
them stockings. A small poor blanket is gener-
ally the only bed-clothing, and this they frequently
wear in the field when they have not sufficient
clothing to hide their nakedness or to keep them
warm. Their manner of sleeping varies with
the season. In hot weather they stretch them-
selves anywhere and sleep. As it becomes cool
they roll themselves in their blankets, and lay
scattered about the cabin. In cold weather they
nestle together with their feet towards the fire,
promiscuously. As a general fact the earth is
their only floor and bed — not one in ten have
anything like a bedstead, and then it is a mere
bunk put up by themselves,"
Mr. George A. Avery, an elder in the fourth
Congregational Church, Rochester, N. Y., who
spent four years in Virginia, says, " The slave
children, very commonly of both sexes, up to
the ages of eight and ten years, and I think in
some in<?tances beyond this age, go in a state of
disgusting nudity. I have often seen them with
their tow shirt (their only article of summer
clothing) which, to all human appearance, had
not been taken off from the time it was first put
on, worn off from the bottom upwards, shred by
shred, until nothing remained but the straps
which passeJ over their shoulders, and the Icfs
exposed porticns extending a very little way be-
low the arms, leaving the principal part of tho
chest, as well as the limbs, entirely uncovered."
Samuel Ellison, a member of the Society of
Friends, formerly of Southampton Co., Virginia,
now of Marlborough, Stark Co., Ohio, says, " I
knew a Methodist who v.'as the owner of a num-
ber of slaves. The children of both sexes, be-
longing V) him, under twelve years of age, were
entirely dtatitute of clothing. I have seen an
old man compelled to labor in the fields, not hav-
ing rags enough to cover his nakedness."
Rev. H. LyiMan, late pastor of the Free Pies-
byterian Church, in Buffdo, N. Y., in describing
a tour down and up the Mississippi river in the
winter of 1832-3, says, "At the wood yards
where the boats stop, it is not iKicommon to see
female slaves employed in can-ying -wood. Their
dress which was quite uniform was provided with-
out any reference to comfort. They had no cov-
ering for their heads ; the stuff which constituted
the outer garment was sackcloth, similar to that
in which bro\^Ti domestic goods are done up. l*.
was then December, and I thought that in such
a dress, and being as they were, without stock,
ings, they must suffer from the cold."
Mr. Benjamin Anderson, Colerain, Lancaster
Co., Pa., a member of the Society of Friends, in
a recent letter desciibing a short tour through
the northern part of Maryland in the -^vinter of
1836, thus speaks of a place a few miles fTom
Chestertown. "About this place there were a
number of slaves ; very few, if any, had either
stockings or shoes; the weather was intensely
cold, and the ground covered with snow."
The late Major Stoddard of the United States'
artillery, who took possession of Louisiana for the
U. S. government, under the cession of 1804,
published a book entitled " Sketches of Louisi-
ana," in which, speaking of the planters of Lower
Louisiana, he says, " Feio of them allow any
clothing to their slaves."
The following is an extract from the Will of
the late celebrated John Randolph of Virginia.
" To my old and faithful servants, Essex and
his wife Hetty, I give and bequeath a pair of
strong shoes, a suit of clothes and a blanket each,
to be paid them annually ; also an annual hat to
Essex."
No Virginia slaveholder has ever had a better
name as a "kind master," and "good provider"
for his slaves, than John Randolph. Essex and
Hetty were favorite servants, and the memory of
the long uncompensated services of those "old
and faithful servants," seems to have touched
their master's heart. Now as this master was
John Randolph, and as those servants were
" faithful," and favorite servants, advanced in
years, and worn out in his service, and as their
allowance was, in their master's eyes, of sufficient
moment to constitute a paragraph in his last icill
and testament, it is fair to infer that it would be
very liberal, far better than the ordinary allow,
ance for slaves.
Now we leave the reader to judge what must
Privations of the Slaves — Dwellings.
43
be the ttsual allowance of clothing to common
field slaves in the hands of common masters,
when Essex and Hetty, the "old" and " faith-
ful" slaves of John Randolph, were provided, in his
last will and testament, with but one suit of clothes
annually, with but one blanket each for bedding,
with no stocki7igs, nor socks, nor cloaks, nor over-
coats, nor handkerchiefs, nor towels^ and with no
change either of under or outside garments 1
IV. DWELLINGS.
THE SLAVES ARE WRETCHEDLY SHELTERED AND LODGED.
Mr. Stephen E. Maltby. Inspector of " The huts where the slaves slept, generally contained but
iteles, N. Y. who has „„^
lived ill Alabama.
provisions, Skaneateles, N. Y. who has ^„g apartment, and that toithout floor."
Mr. George A. Avery, elder of the
4th Presbyterian Church, Rochester,
N. Y. wlio lived four years in Virginia.
William Ladd, Esq., Minot, Maine.
President of the American Peace Socie-
ty, formerly a slaveholder in Florida.
Kev. Joseph M. Sadd, Pastor Pres.
Church, Castile, Greene Co., N. Y.,
who lived in ilissouri five years previ-
ous to 1837.
Mr. George W. Westgate, member of
the Congregational Church in Gluincy,
Illinois, who has spent a number of
years in slave states.
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, a member of
a Christian Church in Farmington,
Ohio. Mr. J. lived in Mississippi in
1837-S.
The Western Medical Keformer, in
an article on the Cachexia Africana by a
Kentucky physician, thus speaks of the
huts of the slaves.
" Amongst all the negro cabins which I saw in Va., I can.
not call to mind one in which there was any other floor than the
earth; any thing that a northern laborer, or mechanic, white or
colored, would call a bed, nor a solitary partition, to separate the
sexes."
" The dwellings of the slaves were palmetto huts, built by
themselves of stakes and poles, thatched with the palmetto leaf.
The door, when they had any, was generally of the same materials,
sometimes boards found on the beach. They had no _^oors, no
separate apartments, except the guinea negroes had sometimes a
small inclosure for their ' god house.' These huts the slaves
built themselves after task and on Sundays."
" The slaves Ywe generally m miserable huts, which are loitk-
out floors, and have a single apartment only, where both sexes are
herded promiscuously together."
" On old plantations, the negro quarters are of frame and
clapboards, seldom affording a comfortable shelter from wind or
rain ; their size varies from 8 by 10, to 10 by 12, feet, and six or
eight feet high ; sometimes there is a hole cut for a window, but
I never saw a sash, or glass in any. In the new country, and in
the woods, the quarters are generally built of logs, of similar
dimensions."
" Their houses were commonly built of logs, sometimes they
were framed, often they had no floor, some of them have two
apartments, commonly but one ; each of those apartments con-
tained a family. Sometimes these families consisted of a man
and his wife and children, while in other instances persons of
both sexes, were throvm together without any regard to family re-
lationship."
" They are crowded together in a small hut, and sometimes
having an imperfect, and sometimes no floor, and seldom raised
from the groimd, ill ventilated, and surrounded with filth."
Mr. WilUam Leftmch, a native of »' The dwellings of the slaves are log huts, fi-om 10 to 12 feet
l^liX.n:cJ.t%i^T '''''' square, often without windows, doors, or floors, they have
neither chairs, table, or bedstead."
Reuben L.Macy of Hudson, N.Y. a "The houses for the field slaves were about 14 feet square,
S'd" "L'Jh^lll^iruthSjI builtinthecoarsest manner, with one roov., without any chim
in 1818-19. ney or flooring, with a hole m the roof to let the smoke out.
" The descriptions generally given of negro quarters, are
Mr. Lemuel Sapington of Lancaster, correct ; the quarters are without floors, and not suflicient to keep
IdavehSde'r. °^ ^^'"^^'^^^ ^°™^'''y off the inclemency of the weather; they are uncomfortable both
in summer and winter."
"When they return to their miserable huts at night, they
find not there the means of comfortable rest ; but on the cold
ground they must lie without covering, and shiver while they
slumber.
'' The dwellings of the slaves are usually small open log hut&,
with but one apartment, and very generally without floors."
Rev. John Rankin, a native of Ten-
aiessee.
Philemon Bliss, Esq. Elyria, Ohio.,
who lived in Forida, in 1833.
44
Privations of the Slaves — Treatment of the Sick.
Mr. W. C. Gilderslecve, Wilkes- «' Their huts were rrenerally put up without a nail, frequenthe
arre. Pa., a iiaUvc of Gcorcia. -n, t a j -^i • i * ^ « i ^ j
' ' " without iloors, and with a single apartment."
Hon. R. J. TurnbuU, of South Caroli-
na, a slaveholder.
' The slaves live in clay cabins.'"
V. TREATMENT OF THE SICK.
THE SLAVES SUTFET; FROM INHUMAN NEGLECT
WHEN SICK.
In proof of this we subjoin the following testi-
mony :
Rev. Dr. Channing of Boston, who once re-
sided in Virginia, relates the following fact in his
work on slavery, page 163, 1st edition.
" I cannot forget my feelings on visiting a
hospital belonging to the plantation of a gentle-
man highly esteemed jor his virives, and whose
manners and conversation expressed much bene-
volence and conscientiousness. When I entered
with him the hospital, the first object on which
my eye fell was a young woman, very ill, proba-
bly approaching death. She was stretched on
the floor. Her head rested on something like a
pillow ; but her body and limbs were extended op
the hard boards. The owner, I doubt not, had
at least as much kindness as myself ; but he was
so used to see the slaves living without common
comforts, that the idea of imkindness in the pre-
sent instance did not enter his mind."
This dying young woman " was stretched on
the floor " — " her body and limbs extended upon
the hard boards," — and yet her master " was
highly esteemed for his virtues," and his general
demeanor produced upon Dr. Channing the im-
pression of " benevolence and conscientiousness."
If the sich and dying female slaves of such a mas-
ter, suffer such barbarous neglect, whose heart
does not fail him, at the thought of that inhu-
manity, exercised by the majority of slaveholders,
towards their aged, sick, and dying victims.
The following testimony is furnished by Sarah
M. Grimke, a sister of the late Hon. Thomas S.
Grimke, of Charleston, South Carolina.
"When the Ladies' Benevolent Society in
Charleston, S. C, of which I was a visiting com-
missioner, first went into operation, we were ap-
plied to for the relief of several sick and aged co-
lored persons ; one case I particularly remember,
of an aged woman who was dreadfully burnt from
having fallen into the fire ; she was living with
some free blacks who had taken her in out of
compassion. On inquiry, we found that nearly
all the colored persons who had solicited aid,
were slaves, who being no longer able to work
for their " owners," were thus inhumanly cast
out in their sickness and old age, and must have
perished, but for the kindness of their friends.
" I was once visiting a sick slave in whose spi-
ritual welfare peculiar circumstances had led me
to be deeply interested. I knew that she had
been early seduced from the path of virtue, as
nearly all the female slaves are. I knew also
that her mistress, though a professor of religion,
had never taught her a single precept of Christi-
anity, yet that she had had her severely punished
for this departure from them, and that the poor
girl was then ill of an incurable disease, occa-
sioned partly by her own misconduct, and partly
by the cruel treatment she had received, in a situ-
ation that called for tenderness and care. Her
heart seemed truly touched with repentance for
her sins, and she was inquiring, " What shall I
do to be saved ?" I was sitting by her as she laj-
on the floor upon a blanket, and was trying to
establish her trembling spirit in the fulness of
Jesus, when I heard the voice of her mistress in
loud and angry tones, as she approached the door.
I read in the countenance of the prostrate suffer-
er, the terror which she felt at the prospect of
seeing her mistress. I knevv^ my presence would
be very unwelcome, but staid, hoping that it
might restrain, in some measure, the passions
of the mistress. In this, however, I was mista-
ken ; she passed me without apparently obsen'-
ing that I was there, and seated herself on the
other side of the sick slave. She made no inquiry
how she was, but in a tone of anger commenced
a tirade of abuse, violently reproaching her with
her past misconduct, and telling her in the most
unfeeling manner, that eternal destruction await-
ed her. No word of kindness escaped her.
What had then roused her temper I do not know^
She continued in this strain several minutes,
when I attempted to soften her by rcmarkinfr,
that was very ill, and she ought not thus
to torment her, and that I believed Jesus had
granted her forgiveness. But I might as well
have tried to stop the tempest in its career, as to
calm the infuriated passions nurtiu-ed by the ex-
ercise of arbitrary power. She looked at me
with ineffable scorn, and continued to pour forth
a ton-ent of abuse and reproach. Her helpless
victim listened in terrified silence, until nature
could endure no more, when she uttered a wild
shriek, and casting on her tormentor a look of
unutterable agony, exclaimed, ' Oh, mistress,
I am d3nng !' This appeal arrested her attention,
and she soon left the room, but in the same spirit
with which she entered it. The girl survived but a
few days, and, I believe, saw her mistress no more."
Mr. George A. Averv, an elder of a Presbyte-
rian church in Rochester, N. Y., who lived some
years in Virginia, gives the following :
" The manner of treating the sick slaves, and es-
pecially in chronic cases, was to my mind peculiar-
ly revolting. My opportunities for observation in
this department were better than in, perhaps, any
other, as the friend under whose direction I com-
menced my medical studies, enjoyed a high re-
putation as a surgeon. I rode considerably with
him in his practice, and assisted in the surgical
operations and dressings from time to time. In
confirmed cases of disease, it was common for the
master to place the subject under the care of a
physician or surgeon, at whose expense the pa-
tient should be kept, and if death ensued to the
patient, or the disease was not cured, no com-
pensation was to be made, but if cured a bonus of
Personal Narratives — Rev. William T. Allan.
45
one, two, or three hundred dollars was to be
"■iven. No provision was made against the bar.
barity or neglect of the physician, &c. I have
seen fifteen or twenty of these helpless sufferers
crowded together in the true spirit of slaveholding
inhumanity, like the " brutes that perish," and
driven from time to time like brutes into a com-
mon yard, whore tliey had to sutler any and
every operation and experiment, which interest,
caprice, or professional curiosity might prompt,
— unrestrained bv law, public sentiment, or the
claims of common humanity."
Rev. William T. Allan, son of Rev. Dr. Allan,
a slaveholder, of Huntsvillc, Alabama, says in a
letter now before us :
" Colonel Robert H. Watkins, of Laurence
county, Alabama, who owned about three hun-
dred slaves, after employing a physician among
them for some time, ceased to do so, alleging
as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose a few
negroes every year than to pay a physician.
This Colonel Watkins was a Presidential elector
in 1836."
A. A. Go'Ti-iRiE, Esq., elder in the Presbyterian
church at Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio,
furnishes the testimony which follows.
"A near female friend of mine in company
with another young lady, in attempting to visit a
sick woman on Washington's Bottom, Wood
county, Virginia, missed the waj', and stopping
to ask directions of a group of colored children
on the outskirts of the plantation of Francis
Keen, Sen., they were told to ask ' aunty, in the
house.' On entering the hut, says my inform-
ant, I beheld such a sight as I hope never to see
again ; its sole occupant was a female slave of
the said Keen — her whole wearing apparel con-
sisted of a frock, made of the coarsest tow cloth,
and so scanty, that it could not have been made
more tight around her person. In the hut there
was neither table, chair, nor chest — a stool and a
rude fixture in one coiner, were all its furniture.
On this last were a little straw and a few old rem-
nants of what had been bedding — all exceedino^ly
filthj.
" The woman thus situated had been for more
than a day in travail, without any assistance,
any nurse, or any kind of proper provision —
during the night siie said some fellow slave wo-
man would stay with her, and the aforesaid
children through the day. From a woman, who
was a slave of Keen's at the same time, my in-
formant learned, that lliis poor woman sutrered for
three days, and then died — when too late to save
her life her master sent assistance. It was un-
derstood to be a rule of his, to neglect his women
entirely in such times of trial, unless they previ-
ously came and informed him, and asked for aid."
Rev. PiiiNEAS Smith, of Centreville, N. Y.,
who has resided four years at the south, says :
" Often v.rhcn the slaves are sick, their accus-
tomed toil is exacted from them. Physicians are
rarely called for their benefit."
Rev. Horace Moulton, a minister of the Mc-
thodist Episcopal chiu-ch in Marlborough, Mass.,
who resided a number of years in Georgia, says :
" Another dark side of slavery is the neglect
of the aged and sick. Many when sick, are
suspected by their masters of feigning sickness,
and arc therefore whipped out to work after dis-
ease has got last hold of them ; when ilie mas-
ters learn, that they are really sick, they are in
many instances left alone in their cabins during
work hours ; not a few of the slaves are left to
die without having one friend to wipe off the
sweat of death. When the slaves are sick, the
masters do not, as a general thing, employ physi-
cians, but " doctor " them themselves, and their
mode of practice in almost all cases is to bleed
and give Baits. When women are confined they
have no physician, but arc committed to the care
of slave midwives. Slaves complain very little
vi^hen sick, when they die they are frequently bu-
ried at night without much ceremony, and in
many instances without any ; their coffins are
made by nailing together rough boards, frequent-
ly with their feet sticking out at the end, and
sometimes they are put into the ground without a
coffin or box of any kind.
PERSONAL NARRATIVES-PART II.
TESTIMONY OP THE REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN, LATE OF ALABAMA.
Mr. Allan is a son of the Rev. Dr. Allan, a
slaveholder and pastor of the Presbyterian Church
at Huntsvillc, Alabama. He has recently become
the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Chat-
ham, Illinois.
" I was born and have lived most of my life in
the slave states,mainly in the village of Huntsvillc,
Alabama, where my parents still reside. I seldom
went to a plantation, and as my visits were con-
fined almost exclusively to the families of pro-
fessing Christians, my personal knowledge of
slavery, was consequently a knowledge of its
fairest side, (if fairest may be predicated of foul.)
" There was one plantation just opposite my
father's house in the suburbs of Huntsvillc, be-
longing to Judge Smith, formerly a Senator in
Congress from South Carohna, now of Hunts-
ville. The name of his overseer was Tunc. I
have often seen him flogging the slaves in the
field, and have often heard their cries. Sometimes,
too, I have met them with the tears streaming
down their faces, and the marks of the whip,
(' whelks,') on their bare necks and shoulders.
Tune was so severe in his treatment, that his
employer dismissed him after two or three years,
lest, it was said, he should kill off all the slaves.
But he was immediately employed by another
planter in the neighborhood. The following fact
was stated to me by my brother, James M. jUlan,
46
Personal Narratives — Rev. William T. Allan.
now residing at Richmond, Henry county, Illi-
nois, and clerk of the circuit and county courts.
Tune became displeased with one of the women
who was pregnant, ho made her lay down over a
log, with her face towards the ground, and beat
her so unmercifully, that she v/as soon after de-
livered of a dead child.
" My brother also stated to me the following,
which occurred near my father's house, and with-
in sight and hearing of the academy and public
garden. Charles, a fine active negro, who be-
longed to a bricklayer in Huntsville, exchanged
the burning sun of the brickyard to enjoy for a
season the pleasant shade of an adjacent moun-
tain. When his master got him back, he tied
him by his hands so that his feet could just touch
the ground — stripped off his clothes, took a pad-
dle, bored full of holes, and paddled him leisurely
all day long. It was two weeks before they could
tell whether he would live or die. Neither of
these cases attracted any particular notice in
Huntsville.
" While I lived in Huntsville a slave was killed
In the mountain near by. The circumstances
were these. A white man (James Helton) hunt-
ing in the woods, suddenly came upon a black
man, and commanded him to stop, the slave kept
on running, Helton fired his rifle and the negro
was killed.*
" Mrs. Barr, wife of Rev.H. Barr of CarroUton,
Illinois, formerly from Courtland, Alabama, told
me last spring, that she has very often stopped
her ears that she might not hear the screams of
•slaves who were under the lash, and that some-
times she has left her house, and retired to a place
more distant, in order to get away from their
agonizing cries.
" I have often seen groups of slaves on the pub-
lic squares in Huntsville, who were to be sold at
auction, and I have often seen their tears gush
forth and their countenances distorted with an-
guish. A considerable number were generally
sold publicly every month.
" The following facts I have just taken down
from the lips of Mr. L. Turner, a regular and
respectable member of the Second Presbyterian
Church in Springfield, our county town. He was
born and brought up in Caroline county, Vir-
ginia. He says that the slaves are neither con-
sidered nor treated as hiunan beings. One of his
neighbors whose name was Barr, he says, on one
occasion stripped a slave and lacerated his back
with a handcard (for cotton or wool) and then
washed it with salt and water, with pepper in it.
Mr. Turner saw this. He further remarked that
he believed there were many slaves there in ad-
vanced life whose backs had never been well
since they began to work.
* This murder was committed about twelve years since.
At that time, James G. Birney, Esq., now Corresponding Se-
cretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society was the So-
licitor (prosecuting attorney) for tliat judicial district.
His views and feelings upon the subject of slavery were,
even at that period, in advance of the mass ofslav'eholders,
and he determined if possible to bring the murderer to justice.
He accordingly drew up an indictment and procured the
finding of a true bill against Helton. Helton, meanwhile,
moved over the line into the state of Tennessee, and such
was the apathy of the community, individual effort proved
unavailing ; and tliough the murderer had gone no furllier
than to an adjoining county (where perhaps he still resides)
lie was never brought to trial. — ^Ed.
" He stated that one of his uncles had killed a
woman — broke her skull with an ax helve : sho
had insulted her mistress! No notice v<as taken
of the affair. Mr. T. said, further, that slaves
■were frequently murdered.
"He mentioned the case of one slaveholder,
whom he had seen lay his slaves on a large log,
which he kept for the purpose, strip them, tie
them with the face downward, then have a ket-
tle of hot water brought — take the paddle, made
of hard wood, and perforated with holes, dip it
into the hot water and strike — before every blow
dipping it into the water — every hole at every
blow would raise a ' whelk.' This was the usual
punishment for running away.
" Another slaveholder had a slave who had often
run away, and often been severely whipped.
After one of his floggings he burnt his master's
barn : this so enraged the man, that when he
caught him he took a pair of pincers and pulled
his toe nails out. The negro then murdered two
of his master's children. He was taken after
a desperate pursuit, (having been shot througli
the shoulder) and hung.
" One of Mr. Turner's cousins, was employed as
overseer on a large plantation in Mississippi. On
a certain morning he called the slaves together,
to give some orders. While doing it, a slave
came running out of his cabin, having a knife
in his hand and eating his breakfast. The over-
seer seeing him coming with the knife, was some-
what alarmed, and instantly raised his gim and
shot him dead. He said afterwards, that he be-
lieved the slave was perfectly innocent of any
evil intentions, be came out hastily to hear the
orders whilst eating. No notice was taken of the
killing.
" Mr. T. related the whipping habits of one of
his uncles in Virginia. He was a wealthy man,
had a splendid house and grounds. A tree in
his front yard, was used as a whipping post.
When a slave was to be punished, he would fre-
quently invite some of his friends, have a table,
cards and wine set out under the shade ; he
would then flog his slave a little while, and then
play cards and drink with his friends, occasion-
ally taunting the slave, giving him the privilege
of confessing such and such things, at his lei-
sure, after a while flog him again, thus keeping
it up for hours or half the day, and sometimes
all day. This was his haiit.
" February Ath. — Since writing the preceding, I
have been to CarroUton, on a visit to my unck;.
Rev. Hugh Barr, who was originally from Ten.
nessee, hved 12 or 14 years in Courtland, Law-
rence county, Alabama, and moved to Illinois in
1835. In conversation with the family, around
the fireside, they stated a multitude of horrid
facts, that were perfectly notorious in the neigh,
borhood of Courtland.
" William P. Barr, an intelligent yoimg man,
and member of his father's church in Carroll,
ton, stated the following. Visiting at a Mr.
Mosely's, near Courtland, William Mosely came
in with a bloody knife in his hand, having just
stabbed a negro man. The negro was sitting
quietly in a house in the village, keeping a woman
company who had been left in charge of the
house, — when Mosely, passing along, went in
and demanded his business there. Probably his
Personal ISarratives — Rev. William T. Allan.
47
answer was not. as civil as slaveholdincr requires,
and Mosely riislied upon him and stabbed him.
The wound laid him up for a season. ]Mosel_v
was called to no account for it. When he came
in with the bloody knife, ho said he wished he
had killed him.
"John Brown, a slaveholder, and a member of
the Presbyterian churcii in Courtland, Alabama,
stated the followingj a few weeks since, in Car-
roUton. A man near Courtland, of the name of
Thompson, recently shot a negro woman through
the head ; and put the pistol so close that her
hair was singed. He did it in consequence of
some dilBeulty in his dealings with her as a con-
cubine. He buried her in a log heap ; she was
discovered by the buzzards gathering around it.
" William P. Barr stated the following, as facts
well known in the neighborhood of Courtland,
but not witnessed by himself. Two men, by the
name of Wilson, found a fine looking negro man
at ' Dandridge's Quarter,' without a pass ; and
flogged him so that he died in a short time.
They were not punished.
" Col. Blocker's overseer attempted to flog a
negro — he refused to be flogged ; whereupon the
overseer seized an axe, and cleft his skull. The
Colonel justified it.
" One Jones whipped a woman to death for
'grabbhng' a potato hill. He owned 80 or 100
negroes. His own children could not live with
him.
"A man in the neighborhood of Courtland, Ala-
bama, by the name of Puryear, was so prove rbi'
ally cruel that among the negroes he was usually
called ' the Devil.' Mrs. Barr, wife of Rev. H.
Barr, was at Puryear's house, and saw a negro
girl about 13 years old, waiting around the table,
with a single garment — and that in cold weather ;
arms and feet bare — feet wretchedly swollen — ■
arms burnt, and full of sores from exposure. All
the negroes under his care made a wretched ap-
pearance.
"Col. Robert H.Watkinshada runaway slave,
who was called Jira Dragon. Before he was
caught the last time, he had been out a year,
within a few miles of hJs master's plantation. He
never stole from any one but his master, except
when necessity compellsd him. He said he
had a right to take from Ws master ; and when
taken, that he had, whilst out, seen his master a
hundred tunes. Having been whipped, clogged
with irons, and yoked, he was set at work in the
field. Col. Watkins worked a'oout 300 hands —
generally had one negro out huating runaways.
After employing a physician for some time
among his negroes, he ceased to do so, alleging
as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose a few
negroes every year than to pay a physician. He
was a Presidential elector in 1836.
" Col. Ben Sherrod, another large planter in that
neighborhood, is remarkable for his kmdness to
his slaves. He said to Rev. iMr. Barr, that he
had no doubt he should be rewarded in heaven
for his kindness to his slaves ; and yet his over-
seer. Walker, had to sleep with loaded pistols,
for fear of assassination. Three of the slaves at-
I tempted to kill him once, because of hip treat-
ment of their wives.
" Old Mi.jor Billy Watkins was noted for his se-
verity. I Will remember, when he lived in Mad-
ison county, IT, have often heard him yell at his
negroes with tnc most savage fury. He would
stand at his hou:e, and watch the slaves picking
cotton ; and if anj of them straitened their backs
for a moment, his savage yell would ring, ' bend
your backs.'
" Mrs. Barr stated, that Mrs. H , of Court-
land, a member of the Presbyterian church, sent
a little negro girl to jail, suspecting that she had
attempted to put poison into the water pail. The
fact was, that t'ae child had found a vial, and
was playing in tVe water. This same woman
(in high standing too,) told the Rev. Mr. McMil-
lan, that she could 'cut Arthur Tappan's throat
from ear to ear.'
" The clothing of slaves is in many cases com-
fortable, and in many h is far from being so. I
have very often seen slaves, whose tattered rags
were neither comfortable nor decent.
" Their huts are sometimes comfortable, but
generally they are miserable hovels, where male
and female are herded promiscuously together.
" As to the usual allowanctof food on the plan-
tations in North Alabama, I cannot speak confi-
dently, from personal knowledge. Tliere was a
slave named Hadley, who was in the \aabit of vis-
iting my father's slaves occasionally. He had
run away several times. His reason was, as he
stated, that they would not give him any meat —
said he could not work without meat. The last
time I saw him, he had quite a heavy iron yoke
on his neck, the two prongs twelve or fifteen
inches long, extending out over his shoulders and
bending upwards.
''Legal marriage is unknown among the slaves,
they sometimes have a marriage form — generally,
however, none at all. The pastor of the Presby-
terian church in Huntsville, had two families of
slaves when I left there. One couple were mar-
ried by a negro preacher — the man was robbed
of his wife a number of months afterwards, by
her ' owner.'' The other couple just ' took up
together,' without any form of marriage. They
are both members of churches — the man a Bap-
tist deacon, sober and correct in his deportment.
They have a large family of children — all child-
ren of concubinage — living in a minister's family.
"If these statements are deemed of any value by
you, in forwarding your glorious enterprize, yois
are at liberty to use them as you please. The
great wrong is enslaving a man ; all other wrongs
are pigmies, compared with that. Facts might
be gathered abundantly, to show that it is slavery
itself, and not cruelties merely, that make slaves
unhappy. Even those that are most kindly treat-
ed, are generally far from being happy. Tlie
slaves in my father's family are almost as kindly
treated as slaves can be, yet tJiey pant for liberty.
" May the Lord guide you in this great move
ment. In behalf of the perishing.
Your friend and brother,
William T. Allak."
48
Personal Narratives — William Leftwich.
NARRATIVE OF MR. WILI/AM LEFTWICH, A NATIVE OF VIRGINIA.
Mr. Leftwich is a grandson pi Gen. Jabez
Leftwich, who was for some yea^s a member of
Congress from Virginia. Th(High bom in Vir-
ginia, he has resided most of Aishfe in Alabama.
He now Hves in Delhi, Hamilton comity, Ohio,
near Cincinnati.
As an introduction to his letter, the reader is
furnished with the following te^stimonial to his
character, from the Rev. Horace Bushnell, pastor
of the Presbyterian church ia Delhi. Mr. B.
says :
" Mr. Leftwich is a worthy member of this
church, and is a young man of sterling integrity
and veracity. H. Bushnell."
The following is the letter of Mr. Leftwich,
dated Dec. 26, 1838.
" Dear Brother — Though I am not ranked
among the abolitionists, yet I cannot, as a friend
of humanity, withhoM from the public, such facts
in relation to the condition of the slaves, as have
fallen under nij own observation. That I am
somewhat acquainted with slavery will be seen,
as I narrate some incidents of my own life. My
parents were slaveholders, and moved from Vir-
ginia t^ Madison county, Alabama, during my in-
fancy. My mother soon fell a victim to the cli-
mate. Being the yomigest of the children, I was
left in the care of my aged grandfather, who
never held a slave, though his sons owned from
90 to 100 during the time I resided with him.
As soon as I could carry a hoe, my uncle, by the
name of Neejy, persuaded my grandfather that
I should be placed in his hands, and brought up
;n habits of industry. I was accordingly placed
under his tuition. I left the domestic circle, httle
dreaming of the horrors that awaited me. . My
mother's own brother took me to the cotton field,
there to learn habits of industry, and to be bene-
fited by his counsels. But the sequel proved, that
I was there to feel in my own person, and witness
by experience many of the horrors of slavery.
Instead of kind admonition, I was to endure the
frowns of one, whose sympathies could neither
be reached by the prayers and cries of his slaves,
nor by the entreaties and sufferings of a sister's
son. Let those who call slaveholders kind, hos-
pitable and himiane, mark the course the
slaveholder pursues with one born free, whose
ancestors fought and bled for liberty ; and then
say, if they can without a blush of shame, that
he who robs the helpless of every right, can be
tnaly kind and hospitable.
" In a short time after I was put upon the plan-
tation, there was but little difference between me
and the slaves, except being white, I ate at the
master's table. The slaves were my compan-
ions in misery, and I well learned their condition,
both in the house and field. Their dwellings are
log huts, from ten to twelve feet square ; often
without windows, doors or floors. They have
neither chairs, tables or bedsteads. These huts
are occupied by eight, ten or twelve persons
each. Their bedding generally consists of two
old blankets. Many of them sleep night after
night sitting upon their blocks or stools; others
sleep in the open air. Our task was appointed,
and from dawn till dark all must bend to their
work. Their meals were taken without knife or
plate, dish or spoon. Their food was corn pone,
prepared in the coarsest manner, with a small
allowance of meat. Their meals in the field
were taken from the hands of the carrier, wher-
ever he found them, with no more ceremony than
in the feeding of swine. My uncle was his own
overseer. For punishing in the field, he preferred
a large hickory stick ; and wo to him whose
work was not done to please him, for the hicko-
ry was used upon our heads as remorselessly as
if we had been mad dogs. I was often the object
of his fury, and shall bear the marks of it on my
body till I die. Such was my suffering and de-
gradation, that at the end of five years, I hardly
dared to say I was/ree. When thinning cotton,
we went mostly on our knees. One day, while
thus engaged, my uncle found my row behind ;
and, by way of admonition, gave me a few blows
with his hickory, the marks of which I carried
for weeks. Often I followed the example of the
fugitive slaves, and betook myself to the moun-
tains; but hunger and fear drove me back, to
share with the wretched slave his toil and stripes.
But I have talked enough about my own bond-
age ; I will now relate a few facts, showing the
condition of the slaves generally.
'' My uncle wishing to purchase what is called
a good ' house wench,' a trader in human flesh
soon produced a woman, recommending her as
highly as ever a jockey did a horse. She was
purchased, but on trial was found wanting in the
requisite qualifications. She then fell a victim
to the disappointed rage of my uncle ; innocent
or guilty, she suffered greatly from his fury. He
used to tie her to a peach tree in the yard, and
whip her till there was no sound place to lay another
stroke, and repeat it so often that her back was
kept continually sore. Whipping the females
around the legs, was a favorite mode of punish-
ment with him. Thay must stand and hold up
their clothes, while Le phed his hickory. He did
not, like some of bs neighbors, keep a pack of
hounds for hunting runav/ay negroes, but he kept
one dog for that purpose, and when he came up
with a runaway, it would have been death to
attempt to fly, and it was nearly so to stand.
Sometimes, vhen my uncle attempted to whij)
the slaves, tie dog would rush upon them and
relieve them of their rags, if not of their flesh.
One objectof my uncle's special hate was " Jer-
ry," a slate of a proud spirit. He defied all the
curses, rage and stripes of his tyrant. Though
he was often overpowered — for my uncle would
frequently wear out his stick upon his head — yet
he would never submit. As he was not expert
in picking cotton, he would sometimes run away
in the fall, to escape abuse. At one time, after
an absence of some months, he was arrested
and brought back. As is customary, he was
Personal Narratives — Samuel Sapington.
49
stripped, tied to a log, and the cow-skin applied
to his naked body till his master was exhausted.
Then a large log chain was fastened around one
ankle, passed up his back, over his shoulders, then
across his breast, and fastened under his arm. In
this condition he was forced to perform his daily
task. Add to this he was chained each night,
and compelled to chop wood every Sabbath, to
make up lost time. After being thus manacled
for some months, he was released — but his spirit
was unsubdued. Soon after, his master, in a pa-
roxysm of rage, fell upon him, wore out his stafl"
upon his head, loaded him again with chains, and
after a month, sold him farther south. Another
slave, by the name of Mince, who was a man of
great strength, purloined some bacon on a Christ.
mas eve. It was missed in the morning, and he
being absent, was of course suspected. On re-
turning home, my uncle commanded him to
come to him, but he refused. The master strove
in vain to lay hands on him ; in vain he ordered
his slaves to seize him — they dared not. At
length the master hurled a stone at his head
sufficient to have felled a bullock — but he did not
heed it. At that instant my aunt sprang for-
ward, and presenting the gun to my uncle, ex-
claimed, ' Shoot him ! shoot him !' He made
the attempt, but the gun missed fire, and Mince
fled. He was taken eight or ten months after
that, wiiilc crossing the Ohio. When brought
back, the master, and an overseer on another
plantation, took him to the mountam and pun-
ished liim to their satisl'action in secret ; after
which he was loaded with chains and set to his
task.
" I have spent nearly all my life in the midst of
slavery. From being the son of a slaveholder, I
descended to the condition of a slave, and from
that condition I rose (if you please to call it so,)
to the station of a ' driver.' I have lived in
Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky ; and I
know the condition of the slaves to be that of
unmixed wretchedness and degradation. And
on the part of slaveholders, there is cruelty untold.
The labor of the slave is constant toil, wrung out
by fear. Their food is scanty, and taken without
comfort. Their clothes answer the purposes nei-
ther of comfort nor decency. They are not allow-
ed to read or write. Whether they may worship God
or not, depends on the will of the master. The
young children, until they can work, often go
naked during the warm weather. I could spend
months in detailing the sufferings, degradation
and cruelty inflicted upon slaves. But my soul
sickens at the remembrance of these things."
TESTIMONY OF MR. LEMUEL SAPINGTON, A NATIVE OF MARYLAND.
Mr. Sapington, is a repentant " soul driver" or
slave trader, now a citizen of Lancaster, Pa.
He gives the following testimony in a letter
dated, Jan. 21, 1839.
"I was born in Maryland, afterwards moved to
Virginia, where I commenced the business
of farming and trafficking in slaves. In my
neighborhood the slaves were ' quartered.' The
description generally given of negro quarters is
correct. The quarters are without floors, and
not sufficient to keep off the inclemency of the
weather, they are uncomfortable both in summer
and winter. The food there consists of potatoes,
pork, and rorn, which were given to them daily,
by weight and measure. The sexes were hud-
dled together promiscuously. Their clothing is
made by themselves after night, though some-
times assisted by the old women who are no
longer able to do out door work, consequently it
is harsh and uncomfortable. I have frequently
seen those of both sexes who have not attained
the age of twelve years go naked. Their pun-
ishments are invariably cruel. For the slightest
offence, such as taking a hen's egg, I have seen
them stripped and suspended by their hands,
their feet tied together, a fence rail of ordinary
size placed between their ankles, and then most
cruelly whipped, until, from head to foot, they
v/ere completely lacerated, a pickle made for the
purpose of salt and water, would then be appli-
ed by n. fellow-slave, for the purpose of healing
the wounds as well as giving pain. Then taken
down and without the least respite sent to work
witii their hoe.
Pursuing my assumed right of driving souls, I
6
went to the Southern part of Virginia for the
purpose of trafficking in slaves. In that part of
the state, the cruelties pi-actised upon the slaves,
are far greater than where I lived. The pun-
ishments there often resulted in death to the
slave. There was no law for the negro, but
that of the overseer's whip. In that part of
the country, the slaves receive nothing for food,
but corn in the ear, which has to be prepared
for baking after working hours, by grinding it
with a hand-mill. This they take to the fields
with them, and prepare it for eating, by holding
it on their hoes, over a fire made by a stump.
Among the gangs, are often young women, who
bring their children to the fields, and lay them in
a fence corner, while they are at work, only being
permitted to nurse them at the option of the
overseer. When a child is three weeks old, a
woman is considered in working order. I have
seen a woman, witli her young child strapped to
her back, laboring the whole day, beside a man,
perhaps the father of the child, and he not being
permitted to give her any assistance, himself being
under the whip. TIic uncommon humanity of
the driver allowing her the comfort of doing so.
I was then selling a drove of slaves, which I had
brought by water from Baltimore, my conscience
not allowing me to drive, as was generally the
case uniting the slaves by collars and chains,
and thus driving them under the whip. About
that time an unaccountable something, which I
now know was an interposition of Providence,
prevented me from prosecuting any farther
this unhol}' traffic ; but though I had quitted it, I
still continued to live in a slave state, witnessing
every day its evil effects upon my fellow beings.
50
Personal Narratives — William C. Gildersleeve.
Among which was a heart-rending scene that
took place in my father's house, which led me
to leave a elave state, as well as all the imagina-
ry comforts arising from slavery. On preparing
for my removal to the state of Pennsylvania, it
became necessary for me to go to Louisville, in
Kentucky, where, if possible, I became more
horrified with the impositions practiced upon the
negro than before. There a slave was sold to
go farther south, and was hand-cuffed for the
purpose of keeping hira secure. But choosing
death rather than slavery, he jumped overboard
and was drowned. When I returned fomr weeks
afterwards his body, that had floated three miles
below, was yet unburied. One fact ; it is im-
possible for a person to pass through a slave
state, if he has eyes open, without beholding every
day cruelties repugnant to humanity.
Respectfully Youi-s,
Lemuel Sapington.
TESTIMONY OF MRS. NANCY LOWRY, A NATIVE OF KENTUCKY.
Mrs. Lowry, is a member of the non-conform-
ist church in Osnaburg, Stark County, Ohio.,
she is a native of Kentucky. We have received
from her the following testimony.
" I resided in the family of Reuben Long, the
principal part of the time, from seven to twenty-
two years of age. Mr. Long had 16 slaves,
among whom were three who were treated
with severity, although Mr. Long was thought
to be a very humane master. These three, namely
John, Ned, and James, had wives ; Jolm and
Ned had theirs at some distance, but James had
his with him. All three died a premature death,
and it was generally believed by his neighbors,
that extreme whipping was the cause. I believe
60 too. Ned died about the age of 25 and John
34 or 35. The cause of their flogging was com-
monly staying a little over the time, with their
wives. Mr. Long would tie them up by the
wrist, so high that their toes would just touch
the ground, and then vi'ith a cow-hide lay the lash
upon the naked back, until he was exhausted,
when he would sit down and rest. As soon as
he had rested sufficiently, he would ply the cow-
hide again, thus he would continue until the
whole back of the poor victim was lacerated
into one uniform coat of blood. Yet he was a
strict professor of the Christian religion, in the
southern church. I frequently washed the
wounds of John, with salt water, to prevent
putrefaction. This was the usual course pursu-
ed after a severe flogging ; their backs would be
full of gashes, so deep that I could almost lay my
finger in them. They were generally laid up after
the flogging for several days. The last flogging
Ned got, he was confined to the bed, which he
never left till he was carried to his grave.
During John's confinement in his last sickness
on one occasion while attending on him, he ex-
claimed, ' Oh, Nancy, Miss Nancy, I haven't
much longer in this world, I feel as if my whole
body inside and all my bones were beaten into a
jelly.' Soon after he died. John and Ned were
both professors of religion.
" John Ruffher, a slaveholder, had one slave
named Piney, whom he as well as Mrs. RufTner
would often flog very severely. I frequently
saw Mrs. Ruffncr flog her with the broom, shovel,
or any thing she could seize in her rage. She
woiild knock her down and then kick and stamp
her Most unmercifully, until she would lie ap-
parently so lifeless, that I more than once thought
she would never recover. Often Piney would
try to shelter herself from the blows of her mis-
tress, by creeping under the bed, from which
Mrs. RuflTner v/ould draw her by the feet, and
then stamp and leap on her body, till her breath
would be gone. Often Piney, would cry, ' Oh
Missee, don't kill me !" " Oh Lord, don't kill
me '.' ' For God's sake don't kill me !' But
Mrs. Ruffher would beat and stamp away, with
all the venom of a demon. The cause of Piney's
flogging was, not working enough, or making
some mistake in baking, &c. &c. Many a
night Piney had to lie on the bare floor, by the
side of the cradle, rocking the baby of her mis-
tress, and if she would fall asleep, and suffer the
child to cry, so as to waken Mrs. Ruffner, she
would be sure to receive a flogging."
TESTIMONY OF MR. WM. C. GILDERSLEEVE, A NATIVE OF GEORGIA
Mr.W. C. Gildersleeve, a native of Georgia, is
an elder of the Presbyterian Church at VVilkes-
barre, Pa.
" Acts of cruelty, without number, fell under my
observation while I lived in Georgia. I will
mention but one, A slave of a Mr. Pinkney, on
his way with a wagon to Savannah, ' camped'
for the night by the road side. That night, the
nearest hen-roost was robbed. On his return,
the hen-roost was again visited, and the fowl
counted one less in the morning. The oldest son,
with some attendants made search, and came
upon the poor fellow, in the act of dressing his
spoil. He was too nimble for them, and made
bis retreat good into a dense swamp. When
much effort to start him from his hiding place,
had proved unsuccessful, it was resolved to lay
an ambush for hira, some distance ahead. The
wagon, meantime, was in charge of a lad, who
accompanied the teamster as an assistant. The
httle boy lay still till nearly night, (in the hope
probably that the teamster would return,) when
he started with his wagon. After travelling
some distance, the lost one made his appearance,
when the ambush sprang upon him. The poor
fellow was conducted back to the plantation.
He expected little mercy. He begged for him-
self, in the most suplicating manner, ' pray
massa give me 100 lashes and let me go.' He
was then tied by the hands, to a hmb of a large
mulberry tree, which grew in the yard, so that his
Personal Narratives — Hiram White — J. 1\I. Nelson.
51
feet were raised a few inches from the ground,
while a sharpened stick was driven underneath,
tliat he might rest iiis weight on it, or swing
by his hands. In this condition 100 lashes
were laid on his bare body. I stood by and
witnessed the whole, without as I recollect,
feeling the least compassion. So hardening is
the influence of slavery, that it very much de-
stroys feeling for the slave."
TESTIMONY OF MR. HIRAM WHITE— A NATIVE OP NORTH CAROLINA.
Mr. White resided thirty-two years in Chat-
ham county, North Carolina, and is now a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church, at Otter Creek Prairie,
Illinois.
About the 20th December, 1830, a report was
raised that the slaves in Chatham county, North
Carolina, were going to rise on Christmas day,"
in consequence of which a considerable commo-
tion ensued among the inhabitants ; orders were
given by the Governor to the militia captains, to
appoint patrolling captains in each district, and
orders were given for every man subject to mili-
tary duty to patrol as their captains should di-
rect. I went two nights in succession, and after
that refused to patrol at all. The reason why I re-
fused was this , orders were given to search every
negro house for books or prints of any kind, and
Bibles and Hymn books were particularly men-
tioned. And should we find any, our orders were
to inflict punishment by whipping the slave until
he informed who gave them to him, or how they
came by them.
As regards the comforts of the slaves in the
vicinity of my residence, I can say they had no-
thing that would bear that name. It is true, the
slaves in general, of a gooi crop year, were
tolerably weU fed, but of a bad crop year, they
were, as a general thing, cut short of their allow-
ance. Their houses were pole cabins, without
loft or floor. Their beds were made of what is
there called " broom-straw." The men more
commonly sleep on benches. Their clothing would
compare well with their lodging. Whipping was
common. It was hardly possible for a man with
a common pair of ears, if he was out of his house
but a short time on Monday mornings, to miss of
hearing the sound of the lash, and the cries of
' the sufferers pleading with their masters to desist.
These scenes were more common throughout the
time of my residence there, from 1799 to 1831.
Mr. Hkdding of Chatham county, held a slave
woman. I traveled past Heddings as often as
once in two weeks during the winter of 1828,
and always saw her clad in a single cotton dress,
sleeves came half way to the elbow, and in order
to prevent her running away, a child, supposed to
be about seven years of age, was connected with
her by a long chain fastened round her neck, and
in this situation she was compelled all the day to
grub Tip the roots of shrubs and sapplings to pre-
pare ground for the plough. It is not uncommon
for slaves to make up on Sundays what they are
not able to perform through the week of their
tasks.
At the time of the rumored insurrection above
named, Chatham jail was filled with slaves who
were said to have been concerned in the plot.
Without the least evidence of it, they were punish,
ed in divers ways ; some were whipped, some had
their thumbs screioed in a vice to make them con.
fess, but no proof satisfactory was ever obtained
that the negroes had ever thought of an insur.
rection, nor did any so far as I could learn, ac.
knowledge that an insurrection had ever been
projected. From this time forth, the slaves were
prohibited from asseihbhng together for the wor
ship of God, and many of those who had previ.
ously been authorized to preach the gospel were
prohibited.
Amalgamation was common. There was
scarce a family of slaves that had females of
mature age where there were not some mulatto
children.
Hiram White.
Otter Creek Prairie, Jan. 22, 1839.
TESTIMONY OF MR. JOHN M. NELSON— A NATIVE OF VIRGINIA.
Extract of a letter, dated January 3, 1839, from
John M. Nelson, Esq., of Hillsborough. Mr. Nel.
son removed from Virginia to Highland county,
Ohio, many years since, where he is extensively
known and respected.
I was born and raised in Augusta county,
Virginia ; my father was an elder in the Presby-
terian Church, and was " owner" of about twen-
ty slaves ; he was what was generally termed a
" good master." His slaves were generally toler-
ably well fed and clothed, and not over worked,
they were sometimes permitted to attend church,
and called in to family worship ; few of them,
however, availed themselves of these privileges.
On some occasions I have seen him whip them
severely, particularly for the crime of trying to
<rbtain their hberty, or for what was called, " run-
ning away." For this they were scourged more
severely than for any thing else. After they have
been retaken, I have seen them stripped naked
and suspended by the hands, sometimes to a
tree, sometimes to a post, until their toes
barely touched the ground, and whipped with
a cowhide until the blood dripped from their
backs. A boy named Jack, particularly, I have
seen served in this way more than once.
When Iwas quite a child, I recollect it grieved me
very much to see one tied up to be whipped, and I
used to intercede with tears ic their behalf, and
mingle my cries with theirs, and feel almost wil-
ling to take part of the punishment ; I have
been severely rebuked bj my father for this kind
of sympathy. Yet, such is the hardening nature
of such scenes, that from this kind of commisse
ration for the sufferuig slave, I became so blunt.
52
Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld.
ed that I could not only witness their stripes with
composure, but myself inflict them, and that
without remorse. One case I have often looked
back to with sorrow and contrition, particularly
since I have been convinced that " negroes are
men." When I was perhaps fourteen or fifteen
years of age, I undertook to correct a young fel.
low named Ned, for some supposed offence ; I
think it was leaving a bridle out of its proper
place ; he being larger and stronger than myself
took hold of my arms and held me, in order to
prevent my striking him ; this I considered the
height of insolence, and cried for help, when
my father and mother both came running to my
rescue. My father stripped and tied him, and
took him into the orchard, where switches were
plenty, and directed me to whip him ; when one
switch wore out he supplied me with others. After
I had whipped him a while, he fell on his knees
to implore forgiveness, and I kicked him in the
face ; my father said, " don't kick him, but whip
him ;" this I did until his back was literally cov-
ered with welts. I knoiv I have repented, and
trust I have obtained pardon for these things.
My father owned a woman, (we used to call
aunt Grace,) she was purchased in Old Virginia.
She has told me that her old master, in his will,
gave her her freedom, but at his death, his sons
had sold her to my father : when he bought her
she manifested some unwillingness to go with
him, when she was put in irons and taken by
force. This was before I was born ; but I remem-
ber to have seen the irons, and was told that was
what they had been used for. Aunt Grace is
still living, and must be between seventy and
eighty years of age ; she has, for the las>„ forty
years, been an exemplary Christian. Whe" I was
a youth I took some pains to learn her to read ;
this is now a great consolation to her. Since age
and infirmity have rendered her of little value to
her " owners," she is permitted to read as much
as she pleases ; this she can do, with the aid of
glasses, in the old family Bible, which is almost
the only book she has ever looked into. This with
some little mending for the black children, is all
she does ; she is still held as a slave. I well re-
member what a heart-rending scene there was in
the family when my father sold her husband ; this
was, I suppose, thirty- five years ago. And yet my
father was considered one of the best of masters.
I know of few who were better, but of m,any
who were worse.
The last time I saw my father, which was in
the fall of 1832, he promised me that he would
free all his slaves at his death. He died however
without doing it ; and I have understood since,
that he omitted it, through the influence of Rev.
Dr. Speece, a Presbyterian minister, who lived in
the family, and was a a warm friend of the Co-
lonization Society.
About the year 1809 or 10, I became a student
of Rev. George Botu-ne ; he was the first aboli-
tionist I had ever ssen, and the first I had ever
heard pray or plead for the oppressed, which
gave me the first misgivings about the innocence
of slaveholding. I received impressions from Mr.
Bourne which I could not get rid of,* and deter-
mined in my own mind that when I settled in
life, it should be in a free state ; this determina-
tion I carried into effect in 1813, when I removed
to this place, which 1 supposed at that time, to
be all the opposition to slavery that was neces-
sary, but the moment I became convinced that
all slaveholding was in itself sinful, I became an
abolitionist, which was about four years ago.
* Mr. Bourne resided seven years in Virginia, " in perils
among false brethren," fiercely persecuted for Ills faithful
testimony against slavery. More than twenty years since
he published a work entitled " The Book and Slavery irre-
concUeable."
TESTIMONY OF ANGELINA GRIMKE WELD.
Mrs. Weld is the youngest daughter of the
late Judge Grimke, of the Supreme Court of
South Carolina, and a sister of the late Hon.
Thomas S. Grim.ke, of Charleston.
Fort Lee, Bergen Co., New Jersey. )
Fourth month 6th, 1839. ^
I sit down to comply with thy request, prefer-
red in the name of the Executive Committee of
the American Anti-Slavery Society. The re-
sponsibility laid upon me by such a request, leaves
me no option. While I live, and slavery lives, I
must testify against it. If I should hold my
peace, " the stone would cry out of the wall, and
the beam out of the timber would answer it."
But though I feel a necessity upon me, and " a
woe unto me," if I withhold my testimony, I
give it with a heavy heart. My flesh crieth out,
" if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ;"
but, " Father, thy will be done," is, I trust, the
breathing of my spirit. Oh, the slain of the
daughter of my people ! they lie in all the ways ;
their tears fall as the rain, and are their meat
day and night ; their blood runneth down like
water ; their plundered hearths are desolate ;
they weep for their husbands and children, be-
cause they are not ; and the proud waves do con-
tinually go over them, while no eye pitieth, and
no man careth for their souls.
But it is not alone for the sake of my poor
brothers and sisters in bonds, or for the cause of
truth, and righteousness, and humanity, that I
testify ; the deep yearnings of affection for the
mother that bore me, who is still a slaveholder,
both in fact and in heart ; for my brothers and
sisters, (a large family circle,) and for my nu-
merous other slaveholding kindred in South Ca-
rolina, constrain me to speak : for even were
slavery no curse to its victims, the exercise of
arbitrary power works such fearful ruin upon the
hearts of slaveholders, that I should feel impelled
to labor and pray for its overthrow with my last
energies and latest breath.
I think it important to premise, that I have
seen almost nothing of slavery on plantations.
My testimony will have respect exclusively to
the treatment of ^^house-servants," and chiefly
those belonging to the first families in the city of
Charleston, both in the religious and in the fash-
ionable world. And here let mc say, that the
Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld.
53
treatment of plantation slaves cannot be fully
known, except by the poor sutFcrers themselves,
and their drivers and overseers. In a multitude
of instances, even the master can know very lit-
tle of the actual condition of his own field-slaves,
and his wife and daughters far less. A few facts
concerning mj' own iamily will show this. Our
permanent residence was in Charleston ; our
country-seat (BcUcmont,) was 200 miles distant,
in the north-western part of the state ; where, for
some years, our famih' spent a few months annu-
ally. Our plantation was three miles from this
family mansion. There, all the field-slaves lived
and worked. Occasionally, once.a month, per-
haps, some of the family would ride over to the
plantation, but I never visited the _/ieZrfs7«j/;e7'e the
slaves icere at work, and knew almost nothing of
their condition ; but this I do know, that the
overseers who had charge of them, were gene-
rally unprincipled and intemperate men. But I
rejoice to know, that the general treatment of
slaves in that region of country, was far milder
than on the plantations in the lower country.
Throughout all the eastern and middle por-
tions of the state, the planters very rarelji- reside
permanently on their plantations. They have
almost invariably two residences, and spend less
than half the year on their estates. Even while
spending a few months on them, politics, field-
sports, races, speculations, journeys, visits, com-
pany, literary pursuits, &c., absorb so much of
their time, that they must, to a considerable ex-
tent, take the condition of their slaves on trust,
from the reports of their overseers. I make this
statement, because these slaveholders (the wealth-
ier class,) are, I believe, almost the only ones who
visit the north with their families ; — and northern
opinions of slavery are based chiefly on their tes-
timony.
But not to dwell on preliminaries, I wisli to
record my testimony to the faithfulness and ac-
curacy with which my beloved sister, Sarah M.
Grimke, has, in her ' narrative and testimony,' on
a preceding page, described the condition of the
slaves, and the effect upon the hearts of slave-
holders, (even the best,) caused by the exercise
of unlimited power over moral agents. Of the
particular acts which she has stated, I have no
personal knowledge, as they occurred before my
remembrance ; but of the spirit that prompted
them, and that constantly displays itself in scenes
of similar horror, the recollections of my child-
hood, and the effaceless imprint upon my riper
years, with the breaking of my heart-strings,
when, finding that I was powerless to shield the
victims, I tore myself from my home and friends,
and became an exile among strangers — all these
throng around me as witnesses, and their testi.
mony is graven on my memory with a pen of
fire.
Why I did not become totally hardened, under
the daily operation of this system, God only
knows ; in deep solemnity and gratitude, I say,
it was the Lord's doing, and marvellous in mine
eyes. Even before my heart was touched with
the love of Christ, I used to say, " Oh that I had
the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and
be at rest ;' for I felt that there could be no rest for
me in the midst of such outrages and pollutions.
And yet I saw nothing of slavery in its most j
vulgar and repulsive forms. I saw it in the city,
among the fashionable and the honorable, where
it was garnished by refinement, and decked out
for show. A few facts will unfold the state of
society in the circle with which I was familiar,
far better than an}' general assertions I can make.
I will first introduce the reader to a woman
of the highest respectability — one who was fore-
most in every benevolent enterprise, and stood
for many years, I may say, at the head of the
fashionable (Jlitc of the city of Charleston, and
afterwards at the head of the moral and religious
female society there. It was after she had made
a profession of religion, and retired from the
fashionable world, that I knew her ; therefore I
will present her in her religious character. This
lady used to keep cowhides, or small paddles,
(called ' pancake sticks,') in four different apart-
ments in her house ; so that when she wished to
punish, or to have punished, any of her slaves, she
might not have the trouble of sending for an in-
strument of torture. For many years, one or
other, and often more of her slaves, were flogged
every day; particularly the young slaves about
the house, whose faces were slapped, or their
hands beat v/ith the ' pancake stick,' for every
trifling offence — and often for no fault at all.
But the floggings were not all; the scoldings
and abuse daily heaped upon them all, were
worse: 'fools' and ' liars,' ' sluts' and ' husseys,'
' hypocrites' and ' good-for-nothing creatures,'
were the common epithets wiih which her mouth
was filled, when addressing her slaves, adults as
well as children. Very often she would take a
position at her window, in an upper story, and
scold at her slaves while working in the garden,
at some distance from the house, (a large yard
intervening,) and occasionally order a flogging.
I have known her thus on the watch, scolding
for more than an hour at a time, in so loud a
voice that the whole neighborhood could hear
her ; and this without the least apparent feeling
of shame. Indeed, it was no disgrace among
slaveholders, and did not in the least injure her
standing, either as a lady or a Christian, in the
aristocratic circle in which she moved. After
the 'revival' in Charleston, in 1825, she opened
her house to social prayer-meetings. The room
in which they were held in the evening, and
where the voice of prayer was heard around the
family altar, and where she herself retired for
private devotion thrice each day, was the very
place in which, when her slaves were to be whip-
ped with the cowhide, they were taken to receive
the infliction ; and the wail of the sufferer would
be heard, where, perhaps only a few hours pre-
vious, rose the voices of prayer and praise. This
mistress would occasionally send her slaves, male
and female, to the Charleston work-house to be
punished. One poor girl, whom she sent there
to be flogged, and who was accordingly stripped
naked and whipped, showed me the deep gashes
on her back — I might have laid my whole finger
in them — large pieces of flesh had actually been
cut out by the torturing lash. She sent another
female slave there, to be imprisoned and worked
on the tread-mill. This girl was confined several
days, and forced to work the mill while in a state
of suffering from another cause. For ten days
or two weeks after her return, she was lame, from
54
Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld.
the violent exertion necessary to enable her to
keep the step on the machine. She spoke to me
with intense feeling of this outrage upon her, as
a woman. Her men servants were sometimes
flogged there ; and so exceedingly offensive has
been the putrid flesh of their lacerated backs, for
days after the infliction, that they would be kept
out of the house — the smell arising from their
wounds being too horrible to be endured. They
were always stiff and sore for some days, and not
in a condition to be seen by visitors.
This professedly Christian woman was a most
awful illustration of the ruinous influence of
arbitrary power upon the temper — her bursts
of passion upon the heads of her victims were
dreaded even by her own children, and very
often, all the pleasure of social intercourse around
the domestic board, was destroyed by her order-
ing the cook into her presence, and storming at
him, when the dinner or breakfast was not pre-
pared to her taste, and in the presence of all her
children, commanding the waiter to slap his face.
Faulujinding, was with her the constant accom-
paniment of every meal, and banished that peace
which should hover around the social board, and
smile on every face. It was common for her to
order brothers to whip their own sisters, and sis-
ters their own brothers, and yet no woman visited
among the poor more than she did, or gave more
hberally to relieve their wants. This may seem
perfectly unaccountable to a northerner, but these
seeming contradictions vanish when we con-
sider that over them she possessed no arbitrary
power, they were always presented to her mind
as unfortunate sufferers, towards whom her sym-
pathies most freely flowed ; she was ever ready
to wipe the tears from their eyes, and open wide
her purse for their relief, but the others were her
vassals, thrust down by public opinion beneath
her feet, to be at her beck and call, ever ready to
serve in all humility, her, whom God in his pro-
vidence had set over them — it was their duty to
abide in abject submission, and hers to compel
them to do so — it was thus that she reasoned.
Except at family prayers, none were permitted
to sit in her presence, but the seamstresses and
waiting maids, and they, however delicate might
be their circumstances, were forced to sit upon
low stools, without backs, that they might be
constantly reminded of their inferiority, A slave
who waited in the house, was guilty on a particu-
lar occasion of going to visit his wife, and kept
dinner waiting a little, (his wife was the slave
of a lady who lived at a little distance.) When
the family sat down to the table, the mistress
began to scold the waiter for the offence — he at-
tempted to excuse himself — she ordered him to
hold his tongue — he ventured another apology ;
her son then rose from the table in a rage, and
beat the face and ears of the waiter so dreadfully
that the blood gushed from his mouth, and nose,
and ears. This mistress was a professor of re-
ligion ; her daughter who related the circum-
stance, was a fellow member of the Presbyterian
church with the poor outraged slave — instead of
feeling indignation at this outrageous abuse of
her brother in the church, she justified the deed,
and said "he got just what he deserved." I
solemnly beheve this to be a true picture of
slaveholding religion.
The following is another illustration of it :
A mistress in Ciiarleston sent a grey headed
female slave to the workhouse, and had her se-
verely flogged. The poor old woman went to an
acquaintance of mine and begged her to buy her,
and told her how cruelly she had been whipped.
My friend examined her lacerated back, and out
of compassion did purchase her. The circum-
stance was mentioned to one of the former own.
er's relatives, who asked her if it were true.
The mistress told her it was, and said that she
had made the severe whipping of this aged wo-
man a subject of p-ayer, and that she believed she
had done right to have it inflicted upon her.
The last ' owner ' of the poor old slave, said she,
had no fault to find with her as a servant.
I remember very well that when I was a child,
our next door neighbor whipped a young woman
so brutally, that in order to escape his blows she
rushed tlurough the drawing-room window in the
second story, and fell upon the street pavement
below and broke her hip. This circumstance
produced no excitement or inquiry.
The following circumstance occurred in
Charleston, in 1828 :
A slaveholder, after flogging a little girl
about thirteen years old, set her on a table with
her feet fastened in a pair of stocks. He then
locked the door and took out the key. When the
door was opened she was found dead, having
fallen from the table. When I asked a prominent
lawyer, who belonged to one of the first families
in the State, whether the murderer of this help-
less child could not be indicted, he coolly replied,
that the slave was Mr. 's property, and if
he chose to suffer the loss, no one else had any
thing to do with it. The loss of human life, the
distress of the parents and other relatives of the
little girl, seemed utterly out of his thoughts :
it was the loss of property only that presented
itself to his mind.
I knew a gentleman of great benevolence and
generosity of character, so essentially to injure
the eye of a little boy, about ten years old, as to
destroy its sight, by the blow of a cowhide, in-
flicted whilst he was whipping him.* I have
heard the same individual speak of " breaking
down the spirit of a slave under the lash " as per-
fectly right.
I also know that an aged slave of his, (by
marriage,) was allowed to get a scanty aiad pre.
carious subsistence, by begging in the streets of
Charleston — he was too old to work, and there-
fore his allowance was stopped, and he waa
turned out to make his living by begging.
When I was about thirteen years old, I attend-
ed a seminary, in Charleston, which was super,
intended by a man and his wife of superior edu-
cation. They had under their instruction the
daughters of nearly all the aristocracy. Their
cruelty to their slaves, both male and female, I
can never forget. I remember one dav there was
called into the school room to open a window, a
* The Jewish law would have set this servant free, for
his eye's sake, but he was held in slavery and sold from
hand to hand, although, besides this title to his liberty ac-
cording to Jewish law, he was a mulalto, and therefore free
under the Constitution of the United States, in whose pre-
amble our fathers declare that they established it expressly
to^" secure the blessings of Zift erf t^ to themselves and tAeit
posterity.'" — Ed.
Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld.
55
Doy whose head had been shaved in order to dis-
grace him, and he had been so dreadfully whip-
ped that he eould hardh' walk. So horrible was
the impression produceil upon my mind bj' his
heart-broken countenance aiid crippled person
that I fainted away. The sad and ghastly coini-
tenance of one of their female mulatto slaves who
used to sit on a low stool at her sewing in the
piazza, is now Iresh before me. She often told
me, secretly, how cruelly she was whipped wlien
tliey sent her to tlie work house. I had known so
much of the terrible scourgings inflicted in that
house of blood, that when I was once obliged to
pass it, the very sight smote me with such horror
that my limbs coidd hardly sustain me. I felt as if
I was passing the precincts of hell. A friend of mine
%vho lived in the neighborhood, told me she often
lieard the screams of the slaves under their
torture.
I once heard a physician of a high family, and
of great respectability in his profession, say, that
when he sent his slaves to the work-house to be
flogged, he always went to see it done, that he
might be sure they were properly, i. e. severely
whipped. He also related the foUov/ing circum-
stance in my presence. He had sent a youth of
about eighteen to this horrible place to be whip-
ped and afterwards to be worked upon the tread-
mill. From not keeping the step, which probably
he COULD NOT do, in consequence of the lacerated
state of his bodj^ ; his arm got terribly torn, from
the shoulder to the wrist. This physcian said,
he went every day to attend to it himself, in order
that he might use those restoratives, which would
inflict the greatest possible pain. This poor boy,
after being imprisoned there for some weeks, was
then brought home, and compelled to wear iron
clogs on his ankles for one or two months. I
saw him with those irons on one day when I was
at the house. This man was, when young, re-
markable in the fashionable world for his elegant
and fascinating manners, but the exercise of the
slaveholder's power has thrown the fierce air of
tyranny even over these.
I heard another man of equally high standing
say, that he believed he suffered far more than his
waiter did, whenever he flogged him, for he felt
the exertion for days afterward, but he could not
let his servant go on in "he neglect of his business,
it W2is his duty to ch' ,:'^ him. " His duty" to
flog this boy of seve:. '■ •- so severely that he felt
the exertion for days a ' -r ! and yet he never felt
it to be his duty to L'-j.ruct him, or have him in-
structed, even in the common principles of mo-
rality. I heard the mother of this man say, it
would be no surprise to her, if he killed a slave
some day, for, that, when transported with pas.
sion he did not seem to care what he did. He
once broke a large stick over the back of a slave,
and at another time the ivory butt-end of a long
coach whip over the head of another. This last
was attacked with epileptic fits some months
after, and has ever since been subject to them,
and occasionally to violent fits of insanity.
Southern mistresses sometimes flog their slaves
themselves, though generally one slave is com-
pelled to flog another. WhQst staying at a friend's
house some years ago, I one day saw the mistress
with a cow-hide in her hand, and heard her scold-
ing in an under lone, her waiting man, who was
about twenty-five years old. Whether she actu-
ally inflicted the blows I do not know, for I hast-
ened out of sight and hearing. It was not the
first time I had seen a mistress thus engaged. I
knew she was a cruel mistress, and had heard her
daughters disputing, whether their mother did
right or wrong, to send the slave children, (whom
she sent out to sweep chimneys) to the work
house to be whipped if they did not bring in their
wages regularly. This woman moved in the most
fashionable circle in Charleston. The income of
this family was derived mostly from the hire of
their slaves, about one hundred in number. Their
luxuries were blood-bought luxuries indeed. And
yet what stranger would ever have inferred their
cruelties from the courteous reception and bland
manners of the parlor. Every thing cruel and
revolting is carefully concealed from strangers,
especially those from the north. Take an in-
stance. I have known the master and mistress
of a family send to their friends to borrow ser-
vants to wait on company, because their own
slaves had been so cruelly flogged in the work
house, that they could not walk without limping at
every step, and their putrified flesh emitted such an
intolerable smell thai they were not fit to be in
the presence of company. How can northernera
know these things when they are hospitably re-
ceived at southern tables and firesides ? I repeat
it, no one who has not been an integral part of a
slaveholding community, can have any idea of its
abominations. It is a whited sepulchre full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Blessed
be God, the Angel of Truth has descended and
rolled away the stone from the mouth of the se-
pulchre, and sits upon it. The abominations so
long hidden are now brought forth before all Israel
and the sun. Yes, the Angel of Truth sits upon
this stone, and it can never be rolled back again.
The utter disregard of the comfort of the
slaves, in little things, can scarcely be conceived
by those who have not been a component part of
slaveholding communities. Take a few particu-
lars out of hundreds that might be named. In
South Carolina musketoes swarm in myriads,
more than half the year — they are so excessively
annoying at night, that no family thinks of sleep-
ing without nets or " musketoe-bars" hung over
their bedsteads, yet slaves are never provided with
them, unless it be the favorite old domestics who
get the cast-off pavilions; and yet these very mas-
ters and mistresses will be so kind to their horses
as to provide them with fly nets. Bedsteads
and bedding too, are rarely provided for any of
the slaves — if the waiters and coachmen, wait-
ing maids, cooks, washers, &c., have beds at
all, they must generally get them for them-
selves. Commonly they lie down at night on
the bare floor, with a small blanket wrapped
round them in winter, and in summer a coarse
osnaburg sheet, or nothing. Old slaves generally
have beds, but it is because when younger they
have provided them for themselves.
Only two meals a day are allowed the house
slaves — the first at twelve o'clock. If they eat
before this time, it is by stealth, and I am sure
there must be a good deal of suffering among
them from hunger, and particularly by children.
Besides this, they are often kept from their meals
by way of punishment. No table is provided for
56
Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld.
thom io eat from. They know nothing of the
comfort and pleasure of gatiicring roand the so-
ciai board — each takes his plate or tin pan and
iron spoon and holds it in the hand or on the
lap. I never saw slaves seated round a table to
partake of any meal.
As the general rule, no lights of any kind, no
iirewood — no towels, basins, or soap, no tables,
chairs, or other furniture, are provided. Wood for
cooking and washing /or the family is found, but
when the master's work is done, the slave must
find wood for himself if he has a fire. I have
repeatedly known slave children kept the whole
winter's evening, sitting on the stair-case in a
cold entry, just to be at hand to snuif candles or
hand a tumbler of water from the side-board, or go
on errands from one room to another. It may be
asked why they were not permitted to stay in the
parlor, when thev would be still more at hand. I
answer, because waiters are aiot allowed to sit in
the presence of their owners, and as children
who were kept running all day, would of course
get very tired of standing for two or three hours,
they were allowed to go into the entry and sit on
the staircase until rung for. Another reason is,
that even slaveholders at times find the presence
of slaves very annoying ; they cannot exercise
entire freedom of speech before them on all sub-
jects.
I have also known instances where seamstress-
es were kept in cold entries to work by the stair
case lamps for one or two hours, every evening
in winter — thej"^ could not see without standing
up all the time, though the work was often too
large and heavy for them to sew upon it in that
position without great inconvenience, and yet
they were expected to do their work as well with
their cold fingers, and standing up, as if they had
been sitting by a comfortable fire and provided
with the necessary light. House slaves suffer a
great deal also from not being allowed to leave
the house without permission. If they wish to
go even for a draught of water, they musi ask
leave, and if they stay longer than the mistress
thinks necessary, they are liable to be punished,
and often are scolded or slapped, or kept from
going down to the next meal.
It frequently happens that relatives, among
slaves, arc separated for weeks or months, by the
husband or brother being taken by the master on
a jouine^, to attend on his horses and himself. —
When they return, the white husband seeks the
wife of his love ; but the black husband must wait
to see his wife, until mistress pleases to let her
chambermaid leave her room. Yes, such is the
despotism of slavery, that wives and sisters dare
not run to meet their husbands and brothers after
such separations, and hours sometimes elapse be-
fore they are allowed to meet ; and, at times, a
fiendish pleasure is taken in keeping them asun-
der— this furnishes an opportunitj^ to vent feelings
of spite for any little neglect of " duty."
The sufferings to which slaves are subjected by
separations of various kinds, cannot be imagined
by those unacquainted with the working out of
the system behind the curtain. Take the follow-
ing instances.
Chambermaids and seamstresses often sleep in
their mistresses' apartments, but with no bedding
i at all. I know an instance of a woman who has
been married eleven years, and yet has never been
allowed to sleep out of her mistress's chamber. — ■
Tliis is a great hardship to slaves. When we con-
sider that house slaves are rarely allowed social
intercourse during the day, as their work gener-
ally separates them ; the barbarity of such an ar-
rangement is obvious. It is peculiarly a hardship
in the above case, as the husband of the woman
does not " belong " to her '' owner ;" and because
he is subject to dreadful attacks of illness, and
can have but little attention from his wife in the
day. And yet her mistress, who is an old lady,
gives her the highest character as a faithful ser-
vant, and told a friend of mine, that she was " en-
tirely dependent upon her for all her comforts :
she dressed and undressed her, gave her all her
food, and was so necessary to her that she could
not do without her." I may add, that this couple
are tenderly attached to each other.
I also know an instance in which the husband
was a slave and the wife was free : during the ill-
ness of the former, the latter was allowed to come
and nurse him ; she was obliged to leave the work
by which she had made a living, and come to stay
with her husband, and thus lost weeks of her
time, or he would have suffered for want of pro-
per attention ; and yet his " owner" made her no
compensation for her services. He had long been
a faithful and a favorite slave, and his owner was
a woman very benevolent to the poor whites. —
She went a great deal among these, as a visiting
commissioner of the Ladies' Benevolent Society,
and was in the constant habit ol paying the rela-
tives of the poor whites for nursing their hus
bands, fathers, and other relations ; because she
thought it very hard, when their time was taken
up, so that they could not earn their daily bread,
that they should be left to suffer. Now, such is
the stupifying influence of the " chattel principle"
on the minds of slaveholders, that I do not sup-
pose it ever occurred to her that this poor colored
wife ought to be paid for her services, and parti-
cularly as she was spending her time and strength
in taking care of her ^^ property. ^^ She no doubt
only thought how kind she was, to allow her to
come and stay so long in her yard ; for, let it be
kept in mind, that slaveholders have unlimited
power to separate husbands and wives, parents
and children, however and whenever they please ;
and if this mistress had chosen to do it, she could
have debarred this woman from all intercourse with
her husband, by forbidding her to enter her pre-
mises.
Persons who own plantations and yet live in
cities, often take children from their parents as
soon as they are weaned, and send them into the
country ; because they do not want the time of
the mother taken up by attendance upon her own
children, it being too valuable to the mistress. As
a favor, she is, in some cases, permitted to go to
see them once a year. So, on the other hand, if
field slaves happen to have children of an age suit-
able to the convenience of the master, they are
taken from their parents and brought to the city.
Parents are almost never consulted as to the dis-
position to be made of their children ; thej' have as
little control over them, as have domestic animals
over the disposal of their young. Every natural
General Testimony — Cruelties.
57
and social feeling and afTection are violated with
indifference ; slaves are treated as though thoy
did not possess tiicm.
Another way in which the feelings of slaves arc
trifled with and often deeply wounded, is by chang-
ing their names; if, at the time they arc brought
into a family, there is another slave of the same
name ; or if the owner happens, for some other
reason, not to like the name of the new comer.
I have known slaves very much grieved at having
the names of their children thus changed, when
they had been called after a dear relation. In-
deed it would be utterly impossible to recount the
multitude of wa3's in which the heart of the slave
is continually lacerated by the total disregard of
his feelings as a social being and a human crea.
ture.
The slave suffers also greatly from being con-
tinually zotficAe(Z. The system of espionage which
is constantly kept up over slaves is the most wor-
rying and intolerable that can be imagined. Man}^
mistresses are, in fact, during the absence of their
husbands, really their drivers ; and the pleasure
of returning to their families often, on the part of
the husband, is entirely destroyed by the complaints
preferred against the slaves when he comes home
to his meals.
A mistress of my acquaintance asked her ser-
vant boy, one day, what was the reason she could
not get him to do his work whilst his master was
away, and said to him, " Your master works a
great deal harder than you do ; he is at his office
all day, and often has to study his law cases at
night." '' Master," said the boy, " is working for
himself, and for you, ma'am, but I am working
for him." The mistress turned and remarked to
a friend, that she was so struck with the truth of
the remark, that she could not say a word to him.
But I forbear — the pufferings of the slaves are
not onl)' innumerable, but they are indescrihahle .
I may paint the agony of kindred torn from each
other's arms, to meet no more in time ; I may de-
pict the inflictions of the blood-stained lash, but I
cannot describe the daily, hourly, ceaseless torture,
endured by the heart that is constantly trampled
under the foot of despotic power. This is a part
of the horrors of slavery which, I believe, no one
has ever attempted to delineate ; I wonder not at
it, it mocks all power of language. Who can de-
scribe the anguish of that mind which feels itself
impaled upon the iron of ar])itrary power — its liv-
ing, writhing, helpless victim ! every human sus.
ccptibility tortured, its sympathies torn, and stung,
and bleeding — always feeling the death-weapon
in its heart, and yet not so deep as to kill that
humanity which is made the curse of its exist-
ence.
In the course of my testimony I have entered
somewhat into the ininuti<z of slavery, because
this is a part of the subject often overlooked, and
cannot be appreciated by any but those who have
been witnesses, and entered into sympathy with
the slaves as hmnan beings. Slaveholders think
nothing of them, because they regard their slaves
as property, the mere instruments of their conve-
nience and pleasure. One who is a slaveholder
at heart never recognises a human being in a slave.
As thou hast asked me to testify respecting the
physical condition of the slaves merely, I say no-
thing of the awful neglect of their minds and souls,
and the systematic effort to imbrute them. A
wrong and an impiety, in comparison with which
all the other unutterable wrongs of slavery are
but as the dust of the balance.
Angelina G. Weld,
GENERAL TESTIMONY
TO THE CRUELTIES INFLICTED UPON SLAVES,
Before presenting to the reader particular de-
tails of the cruelties inflicted upon American
slaves, we will present in brief the well-weigh-
ed declarations of slaveholders and other resi-
dents of slave states, testifying that the slaves
are treated with barbarous inhumanity. All de-
tails and particulars will be drawn out under
their appropriate heads. We propose in this
place to present testimony of a general character
— the solemn declarations of slaveholders and
others, that the slaves are treated with great
cruelty.
To discredit the testimony of witnesses who
insist upon convicting themselves, would be an
anomalous scepticism.
To show that American slavery has always
had one uniform character of diabolical cruelty, we
will go back one hundred years, and prove it by
unimpeachable witnesses, who have given their
deliberate testimony to its horrid barbarity, from
1739 to 1839.
8
TESTIMONY OF REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD,
In a letter written by him in Georgia, and ad-
dressed to the slaveholders of Maryland, Vir-
ginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, in
1739. — See Benezet's "Caution to Great Britain
and her Colonies."
" As I lately passed through your provinces
on my way hither, I was sensibly touched with a
fellow-feeling of the miseries of the poor negroes.
" Sure I am, it is sinful to use them as bad,
nay worse than if they were brutes ; and what-
ever particular exceptions there may be, (as I
would charitably hope there are some,) I fear the
generality of you that own negroes, are liable to
such a charge. Not to mention what numbers have
been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel task,
masters, who by their unrelenting scourges, have
ploughed their backs and made long furrows, and
at length brought them to the grave ! * * ♦
" The blood of them., spilt for these many years,
in your respective provinces, will ascend up to
heaven against you .'"
The following is the testimony of the cele-
brated John Woolman, an eminent ramister of
58
General Testimony — Cruelties.
the Society of Friends, who traveled extensively
in the slave states. We copy it from a " Me-
moir of John WoolmaxM, chiefly extracted from a
Jomnal of his Life and Travels." It was pub-
lished in Philadelphia, by the ''Society of
Friends."
" The following reflections, were written in
1757, while he was traveling on a religious ac-
count among slaveholders."
" Many of the white people m these provinces,
take little or no care of negro marriages ; and
when negroes marry, after their own way, some
make so little account of those marriages, that,
with views of outward interest, they often part
men from their wives, by selling them far asun-
der ; which is common when estates are sold by
executors at vendue.
" Many whose labor is heavy, being followed
at their business in the field by a man with a
whip, hired for that purpose, — have, in common,
little else allowed them but one peck of Indian
corn and some salt for one week, with a few po-
tatoes. (The potatoes they commonly raise by
their labor on the first day of the week.) The
correction ensuing on their disobedience to over-
seers, or slothfulness in business, is often very
severe^ and sometimes desperate. Men and wo-
men have many times scarce clothes enough to
hide their nakedness — and boys and girls, ten
and twelve years old, are often quite naked
among their masters' children. Some use en-
deavors to instruct those (negro children) they
have in reading ; but in common, this is not only
neglected, but disapproved." — p. 12.
TESTIMONY OF THE ' MARYLAND JOURNAL AND BAL-
TIMORE ADVERTISER,' OF MAY 30, 1788.
" In the ordinary course of the business of the
country, the punishment of relations frequently
happens on the same farm, and in view of each
other : the father often sees his beloved son — the
son his venerable sire — the mother her much
ioved daughter — the daughter her affectionate
parent — the husband sees the wife of his bosom,
and she the husband of her affection, cruelly
bound up without delicacy or mercy, and without
daring to interpose in each other's behalf, and
punished with all the extremity of incensed rage,
and all the rigor of unrelenting severity. Let us
reverse the case, and suppose it ours : all is si-
lent HORROR !"
testimony of THE HON. WILLUM PINCKNEY, OF
MARYLAND.
In a speech before the Maryland House of
Delegates, in 1789, Mr. P. calls slavery in that
state, " a speaking picture of abominable oppres-
sion ;" and adds : " It will not do thus to
act like unrelenting tyrants, perpetually sermon-
izing it with liberty as our text, and actual op-
pression for our commentary. Is she [Maryland]
not .... the foster mother of petty despots, — the
patron of wanton oppression ?"
Extract from a speech of Mr. Rice, in the
Convention for forming the Constitution of Ken-
tucky, in 1790 :
" The master may, and often does, inflict upon
him all the severity of punishment the human body
is capable of bearing."
President Edwards, the Younger, in a sermon
before the Connecticut Abolition Society, 1791,
says :
" From these drivers, for every imagined, as
well as real neglect or want of exertion, they re-
ceive the lash — the smack of which is all day
long in the ears of those who are on the planta-
tion or in the vicinity ; and it is used with such
dexterity and severity, as not only to lacerate the
skin, but to tear out small portions of the flesh at
almost every stroke.
" This is the general treatment of the slaves.
But many individuals suffer still more severely. V
Many, many are knocked down; some have their 3
eyes beaten out : some have an arm or a leg hrok.
en, or chopped off ; and many, for a very small,
or for no crime at all, have been beaten to death,
merely to gratify the fury of an enraged master
or overseer."
Extract from an oration, delivered at Balti.
more, July 4, 1791, by George Buchanan, M. D
member of the American Philosophical Society.
Their situation (the slaves') is insupportable ;
misery inhabits their cabins, and pursues them in
the field. Inhumanly beaten, they often fall sa-
crifices to the turbulent tempers of their masters !
Who is there, unless inured to savage cruelties,
that can hear of the inhuman punishments daily
inflicted upon the unfortunate blacks, without
feeling for them ? Can a man who calls himself
a Christian, coolly and deliberately tie up, thumb, i
screw, torture with pincers, and beat unmerci-
fully a poor slave, for perhaps a trifling neglect
of duty ?— p. 14. ,
testimony of HON. JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE —
A SLAVEHOLDER.
In one of his Congressional speeches, Mr. R.
says ; " Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive,
this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of
it, like so many post-horses whipped to death in a
mail coach. Ambition has its cover-sluts in the
pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ;
but where are the trophies of avarice ? The
hand-cuff, the manacle, the blood-stained cow-
hide .'"
Major Stoddard, of the United States' army,
who took possession of Louisiana in behalf of the
United States, under the cession of 1804, in his
Sketches of Louisiana, page 332, says :
" The feelings of humanity are outraged — the
most odious tyranny exercised in a land of free-
dom, and hunger and nakedness prevail amidst
plenty. * * * Cruel, and even unusual pun-
ishments are daily inflicted on these wretched
creatures, enfeebled with hunger, labor and the
lash. The scenes of misery and distress con.
stantly witnessed along the coast of the Delta,
[of the Mississippi,] the wounds and lacerations
occasioned by demoralized masters and over-
seers, torture the feelings of the passing stranger,
and wring blood from the heart."
Though only the third of the following series
of resolutions is directly relevant to the subject
now under consideration, we insert the other
I
General Teslbnony — Cruelties.
59
resolutions, both because they are explanatory of
the third, and also serve to reveal the public sen-
timent of Indiana, at the date of the resolutions.
As a large majority of the citizens of Indiana
at that time, were natives of slave states, they well
knew the actual condition of the slaves.
1. " Resolved unanimously, by the Legislative
Council and House of Representatives of In-
diana Territory, that a suspension of the sixth
article of compact between the United States
and the territories and states north west of the
river Ohio, passed the 13th day of January, 1783,
for the term of ten years, would be highly ad-
vantageous to the territor}', and meet the ap-
probation of at least nine-tenths of the good citi-
zens of the same.
2. " Resolved UNANIMOUSLY, that the abstract
question of liberty and slavery, is not considered
as involved in a suspension of the said article,
inasmuch as the number of slaves in the United
States would not be augmented by the measure.
3. " Resolved unanimously, that the suspen-
sion of the said article would be equally advanta-
geous to the territory, to the states from whence
the negroes would be brought, and to the negroes
themselves. The states which are overburthened
ivith negroes, would be benefited by disposing of
the negroes which they cannot comfortably sup-
port ; * * and the negro himself would ex-
change A scanty pittance of the coarsest food,
for a plentiful and nourishing diet ; and a situa-
tion which admits not the most distant prospect
of emancipation, for one which presents no con-
siderable obstacle to his wishes.
4. " Resolved unanimously, that a copy of
these resolutions be delivered to the delegate to
Congress from this territory, and that he be, and
he hereby is, instructed to use his best endeavors
to obtain a suspension of the said article.
J. B. Thomas,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Pierre Minard,
President pro tern, of the Legislative Council.
Vincennes, Dec. 20, 1806.
" Forwarded to the Speakerof the United States'
Senate, by William Henry Harrison, Gover-
nor."— American State Papers, vol. 1. p. 467.
Monsieur. C. C. Robin, who resided in Lou-
isiana from 1802 to 1806, and published a volume
containing the results of his observations there,
thus speaks of the condition of the slaves :
" While they are at labor, the manager, the
master, or the driver has commonly the whip in
hand to strike the idle. But. those of the ne-
groes who are judged guilty of serious faults, are
punished twenty, twenty-five, forty, fifty, or one
hundred lashes. The manner of this cruel exe-
cution is as follows : four stakes are driven down,
making a long square ; the culprit is extended
naked between these stakes, face downwards ;
h"is hands and his feet are bound separately, with
strong cords, to each of the stakes, so far apart
that his arms and legs, stretched in the form of
St. Andrew's cross, give the the poor wretch no
chance of stirring. Then the executioner, who
is ordinarily a negro, armed with the long whip
of a coachman, strikes upon the reins and thighs.
The crack of his whip resounds afar, like that of
an angry cartman beating his horses. The blood
flows, the long wounds cross each other, strips of
skin are raised without softening either the hand
of the executioner or the heart of the master,
who cries ' sting him harder.'
" The reader is moved ; so am I : my agitated
hand refuses to trace the bloody picture, to re-
count how many times the piercing cry of pain
has interrupted my silent occupations ; how many
times I have shuddered at the faces of those bar-
barous masters, where I saw inscribed the num.
her of victims sacrificed to their ferocity.
" The women are subjected to these punish,
ments as rigorously as the men — not even preg-
nancy exempts them ; in that case, before bind-
ing them to the stakes, a hole is made in the
ground to accommodate the enlarged form of the
victim.
" It is remarkable that the white Creole wo-
men are ordinarily more inexorable than the men.
Their slow and languid gait, and the trifling servi-
ces v/hich they impose, betoken only apathetic in-
dolence ; but should the slave not promptly obey,
should he even fail to divine the meaning of
their gestures, or looks, in an instant they are
armed with a formidable whip ; it is no longer
the arm which cannot sustain the weight of a
shawl or a reticule — it is no longer the form
which but feebly sustains itself. They them-
selves order the punishment of one of these poor
creatures, and with a dry eye see their victim
bound to four stakes ; they count the blows, and
raise a voice of menace, if the arm that strikes
relaxes, or if the blood does not flow in sufficient
abundance. Their sensibility changed to fury
must needs feed itself for a while on the hideous
spectacle : they must, as if to revive themselves,
hear the piercing shrieks, and see the flow of
fresh blood ; there are some of them who, in their
frantic rage, pinch and bite their victims.
" It is by no means wonderful that the laws
designed to protect the slave, should be httle re-
spected by the generahty of such masters. I
have seen some masters pay those unfortunate
people the miserable overcoat which is their due ;
but others give them nothing at all, and do not
even leave them the hours and Sundays granted
to them by law. I have seen some of those bar-
barous masters leave them, during the winter, in
a state of revolting nudity, even contrary to their
own true interests, for they thus weaken and
shorten the lives upon which repose the whole of
their own fortunes. I have seen some of those
negroes obliged to conceal their nakedness with
the long moss of the country. The sad melan-
choly of these wretches, depicted upon their coun-
tenances, the flight of some, and the death of
others, do not reclaim their masters ; they wreak
upon those who remain, the vengeance which
they can no longer exercise upon the others."
Whitman Mead, Esq. of New York, in his
journal, published nearly a quarter of a century
ago, under date of
" Savannah, January 28, 1817.
" To one not accustomed to such scenes as
slavery presents, the condition of the slaves is
impressively shocking. In the course of lay
60
General Testimony — Cruelties.
walks, I was every v/here witness to their wretch-
edness. Like the brute creatures of the north,
they are driven about at the pleasure of all who
meet them : half naked and half starved, they
drag out a pitiful existence, apparently almost
unconscious of what they suffer. A threat ac-
companies every command, and a bastinado is
the usual reward of disobedience."
TESTIMONY OF REV. JOHN RANKIN,
A native of Tennessee, educated there, and for a
number of years a preacher in slave states — now
pastor of a church in Ripley, Ohio.
" Many poor slaves are stripped naked, stretch-
ed and tied across barrels, or large bags, and tor-
tured with the lash during hours, and even whole
days, until their flesh is mangled to the very
hones. Others are stripped and hung up by the
arms, their feet are tied together, and the end of
a heavy piece of timber is put between their legs
in order to stretch their bodies, and so prepare
them for the torturing lash — and in this situation
they are often whipped until their bodies are
covered with blood and mangled flesh — and in
order to add the greatest keenness to their suffer-
ings, their wounds are washed with liquid salt .'
And some of the miserable creatures are permit-
ted to hang in that position until they actually
expire; some die mider the lash, others linger
about for a time, and at length die of their
wounds, and many survive, and endure again
similar torture. These bloody scenes are con-
stantly exhibiting in every slaveholding country
— thousands of whips are every day stained in
African blood ! Even the poor /er/iaZes are not
permitted to escape these shocking cruelties." —
Rankings Letters, pages 57, 58.
These letters were published fifteen years
ago. — They were addressed to a brother in Vir-
ginia, who was a slaveholder.
TESTIIVIONY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SO-
CIETY.
"We have heard of slavery as it exists in
Asia, and Africa, and Turkey — we have heard of
the feudal slavery under which the peasantry of
Europe have groaned from the days of Alaric
until now, but excepting only the horrible system
of the West India Islands, we have never heard
of slavery in any country, ancient or modern,
Pagan, Mohammedan, or Christian ! so terrible in
its character, as the slavery which exists in these
United States." — Seventh Report American Colo-
nization Society, 1824.
TESTIMONY OF THE GRADUAL EMANCIPATION SOCIE-
TY OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Signed by Moses Swain, President, and William
Swain, Secretary.
" In the eastern part of the state, the slaves
considerably outnumber the free population.
Their situation is there vsrretched beyond de-
scription. Impoverished by the mismanagement
which we have already attempted to describe,
the master, unable to support his own grandeur
and maintain his slaves, puts the unfortunate
wretches upon short allowances, scarcely suffi-
cient for their sustenance, so that a great part
of them go half naked and half starved much of
the time. Generally, throughout the state, the
African is an abused, a monstrously outraged
creature.''^ — See Minutes of the American Conven.
tion, convened in Baltimore, Oct. 25, 1826.
FROM NILES' BALTIMORF. REGISTER FOR 1829, VOL.
35, p. 4.
" Deahng in slaves has become a large busi-
ness. Establishments are made at several places
in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold
like cattle. These places of deposit are strongly
built, and well supplied with iron thumbscrews
and gags, and ornamented with cowskins and
other whips — often times bloody."
Judge Ruffin, of the Supreme Court of North
Carolina, in one of his judicial decisions, says —
" The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that
there is no appeal from his master. No man
can anticipate the provocations which the slave
would give, nor the consequent wrath of the
master, prompting him to BLOODY VEN-
GEANCE on the turbulent traitor, a vengeance
generally practiced with impunity, by reason of
its PRrvACY." — See Wheeler's Law of Slavery p.
247.
Mr. Moore, of Virginia, in his speech before
the Legislature of that state, Jan. 15, 1832, says:
" It must be confessed, that although the
treatment of our slaves is in the general, as mild
and humane as it can be, that it must always
happen, that there will be found hundreds of in-
dividuals, who, owing either to the natural fe-
rocity of their dispositions, or to the effects of
intemperance, will be guilty of cruelty and bar-
barity towards their slaves, which is almost in-
tolerable, and at which humanity revolts."
TESTIMONY OF B. SWAIN, ESQ., OF NORTH CAROLINA.
" Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a mo-
ment cast his thoughts over this land of slaver}' —
think of the nakedness of some, the hungry yearn-
ings of others, the flowing tears and heaving
sighs of parting relations, the wailings and wo,
the bloody cut of the keen lash, and the frightful
scream that rends the very skies — and all this to
gratify ambition, lust, pride, avarice, vanity, and
other depraved feelings of the human heart. . . .
THE WORST IS NOT GENERALLY
KNOWN. Were all the miseries, the horrors of
slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of
seven-fold thunder could scarce strike greater
alarm." — See " Swain's Address," 1830.
TESTIMONY OF DR. JAMES C. FINLEY,
Son of Dr. Finley, one of the founders of the Col-
onization Society, and brother of R. S. Finley,
agent of the American Colonization Society,
Dr. J. C. Finley was formerly one of the edi-
tors of the Western Medical Journal, at Cincin-
nati, and is well known in the west as utterly
hostile to immediate abolition.
" In almost the last conversation I had vdtli
you before I left Cincinnati, I promised to give
you some account of some scenes of atrocious
cruelty towards slaves, which I witnessed while
I lived at the south. I almost regret having
made the promise, for not only are they so atro-
cious that you will with difficulty believe them,
but I also fear that they will have the effect of
General Testimony — Cruelties.
61
driving yoii into that cholitionism, upon the bor-
ders of wliich )'ou have been so long hesitating.
The people of the north are ignorant of the hor-
rors of slavery — of the alrociiies which it com-
mits upon the unprotected slave. * * *
" I do not know that any thing could be gain-
ed by particularizing the sceaes of horrible bar-
harity, which fell under my observation during
my short residence iu one of the wealthiest, most
intelligent, and ma;t moral parts of Georgia.
Their number and atrocity are oUch, that I am
confident they would gain credit with none but
abolitionists. Every thing will be conveyed in
the remark, that in a state of society calculated
to foster the worst passions of our nature, the
slave derives no protection either from law or
public opinion, and that all the cruelties which
the Russians are reported to have acted towards
the Poles, after their late subjugation, are
SCENES OF EVERY-DAY OCCURRENCE in the southem
states. This statement, incredible as it may
seem, falls short, very far short of the truth."
The foregoing is extracted from a letter writ-
ten by Dr. Finley to Rev. Asa Mahan, his former
pastor, then of Cincinnati, now President of
Oberlin Seminary.
TESTLMONY OF REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN, OF ILLINOIS,
Son of a Slaveholder, Rev. Dr. Allan of Hunts,
ville, Ala.
" At our house it is so common to hear their
(the slaves') screams, that we think nothing of
it : and lest any one should think that in general
the slaves are well treated, let me be distinctly
\mderstood : — cruelty is the rule, and kindness
the exception."
Extract of a letter dated July 2d, 1834, from
Mr. Nathan Cole, of St. Louis, Missouri, to
Arthur Tappan, Esq. of this city :
" I am not an advocate of the immediate and
unconditional emancipation of the slaves of our
country, yet no man has ever yet depicted the
wretchedness of the situation of the slaves in co-
lors too dark for the truth. ... I know that many
good people are not aware of the treatment to
which slaves are usually subjected, nor have they
any just idea of the extent of the evil."
TESTIMONY OF REV. JAMES A. THOME,
^ A native of Kentucky— Son of Arthur Thoine
Esq., till recently a Slaveholder.
" Slavery is the parent of more suffering than
has flowed from any one source since the date of
its existence. Such sufferings too ! Suffer.
ings inconceivable and innumerable — unmingled
wretchedness from the ties of nature rudely
broken and destroyed, the acutest bodily tortures,
groans, tears and blood — lying for ever in weari-
ness and painfulness, in watchings, in hunger
and in thirst, in cold and nakedness.
" Brethren of the North, be not deceived.
These sufferings still exist, and despite the ef-
forts of their cruel authors to hush them down,
and confine them within the precincts of their
own plantations, they will ever and anon, strug-
gle up and reach the ear of humanity." — Mr.
Thome's Speech at New York, May, 1834,
TESTIMONY OF TPIE MARYVILLE (TENNESSEE)
INTKLLIGENC'ER, Ol' OCT. 4, 1835.
The Editor, in speaking of the sufferings of
the slaves which are taken by the internal trade
to the South West, says :
" Place yourself in imagination, for a mo-
ment, in their condition. With heavy galling
chains, riveted upon your person ; half-naked,
half-starved; your back lacerated with the
' knotted Whip ;' traveling to a region where
your condition through time will be second only
to the wretched creatures in Hell.
" This depicting is not visionary. Would to
God that it was."
TESTIMONY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD OF
KENTUCKY ;
A large majority of whom are slaveholders.
" This system licenses and produces great
cruelty.
" Mangling, imprisonment, starvation, every
species of torture, may be inflicted upon him,
(the slave,) and he has no redress.
" There are now in our whole land two mil.
lions of human beings, exposed, defenceless, to
every insult, and every injury short of maiming
or death, which their fellow-men may choose to
inflict. They suffer all that can be inflicted by
wanton caprice, by grasping avarice, by brutal
lust, by malignant spite, and by insane
anger. Their happiness is the sport of every
whim, and the prey of every passion that may,
occasionally, or habitually, infest the master's
bosom. If we could calculate the amount of
wo endured by ill-treated slaves, it would over-
whelm every compassionate heart — it would
move even the obdurate to sympathy. There is
also a vast sum of suffering inflicted upon the
slave by humane masters, as a punishment for
that idleness and misconduct which slavery na-
turally produces. » * *
" Brutal stripes and all the varied kinds of
personal indignities, are not the only species of
cruelty which slavery licenses." * *
Testimony of the Rev. N. H. Harding, Pastor
of the Presbyterian Church, in Oxford, North
Carolina, a slaveholder.
" I am greatly surprised that you should in any
form have been the apologist of a system so full
of deadly poison to all holiness and benevolence
as slavery, the concocted essence of fraud, sel-
fishness, and cold hearted tyranny, and the fruit-
ful parent of unnumbered evils, both to the op-
pressor and the oppressed, the one thousandth
PART OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN BROUGHT TO
LIGHT."
Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, v/ho
lived near Natchez, (Mi.,) in 1834 and 5, sent the
following with other testimony, to be published
under his own name, in the N. Y. Evangelist,
while he was still residing there.
" Floggings for all offences, including defi-
ciencies in work, are frightfully common, and
most terribly severe.
" Rubbing with salt and red pepper is very com-
mon after a severe whipping."
62
Punishments — Floggings.
Testimony of Rev. Piiineas Smith, Centrevillc,
AlleganVjCo., N. Y. who lived four years at the
south.
" They are badly clothed, badly fed, wretch-
edly lodged, unmercifully whipped, from month
to month, from year to year, from childhood to
old age."
Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, Castile, Genessee Co.
N. Y. who was till recently a preacher in Mis-
souri, says,
" It is true that barbarous cruelties are inflict-
ed upon them, such as terrible lacerations with
the whip, and excruciating tortures are sometimes
e.xperienced from the thumb screw."
Extract of a letter from Sarah M. Grimke,
dated 4th Month, 2nd, 1839.
" If the following extracts from letters which
I have received from South Carolina, will be of
any use thou art at liberty to publish them. I
need not say, that the names of the writers are
withheld of necessity, because such sentiments if
uttered at the south would peril their lives.
EXTRACTS.
' South Carolina, 4th Month, 5th, 1835.
« With regard to slavery I must confess.
though we had heard a great deal on the sub-
ject, we found on coming South the half, the
worst half too, had not beentold us ; not that we
have ourselves seen much oppression, though
truly we have felt its deadening influence, but
the accounts we have received from every tongue
that nobly dares to speak upon the subject,
are indeed deplorable. To quote the language
of a lady, who with true Southern hospitality,
received us at her mansion. " The northern
people don't know anything of slavery at all,
they think it is perpetual bondage merely, but of
the depth of degradation that that word involves,
they have no conception ; if they had any just
idea of it, they would I am sure use every effort
until an end was put to such a shocking system.'
" Another friend writing from South Carolina,
and who sustains herself the legal relation of
slaveholder, in a letter dated April 4th, 1838,
says — ' I have some time since, given you my
views on the subject of slavery, which so much
engrosses your attention. I would most willing-
ly forget what I have seen and heard in my own
family, with regard to the slaves. / shudder
when I think of it, and increasingly feel that
slavery is a curse since it leads to such cruelty.^ "
PUNISHMENTS
I. FLOGGINGS.
The slaves are terribly lacerated with whips,
paddles, &c. ; red pepper and salt are rubbed
into their mangled flesh ; hot brine and turpen-
tine are poured into their gashes ; and innumer-
able other tortures inflicted upon them.
We will in the first place, prove by a cloud of
witnesses, that the slaves are whipped with such
inhuman severity, as to lacerate and mangle
tiieir flesh in the most shocking manner, leaving
permanent scars and ridges; after establishing
this, we will present a mass of testimony, con-
cerning a great variety of other tortures. The
testimony, for the most part, will be that of the
slaveholders themselves, and in their own chosen
wnids. A large portion of it wLU be taken from
the advertisements, which they have published
in their own newspapers, describing by the
WITNESSES. TESTIMONY.
Mr. D. Judd, jailor, Davidson Co., '< Committed to jail as a runaway, a negro woman named
DeaWtMm"''^'''"''''^"''^''"""''' Martha, 17 or 18 years of age, has numerous scars of the
whip on her back."
Mr. Robert NicoII, Dauphin st. be- " Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, very much scarred
tween Emmanuel and Conception st's, „/,„,,* fj.. „prk and pari hv whivvino-."
Mobile, Alabama, in the " Mobile Com- °'°'^^^ '"^ ^^'^'^ *""" ^"' * "V w'«^i'/'"'& •
mercial Advertiser."
Mr. Bryant Johnson, Fort Valley, " Ranaway, a negro woman, named Maria, some scars on her
Houston Co., Georfpa, in the " Standard t ^ nrrntinnpd bii fhp whin "
of Union," Milledgeville Ga. Oct. 2, ""'^'^ occasionea oy me wnip.
1838.
Mr. James T. De Jamett, Vernon, " Stolen a neo-ro woman, named Celia. On examining her
4'JSeu°e>^Jul'y?14; ll^? " ^^'^^' ^^°^ ^^"^ ^^"^ ^^^^ '"'"■^^ <'«"*^'^ ^V ^^^ ^^'P''
scars on their bodies made by the whip, their
own runaway slaves. To copy these advertise-
ments entire would require a great amount of
space, and flood the reader with a vast mass of
matter irrelevant to the point before us ; we
shall therefore insert only so much of each, as
vnll intelligibly set forth the precise point under
consideration. In the column under the word
" witnesses," will be found the name of the indi,
vidual,who signs the advertisement, or for whom it
is signed,with his or her place of residence, andtho
name and date of the paper, in which it appear-
ed, and generally the name of the place where it
is published. Opposite the name of each witness,
will be an extract, from the advertisement, con-
taining his or her testimony.
Punislwients— Floggings.
63
WITNESSES.
Maurice Y. Garcia, Slieriir of tlie
Couatv of Jolforson, La., in the " New
Orleails Bee," August, 14, 183d.
R. J. Bland, Sheriff of Claiborne Co,
Miss., in the "Charleston (S.C.) Cou-
rier," August, 23, 1833.
Mr. James Noe, Red River Landing,
La., in the "Sentinel," Vicksburg,
Miss., August 2:2, 1S37.
William Craze, jailor, Alexandria, La.
in the "Planter's Intelligencer," Sept.
86, 1838.
John A. Rowland, jailor, Lumberton,
North Carolina, in the " Fayetteville
(N. C.) Observer," June 20, 1833.
J. K. Roberts, sheriff, Blount county,
Ala., in the Huntsville Democrat,"
Dec. 9, 1838.
Jlr. H. Vaiillat, No. 23 Girod street.
New Orleans— in the "Commercial
Bulletin," August 27, 1833.
Mr. Cornelius D. Tolin, Augusta, Ga.,
in the " Cliroiiicle and Sentinel," Oct,
18, 1838.
W. H. Brasseale, sheriff, Blount coun-
tv, Ala., in the " Huntsville Democrat."
June 9, 1838.
Mr. Robert Beasley, Macon, Ga., in
the " Georgia Messenger," July 27, 1837.
Mr. Jolin Wotton, Rockvite, Mont-
gomery county, Maryland, in the " Bal-
timore Republican," Jan. 13, 1838.
D. S. Bennett, sheriff, Natchitoches,
La., in tlie "Herald," July 21, 1838.
Messrs. C. C. Whitehead, and R. A.
Evans, Marion, Georgia, in the Mil-
ledgeviUe (Ga.) " Standard of Union,"
June 26, 1838.
Mr. Samuel Stewart, Greensboro',
Ala., in the " Southern Advocate,"
Huntsville, Jan. 6, 1838.
Mr. John Walker, No. 6, Banks' Ar-
cade, New Orleans, in the "Bulletin,"
August 11, 1838.
Mr. Jesse Beene, Cahawba, Ala., in
the "State Intelligencer," Tuskaloosa,
Dec. 25, 1837.
Mr. John Turner, Thomaston, Upson
county, Georgia — in the " Standard of
Union," Milledgevllle, June 26, 1838.
James Derrah, deputy sheriff, Clai-
borne county, 5Ii., in the " Port Gibson
Correspondent," April 15, 1837.
S. B. Murphy, sheriff, Wilkinson
count}', Georgia— in the Milledgeville
" Journal," May 15, 1838.
Mr. L. E. Cooner, Branchville Orange-
burgh District, South Carolina— in the
Macon " Messenger," May 25, 1837.
TESTIMOm'.
" Lodged in jail, a mulatto boy, having large marks of the
whip, on his shoulders and other parts of his body."
" Was committed a negro boy, named Tom, is much marked
with the whip."
" Ranavvaj% a negro fellow named Dick — has many scars on hio
back from being whipped.'"
" Committed to jail, a negro slave — his back is very badly
scaired."
" Committed, a mulatto fellow — his back shows lasting im-
pressions of the whip, and leaves no doubt of his being a slave."
" Committed to jail, a negro man — his back much marjced by
the whip."
" Ranaway, the negro slave named Jupiter — ^lias a fresh mark
of a cowskui on one of his cheeks."
" Ranaway, a negro man named Johnson — he has a great
many marks of the whip on his back."
" Committed to jail, a negro slave named James — much scarred
with a whip on his back."
" Ranaway, my man Fountain — he is marked on the back with
the whip."
" Ranaway, Bill — ^has several large scars on his back from a
severe whipping in early life."
" Committed to jail, a negro boy who calls himself Joe — said
negro bears marks of the whip."
" Ranaway, negro fellow John — from being whipped, has scars
On his back, arins^ and thighs."
" Ranaway, a boy named Jim — with the marks of the whip ob
the small of the back, reaching round to the flank."
" Ranaway, the mulatto boy Quash — considerably marked on
the back and other places with the lash.
" Ranaway, my negro man Billy — he has the marks of the
whip."
" Left, my negro man named George — has marks of the whip
very plain on his thighs."
"Committed to jail, negro man Toy — ^he has been badly
whipped."
" Brought to jail, a negro man named George — he has a great
many scars from the lash,"
" One hundred dollars reward, for my negro Glasgow, and
Kate, his wife. Glasgow is 24 years old — has marks of the whip
on his back. Kate is 26— has a scar on her cheek, and several
marks of a whip."
Fettn^;&^?.i?^gt'""FtandS old-his""baek badly marked with the whip, his upper lip and
Journal," July 6, 1837.
Committed to jail, a negro boy named John, about 17 years
—his back badly 71
chin severely bruised."
The preceding are extracts from advertise. | dreds of similar ones published during the same
ments published in southern papers, mostly in the period, with which, as the preceding are quite
year 1838. They are the mere samples of hun- 1 sufficient to show the commonness of inhuman
64
Punishments — Floggings.
floggings in the slave states, we need not burden
the reader.
The foregoing testimony is, as the reader per-
ceives, that of the slaveholders themselves, volun-
tarily certifying to the outrages which their own
hands have committed upon defenceless and in-
nocent men and women, over whom they have
assumed authority. We have given to their testi.
mony precedence over that of all other witnesses,
for the reason that when men testify against
themselves they are under no temptation to ex-
agger ate.
We we will now present the testimony of a
large niimber of individuals, with their names and
residences, of persons who witnessed the inflictions
to which they testify. Many of them have been
slaveholders, and all residents for longer or short-
er periods in slave states.
Rev. John H. Curtiss, a native of Keep Creek,
Norfolk county, Virginia, now a local preacher of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Portage co.,
Ohio, testifies as follows : —
" In 1829 or 30, one of my father's slaves was
accused of taking. the key to the office and steal-
ing four or five dollars : he denied it. A consta-
ble by the name of Hull was called ; he took the
negro, very deliberately tied his hands, and whipped
liim till the blood ran freely down his legs. By
this time Hull appeared tired, and stopped ; he
then took a rope, put a slip noose around his neck,
and told the negro he was going to kill him, at
the same time drew the rope and began whipping :
the negro fell ; his cheeks looked as though they
would burst with strangulation. Hull whipped
and kicked him, till I really thought he was go-
ing to kill him ; when he ceased, the negro was in
a complete gore of blood from head to foot."
Mr. David Ha^vley, a class-leader in the Me-
thodist Church, at St. Alban's, Licking county,
Ohio, who moved from Kentucky to Ohio in 1831,
testifies as follows : —
" In the year 1821 or 2, I saw a slave hung for
killing his master. The master had whipped the
slave's mother to death, and, locking him in a
room, threatened him with the same fate ; and,
cowhide in hand, had begun the work, when the
slave joined battle and slew the master."
Samuel Ellison, a member of the Society of
Friends, formerly of Southampton county, Vir-
ginia, now of Marlborough, Stark county, Ohio,
gives the following testimony : —
" While a resident of Southampton county, Vir-
ginia, I knew two men, after having been severe,
ly treated, endeavor to make their escape. In
this they failed — were taken, tied to trees, and
whipped to death by their overseer. I lived a
mile from the negro quarters, and, at that distance,
could frequently hear the screams of the poor
creatures when beaten, and could also hear the
blows given by the overseer with some heavy in-
strument."
Major Horace Nve, of Putnam, Ohio, gives
the following testimony of Mr. Wm. Armstrong,
of that place, a captain and supercargo of boats
descending the Mississippi river : —
" At Bayou Sarah, I saw a slave staked out,
with his face to the ground, and whipped with a
large whip, which laid open the flesh for about
two and a half inches every stroke. 1 stayed
about five minutes, but could stand it no longer,
and left them whipping."
Mr. Stephen E. Maltby, inspector of provisions,
Skeneateles, New York, who has resided in Ala-
bama, speaking of the condition of the slaves,
says : —
" I have seen them cruelly whipped. I will
relate one instance. One Sabbath morning, be-
fore I got out of my bed, I heard an outcry, and
got up and went to the window, when I saw
some six or eight boys, from eight to twelve years
of age, near a rack (made for tying horses) on the
public square. A man on horseback rode up, got
off his horse, took a cord from his pocket, tied one
of the boys by the thumbs to the rack, and with
his horsewhip lashed him most severely. He
then untied him and rode ofl" without saying a
word.
" It was a general practice, while I was at
Huntsville, Alabama, to have a patrol every night ;
and, to my knowledge, this patrol was in the habit
of traversing the streets with cow-skins, and, if
they found any slaves out after eight o'clock with-
out a pass, to whip them until they were out of
reach, or to confine them until morning."
Mr. J. G. Baldwin, of Middletown, Connecti-
cut, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
gives the following testimony : —
" I traveled at the south in 1827 : when near
Charlotte, N. C. a free colored man fell into the
road just ahead of me, and went on peaceably. —
When passing a public-house, the landlord ran out
with a large cudgel, and applied it to the head
and shoulders of the man with such force as to
shatter it in pieces. When the reason of his con-
duct was asked, he replied, that he owned slaves,
and he would not permit free blacks to come into
his neighborhood.
" Not long after, I stopped at a public-house
near Halifax, N. C, between nine and ten o'clock
P. M., to stay over night. A slave sat upon a
bench in the bar-room asleep. The master came
in, seized a large horsewhip, and, without any
warning or apparent provocation, laid it over the
face and eyes of the slave. The master cursed,
swore, and swung his lash — the slave cowered and
trembled, but said not a word. Upon inquiry the
next morning, I ascertained that the only offence
was falling asleep, and this too in consequence of
having been up nearly all the previous night, in
attendance upon company."
Rev. Joseph M. S add, of Castile, N, Y., who has
lately left Missouri, where he was pastor of a
church for some years, says : —
" In one case, near where we lived, a runaway
slave, when brought back, was most cruelly beat-
en— bathed in the usual liquid — laid in the sun,
and a physician employed to heal his wounds : —
then the same process of punighmcni and healing
Punishments — Floggings .
65
was repeated, and repeated again, and then the
poor creature was sold for the New Orleans mar-
ket. This accoiuit we had from tlio physician
himself."
Mr. Abraham Bell, of Poughkeepsie, New
York, a member of the Scotch Presbyterian
Church, was employed, in 1837 and 38, in level-
ling and grading for a rail-road in the state of
Georgia : he had under his direction, during the
whole time, thirty slaves. Mr. B. gives the fol-
lowing testimony : —
" ^4// the slaves had their backs scarred, from
the oft-repeated whippings they had received."
Mr. Alonzo Barnard, of Farmington, Ohio,
who was in Mississippi in 1837 and 8, says : —
" The slaves were often severely whipped. I
saw one 'iDoman very severely whipped for acci
dentally cutting up a stalk of cotton.* When
they were whipped they were commonly held
doton by four men : if these could not confine them,
they were fastened by stakes driven firmly into
the ground, and then lashed often so as to draw
blood at each blow. I saw one woman who had
lately been delivered of a child in consequence of
cruel treatment."
Rev. H. Lyman, late pastor of the Free Presby-
terian Church at Buffalo. N. Y. says : —
" There was a steam cotton press, in the vicinity
of my boarding-house at New Orleans, which was
driven night and day, without intermission. My
curiosity led me to look at the interior of the estab-
lishment. There I saw several slaves engaged
in rolling cotton bags, fastening ropes, lading
carts, &c.
" The presiding genius of the place was a driver,
who held a rope four feet long in his hand, which
he vdelded with cruel dexterity. He used it in
single blows, just as the men were lifting to tight-
en the bale cords. It seemed to me that he was
desirous to edify me with a specimen of his autho-
rity ; at any rate the cruelty was horrible."
jMr. John V.vnce, a member of the Baptist
Church, in St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio, who
moved from Culpepper county, Va., his native
state, in 1814, testifies as follows : —
" In 1826, I saw a woman by the name of
Mallix, flog her female slave with a horse-whip so
horribly that she was washed in salt and water
several days, to keep her bruises from mortifying.
" In 1811, I was returning from mill, in She-
nandoah county, when I heard the cryofmiirdcr,
in the field of a man named Painter. I rode to
the place to see what was going on. Two men,
by the names of John Morgan and Michael Sig-
lar, had heard the cry and came running to the
place. I saw Painter beating a negro with a tre-
mendous club, or small handspike, swearing he
would kill him ; but he was rescued by Morgan
and Siglar. I learned that Painter had com-
menced flogging the slave for not getting to work
* Mr. Cornelius Johnson, of Farmington, Ohio, was also
a witness to this inhuman outrage upon an unprotected wo-
man, for tlie unintentional destruction of a stalk of cotton !
In his testimony he is more particular, and sa}'s, that tlie
number of lashes inflicted upon her by the overseer was
^ ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY '. "
soon enough. Ho had escaped, and taken refuge
under a pile of rails that were on some timbers up
a httlc from the ground. The master had put fire
to one end, and stood at the other with his club,
to kill him as he came out. The pile was still
burning. Painter said he was a turbulent fellow
and he loould kill him. The apprehension of P.
was TALKEi> ABOUT, but, as a compromise, the ne-
gro was sold to another man."
Extract froji the published Journal of the
LATE Wm. Savery, of Philadelphia, an eminent
minister of the religious Society of Friends : —
" 6th mo. 22d, 1791. We passed on to Au-
gusta, Georgia. They can scarcely tolerate us,
on account of our abhorrence of slavery. On the
28th we got to Savannah, and lodged at one
Blount's, a hard-hearted slaveholder. One of his
lads, aged about fourteen, was ordered to go and
rnilk the cows : and falling asleep, through wea- .
I riness, the master called out and ordered him a
flogging. I asked him what he meant by a flog-
ging. He replied, the way we serve them here
IS, we cut their backs until they are raw all over,
and then salt them. Upon this my feelings were
roused ; I told him that was too bad, and queried
if it were possible ; he rephed it was, with many
curses upon the blacks. At supper this unfeeling
wretch craved a blessing !
" Next morning I heard some one begging for
mercjr, and also the lash as of a whip. Not know-
ing whence the sound came, I rose, and presently
found the poor boy tied up to a post, his toes
scarcely touching the ground, and a negro whip-
per. He had already cut him in an unmerciful
manner, and the blood ran to his heels. I step-
ped in between them, and ordered him untied im-
mediately, which, with some reluctance and as-
tonishment, was done. Returning to the house I
saw the landlord, who then showed himself in his
true colors, the most abominably wicked man I
ever met with, full of horrid execrations and
threatenings upon all northern people ; but I did
not spare him ; which occasioned a bystander to
say, with an oath, that I should be "popped
over." We left them, and were in full expecta-
tion of their way-laying or coming after us, but
the Lord restrained them. The next house we
stopped at we found the same wicked spirit "
Col. Elijah Ellsworth, of Richfield, Ohio,
gives the following testimony : —
" Eight or ten years ago I was in Putnam coun-
ty, in the state of Georgia, at a Mr. Slaughter's,
the father of my brother's wife. A negro, that
belonged to Mr. Walker, (I believe,) was accused
of stealing a pedlar's trunk. The negro denied,
but, without ceremony, was lashed to a tree — the
v/hipping commenced — six or eight men took
turns — the poor fellow begged for mercy, but with-
out effect, until he was literally cut to pieces, from
his shoulders to his hips, and covered with a gore
of blood. When he said the trunk was in a stack
of fodder, he was unlashed. They proceeded to the
stack, but found no trunk. They asked the poor
fellow, what he lied about it for ; he said, " Lord,
Massa, to keep from being whipped to death ; I
know nothing about the trunk." They commenced
the whipping with redoubled vigor, until I really
supposed he would be whipped to death on tlie
66
Punishments — Floggings.
spot ; and such shrieks and crying for mercy ! —
Again he acknowledged, and again they were de-
feated in finding, and the same reason given as
before. Some were for whipping again, others
thought he would not survive another, and they
ceased. About two months after, the trunk was
found, and it was then ascertained who the thief
was : and the poor fellow, after being nearly beat
to death, and twice made to lie about it, was as
innocent as I was."
The following statements are fumiehed by Ma-
jor Horace Nye, of Putnam, Muskingum county,
Ohio.
" In the summer of 1837, Mr. John H. Moore-
head, a partner of mine, descended the Mississippi
with several boat loads of flour. He told me that
floating in a place in the Mississippi, where he
could see for miles a head, he perceived a con-
course of people on the bank, that for at least a
mile and a half above he saw them, and heard
the screams of some person, and for a great dis-
tance, the crack of a whip, he run near the shore,
and saw them whipping a black man, who was
on the ground, and at that time nearly unable to
scream, but the whip continued to be plied
without intermission, as long as he was in sight,
say from one mile and a half, to two miles be-
low— he probably saw and heard them for one
hour in all. He expressed the opinion that the
man could not survive.
" About four weeks since I had a conversation
with Mr. Porter, a respectable citizen of Morgan
county, of this state, of about fifty years of age.
He told me that he formerly traveled about five
years in the southern states, and that on one oc-
casion he stopped at a private house, to stay all
night ; (I think it was in Virginia,) while he was
conversing with the man, his wife came in, and
complained that the wench had broken some ar-
ticle in the kitchen, and that she must be whip-
ped. He took the woman into the door yard,
stripped her clothes down to her hips — tied her
hands together, and drawing them up to a limb,
so that she could just touch the ground, took a
very large cowskin whip, and commenced flog-
ging ; he said that every stroke at first raised the
skin, and immediately the blood came through ;
this he continued, until the blood stood in a pud-
dle at her feet. He then turned to my informant
.and said, " Well, Yankee, what do you think of
that ?"
Extract of a letter from Mr. W. Dustin, a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and,
when the letter was written, 1835, a student of
3{arietta College, Ohio.
" I find by looking over my journal that the
murdering, which I spoke of yesterday, took
place about the first of June, 1834.
"Without commenting upon this act of cruel-
ty, or giving vent to my own feelings, I will sim-
ply give you a statement of the fact, as known
from personal observation.
" Dr. K. a man of wealth, and a practising
physician in the county of Yazoo, state of Mis-
sissippi, personally known to me, having lived
in the same neighborhood more than twelve
months, after having scourged one of his negroes
for running away, declared with an oath, that if he
ran away again, he would kill him. The negro,
so soon asan opportunity offered, ran away again.
He was caught and brought back. Again he
was scourged, until his flesh, mangled and torn,
and thick mingled with the clotted blood, rolled
from his back. He became apparently insensible,
and beneath the heaviest stroke would scarcely
utter a groan. The master got tired, laid down
his whip and nailed the negro's ear to a tree ; in
this condition, nailed fast to the rugged wood, he
remained all night !
" Suffice it to say, in the conclusion, that the
next day he was found dead !
" Well, what did they do with the master ?
The sum total of it is this : He was taken before
a magistrate and gave bonds, for his appearance
at the next court. Well, to be sure he had plen.
ty of cash, so he paid up his bonds and moved
away, and there the matter ended.
" If the above fact wiU be of any service to
you in exhibiting to the world the condition of
the unfortunate negroes, you are at liberty to
make use of it in any way you think best.
Yours, fraternally,
M. Dustin.
Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, a member of the Bap.
tist Church in Skeneateles, N. Y. and the as-
sessor of that town, has furnished the following :
" I went down the Mississippi in December,
1808, and saw twelve or fourteen negroes punish-
ed, on one plantation, by stretching them on a
ladder and tying them to it ; then stripping off" their
clothes, and whipping them on the naked flesh
with a heavy whip, the lash seven or eight feet
long : most of the strokes cut the skin. I under-
stood they were whipped for not doing the tasks
allotted to them."
From the Philanthropist, Cincinnati, Ohio,
Feb. 26, 1839.
" A very intelligent lady, the widow of a high-
ly respectable preacher of the gospel, of the Pres-
byterian Church, formerly a resident of a free
state, and a colonizationist, and a strong anti-
abolitionist, who, although an enemy to slavery,
was opposed to abolition on the ground that it
was for carrying things too rapidl}', and without
regard to circumstances, and especially who be-
lieved that abolitionists exaggerated with regard
to the evils of slavery, and used to say that such
men ought to go to slave states and see for them-
selves, to be convinced that they did the slave,
holders injustice, has gone and seen for herself.
Hear her testimonj'.
Kentucky, Dec. 25, 1835.
" Dear Mrs. W. — I am still in the land of op-
pression and cruelty, but hope soon to breathe
the air of a free state. My soul is sick of slavery,
and I rejoice that my time is nearly expired : but
the scenes that I have witnessed have made an
impression that never can be effaced, and have
inspired me with the determination to unite my
feeble efforts with those who are laboring to sup>-
press this horrid system. I am noiv an abolition,
ist. You will cease to be surprised at this, when
I inform you, that I have just seen a poor slave
who was beaten by his inhuman master until he
could neither walk nor stand. I saw him from
my window carried from the bam where he had
Punishme n ts — Floggings .
67
been whipped) to the cabin, by two ncg^ro men ;
and he now Hes there, and if he recovers, will be
a sufferer for months, and probably for life. You
will doubtless suppose tliat he committed some
great crime ; but it was not so. Ho was called
upon by a young maa (the son of his master,) to
do something, and not moving as quickly as his
young master wished hini to do, he drove him to
the barn, knocked him tlown, and jumped upon
him, stamped, and then cowhided him until he
was almost dead. This is not the first act of
cruelty that I have seen, though it is the tcorst ;
and I am convinced that those who have des-
cribed the cruelties of slaveholders, have not ex-
aggerated."
Extract of a letter from Gerrit Smith,
Esq., of Peterboro', N. Y.
Feterboro', December 1, 1838.
To the Editor of the Union Herald :
"My dear Sir : — You will be happy to hear, that
tlie two fugitive slaves, to whom in the brotherly
love of your heart, you gave the use of your
horse, are still making undisturbed progress to-
wards the monarchical land whither republican
slaves escape for the enjoyment of liberty. They
had eaten their breakfast, and were seated in my
wagon, before day-dawn, this morning.
" Fugitive slaves have before taken my house in
their way, but never any, whose lips and persons
made so forcible an appeal to my sensibilities, and
kindled in me so much abhorrence of the hell-
concocted system of American slavery.
"The fugitives exhibited their bare backs to my-
self and a number of my neighbors. Williams'
back is comparatively scarred. But, I speak with-
in bounds, when I say, that one-third to one-half
of the whole surface of the back and shoulders
of poor Scott, consists of scars and wales result,
ingfrom innumerable gashes. His natural com-
plexion being yellow and the callous places be-
ing nearly black, his back and shoulders remind
you of a spotted animal."
The Louisville Reeportr (Kentucky,) Jan. 15,
1839, contains the report of a trial for inhuman
treatment of a female slave. The following is some
of the testimony given in court.
" Dr. Constant testified that he saw Mrs. Max-
well at the kitchen door, whipping the negro se-
verely, without being particular whether she
struck her in the face or not. The negro was la-
cerated by the whip, and the blood flowing. Soon
after, on going down the steps, he saw quantities
of blood on them, and on returning, saw them
again. She had been thinly clad — barefooted in
very cold weather. Sometimes she had shoes —
sometimes not. In the beginning of the winter
she had hnsey dresses, since then, calico ones.
During the last four months, had noticed many
scars on her person. At one time had one of her
eyes tied up for a week. During the last three
months seemed declining, and had become stupi-
fied. Mr. Winters was passing along the street,
heard cries, looked up through the window that
was hoisted, saw the boy whipping her, as much
as forty or fifty licks, while he staid. The girl
was stripped down to the hips. The whip seem-
ed to be a cow-hide. Whenever she turned her
face to him, he would hit her across the face either
with the butt end or small end of the whip to
make her turn her back round square to the lash,
that he might get a fair blow at her.
" Mr. Say had noticed several wounds on her
person, chiefly bruises.
" Captain Porter, keeper of the work-house, into
whicli iVIilly had been received, tiiought the inju-
ries on her person very bad — some of them ap-
peared to be burns — some bruises or stripes, as of
a cow-hide."
Letter of Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley,
Ohio, to the Editor of the Philanthropist.
RiPLKY, Feb. 20, 1839.
" Some time since, a member of the Presbyte-
rian Church of Ebenezer, Brown county, Ohio,
landed his boat at a point on the Mississippi. He
saw some disturbance among the colored people
on the bank. He stepped up, to see what was
the matter. A black man was stretched naked
on the ground ; his hands were tied to a stake,
and one held each foot. He was doomed to re-
ceive fifty lashes ; but by the time the overseer
had given him twenty-five with his great whip,
the blood was standing round the wretched vic-
tim in little puddles. It appeared just as if it had
rained blood. — Another observer stepped up, and
advised to defer the other twenty-five to another
time, lest the slave might die ; and he was releas-
ed, to receive the balance when he should have
so recruited as to be able to bear it and live. The
offence was, coming one hour too late to work."
Mr. Rankin, who is a native of Tennessee,
in his letters on slavery, published fifteen years
since, says :
" A respectable gentleman, who is now a citi.
zen of Flemingsburg, Fleming county, Kentucky,
when in the state of South Carolina, was invited
by a slaveholder, to walk with him and take a
view of his farm. He complied with the invita-
tion thus given, and in their walk they came to
the place where the slaves were at work, and
found the overseer whipping one of them very
severely for not keeping pace with his fellows —
in vain the poor fellow alleged that he was sick,
and could not work. The master seemed to
think all was well enough, hence he and the gen-
tleman passed on. In the space of an hour they
returned by the same way, and found that the
poor slave, who had been whipped as they first
passed by the field of labor, was actually dead !
This I have from unquestionable authority."
Extract of a letter from a Member of Congress,
to the Editor of the New York American, dated
Washington, Feb. 18, 1839. The name of the
writer is with the Executive Committee of the
American Anti-Slavery Society.
" Three days ago, the inhabitants in the vicini-
ty of the new Patent Building were alarmed by
an outcry in the street, which proved to be that
of a slave who had just been knocked down with
a brick-bat by his pursuing master. Prostrate on
the ground, with a large gash in his head, the
poor slave was receiving the blows of his master
on one side, and the kicks of his master's son on
the other. His cries brought a fiew individuak to
68
Punishme n ts — Floggings .
the spot ; but no one dared to interfere, save to
exclaim — You will kill him — which was met by
the response, " He is mine, and I have a right to
do what I please with him." The heart-rending
scene was closed from public view by dragging
the poor bruised and wounded slave from the pub-
lie street into his master's stable. What followed
is not known. The outcries were heard by mem-
bers of Congress and others at the distance of
near a quarter of a mile from the scene.
" And now, perhaps, you will ask, is not the
city aroused by this flagrant cruelty and breach
of the peace ? I answer — not at all. Every
thing is quiet. If the occurrence is mentioned at
all, it is spoken of in whispers."
From the Mobile Examiner, August 1, 1837.
"police report — mayor's office.
Saturday morning , August 12, 1837.
" His Honor the Mayor presiding.
" Mr. Miller, of the foundry, brought to the
office this morning a small negro girl aged about
eight or ten years, whom he had taken into his
house some time during the previous night. She
had crawled under the window of his bed room to
screen herself from the night air, and to find a
warmer shelter than the open canopy of heaven
afforded. Of all objects of pity that have lately
come to our view, this poor little girl most needs
the protection of authority, and the sympathies
of the charitable. From the cruelty of her mas-
ter and mistress, she has been whipped, worked
and starved, until she is now a breathing skele-
ton, hardly able to stand upon her feet.
"The back of the poor little sufferer, (which we
ourselves saw,) loas actually cut into strings, and
so perfectly was the fesh worn from her limhs,
by the vwetched treatment she had received, that
every joint shoived distinctly its crevices and pro-
tuberances through the skin. Her little lips clung
closely over her teeth — her cheeks were sunken
and her head narrowed, and when her eyes were
closed, the lids resembled film more than flesh or
skin.
"We would desire of our northern friends such
as choose to publish to the world their own ver-
sion of the case we have related, not to forget to
add, in conclusion, that the owner of this little
girl is a foreigner, speaks against slavery as an
institution, and reads his Bible to his wife, with
the view of finding proofs for his opinions."
Rev. WiLLiABi Scales, of Lyndon, Vermont,
gives the following testimony in a recent letter :
" I had a class-mate at the Andover Theologi-
cal Seminary, who spent a season at the south,
— in Georgia, I think — who related the following
fact in an address before the Seminary. It occa-
feioned very deep sensation on the pa.rt of op-
ponents. The gentleman was Mr. Julius C. An.
thony, of Taunton, Mass. He graduated at the
Seminary in 1835. I do not know where he is
now settled. I have no doubt of the fact, as he
was an eye-witness of it. The man with whom
he resided had a very athletic slave — a valuable
fellow — a blacksmith. On a certain day a small
strap of leather was missing. The man's little
son accused this slave of stealing it. He denied the
charge, while the boy most confidently asserted it.
The slave was brought out into the yard and
bound — his hands below his knees, and a stick
crossing his knees, so that he would lie upon
either side in form of the letter S. One of the
overseers laid on fifty lashes — he still denied the
theft — was turned over and fifty more put on.
Sometimes the master and sometimes the over-
seers whipping — as they relieved each other to
take breath. Then he v/as for a time left to
himself, and in the course of the day received
FOUR hundred lashes — still denying the charge.
Next morning Mr. Anthony walked ouf — the sun
was just rising — he saw the man greatly enfee-
bled, leaning against a stump. It was time to go
to work — he attempted to rise, but fell back —
again attempted, and again fell back — still mak-
ing the attempt, and still falling back, Mr. An-
thony thought, nearly twenty times before he
succeeded in standing — he then staggered off to
his shop. In course of the morning Mr. A. went
to the door and looked in. Two overseers were
standing by. The slave was feverish and sick —
his skin and mouth dry and parched. He was
very thirsty. One of the overseers, while Mr. A,
was looking at him, inquired of the other whether
it were not best to give him a little water. ' No .
damn him, he will do well enough,' was the re.
ply from the other overseer. This was all the
relief gained by the poor slave. A few days after,
the slaveholder's son confessed that he stole the
strap himself."
Rev. D. C. Eastman, a minister of the Metho.
dist Episcopal church at Bloomingburg, Fayette
county, Ohio, has just forwarded a letter, from
which the following is an extract :
" George Roebuck, an old and respectable
farmer, near Bloomingburg, Fayette county,
Ohio, a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church, says, that almost forty-three years ago,
he saw in Bath county, Virginia, a slave girl
with a sore between the shoulders of the size and
shape of a smoothing iron. The girl was ' owned '
by one M'Neil. A slaveholder who boarded at
M'Neil's stated that Mrs. M'Neil had placed the
aforesaid iron when hot, between the girl's shoul-
ders, and produced the sore.
" Roebuck was once at this M'Neil's father's,
and whilst the old man was at morning prayer,
he heard the son plying the whip upon a slave out
of doors.
"Eli West, of Concord township, Fayette
county, Ohio, formerly of North Carolina, a
farmer and an exhorter in the Methodist Pro.
testant church, says, that many years since he
went to live with an uncle who owned about fifty
negroes. Soon after his arrival, his uncle ordered
his waiting boy, who was naked, to be tied — his
hands to a horse rack, and his feet together, with
a rail passed between his legs, and held down by
a person at each end. In this position he was
v/hipped, from neck to feet, till covered with
blood ; after which he was salted.
" His uncle's slaves received one quart of com
each day, and that only, and were allowed one
hour each day to cook and eat it. They had no
meat but once in the year. Such was the general
usage in that country.
" West, after this, lived one year with Esquire
Starky and mother. They had two hundred
Punislwients — Flowffi^Ss.
69
slaves, who received the usual treatment of starv-
ation, nakedness, and the cowhide. They had one
likely negro woman who bore no children. For
this neglect, her mistress had her back made naked
and a severe whipping inilicted. But as she con-
tinued barren, she was sold to the ' negro buyers.'
" Thomas Larrimer, a deacon in the Presby-
terian church at Bloomingburg, Fayette county,
Oliio, and a respectable farmer, says, that in April,
1837, as he was going down the Mississippi river,
about fifty miles below Natchex, he saw ahead,
on the left side of the river, a colored person tied
to a post, and a man with a driver's whip, the
lash about eight or ten feet long. With this the
man commenced, with much deliberation, to whip,
with much apparent force, and continued till he
got out of sight,
" When coming up the river forty or fifty
miles below Vicksburg, a Judge Owens came on
board the steamboat. He was owner of a cotton
plantation below there, and on being told of the
above whipping, he said that slaves were often
■whipped to death for great offences, such as steal-
ing, &c. — but that when death followed, the
overseers were generally severely reproved .'
"About the same time, he spent a night at Mr.
Casey's, three miles from Columbia, South Caro-
lina. Whilst there they heard him giving orders
as to what was to be done, and amongst other
things, ' That nigger must be buried.' On in-
quiry, he learnt that a gentleman traveling with
a servant, had a short time previous called there,
and said his servant had just been taken ill, and
he should be under the necessity of leaving him.
He did so. The slave became worse, and Casey
called in a physician, who pronounced it an old
case, and said that he must shortly die. The
slave said, if that was the case he would now tell
the truth. He had been attacked, a long time
since, with a difficulty in the side — his master
swore he would ' have his own out of him ,' and
started off to sell him, with a threat to kill him
if he told he had been sick, more than a few-
days. They saw them making a rough plank
box to bury him in.
" In March, 1833, twenty-five or thirty miles
south of Columbia, on the great road through
Sumpterville district, they saw a large company
of female slaves carrying rails and building fence.
Three of them were far advanced in pregnancy.
" In the month of January, 1838, he put up with
a drove of mules and horses, at one Adams', on
the Drovers' road, near the south border of Ken-
tuckj'. His son-in-law, who had lived in the
south, was there. In conversation about picking
cotton, he said, ' some hands cannot get the
sleight of it. I have a girl who to-day has done
as good a day's work at grubbing as any man,
but I could not make her a hand at cotton-pick-
ing. I whipped her, and if I did it once I did it
five hundred times, but I found she could not ;
so I put her to carrying rails with the men.
After a few days I found her shoulders were so
raw that every rail was bloody as she laid it down.
I asked her if she would not rather pick cotton
than caiTy rails. ' No,' said she, ' I don't get
whipped now.' "
William A. Ustick, an elder of the Presbyte-
rian church at Bloomingburg, and Mr. G. S. Ful-
lerton, a merchant and member of the same
church, were with Deacon Larrimer on this jour-
ney, and are witnesses to the preceding facts.
Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col-
lege, Ohio, and formerly secretary of the Coloni-
zation society in that village, has reccntlv
communicated the facts which follow. Wt;
quote from his letter.
" The following horrid flagellation was wit-
nessed in part, till his soul was sick, by Mk.
Glidden, an inhabitant of Marietta, Ohio, who
went down the Mississippi river, with a boat
load of produce in the autumn of 1837 ; it took
place at what is called ' Matthews' or ' Ma-
tlicses Bend' in December, 1837. Mr. G. is
worthy of credit.
" A negro was tied up, and flogged until the
blood ran down and filled his shoes, so that when
he raised either foot and set it down again, the
blood would run over their tops. I could not
look on any longer, but turned away in horror ;
the whipping was continued to the number of
500 lashes, as I understood ; a quart of spirits of
turpentine was then applied to his lacerated
body. The same negro came down to my boat,
to get some apples, and was so weak from his
wounds and loss of blood, that he could not get
up the bank, but fell to the ground. The crime
for which the negro was whipped, was that of
telling the other negroes, that the overseer had
lain with his wife."
Mr. Hall adds :—
"The following statement is made by a
young man from Western Virginia. He is
a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a
student in Marietta College, All that prevents
the introduction of his name, is the peril to his
life, which would probably be the consequence,
on his return to Virginia. His character for in-
tegrity and veracity is above suspicion.
' On the night of the great meteoric shower, in
Nov, 1833, I was at Remley's tavern, 12 miles
west of Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co., Virginia. A
drove of 50 or 60 negroes stopped at the same
place that night. I'hey usually ' camp out,'
but as it was excessively muddy, they were per-
mitted to come into the house. So far as my
knowledge extends, ' droves,' on their way to
the south, eat but twice a day, early in the morn-
ing and at night. Their supper was a compound
of ' potatoes and meal,' and was, without excep-
tion, the dirtiest, blackest looJcing 7ness I etersaiv.
I remarked at the time that the food was not as
clean, in appearance, as that which was given to •
a drove of hogs, at the same place the night
previous. Such as it was, however, a black wo-
man brought it on her head, in a tray or trough
two and a half feet long, where the men and
women were promiscuously herded. The slaves
rushed up and seized it from the trough in hand-
fulls, before the woman could take it off her head.
They jumped at it as if half. famished,
' They slept on the floor of the room which
they were permitted to occupy, lying in every
form imaginable, males and females, promiscu-
ously. They were so thick on the floor, that in
passing through the room it was necessary to
step over them.
' There were three drivers, one of whom staid
70
PunisJimenis — Floggings.
in the room to watch the drove, and the other
two slept in an adjoining room. Each of the
latter took a female from the drove to lodge with
him, as is the common practice of the drivers
generally. There is no doubt about this particu.
lar instance, for they toere seen together. The
mud was so thick on the floor where this drove
slept, that it was necessary to take a shovel, the
next morning, and clear it out. Six or eight in
this drove were chained ; all were for the south.
' In the autumn of the same year, 5-aw a
drove of upwards of a hundred, between 40 and
50 of them were fastened to one chain, the links
being made of iron rods, as thick in diameter as a
man's little finger. This drove was bound west-
ward to the Ohio river, to be shipped to the
south. I have seen many droves, and more or
less in each, almost without exception, were
chained. I never saw but one drove, that went
on their way making merry. In that one they
were blowing horns, singing, &,c.,, and appear-
ed as if they had been drinking whisky.
' They generally appear extremely dejected. I
have seen in the course of five years, on the road
near where I reside, 12 or 15 droves at least, pas-
sing to the south. They would average 40 in
each drove. Near the first of January, 1834, I
started about sunrise to go to Lewisburg. It
was a bitter cold morning. I met a drove of
negroes, 30 or 40 in number, remarkably ragged
and destitute of clothing. One little boy partic-
ularly excited my sympathy. He was some dis-
tance behind the others, not being able to keep
up with the rest. Although he was shivering
with cold and crying, the driver was pushing him
up in a trot to overtake the main gang. All of
them looked as if they were half-frozen. There
was one remarkable instance of tyranny, ex-
hibited by a boy, not more than eight years old,
that came under my observation , in a family by
the name of D — n, six miles from Lewisburg.
This youngster would swear at the slaves, and
exert all the strength he possessed, to flog or
beat them, with whatever instrument or weapon
he could lay hands on, provided they did not
obey him instanter. He was encouraged in this
by his father, the master of the slaves. The
slaves often fled from this young tyrant in terror."
Mr. Hall adds :—
" The following extract is from a letter,
to a student in Marietta College, by his friend
in Alabama. With the writer, Mr. Isaac
Knapp, I am perfectly acquainted. He was a
student in the above College, for the space of one
year, before going to Alabama, was formerly a
resident of Dummerston, Vt. He is a professor of
religion, and as worthy of belief as any member
of the community. Mr. K. has returned from the
South, and is now a member of the same college.
' In Jan. (1838) a negro of a widow Phillips,
ranaway, was taken up, and confined in Pulaski
jail. One Gibbs, overseer for Mrs. P., mounted
on horseback, took him from confinement, com-
pelled him to run back to Elkton, a distance of
fifteen miles, whipping him all the way. When
he reached home, the negro exhausted and worn
out, exclaimed ' you have broke my heart,' i. e.
you have killed me. For this, Gibbs flew into
a violent passion, tied the negro to a stake, and,
in the language of a witness, ' cut his back to
mince-meat.' But the fiend was not satisfied with
this. He burnt his legs to a bhster, with hot em-
bers, and then chained him vaked, in the open
air, weary with running, weak from the loss of
blood, and smarting from his burns. It was a
cold night — and in the morning the negro was
dead. Yet this monster escaped without even
the shadow of a trial. ' The negro,' said the
doctor, ' died, by — he knew not what ; any how,
Gibbs did not kill him.'* A short time since,
(the letter is dated, April, 1838,) ' Gibbs whip-
ped another negro unmercifully because the
horse, with which he was ploughing, broke the
reins and ran. He then raised his whip against
Mr. Bowers, (son of Mrs. P.) who shot him.
Since I came here,' (a period of about sis
months,) ' there have been eight white men
and two negroes killed, within 30 miles of me,'
* Mr. Knapp, gives me some further verbal particulars
about this all'air. He says that his informant saw the negro
dead tlie next morning, tliat his legs were blistered, and
that the negroes affirmed that Gibbs compelled them to
tlirow embers upon him. But Gibbs denied it, and said
the blistering was the effect of frost, as the negro was
much exposed to it before being taken up. Mr. Bovvers, a
son of i\Irs. Phillips by a former husband, attempted to
have Gibbs brought to justice, but his mother justified
Gibbs, and nothing was therefore done about it. The af-
fair took place in Upper Elkton, Tennessee, near the Ala-
bama line.
" The following is from Mr. Knapp's own lips,
taken down a day or two since,
' Mr. Buster, with whom I boarded, in Lime-
stone Co., Ala., related to me the following inci-
dent : ' George, a slave belonging to one of the
estates in my neighborhood, was lurking about
my residence without a pass. We were making
preparations to give him a flogging, but he es-
caped from us. Not long afterwards, meeting
a patrol which had just taken a negro in custody
without a pass, I inquired. Who have you there ? on
learning that it was George, well, I rejoined, there
is a small matter between him and myself, that
needs adjustment, so give me the raw hide, which
I accordingly took, and laid 60 strokes on his
back, to the utmost of my strength.' I was
speaking of this barbarity, afterwards, to Mr.
Bradley, an overseer of the Rev. Mr. Donnell,
who lives in the vicinity of Moresville, Ala.,
' Oh,' replied he, ' we consider that a very light
whipping here.' Mr. Bradley is a professor of
relicrion, and is esteemed in that vicinity a very
pious, exemplary Christian.' "
Extract of a letter from Rev. C. Stewart
Renshaw, of Quincy, Illinois, dated Jan. 1, 1839.
" I do not feel at liberty to disclose the name
of the brother who has furnished the following
facts. He is highly esteemed as a man of scru-
pulous veracity. I will confirm my own testimo-
ny by the certificate of Judge Snow and Mr.
Keyes, two of the oldest and most respectable
settlers in Quincy.
auincy, Dec. 29, 1838.
" Dear Sir,— We have been long acquainted with the
Christian brother who has named to you some facts that
fell under his observation whilst a resident of slave states.
He is a member of a Christian church, in good standing ;
and is a man of strict integrity of character.
Henry H. Snow,
WiLLARD KbYES.
Rev. C. Stewart Renshaw."
Punishtnenis — Floggings.
71
" My informant spent thirty years of his life in
Kentucky and Missouri. Whilst in Kentucky he
resided in Hardin co. I noted down liis testimo-
ny very nearly in his own words, which will ac-
count lor their evidence-like t'orni. On the gen-
eral condition of the slaves in Kentucky, throuirh
Hardin co., he said, their houses were very un-
comfortable, generally without floors, other than
the earth : many hail puncheon floors, but he
never romenibcrs to have seen a plank floor. In
regard to clothing they were very badly off". In
summer they cared little for thing ; but in win-
ter they almost froze. Their rags might hide
their nakedness from the sun in summer, but
would not protect them from the cold in winter.
Their bed-clothes were tattered rags, thrown into a
corner by day, and drawn before the fire by night.
' The only thing,' said he, ' to which I can com-
pare them, in winter, is stock without a shelter.''
" He made the following comparison between the
condition of slaves in Kentucky and Missouri. So
far as he was able to compare them, he said, that
in Missouri the slaves had better quarters — but
are not so well clad, and are more severely pun-
ished than in Kentucky. In both states, the
slaves are huddled together, without distinction
of sex, into the same quarter, till it is filled, then
another is built ; often two or three families in a
log hovel, twelve feet square.
" It is proper to state, that the sphere of my in-
formant's observation was mamly in the region
of Hardin co., Kentucky, and the eastern part of
Missouri, and not through those states generally.
"Whilst at St. Louis, a numberof years ago, as
he was going to work with Mr. Henrj' Males, and
another carpenter, they heard groans from a barn
jy the road-side : they stopped, and looking
tbrough the cracks of the barn, saw a negro
biund hand and foot to a post, so that his toes
just touched the ground ; and his master. Captain
Tiiorpe, was inflicting punishment ; he had whip-
ped him till exhausted, — rested himself, and re-
turned again to the punishment. The wretched
sufferer was in a most pitiable condition, and the
vparn blood and dry dust of the barn had formed
a mtrtar up to his instep. Mr. Males jumped the
fence, and remonstrated so effectually with Capt.
Thorpe, that he ceased the punishment. It was
six weeks before that slave could put on his shirt !
"John Mackey, a rich slaveholder, lived near
Clarksville, Pike co., Missouri, some years since.
He whipped his slave Billy, a boy fourteen years
old, till he was sick and stupid ; he then sent him
home. Then, for his stupidity, whipped him
again, and fractured his skull with an axe-helve.
He buried him away in the woods ; dark words
were whispered, and the body was disinterred. A
coroner's inquest was held, and Mr. R. Anderson,
the coroner, brought in a verdict of death from
fractured skull, occasioned by blows from an axe-
handle, inflicted by John Mackej'. The case was
brought into court, but Mackey was rich, and
his murdered victim was his slave ; after ex-
pending about ^500 he walked free.
" One Mrs. Mann, living near , in co.,
Missouri, was known to be very cruel to her
slaves. She had a bench made purposely to whip
them upon ; and what she called her " six pound
paddle," an instrument of prodigious torture,
bored through with holes ; tins she would wield
with both hands as she stood over her prostrate
victim.
" She thus punished a hired slave woman named
Fanny, belonging to Mr. Charles Trabue, who
lives near Palmyra, Marion co., Missouri ; on the
morning after the punishment Fanny was a
corpse ; she was silently and quickly buried, but
rumor was not so easily stopped. Mr. Trabue
heard of it, and commenced suit for his property.
The murdered slave was disinterred, and an in-
quest held ; her back was a mass of jellied mus-
cle ; and the coroner brought in a verdict of death
by the ' six pound paddle.' Mrs. Mann fled for
a few months, but returned again, and her friends
found means to protract the suit.
" This same Mrs. Mann had another hired slave
woman living with her, called Patterson's Fanny,
she belonged to a Mr. Patterson ; she had a
young bahe with her, just beginning to creep.
One day, after washing, whilst a tub of rinsing
water yet stood in the kitchen, Mrs. Mann came
out in haste, and sent Fanny to do something out
of doors. Fanny tried to beg ofli"— she was afraid
to leave her babe, lest it should creep to the tub
and get hurt — Mrs. M. said she would watch the
babe, and sent her off. She went with much re-
luctance, and heard the child struggle as she
went out the door. Fearing lest Mrs. M. should
leave the babe alone, she watched the room, and
soon saw her pass out of the opposite door. Im-
mediately Fanny hurried in, and looked around
for her babe, she could not see it, she looked at
the tub — there her babe was floating, a strangled
corpse. The poor woman gave a dreadful scream ;
and Mrs. M. rushed into the room, with her
hands raised, and exclaimed, ' Heavens, Fanny !
have you drowned your child ?' It was vain
for the poor bereaved one to attempt to vindicate
herself: in vain she attempted to convince them
that the babe had not been alone a moment, and
could not have drowned itself; and that she had
not been in the house a moment, before she scream-
ed at discovering her drowned babe. All was
false ! Mrs. Mann declared it was all pretence —
that Fanny had drowned her own babe, and now
wanted to lay the blame upon her ! and Mrs.
Mann was a white woman — of course her word
was more valuable than the oaths of all the slaves
of Missouri. No evidence but that of slaves could
be obtained, or Mr. Patterson would have prose-
cuted for his ' loss of property.' As it was, every
one believed Mrs. M. guilty, though the affair
was soon hushed up."
Extract of a letter from Col. Thomas Rogers^
a native of Kentucky, now an elder in the Pres-
byterian Church at New Petersburg, Highland
CO., Ohio.
" When a boy, in Bourbon co., Kentucky, my
father lived near a slaveholder of the name of
Clay, who had a large number of slaves ; I remem-
ber being often at their quarters ; not one of their
shanties, or hovels, had any floor but the earth.
Their clothing was truly neither fit for covering
nor decency. We could distinctly, of a still morn.
ing, hear this man whipping his blacks, and hear
their screams from my father's farm : this could
be heard almost any still morning about the dawn
of day. It was said to be his usual custom to re-
72
Punishme7its— Tortures.
pair, about the break of day, to tlieir cabin doors,
and, as the blaclis passed out, to give them as
many strokes of his covvskin as opportunity ai-
forded ; and he would proceed in this manner
from cabin to cabin until they were all out. Occa-
sionally some of his slaves would abscond, and
upon being retaken they were punished severely ;
and some of them, it is believed, died in conse-
quence of the cruelty of their usage. I saw one
of this man's slaves, about seventeen years old,
wearing a collar, with long iron horns extending
from his shoulders far above his head.
" In the winter of 1828-29 I traveled through
part of the states of Maryland and Virginia to
Baltimore. At Frost Town, on the national road,
I put up for the night. Soon after, there came in
a slaver with his drove of slaves ; among them
were two young men, chained together. The bar
room was assigned to them for their place of
lodging — those in chains were guarded when they
had to go out. I asked the ' owner' why he kept
these men chained ; he replied, that they were
stout young fellovv^s, and should they rebel, he and
his son would not be able to manage them. I
then left the room, and shortly after heard a
scream, and v/hen the landlady inquired the cause,
the slaver coolly told her not to trouble herself, he
was only chastising one of his women. It appear-
ed that three days previously her child had died
on the road, and been thrown into a hole or cre-
vice in the mountain, and a few stones thrown
over it ; and the mother weeping for her child
was chastised by her master, and told by him,
she ' should have something to cry for.' The
name of this man I can give if called for.
" When engaged in this journey I spent about
one month with my relations in Virginia. It be-
ing shortly after new year, the time of hiring was
over ; but I saw the pounds, and the scafTolds
which remained of the pounds, in which the slaves
had been penned up."
Mr. Georgk W. Westgate, of Quincy, Illi-
nois, who lived in the southwestern slave states a
number of years, has furnished the following state-
ment.
"The great mass of the slaves are under drivers
and overseers. I never saw an overseer without
a whip ; the whip usually carried is a short loaded
stock, with a heavy lash from five to six feet lono-.
When they whip a slave they make him pull oft
his shirt, if he has one, then make him lie down
on his face, and taking their stand at the length
of the lash, they inflict the punishment. Whip-
pings are so universal that a negro that has not
been whipped is talked of in all the region as a
wonder. By whipping I do not mean a few lashes
across the shoulders, but a set flogging, and gen-
erally lying down.
" On sugar plantations generally, and on some
cotton plantations, they have negro drivers, who
are in such a degree responsible for their gang,
that if they are at fault, the driver is whipped.
The result is, the gang are constantly driven by
him to the extent of the influence of the lash ; and
it is uniformly the case that gangs dread a negro
driver more than a white overseer.
" I spent a winter on widow Calvert's planta.
tion, near Rodney, Mississippi, but was not in a
situation to see extraordinary punishments. Bel.
lows, the overseer, for a trifling offence, took one
of the slaves, stripped him, and with a piece of
burning wood applied to his posteriors, burned
him cruelly ; while the poor wretch screamed in
the greatest agony. The principal preparation
for punishment that Bellows had, was single hand-
cufis made of iron, with chains, by which the of-
fender could be chained to four stakes on the
ground. These are very common in all the lower
country. I noticed one slave on widow Calvert's /
plantation, who was whipped from twenty-five to '
fifty lashes every fortnight during the whole win-
ter. The expression ' whipped to death,' as ap-
plied to slaves, is common at the south.
" Several years ago I was going below New-Or.
leans, in what is called the Plaquemine country,
and a planter sent down in my boat a runaway ha
had found in New-Orleans, to his plantation s-t
Orange 5 Points. As we came near the Points ie
told me, with deep feeling, that he expected to be
whipped almost to death : pointing to a grave-
yard, he said, ' There lie five who were whipped
to death.' Overseers generally keep some of the
women on the plantation; I scarce know at ex.
ception to this. Indeed, their intercourse with
them is very much promiscuous, — they show them
not much, if any favor. Masters frequently fol-
low the example of their overseers in this thing.
" George W. Westgate,"
II. TORTURES, BY IRON COLLARS, CHAINS, FETTERS, HANDCUFFS, &c.
The slaves are often tortured by iron collars,
with long prongs or " horns." and sometimes bells
attached to them — they are made to wear chains,
handcuffs, fetters, iron clogs, bars, rings, and
bands of iron upon their limbs, iron marks upon
their faces, iron gags in their mouths, &c.
In proof of this, we give the testimony of slave-
holders themselves, under their own names ; it
will be mostly in the form of extracts from their
own advertisements, in southern newspapers, in
which, describing their runaway slaves, they spe-
cify the iron collars, handcuffs, chains, fetters,
&c., which they wore upon their neck^, wrists,
ankles, and other parts of their bodies. To pub-
lish the whole of each advertisement, would need-
lessly occupy space and tax the reader ; we shall
consequently, as heretofore, give merely the name
of the advertiser, the name and date of the news-
paper containing the advertisement, with the place
of publication, and only so much of the advertise-
ment as will give the particular fact, proving the
truth of the assertion contained in the general hcaii.
Punishments — Tortures.
73
WITNESSES.
William Toler, slicriff of Simpson
counry, Mississippi, in the " Southern
Sun," Jackson, Mississippi, Septuuiber
22, 183-3.
Mr. James R. Green, in tlte " Beacon,"
Greensborough, Alabama, August S23,
1838.
Mr. Hazlet Lnflano, in the " Specta-
tor," Stauulou, Virgiuia, Sept. 27, 1838.
Mr. T. Enggj', New Orleans, Galla-
tin street, between Hospital and liar-
racks, N. O. " B-ie," Oct. 27, 1837.
Mr. Jolm Henderson, Washington,
countv. Mi., in tlie -'Grand Gulf Adver-
tiser," August 29, 1833.
William Dyer, sheriff, Claiborne,
Louisiana, in tlie " Herald," Natchi-
toches, (La.) July 26, 1837.
Mr. Owen Cooke, " Mary street, be-
tween Connnon and Jackson streets,"
New Orleans, in the N. O. " Bee," Sep-
tember 12, 1837.
H. W. Rice, sheriff, Colleton district,
Soutli Carolina, in the " Charleston
Mercurj," September 1, 1838.
W. P. Reeves, jailor, Shelby county,
Teimessce, in tlie " Memphis Enquirer,
June 17, 1837.
Mr. Francis Durett, Lexington, Lau-
derdale county, Ala., in the " Hunts-
ville Democrat," August 29, 1837.
Mr. A. Murat, Baton Rouge, in the
New Orleans " Bee," June 20, 1837.
Mr. Jordan Abbott, in the " Huntsville
Democrat," Nov. 17, 1838.
Mr. J. Macoin, No. 177 Ann street.
New Orleans, in the " Bee," August 11,
1838.
Menard Brothers, parish of Ber-
nard, Louisiana, in the N. O. "Bee,"
August IS, 1S38.
Messrs. J. L. and W. H. Bolton, Shel-
by coimtj", Tennessee, in the " Memphis
Enquirer," June 7, 1837.
H. Gridly, sheriff of Adams county,
Mi., in the " Memphis (Tenn.) Timesj"
September, 1834.
Mr. Lambre, in the "Natchitoches
(La.) Herald," March 29, 1837.
Mr. Ferdinand Lemos, New Orleans,
in the " Bee," January 29, 1838.
Mr. T. J. De Yampett, merchant, Mo-
bile, Alabama, of the firm of De Yam-
pert, King & Co., in the " Mobile Chron-
icle," June 15, 1838.
J. H. Hand, jailor, St. FrancisvilJe,
La., in the " Louisiana Clironicle."Julv
26, 1837. ' '
TESTIMONV.
Mr. Charles Curcner, New Orleans, in
the " Bee," July 2, 1838.
Mr. P. T. Manning, HuntsviUe, Ala-
bama, in the "Huntsville Advocate,"
Oct. 23,1838.
Mr. William L. Lambeth, Lynch-
burg, Virginia, m the " Moultou [Ala.l
Whig," January 30, 1836.
10
" Was committed to jail, a yellow boy named Jim— had on a
large lock chain around his neck."
Ranaway, a negro man named Squire— had on a chain locked
iciih a house-lock, around his neck."
" Ranaway, a negro named David— with some iron hobbles
around each ankle."
" Ranaway, negress Caroline — had on a collar with one prong
turned down."
"Ranaway, a black woman, Betsey— had an iron bar on her
right leg."
" Was committed to jail, a negro named Ambrose— has a ring
of iron around his neck."
" Ranaway, my slave Amos, had a chain attached to one of
his legs."
" Committed to jail, a negro named Patrick, about forty-five
years old, and is handcuffed."
" Committed to jail, a negro — had on his right leg an iron hand
with one link of a chain."
"Ranaway, a negro man named Charles — had on a drawing
chain, fastened aroimd his ankle with a house lock."
" Ranaway, the negro Manuel, much marked with irons."
" Ranaway, a negro boy named Daniel, about nineteen years
old, and was handcvffed."
" Ranaway, the negress Fanny— had on an iron band about
her neck."
" Ranaway, a negro named John — having an iron around his
right foot."
" Absconded, a colored boy named Peter — had an iron round
his neck when he went away."
"Was committed to jail, a negro boy — ^hadona large neck
iron with a huge pair of horns and a large bar or band of iron
on his left leg."
" Ranaway, the negro boy Teams — he had on his neck an iron
collar,"
" Ranaway, the negro George — he had on his neck an iron
collar, the branches of which had been taken ofT."
" Ranaway, a negro boy about twelve years old — had round
his neck a chain dog-collar, with ' De Yampert engraved on it."
" Committed to jail, slave John — has several scars on his wrists,
occasioned, as he says, by handcuffs."
" Ranaway, the negro, Hown — has a ring of iron on his left
foot. Also,Grisee,his wife, havingr a ring and chain on the
left leg." ^
" Ranaway, a negro boy named James — said boy was ironed
when he left me."
" Ranaway, Jim — had on when he escaped a pair of chain hand.
cuffs?''
74
Punishme nis — Tortures .
' Ranaway-
Mr. D. F. Guex, Secretary of the
Steaic Cotton Press Company, New Or-
leans, ill the " Commercial Bulletm,"
May 27, 1S37.
Mr. Francis Durett, Lexington, Ala-
bama, in the " Huntsville Democrat,"
March 8, 1838.
B. W. Hodges, jailor. Pike county,
Alabama, in the " Montgomery Adver-
User," Sept. 29, 1837.
P. Baylii, captain of police, in the N.
O. " Bee," June 9, 1838.
Mr. Charles Kemin, parish of Jeffer-
son, Louisiana, in the N. O. "Bee,"
August 11, 1837.
The foregoing advertisements are sufficient for
our purpose, scores of similar ones may be gather-
ed from the newspapers of the slave states every
month.
To the preceding testimony of slaveholders,
published by themselves, and vouched for by their
own signatures, we subjoin the following testi-
mony of other witnesses to the same point.
John M. Nelson, Esq., a native of Virginia,
now a highly respected citizen of Highland county,
Ohio, and member of the Presbyterian Chiurch in
Hillsborough, in a recent letter states the fol-
lowing : —
" In Staunton, Va., at the house of Mr. Robert
M'Ddwell, a merchant of that place, I once saw a
colored woman, of intelligent and dignified ap-
pearance, who appeared to be attending to the
business of the house, with an iron collar around
her neck, with horns or prongs extending out on
either side, and up, until they met at something
like a foot above her head, at which point there
was a bell attached. This yoke, as they called
it, I understood was to prevent her from running
away, or to pimish her for having done so. I had
frequently seen men with iron collars, but this was
the first instance that I recollect to have seen a
female thus degraded."
Major Horace Nye, an elder in the Presbyte-
rian Church at Putnam, Muskingum county,
Ohio, in a letter, dated Dec. 5, 1838, makes the
following statement : —
' Mr. Wm. Armstrong, of this place, who is
frequently employed by our citizens as captain
and supercargo of descending boats, whose word
maybe relied on, has just made tome the follow-
ing statement : —
"While laying at Alexandria, on Red River,
Louisiana, he saw a slave brought to a black-
smith's shop and a collar of iron fastened round
his neck, with two pieces rivetted to the sides,
meeting some distance above his head. At the
top of tlie arch, thus formed, was attached a large
cow-bell, the motion of which, while walking the
streets, made it necessary for the slave to hold his
hand to one of its sides, to steady it.
" In New Orleans he saw several with iron col-
lars, with horns attached to them. The first he
saw had three prongs projecting from the collar
ten or twelve inches, with the letter S on the end
of each. He says iron collars are quite frequent
there.
"Ranaway, Edmund Coleman — it is supposed he must have
iron shackles on his ankles.^''
-, a mulatto — had on when he left, a pair oj
handcuffs and a pair of drawing chains."
" Committed to jail, a man who calls his name John — he has
9. clog of iron on his right foot which will weigh four or five
pounds."
" Detained at the police jail, the negro wench Myra — has
several marks of lashing, and has irons on her feet."
" Ranaway, Betsey — when she left she had onhernec/c an iron
collar."
To the preceding Major Nye adds : —
" When I was about twelve years of age I hved
at Marietta, in this state : I knew little of slaves,
as there were few or none, at that time, in the
part of Virginia opposite that place. But I re-
member seeing a slave who had run away from
some place beyond my knowledge at that time :
he had an iron collar round his neck, to which
was a strap of iron rivetted to the collar, on each
side, passing over the top of the head ; and ano-
ther strap, from the back side to the top of the
first — thus inclosing the head on three sides. I
looked on while the blacksmith severed the collar
with a file, which, I think, took him more than
an hour."
Rev. John Dudley, Mount Morris, Michigan,
resided as a teacher at the missionary station,
among the Choctaws, in Mississippi, during the
years 1830 and 31. In a letter just received Mr.
Dudley says : —
" During the time I was on missionary ground,
which was in 1830 and 31, 1 was frequently at the
residence of the agent, who was a slaveholder. —
I never knew of his treating his own slaves with
cruelty ; but the poor fellows who were escaping,
and lodged with him when detected, found no
clemency. I once saw there a fetter for ' the
d — d runaicays,'' the weight of which can be
judged by its size. It was at least three inches
wide, half an inch thick, and something over a foot
long. At this time I saw a poor fellow compelled
to work in the field, at ' logging,' with such a
galling fetter on his ankles. To prevent it from
wearing liis ankles, a string was tied to the centre,
by which the victim suspended it when he walked,
with one hand, and with the other carried his bur-
den. Whenever he lifted, the fetter rested on his
bare ankles. If he lost his balance and made a mis-
step, which must very often occur in lifting and
rolling logs, the torture of his fetter was severe.
Thus he was doomed to work while wearing the
torturing iron, day after day, and at night he was
confined in the runaways' jail. Some time after
this, I saw the same dejected, heart-broken crea.
ture obliged to wait on the other hands, who were
husking corn. The privilege of sitting with the
others was too much for him to enjoy ; he was
made to hobble from house to barn and barn to
house, to carry food and drink for the rest. He
passed round the end of the house where I was
sitting with the agent : he seemed to take no no-
tice of me, but fixed his eyes on his tormentor till
he passed quite by us." . -^ . . -.-^j^,.
Punishncnts — Tortures.
75'
Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, member of the Baptist
Churcli in Skeneatelcs, N. Y. and an assessor
of that town, testifies as follows : —
" I stayed iiL New Orleans three weeks : during
that time there used to pass by where I stayed a
number of slaves, cacii with an iron band around
his ankle, a chain attaclicd to it, and an eighteen
pound ball at the end. They were employed in
wheeling dirt witli a wheelbarrow ; they would
put the ball into the barrow when they moved.—
I recollect one day, that I counted nineteen of
them, sometimes there were not as many ; they
were driven by a slave, with a long lash, as if they
were beasts. ' These, I learned, were runaway
slaves from the plantations above New Orleans.
" There was also a negro woman, that used
daily to come to the market with milk ; she had
an iron band around her neck, with three rods
projecting from it, about sixteen inches long,
crooked at the ends."
For the fact which follows we are indebted to
Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta College,
Ohio. AVe quote his letter.
" Mr. Curtis, a journeyman cabinet-maker, of
Marietta, relates the following, of which he was
an eye witness. Mr. Curtis is every way worthy
of credit.
" In September, 1837, at ' Milligan's Bend,' in
the Mississippi river, I saw a negro with an iron
band around his head, locked behind with a pad-
lock. In the front, where it passed the mouth,
there was a projection inward of an inch and a
half, which entered the mouth.
" The overseer told me, he was so addicted to
running away, it did not do any good to whip him
for it. He said he kept this gag constantly on
him, and intended to do so as long as he was on
the plantation : so that, if he ran away, he could
not eat, and would starve to death. The slave
asked for drink in my presence ; and the overseer
made him lie down on his back, and turned wa-
ter on his face two or three feet high, in order to
torment him, as he could not swallow a drop. —
The slave then asked permission to go to the ri-
ver ; which being granted, he thrust his face and
head entirely under the water, that being the only
way he could drink with his gag on. The gag
was taken off when he took his food, and then re-
placed afterwards."
Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Sophia Lit-
TiiE, of Newport, Rhode Island, daughter of Hon.
Asher Robbins, senator in Congress for that state.
" There was lately found, in the hold of a vessel
engaged in the southern trade, by a person who
was clearing it out, an iron collar, with three
horns projecting from it. It seems that a young
female slave, on whose slender neck was rivet-
ed this fiendish instrument of torture, ran away
from her tyrant, and begged the captain to bring
her off with him. This the captain refused to do ;
hut unriveted the collar from her neck, and threw
it away in the hold of the vessel. The collar is
now at the anti-slavery office, Providence. To
the truth of these facts Mr. William H. Reed, a
gentleman of the highest moral character, is ready
to vouch.
" Mr. Reed is in possession of many facts of
cruelty witnessed by persons of veracity; but
these witnesses are not willing to give their names.
One case in particular he mentioned. Speaking
with a certain captain, of the state of the slaves
at the south, the captain contended that their
punishments wore often very Icnieni ; and, as an
instance of their excellent clemency, mentioned,
tiiat in one instance, not wishing to whip a slave,
they sent him to a blacksmith, and had an iron
band fastened around him, with three long pro.
jections reaching above his head ; and this he
wore some time."
Extract of a letter from Mr. Jonathan F.
Baldwin, of Lorain county, Ohio. Mr. B. was
formerly a merchant in Massillon, Ohio, and an
elder in the Presbyterian Church there.
" Dear Brother, — In conversation with Judge
Lyman, of Litchfield county, Connecticut, last
June, he stated to me, that several years since he
was in Columbia, South Carolina, and observing
a colored man lying on the floor of a blacksmith's
shop, as he was passing it, his curiosity led him
in. He learned the man was a slave and rather
unmanageable. Several men were attempting to
detach from his ankle an iron which had been
bent around it.
" The iron was a piece of a flat bar of the or-
dinary size from the forge hammer, and bent
around the ancle, tlie ends meeting, and forming
a hoop of about the diameter of the leg. There
was one or more strings attached to the iron and
extending up around his neck, evidently so to
suspend it as to prevent its galling by its weight
when at work, yet it had galled or griped till the
leg had swollen out beyond the iron and mflamed
and supurated, so that the leg for a considerable
distance above and below the iron, was a mass
of putrefaction, the most loathsome of any wound
he had ever witnessed on any living creature.
The slave lay on his back on the floor, with his
leg on an anvil which sat also on the floor, one
man had a chisel used for splitting iron, and ano-
ther struck it with a sledge, to drive it between
the ends of the hoop and separate it so that it
might be taken off". Mr. Lyman said that the
man swung the sledge over his shoulders as if
splitting iron, and struck many blows before he
succeeded in parting the ends of the iron at all,
the bar was so large and stubborn — at length
they spread it as far as they could without driv-
ing the chisel so low as to ruin the leg. The slave,
a man of twenty-five years, perhaps, whose coun.
tenance was the index of a mind ill adapted to
the degradations of slavery, never uttered a word
or a groan in all the process, but the copious flow of
sweat from every pore, the dreadful contractions
and distortions of every muscle in his body, show-
ed clearly the great amount of his sufferings;
and all this while, such was the diseased state of
the limb, that at every blow, the bloody, corrupt-
ed matter gushed out in all directions several feet,
in such profusion as literally to cover a large area
around the anvil. After various other fruitless
attempts to spread the iron, they concluded it was
necessary to weaken by filing before it could be
got off, which he left them attempting to do."
Mr. William Drown, a well knovro citizen of
Rhode Island, formerly of Providence, who has
76
Punishments — Tortures.
traveled in nearly all the slave states, thus testi-
fies in a recent letter :
" I recollect seeing large gangs of slaves, ge-
nerally a considerable number in each gang, be-
incr cliained, passing westward over the moun-
tains from JMaryland, Virginia, &e. to the Ohio.
On that river I have frequently seen flat boats
loaded with them, and their keepers armed with
pistols and dirks to guard them.
" At Nevv' Orleans I recollect seeing gangs of
slaves that were driven out every day, the Sab-
bath not excepted, to work on the streets. These
had heavy chains to connect two or more to-
gether, and some had iron collars and yokes, &e.
The noise as they walked, or worked in their
chains, was truly dreadful."
Rev. Thomas Savage, pastor of the Congrega-
tional Church at Bedford, New Hampshire, who
Was for some years a resident of Mississippi and
Louisiana, gives the following fact, in a letter dat-
ed January 9, 1839.
" In 1819, while employed as an instructor at
Second Creek, near Natchez, Mississippi,! resided
on a plantation where I witnessed the following
circumstance. One of the slaves was in the habit
of running away. He had been repeatedly taken,
and repeatedly whipped, with great severity, but
to no purpose. He would still seize the first op-
portunity to escape from the plantation. At last
his owner declared, I'U fix him, I'U put a stop to
his running away. He accordingly took him to a
blacksmith, and had an iron head-frame made for
him, which may be called lock-jaw, from the use
that was made of it. It had a lock and key, and
was so constructed, that when on the head and
locked, the slave could not open his mouth to
take food, and the design was to prevent his run-
ning away. But the device proved unavailing. He
was soon missing, and whether by his own despe-
rate effort, or the aid of others, contrived to sus-
tain himself with food ; but he was at last taken,
and if my memory serves me, his life was soon
terminated by the cruel treatment to which he
was subjected."
The Western Luminary, a religious paper pub-
lished at Lexington, Kentucky, in an editorial
article, in the summer of 1833, says :
" A few weeks since we gave an account of a
company of men, women and children, part of
v/hom were manacled, passing through our streets.
Last week, a number of slaves were driven through
the main street of our city, among whom were a
number manacled together, two abreast, all con-
nected by, and supporting a heavy iron chain,
which extended the whole length of the line."
TESTIMONY OF A VIRGINIAN.
The name of this witness cannot be published,
as it would put him in perU ; but his credibility
is vouched for by the Rev. Ezra Fisher, pastor
of the Baptist Church, Quincy, Illinois, and Dr.
Richard Eels, of the same place. These gen-
tlemen say of him, " We have great confidence
in his integrity, discretion, and strict Christian
principle." He says —
" About five years ago, I remember to have
passed, in a single day, four droves of slaves for
the south west ; the largest drove had 350 slaves
in it, and tlie smallest upwards of 200. I count-
ed 68 or 70 in a single coffle. The ' coffle chain'
is a chain fastened at one end to the centre of
the bar of a pair of hand cuff's, which are fasten-
ed to the right wrist of one, and the left wrist of
another slave, they standing abreast, and the
chain between them. These are the head of the
coffle. The other end is passed througli a ring
in tjie bolt of the next handcuff's, and the slaves
being manacled thus, two and two together, walk
up, and the cofSe chain is passed, and they go
up towards the head of the coffle. Of course
they are closer or wider apart in the coffle, ac-
cording to the number to be coffled, and to the
length of the chain. / have seen hundreds of
droves and chain-coJp.es of this description, and
every coffle was a scene of misery and wo, of
tears and brokenncss of heart."
Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col-
lege, Ohio, gives, in a late letter, the following
statement of a fellow student, from Kentucky, of
whom he says, " he is a professor of religion, and
worthy of entire confidence."
" I have seen at least fifteen droves of ' human
cattle,' passing by us on their way to the south ;
and I do not recollect an exception, where there
were not more or less of them chained together."
Mr. George P. C. Hussey, of Fayetteville,
Franklin county, Pennsylvania, writes thus :
" I was born and raised in Hagerstown, Wash-
ington county, Maryland, where slavery is per.
haps milder than in any other part of the slave
states ; and yet I have seen hundreds of colored
men and women chained together, two by two,
and driven to the south. I have seen slaves tied up
and lashed till the blood ran down to their heels."
Mr. Giddings, member of Congress from Ohio,
in his speech in the House of Representatives,
Feb. 13, 1839, made the following statement :
" On the beautiful avenue in front of the Capi-
tol, members of Congress, during this session,
have been compelled to turn aside from their
path, to permit a coffle of slaves, males and fe-
males, chained to each other hy their necks, to pass
on their way to this national slave market.''^
Testimony of James K. Paulding, Esq. the pre-
sent Secretary of the United States' Navy.
In 1817, Mr. Paulding published a work, en-
titled ' Letters from the South, written during
an excursion in the summer of 1816.' In the
first volume of that work, page 128, Mr. P. gives
the following description :
" The sun was shining out very hot — and in
turning the angle of the road, we encountered the
following group : first, a little cart drawn by one
horse, in which five or six half naked black child-
ren were tumbled like pigs together. The cart
had no covering, and they seemed to have been
broiled to sleep. Behind the cart marched three
black women, with head, neck and breasts un-
covered, and without shoes or stockings : next
came three men, bare-headed, and chained to-
gether with an ox-chain. Last of all, came a
, white man on horse back, carrying his pistols in
Puimhments — Brandings.
77
his belt, and who, as we passed him, had the im-
pudonce to look us in tlie lace without blushing.
At a house where we stopped a little further on,
we learned that he had bought these miserable
beings in Maryland, and was marching them in
tills manner to one of the more southern states.
Wiame on the State of Maryland ! and I say,
shame on the State of Virginia ! and every state
througli wliich this wretched cavalcade was per-
mitted to pass ! I do say, that when they (the slave-
holders) permit such flagrant and indecent out-
rages upon humanity as that I have described ;
when they sanction a villain in thus marching
half naked women and men, loaded with chains,
without being charged with any crime but that
of being black, from one section of the United
States to another, hundreds of miles in the face
of day, tliey disgrace themselves, and the coun-
try to which they belong."*
* Tlie fact that Mr. Paulding, in the reprint of lliese
" Letters," in 1835, struck out this passaffc with all others
disparaging to slavery and its supporters, does not impair
the force of his testimony, however much it may sink the
min. Nor will the iie.xt generation regard with any more
reverence, his character as a pro;)/ic(, because in the edition
of 1835, two years after the American Anti-Slavery Society
was formed, and when its auxiliaries were numbered by
hundreds, he inserted a prediction, that such movements
would bo made at the North, with most disastrous results.
" Wot ye not tliat such a man as I can certainly divine !"
Mr. Paulding has already been taught by Judge Jay, th.it
he who aspires to the fame of an oracle, without its in
spiration, must resort to other expedients to prevent
detection, than the clumsy one of antedating his responses.
III. BRANDINGS, MAIMINGS, GUN-SHOT WOUNDS, &c.
The slaves are often branded with hot irons,
pu rsued with fire arms and shot, hunted with
dogs and torn by them, shockingly maimed with
knives, dirks, &c. ; have their ears cut off, their
eyes knocked out, their bones dislocated and
broken with bludgeons, their fingers and toes cut
off, their faces and other parts of their persons
disfigured with scars and gashes, besides those
made with the lash.
We shall adopt, tmder this head, the same
course as that pursued under previous ones, — first
give the testimony of the slaveholders themselves,
to the mutilations, &.c. by copying their own
graphic descriptions of them, in advertisements
pubhshcd under their own names, and in news-
papers published in the slave states, and, general-
ly, in their own immediate vicinity. We sha.1,
as heretofore, insert only so much of each adver-
tisement as will be necessary to make the point
intelligible.
WITNESSES.
Mr. Micajah Ricks, Nash County,
North Carohna, in the Raleigh " Stand-
ard," July 18, 1838.
Mr. Asa B. Metcalf, Kingston, Adams
Co. Mi. iu tlie "Natchez Courier,"
June 15, 1S32.
Mr. WiUiam Overstreet, Benton,
Yazoo Co. Mi. in the "Lexington
(Kentucky) Observer," July 22, 1838.
Mr. R. P. Carney, Clark Go. Ala.,
in the Mobile Register, Dec. 22, 1832.
Mr. J. Guvlcr, Savannah Georgia, ill
the " Repubiicaii," April 12, 1837.
J. A. Bro\%'n, jailor, Charleston, South
Carohna, in the " Mercury," Jan. 12,
1837.
Mr. J Scrivener, Herring Bay, Anne
Arundel Co. Maryland, in the Anna-
polis Republican, April 18, 1837.
Madame Burvant, comer of Chartres
and Toulouse streets, New Orleans, ui
the " Bee," Dec. 21, 1838.
Mr. O. W. Lains, in the " Helena,
(Ark.) Journal," Jime 1, 1833.
Mr. R. W. Sizer, in the " Grand Gulf,
[Mi.] Advertiser," July 8, 1837.
Mr. Nicholas Edmunds, in the
" Petersburgh [Va.] Intelligncer," May
32,1838.
TESTIMONY.
" Ranaway, a negro woman and two children ; a few days be.
fore she went oS, I burnt her with a hot iroUj on the left side of
her face, / tried to make the letter M."
" Ranaway Mary, a black woman, has a scar on her back and
right arm near the shoulder, caused by a rifle ball."
" Ranaway a negro man named Henry, his left eye out, some
scars from a dirk on and under his left arm, and much scarred
with the whip."
One himdred dollars reward for a negro fellow Pompcy, 40
years old, he is branded on the left jaw.
" Ranaway Laman, an old negro man, grey, has only one
eye:'
" Committed to jail a negro man, has no toes on his left
foot."
" Ranaway negro man Elijah, has a scar on his left cheek,
apparently occasioned by a shot."
'' Ranaway a negro woman named Rachel, has lost all her toes
except the large one."
«' Ranaway Sam, he was shot a short time since, through the
hand, and has several shots in his left arm and side."
'' Ranaway my negro man Dennis, said negro has been shot
I'm the left arm between the shoulders and elbow, which has
jparalyzed the left hand."
'' Ranaway ray negro man named Simon, he has been shot
badly in his back and right arm."
78
Mr. J. Bisliop, Bishopville, Siimpter
District, South Carolina, in the " Cam-
den [S. C] Journal," March 4, 1837.
Mr. S. Neyle, Little Ogeechee, Geor-
gia, in the " Savannah Republican,"
July 3, 1837.
Punishments — Brandings.
" Ranaway a negro named Arthur, has a considcrahle scar
across his breast and each arm^ made by a knife ; loves to talk
much of the goodness of God."
'' Ranaway George, ho has a sword cut lately received on his
left arm."
" Twenty five dollars reward for my man Isaac, he has a scar
Mrs. Sarah Walsh, Mobile, Ala. in on his forehead caused by a blow, and one on his back made by a
the "Georgia Journal," March 27,1837, ^^^^ y^,,^ ^ pistol."
" Ranaway a negro girl called Mary, has a small scar over
Mr. J. P. Ashford, Adams Co. Mi. in her eye, a good many teeth missing, the letter A. is branded on
the » Natchez Courier," August 2i, 1838. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ forehead."
Mr. Ely Townsend, Pike Co. Ala., in
the " Pensaeola Gazette," Sep. 16, 1837.
S. B. Murphy, jailer, Irvington, Ga.
£n the " Milledgeville Journal," May
29, 1838.
Mr. A. Luminals, Parish of St. John,
Louisiana, in the New Orleans " Bee,"
March 3, 1838.
Mr. Isaac Johnson, Pulaski Co.
Georgia, in the " Milledgeville Journal,"
June 19, 1838.
Mr. Thomas Hudnall, Madison Co.
Mi. in the " Vicksburg Register,"
September 5, 1838.
Mr. John McMuiTain, Columbus, Ga.
in the " Southern Sun," August 7,
iS.'lS.
Mr. Moses Orme, Annapolis, Mary-
land, in the " Annapolis Republican,"
June 30, 1837.
William Stricldand, Jailor, Kershaw
District, S. C. in the " Camden [S. C]
Courier," July 8, 1837.
The Editor of the
tiser," Dec. 7, 1838.
Mr. William Bateman, in the " Grand
Gulf Advertiser," Dec. 7, 1838.
Mr. B. G. Simmons, in the " Southern
Argus," May 30, 1837.
Mr. James Artop, in the "Macon
[Ga.]Messenger, May 25, 1837.
J. L. Jolley, Sheriff of Clinton, Co.
Mi., in the "Clinton Gazette," July
23, 1836.
Mr. Thomas Ledwith, Jacksonville
East Florida, in the " Charleston [S. C]
Courier, Sept. 1, 1838.
Mr. Joseph James, Sen., Pleasant
Ridge, Paulding Co. Ga., in the " Mil-
ledeeville Union," Nov. 7, 1837.
Mr. W. Riley, Orangeburg District,
South Carolina, in the " Columbia [S.G.]
Telescope," Nov. 11, 1337.
Mr. Samuel Mason, Warren Co, Mi.,
in the " Vicksburg Register," July 18,
1838.
" Ranaway negro Ben, has a scar on his right hand, his thumb
and fore finger being injured by being sAo< last fall, a part of i/<e 6one
came out, he has also one or two large scars on his back and hips."
" Committed a negro man, is very badly shot in the right side
and right hand."
'' Detained at the jail, a mulatto named Tom, has a scar on
the right cheek and appears to have been burned with powder
on the face."
" Ranaway a negro man named Ned, three of his fingers are
drawn into the palm of his hand by a cut, has a scar on the back
of his neck nearly half round, done by a knife."
'' Ranaway a negro named Hamblcton, limps on his left foot
where he was shot a few weeks ago, while runaway."
" Ranaway a negro boy named Mose, he has a wound in the
right shoulder near the back bone, which was occasioned by a
rifl^e shot."
" Ranaway my negro man Bill, he has s. fresh wound in his
head above his ear."
" Committed to jail a negro, says his name is Cuffee, he is
lame in one knee, occasioned by a shot."
' Grand Gulf Adver- '« Ranaway Joshua, his thumb is off of his left hand."
" Ranaway William, scar over his left eye, one between his
eye brows, one on his breast, and his right leg has been broken.''
" Ranaway Mark, his left arm has been broken, right leg
also."
" Ranaway, Caleb, 50 years old, has an awkward gait occa-
sioned by his being shot in the thigh."
" Was committed to jail a negro man, says his name is
Josiah, his back very much scarred by the whip, and branded
on the thigh and hips, in three or four places, thus (J. M.)
the rim of his right car has been bit or cut off."
" Fifty dollars reward, for my fellow Edward, he has a scar
on the corner of his mouth, two cuts on and under his arm, and
the letter E on his arm,"
" Ranaway, negro boy EUic, has a scar on one of his arms
fro7n the bite of a dog.'
" Ranaway a negro man, has a scar on the ankle produced
by a burn, and a mark on his arm resembling the letter S."
' Ranaway, a negro man named Allen, he has a scar on hia
breast, also a scar u^der the left eye, and has two buck shot m
his right arm"
Punishments — Branding, Maiming, Scars.
79
Mr. F. L. C. Edwards, in tlio " South-
ern Telegraph," Sept. 25, lfc-37
Mr. Stephen 31. Jackson, in the
" Viclvsburg Register," Maicli 10, 1837.
I'hilip Honerton, deputy sheriff of
Halifa.\: Co. Virginia, Jan." 1837.
Stearns & Co. No. 2S, New Levee,
New Orleans, in the " Bee," March 22,
1837.
Mr. John W. Walton, Greensboro ,
Ala. in the " Alabama Beacon,"
Dec. 13, 1838.
Mr. R. Funnan, Charleston, S. C. in
the " Charleston Mercury," Jan, 12,
1839.
Mr. John Tart, Sen. in the " FayetK!-
ville [N. C] Observer," Dec. 26, "1838.
Mr. Richard Overstreet, Brook Neal,
Campbell Co. Virginia, in the •' Danville
|Va.] Reporter," Dec, 21. 1838.
The editor of the New Orleans "Bee,"
in that paper, August 27, 1837.
Mr. Bryant Johnson, Fort Valley,
Houston county, Georgia, in the Mil-
ledgevllle " Union," Oct. 2, 1838.
Mr. Lemuel Miles, Steen's Creek, Ran-
kin county, Mi. in the " Southern
Sun," Sept. 22, 1838.
Mr. Bezou, New Orleans, in the
" Bee," May 23, 1838.
Mr. James Kimborough, Memphis,
Tenn. ui the " Memphis Enquirer," July
13, 1838.
Mr. Robert Beasley, Macon, Georgia,
in the " Georgia Messenger," July 27,
1S37
Mr. B. G. Barrer, St. Louis, Missouri,
in the " Republican," Sept. 6, 1837.
Mr. John D. Turner, near Norfolk,
Virginia, in the " Norfolk Herald," June
27, 1638.
Mr. William Stansell, Picksville, Ala.
in the " Huntsville Democrat," August
29, 1837.
Hon. Ambrose H. Sevier, Senator in
Congress, from Arkansas, in the " Vicks-
burg Register," of Oct. 13.
Mr. R. A. Greene, Milledgeville, Geor-
gia, in the " Macon Messenger," July 27,
1837.
Benjamin Russel, deputy sheriff, Bibb
county, Ga. in the " Macon Telegraph,"
December 25, 1837.
Hon. H. Hitchcock, Mobile, judge of
the Supreme Court, in the " Commer-
cial Register," Oct. 27, 1837.
Mrs. Elizabeth L. Carter, near Grove-
ton, Prince William county, Virginia,
in the " National Intelligencer," Wash-
ington, D. C. June 10, 1837.
" Ranaway from the plantation of James Surgette, the fol-
loTi^inir negroes, Randal, has one ear cropped ; Bob, has lost one
eye, Kentucky Tom, has one jaw broken.''^
" Ranaway, Antliony, one of his ears cut off, and his left
liand cut with an axe."
" Was committed, a negro man, has a scar on his right side
by a burn, one on his knee, and one on the calf of his leg Oy
the bite of a dog."
" Absconded, the mulatto boy Tom, his fingers scarred on
his right hand, and has a scar on his right check."
" Ranaway my black boy Frazier, with a scar below and
one above his right ear,"
" Ranaway, Dick, about 19, has lost the small toe of one
foot."
" Stolen a mulatto boy, ten years old, he has a scar over his
eye which was made by an axe."
" Absconded my negro man Coleman, has a very large scar
on one of his legs, also one on eack arm, by a burn, and his heels
have been frosted."
" Fifty dollars reward, for the negro Jim Blake — has a piece
cut out of each ear, and the middle finger of the left hand cut off'
to the second joint."
" Ranaway, a negro woman named Maria — has a scar on one
side of her cheek, by a cut — some scars on her back."
•'Ranaway, Gabriel — has two or three scars across his neck
made with a knife."
" Ranaway, the mulatto wench Mary — has a cut on the left
arm, a scar on the shoulder, and two upper teeth missing."
" Ranaway, a negro boy, named Jerry — has a scar on his
right cheek two inches long, from the cut of a knife."
" Ranaway, my rnan Fountain — has holes in his ears, a scar
on the right side of his forehead — has been shot in the hind parts
of his legs — is marked on the back with the whip."
" Ranaway, a negro man named Jarrett — has a scar on the un-
der part of one of his arms, occasioned by a wound from a knife."
" Ranaway, a negro by the name of Joshua — he has a cut
across one of his ears, which he will conceal as much as possible
— one of his ankles is enlarged by an ulcer."
" Ranaway, negro boy Harper — has a scar on one of his hips
in the form of a G."
" Ranaway, Bob, a slave — has a scar across his breast, ano-
ther on the right side of his head — his back is much scarred with
the whip,"
" Two hundred and fifty dollars reward, for my negro man
Jim — he is much marked with shot in his right thigh, — the shot
entered on the outside, half way between the hip and knee
joints."
" Brought to jail, John — left ear cropt."
'' Ranaway, the slave Ellis — he has lost one of his ears."
" Ranaway, a negro man, Moses — he has lost a part of one of
his ears."
80
Punishments — Branding, Maiming, Scars.
Mr. William D. Buckels, Natchez,
Mi. in the " Natchez Courier," July 28,
1838.
Mr. Walter R. Eiiftlish, Monroe coun-
ty, Ala. in the " Mobile Chronicle,"
Sept. 2, 1837.
Mr. James Saunders, Grany Spring,
Hawkins county, Tenn. in the " Knox-
ville Register," June 6, 1838.
Mr. John Jenkins, St. Joseph's, Flori-
da, captain of the steamboat Ellen,
"Apalachicola Gazette," June 7, 1838.
Mr. Peter Hanson, Lafayette city. La.,
in the New Orleans "Bee," July 28,
1838.
Mr. Ovren Ellis, Georseville, Mi. in
the " North Alabamian," Sept. 15, 1837.
Mr. Zadock Sawyer, Cuthbert, Ran-
dolph county, Georgia, in the " Milledge-
ville Union," Oct. 9, 1838.
Mr. Abraham Gray, Mount Morino,
Pike county, Ga. in the " Milledgeville
Union," Oct. 9, 1838.
S. B. Tuston, jailer, Adams county.
Mi. in the "Natchez Courier," June
15, 1838.
Mr. Joshua Antrim, Nineveh, War-
ren county, Virginia, in the " Winches-
ter Virginian," July 11, 1837.
J. B. Randall, jailor, Marietta, Cobb
county, Ga., in the " Southern Record-
er," Nov. 6, 1838.
Mr. John N. Dillahunty, Woodvillei
Mi., in the " N. O. Commercial Bulle-
tin," July 21, 1837.
William K. Ratcliffe, sheriff, Frank-
Jn county, Mi. in the " Natchez Free
Trader," August 23, 1838.
Mr. Prp^ton Halley, Barnwell, South
Carolina, in the " Augusta [Ga.] Chro-
rjcle," July 27, 1833.
Mr- V/elcome H. Robbins, St. Charles
county. Mo. in the " St. Louis Republi-
can," June 30, 1833.
G. Gourdon & Co. druggists, comer of
Rampart and Hospital streets. New Or-
leans, in the " Commercial Bulletin,"
Sept. 13, 1838.
Mr. William Brown, in the " Grand
Gulf Advertiser," August 29, 1838.
Mr.Jam^'sMcDonneU, Talbot county,
Georgia, in the "Columbus Enquirer,"
Jan. 18, 1838.
Mr. John W. Cherry, Slarengo coun-
ty, Ala. in the " Mobile Register," June
15, 1838.
Mr. Thos. Brown, Roane co. Tenn. in
the " Knoxville Register," Sept. 12, 1838.
Messrs. Taylor, Lawton & Co.,
Charleston, South Carohna, m the
" Mercury," Nov. 1838.
Mr. Louis Schmidt, Taubourg, Si-
vaudais. La. in the New Orleans" Bee,
Sept. 5, 1837.
W. M. Whitehead, Natchez, in the
" New Orleans Bulletin," Jidy 21, 1837.
Mr. Conrad Salvo, Charleston, South
qarolina, in the " Mercury, August 10,
J837.
" Taken up, a negro man — is very much scarred about the face
and body, and has the left ear bit off."
" Ranaway, my slave Lewis — he has lost a piece of one ear,
and a part of one of Ids fingers, a part of one of his toes is also
lost."
" Ranaway, a black girl named Mary — has a scar on her cheek,
and the end of one of her toes cut off."
" Ranaway, the negro boy Ceesar — he has but one eye."
" Ranaway, the negress Martha — she has lost her right eye."
" Ranaway, George— has had the lower part of one of his ears
bit off."
" Ranaway, my negro Tom — has a piece bit off the top of his
right ear, and his little finger is stiff."
" Ranaway, my mulatto woman Judy— she has had her right
arm broke."
" Was committed to jail, a negro man named Bill— has had
the thumb of his left hand split."
" Ranaway, a mulatto man named Joe — his fingers on the left
hand are partly amputated."
" Lodged in jail, a negro man named Jupiter— is very lame in
his left hip, so that he can hardly walk— has lost a joint of the
middle finger of his left hand."
" Ranaway, Bill— has a sear over one eye, also one on his leg,
from the hite of a dog— has a burn on his buttock, from a piece of
hot iron in shape of a T."
" Committed to jail, a negro named Mike— Ajs left ear off."
" Ranaway, my negro man Levi— his left hand has been burnt,
and I think the end of his forefinger is off."
" Ranaway. a negro named Washington— has lost apart of his
middle finger and the end of his little finger ."
•'Ranaway, a negro named David Drier— has two toes cut."
" Ranaway, Edmund— has a scar on his right temple, and
under his right eye, and holes in both ears."
" Runaway, a negro boy twelve or thirteen years old— has a
scar on his left cheek from the bite of a dog."
" Fifty dollars reward, for my negro man John — he has a con-
siderable scar on his throat, done with a knife."
" Twenty-five dollars reward, for my man John— the tip of his
nose is bit off."
"Ranaway, a negro fellow called Hover— has a cut above the
right eye."
" Ranaway, the negro man Hardy— has a scar on the upper
lip, and another made with a knife on his neck."
" Ranaway, Henry- has half of one ear bit off.»
" Ranaway, my negro man Jacob— he has but one eye."
Pumshments— Branding, Maiming, Scars.
81
William Bakfr, jailer, Shplby county,
Ala., in ihe " Montgomery (Ala.) Ad-
vertiser," Oct. 5, 1838.
Mr. S. N. Hite, Camp street, Now Or-
leoas, in tJie " Bee,'' Feb. 19, 1838.
Mr. Stephen M. Ricliards, Wliites-
buig, Mndlsjou county, Alabama, in the
" Uuiitsville Democrat," Sept. 8, 1838.
Mr. A. Drove, parish of St. Charles,
La. in the " Now Orleau.« Bee," Feb. 19,
1838.
Mr. Nepdhani Wliitefield, Aberdeen,
Mi. in iJie " Memphis (Tenn.) Enqui-
rer," Juno 15, 1836.
Col. M- J. Sheith, Charleston, South
Carolina, in t}}". " Mercury," Nov. 27,
1837.
Mr. R. Lancette, Hayvi'ood, North
Carolina, in the "Kalejgh Register,"
Ap-.il 30, 1838.
Mr. G. C. Richardson, Owen Station,
Mo., in tlie St. Louis " Republican," May
5, 1838.
Mr. E. Han, La Grange. Fayette coun-
ty, Tenn. in the Gallatin " Union," June
23, 1837.
D. Herrinst, vrarden of Baltimore city
jail, in tiie '■ Marylander," Oct. 6, 1837.
Mr. James Marks, near Natchitoches,
La. in the " Natchitoches Herald," July
21, 1833.
Mr. James Barr, Amelia Court House,
Virginia, in the " Norfolk Herald,"
Sept. 12, 1838.
Mr. Isaac Miehell, Wilkinson county,
Georgia, in the "Augusta Chronicle,"
Sept. 21, 1837.
Mr. P. Rayhi, captain of the police,
Suburb Washington, third munici-
pality, New Orfeans, in the "Bee,"
Oct. 13, 1837.
Mr. Willie Paterson, Clinton, Jones
county, Ga. in the " Darien Telegraph,"
Dec. 5, ia37.
Mr. Samuel Ragland,Triana, Madison
county, Alabama, in the " Huntsville
Advocate," Dec. 23, 1837.
Mr. Moses E. Bush, near Clayton, Ala.
ia the " Columbus [Ga.? Enquirer,"
July 5, 1833.
C. W. Wilkins, sherifF Baldwin Co,
Ala. in the " Mobile Advertiser," Sept.
22, 1837.
Mr. James H. Taylor, Charleston
South Carolina, in the " Courier," Au-
gust 7, 1837.
N. M. C. Robinson, jailer, Columbus,
Georgia, in the " Columbus (Ga.) En-
quirer," August 2, 1838.
Mr. Littlejohn Rynss, Hinds Co.
"Committed to jail, Ben— his left thumb off at the first joint."
" Twenty-five dollnrs reward for the negro slave Sally — walks
as thoug-h crippled in the baek."
" Ranaway, a negro man named Dick — has a little finger off
the right hand."
" Ranaway, the negro Patrick — has his little finger of the right
hand cut close to the hand."
" Ranawav, Joe Dennis — has a small notch in one of his cars."
17 ■1838."'' " ^''"'^''^ Courier," August, ^„^ ^j- ^/^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^,. „
" Ranaway, Dick — has lost the little toe of one of his feet."
" Escaped, my negro man Eaton — his little finger of the riglit
hand has been broke."
" Ranaway, my negro man named Top — has had one of his legs
broken."
" Ranaway, negro boy Jack — has a small crop out of his left
ear."
" Was committed to jail, a negro man — has two scars on his
forehead, and the top of his left ear cut off."
" Stolen, a negro man named Winter — has a notch cut out of
the left ear, and the mark oifour or five buck shot on his legs."
" Ranaway, a negro man — scar back of his left eye, as if from
the cut of a knife."
" Ranaway, negro man Buck — has a very plain mark under
his ear on his jaw, about the size of a dollar, having been inflicted
by a knife."
" Detained at the jail, the negro boyHermon — has a scar below
his left ear, from the wound of a knife."
" Ranaway, a negro man by the name of John — he has a
scar across his cheek, and one on his right arm, apparently done
with a knife."
" Ranaway, Isham — has a scar upon the breast and upon the
under lip, from the bite of a dog."
" Ranaway, a negro man — has a scar on his hip and on his
breast, and two front teeth out."
" Committed to jail, a negro man, he is crippled in the
right leg."
" Absconded, a colored boy, named Peter, lame in the right
leg."
" Brought to jail, a negro man, his left ankle has been broke."
Ranaway, a negro man named Jerry, has a small piece cut
The Heirs of J. A. Alston, near
Georgetown, South Carolina, in the
" Georgetown [S.C] Union," June 17,
1837.
A. S. Ballinger, Sheriff, Johnston Co,
North Carolina, in the " Raleigh Stand-
ard," Oct. 18, 1838.
Mr. Thomas Crutchfield, Atkins, Ten.
in the " Tennessee Journal," Oct. 17,
1838.
" Absconded a negro named Cuffee, has lost one finger ; has
an enlarged leg."
" Committed to jail, a negro man ; has a very sore leg."
" Ranaway, my mulatto boy Cv, has but one hand, all the
fingers of his right hand were burnt off when young."
11
Q2 Punishments — Branding, Maiming, Scars.
J. A. Brown, jailer,Orangeburg, South " Was committed to jail, a negro named Bob, appears to be
Caroliiia, in the " Charleston Mercury," crippled in the right leg."
July 18, 1838. ' ^
S.B.Turton, jailer, Adams Co. Miss. "Was committed to jail, a negro man, has his left thigh
in the " Natchez Courier," Sept. 28, f)j-oke."
1828.
" Mr. John H. King, High street, " Ranaway, my negro man, he has the end of one of his
Georgetown, in the " National InteUi- f^jjo-erg broken."
geucer," August 1, 1837. '='
Mr. John B. Fox, Vicksburg, Miss. " Ranaway, a yellowish negro boy named Tom, has a notch
m the " Register," March 20, 1837. jjj ^^io back of one of his ears."
Messrs. Fernandez and Whiting, auc- " Will be sold Martha, aged nineteen, has one eye out."
tioneers, New Orleans, in the " Bee,"
AprU 8.1837.
Mr. Marshall Jett, FarrowsviUe, Fan- " Ranaway, negro manEphraim, has a mark over one of his
quier Co. Virginia, in the " National ^ ^.g occasioned by a blow."
InteUigencer," May 30,1837.
S. B. Turton, jailer Adams Co. Miss. "Was committed a negro, calls himself Jacob, has been
in the " Natches Courier," Oct. 12, 1838. crippled in his right leg."
John Ford, sheriff of Mobile County, " Committed to jail, a negro man Gary, a large scar on Ms
in the " Mississippian," Jackson Mi. foyeUcad."
Dec. 28, 1838. •'
E. W. IMorris, sheriff of Warren " Committed as a runaway, a negro man Jack, he has several
County, in the " Vicksburg [3(0.] Regis- g^ars on his face."
ter," March 28, 1838.
' Mt. John P. Holcombe, in the Charles- "Absented himself, his negro man Ben, has scars on his
ton Mercury," AprU 17, 1828. throat, occasioned by the cut of a knife.'''
Mr. Willis ratterson.iu the "Charles- " Ranaway, a negro man, John, a scar across his cheek, and
ton Merciury," December 11, 1837. q^q qj^ JiJg right arm, apparently done with a knife."
Wm. Magee, sheriff. Mobile Co. in the " Committed to jail, a runaway slave, Alexander, a scar on
" MobUe Register," Dec. 27, 1837. i^jg j^f^ cheek."
Mr. Henry M. McGregor, Prince " Ranaway, negro Phil, scar tnrough the right eye brow, part
George County, Maryland, in the "Alex- f ^j^g middle toe on the right foot cut off."
andria[D. C] Gazette," Feb. 6, 1838.
Green B Jourdan, Baldwin County " Ranaway, John, has a scar on one of his hands extending
Ga. in the " Georgia Journal," AprU 18, fj.Qj^ ^jjg ^j-jst ioint to the httle finger, also a scar on one of his
1837. ,._.., •■
Messrs. Daniel and Goodman, New " Absconded, mulatto slave Alick, has a large scar over one
Orleans, in the " N. O. Bee," Feb. 2. ^f j,jg cheeks."
1838.
Jeremiah Woodward, Goochland, Co. " 200 DOLLARS REWARD for Nelson, has a scar on his
Va. in the " Riclimond Va. Whig," forehead occasioned by a burn, and one on his lower lip and one
Jan. 30, 1838. ^^^^^ ^j^g j^j^ee_>.
" Ranaway, a negro man and bis wife, named Nat and
Samuel RawUns, Gwinet Co. Ga.in Priscilla, he has a small scar on his left cheek, two stiff fingers
the " Columbus Sentinel," Nov. 29, ^^^ ^^^ ^-^^^^ ^^^^ ^.pj^^ j^ running sore on them ; his wife has a
"^' scar on her left arm, and one upper tooth out."
The reader perceives that we have under this
head, as under previous ones, given to the testi-
mony of the slaveholders themselves, under their
own names, a precedence over that of all other
witnesses. Wc now ask the reader's attention
to the testimonies which follow. They are en-
dorsed by responsible names — men who ' speak
vAat they know, and testify what they have
seen' — testimonies which show, that the slave-
holders who wrote the preceding advertise-
ments, describing the work of their own hands,
in branding with hot irons, maiming, mutilating,
cropping, shooting, knocking out the teeth and
eyes of their slaves, breaking their bones, &c„
have manifested, as far as they have gone in the
description, a commendable fidelity to truth.
It is probable that some of the scars and maim-
ino-s in the preceding advertisements were the
result of accidents ; and some may be the result
of violence inflicted by the slaves upon each
other. Without arguing that point, we say, these
are the facts ; whoever reads and ponders them,
will need no argument to convince him, that the
proposition which they have been employed to
sustain, cannot be shaken. That any considera-
blc portion of them were accidental, is totally im-
j probable, from the nature of the case ; and is in
' most instances disproved by the advertisements
Ptinishments — Mutilation of Teeth.
S3
themselves. That they have not been produced
by assaults of the slaves upon each other, is man-
ifest from the fact, that injuries of that character
intiicted by the slaves upon each other, are, as all
who arc familiar with the habits and condition
of slaves well know, exceedingly rare ; and of
necessity must be so, from the constant action
upon them of the strongest dissuasives from such
acts that can operate on human nature.
Advertisements similar to the preceding may
at any time be gathered by scores from the daily
and weekly newspapers of the slave states. Be.
fore presenting the reader with further testimony
in proof of the proposition at the head of this
part of our subject, we remark, that some of the
tortures enumerated under this and the preceding
heads, are not in all cases inflicted by slavehold-
ers as punishments, but sometimes merely as pre.
ventives of escape, for the greater security of
tlieir ' property.' Iron collars, chains, &c. are
put upon slaves when they are driven or trans-
ported from one part of the country to another, in
order to keep them from running away. Similar
measures are aften resorted to upon plantations.
When the master or owner suspects a slave of
plotting an escape, an iron collar with long 'horns,'
or a bar of iron, or a ball and chain, are often
fastened upon him, for the double purpose of re-
tarding his flight, should he attempt it, and of
serving as an easy means of detection.
Another inhuman method of marking slaves,
60 that they may be easily described and detected
when they escape, is called cropping. In the
preceding advertisements, the reader will per-
: ccivc a number of cases, in which the runaway
is described as ' cropt,'' or a ' notch cut in the
car, or a part or the whole of the car cut off,' &,c.
Two years and a half since, the writer of this
saw a letter, then just received by Mr. Lewis
Tappan, of New York, containing a negro's ear
cut off' close to the head. The writer of the let-
ter, who signed himself Thomas Aylethorpc,
Montgomery, Alabama, sent it to Mr. Tappan as
' a specimen of a negro's ears,' and desired him to
add it to his ' collection.'
Another method of marhing slaves, is by draw,
ingout or breaking off" one or two front teeth —
commonly the upper ones, as the mark would in
that case be the more obvious. An instance of
this kind the reader will recall in the testimony
of Sarah M. Grimke, page 30, and of which she
had personal knowledge ; being well acquainted
both with the inhuman master, (a distinguished
citizen of South Carolina,) by whose order tlie
brutal deed was done, and with the poor young
girl whose mouth was thus barbarously mutilated,
to furnish a convenient mark by which to de-
scribe her in case of her elopement, as she had
frequently run away.
The case stated by TVliss G. serves to unravel
what, to one unmitiated, seems quite a mystery :
i. e. the frequency with which, in the advertise-
ments of runaway slaves published in southern
papers, they are described as having one or two
front teeth out. Scores of such advertisements
are in southern papers now on our table. We
will furnish the reader with a dozen or two.
WITXESSES.
Jesse Debruhl, sheriff, Richland Dis-
trict, " Columbia (S. C.) Telescope,"
Feb. 24, 183S.
Mr. John Hunt, BlacK Water Bay,
" Pensacola (Ga."l Gazwte," October 14,
1837.
Mr. John Frederick, Branchville,
Oransteburgh District, S. C. " Charleston
rs. C.J Courier," June 12, 1837.
3Ir. Egbert A. Eaworth, eisht miles
westof Na?inille on the Charlotte road,
" Daily Republican Banner," NashvUIe,
Tennessee, April 30, 1S38.
Benjamin Russel, Deputy sheriff,
Bibb Co. Ga. " Macon 'Ga.) Telegraph,"
Dec. 25, 18.^7.
F. Wisner, Master of the Work
House, " Charleston (S. C.) Courier.'*
Oct. 17, 1837.
Jlr. S. Neyle, " Savannah (Ga.) Re-
publican," July 3, 1837.
Mr. John McMurrain, near Columbus,
" Georgia Messenger," Aug. 2, 1838.
Mr. John Kennedy, Stewart Co. La.
^' New Orleans Bee," April 7, 1837.
Mr. A. J. Hutchings, near Florence,
Ala. " North Alabasnian," August 25,
3838.
TESTIMONY.
" Committed to jail, Ned, about 25 years of age, has lost his
two upper front teeth."
" 100 DOLLARS REWARD, for Perry, one under front
tooth missing, aged 23 years."
10 DOLLARS REWARD, for Mary, one or two upper teeth
out, abotit 25 years old."
'' Ranaway, Myal, 23 years old, one of his /ore teeth out."
" Brought to jail John, 23 years old, one fore tooth outy
" Committed to the Charleston Work House Tom, two of his
upper front teeth out, about 30 years of age."
" Ranaway Peter, has lost two front teeth in the upper jaw."
" Ranaway, a boy named Moses, some of his front teeth out.
" Ranaway, Sally, her foreteeth out."
" Ranaway, George Winston, two of his upper fart teeth out
immediately in front,"
Punishments — Mutilation of Teeth.
Mr. James Purdon, 33 Common street,
N. O. " Kevv Orleans Bee," Feb. 13,
1838.
Mr. Robert Calvert, in the " Arkan-
sas State Gazette," August 22, 1838.
Mr. A. G. A. Bcazlev, in the Mfim-
phia Gazette," March 18, 1338.
Ranaway, Jackson, has lost one of his front teeth.""
Ranaway, Jack, 25 years old, has lost one of his fore teeth."
Ranaway, Abraham, 20 or 22 years of age, his front teeth
out.^
Mr. Samuel Townsond, in the " Hunts-
villo [Ala.J Democrat," May 24, 1837.
out."
Ranaway, Dick, 18 or 20 years of age, has one front tooth
Mr. Philip A. Dew, in the " Virguua
Herald," ofMay 2-1, 1837.
Mr. John Frederick, in the " Charles-
ton Mcrcurj'," August 10, 1837.
Jesse Debruhl, sheriff of Kichland
District, in the " Columbia [S. C]
"Telegraph," Sept. 2, 1837.
M. E. W. Gilbert, in the " Oolumbna
[Ga.l Enquirer," Oct. 5. 1837.
Publisher of the " Charleston Mer-
cury," Aug. 31, 1838.
*' Ranaway, Washington, about 25 years of age, has an upper
front tooth out.''
"50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Mary, 25 or 26 years old,
one or two upper teeth out."
" Committed to jail, Ned, 25 or 26 years old, has lost his two
upper front teeth.''''
" 50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Prince, 25 or 26 years old,
one or two teeth out in front on the upper jaw."
" Ranaway, Seller Saunders, one fore tooth out, about 22 years
of affc."
Mr. Byrd M. Grace, in the " Macon
[Ga.] Telegraph,"' Oct. 16, 1838.
Mr. George W. Barnes, in the " Mil-
Icdgeville [Ga.] Journal," May 22, 1837.
D. Hernng. Warden of Baltimore
Jail, in " Baltimore Chronicle," Oct. 6,
1837.
Mr. J. L. Colbom, in the " Hantsville
[Ala.] Democrat," July 4, 1837.
Samuel Harman Jr. in the " New
Osieans Bee," Oct. 12, 1838.
" Ranaway, Warren, about 25 or 26 years old, has lost some
of his front teeth."
" Ranaway, Henry, about 23 years old, has one of his upper
front teeth out."
" Committed to jail Hizabeth Steward, 17 or 18 years old, has
one of her front teeth out."
" Ranaway Liley, 26 years of Sige, one fore tooth gone."
" 50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Adolphe, 28 years old, two
of his front teeth are missing."
Were it necessary, we might easily add to the
preceding list, hundreds. The reader will remark
that all the slaves, whose ages are given, are
yotmg — not one has arrived at middle age ; con-
sequently it can hardly be supposed that they have
lost their teeth either from age or decay. The
probability that their teeth were taken out by
force, is increased by the fact of their being front
ti^eth in almost every case, and from the fact that
the loss of no other is mentioned in the advertise-
nients. It is well known that the front teeth are
not generally the first to fail. Further, it is noto-
rious that the teeth of the slaves are remarkably
sound and serviceable, that they decay far less, and
at a much later period of life than the teeth of the
whites : owing partly, no doubt, to original con-
stitution ; but more probably to their diet, habits,
and mode of life.
As an illustration of the horrible mutilations
sometimes suffered by them in the breaking and
tearing out of their teeth, we insert the following,
from the New-Orleans Bee of May 31, 1837.
$10 REWARD.— Ranaway, Friday, May 12,
Julia, a negress, eighteen or twenty years old.
She has lost her upper teeth, and the under
ones ARE all broken. Said reward will be paid
to whoever will bring her to her master. No. 172
Barracks-street, or lodge h^^r in the jail.
The following is contained in the same paper.
Ranaway, Nelson, 27 years old, — "All his
teeth are missing."
This advertisement is signed by " Selfer,"
Faubourg Marigny.
We now call the attention of the reader to a
mass of testimony in support of our general pro.
position.
George B. Ripley, Esq. of Norwich, Connec-
ticut, has furnished the following statement, in a
letter dated Dec. 12, 1838.
" Gurdon Chapman, Esq., a respectable mer-
chant of our city, one of our county commission.
crs, — last spring a member of our state legisla-
ture,— and whose character for veracity is aljovo
suspicion, about a year since visited the county of
Nansemond, Virginia, for the purpose of buying
a cargo of corn. He purchased a large quantity
of Mr. •, with whose family he spent a
week or ten days ; after he returned, he related to
me and several other citizens the following facts.
Punishments — Cruelties.
85
( In order to prepare the com for market by the
time agreed upon, the slaves were worked as hard
as they would bear, from daybreak until 9 or 10
o'cloek at nig-lit. They were called directly I'roni
their bunks in tlie morning- to their work, without
a morsel of food until noon, when they took their
breakfast and dinner, consisting of bacon and corn
bread. The quantity of meat was not one tenth
of what the same nmuber of northern laborers
usually have at a meal. They were allowed but
liftecn minutes to take this meal, at the expiration
of this time the horn was blown. The rigor with
■which they enforce punctuality to its call, may be
imagined from the fact, that a litilc boy only nine
years old was whipped so severely by the driver,
that in many places the vvdiip cut through his
clothes (which were of cotton,) for tardiness of
not over three minutes. They then worked with-
out intermission until 9 or 10 at night ; after
which they prepared and ate their second meal,
as scanty as the first. An aged slave, who was
remarkable for his industry and fidehty, was v/ork-
ing with all his might on the threshing floor ;
amidst the clatter of the shelling and winnowing
machines the master spoke to him, but he did not
hear; he presently gave him several scvei-e cuts
with the raw hide, saying, at the same time,
'damn you, if you cannot hear I'll see if you can
feel.' One morning the master rose from break-
fast and whipped most crueli}-, with a raw hide, a
nice girl who was waiting on the table, for not
opening a west window when he had told her to
open an east one. The number of slaves was only
forty, and yet the lash was in constant use. The
bodies of all of them were literally covered with
old scars.
" Not one of the slaves attended church on the
Sabbath. The social relations were scarcely re-
cognised among them, and they lived in a stale
of promiscuous concubinage. The master said
he look pains to breed from his best stock — the
whiter the progeny the higher they would sell for
house servants. When asked by Mr. C. if he did
not fear his slaves would run away if he whipped
them so much, he replied, they know too well
what they must suffer if they are taken — and then
said, ' I'll tell you how I treat ray runaway nig-
gers. I had a big nigger that ran away the second
time ; as soon as I got track of him I took three
good fellows and went in pursuit, and found him
in the night, some miles distant, in a corn-house;
we took him and ironed him hand and foot, and
carted him home. The next morning we tied him
to a tree, and whipped him until there was not a
sound place on his back. I then tied his ankles
and hoisted him up to a limh — feet up and head
down — we then whipped him, until the damned
nigger smoked so that I thought he would take
fire and burn up. We then took him down ; and
to make sure that he should not run away the
third time. I run my knife in back of the ankles,
and cut off the large cords, — and then I ought to
have put some lead into the wounds, but I for-
got it.'
" The truth of the above is from unquestionable
authority ; and you may publish or suppress it, as
shall best subserve the cause of God and hu-
manity."
Extract of a letter from Stephen Sew all,
Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 18.'i9.
Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational church
in Winthrop, and late agent of the W^inthrop
Manufacturing company.
" Being somewhat acquainted with slavery, by a
residence of about five years in Alabama, and
having witnessed many acts of slaveholding cru-
elty, I will mention one or tv/o that came under
my eye ; and one of excessive cruelty mentioned
to me at the time, by the gentleman (now dead,)
that interfered in behalf of the slave.
" I was witness to such cruelties by an over-
seer to a slave, that he twice attempted to drown
himself, to get out of his power : this was on a
raft of staves, in the Mobile river. I saw an owner
take his runavv'ay slave, tie a rope round him, then
get on his horse, give the slave and horse a cut
with the whip, and run the poor creature barefoot-
ed, very fast, over rough ground, where small black
jack oaks had been cut up, leaving the sharp
stumps, on which the slave would frequently fall ;
then the master would drag him as long as he
could himself hold out ; then stop, and whip him
up on his feet again — then proceed as before.
This continued until he got out of my sight,
which was about half a mile. But what further
cruelties this wretched man, (whose passion was
so excited that he could scarcely utter a word
when he took the slave into his own power,) in-
flicted upon his poor victim, the day of judgment
will unfold.
" I have seen slaves severely whipped on planta-
tions, but this is an every day occurrence, and
comes under the head of general treatment.
" I have known the case of a husband com-
pelled to whip his wife. This I did not witness,
though not two rods from the cabin at the time.
" I will now mention the case of cruelty before
referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public v/orks
were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile
Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat
one of his slaves so severely that the poor crea-
ture had no longer power to writhe under his suf-
fering : he then took out his knife, and began to
cut his flesh in strips, from his hips clown. At
this moment, the gentleman referred to, who was
also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity,
stepped forward, between the wretch and his vie.
tim, and exclaimed, ' If you touch that slave
again you do it at the peril of your hfe." The
slaveholder rav'ed at him for interfering between
him and his slave ; but he was obliged to drop his
victim, fearing the arm of my friend — whose sta-
ture and physical powers were extraordinary."
Extract of a letter from Mrs. Mary Cowles,
a member of the Protestant Church at Geneva,
Ashtabula county, Ohio, dated 12Lh, mo. 18th,
1838. Mrs. Cowles is a daughter of Mr. James
ColweU of Brook county, Virginia, near West
Liberty.
" In the year 1809, I think, when I was twenty,
one years old, a man in the vicinity where I resid-
ed, in Brooke co. Va. near West Liberty, by the
name of Morgan, had a little slave girl about six
years old, who had a habit or rather a natural infir-
mity common to children of that age. On this ac-
count her master and mistress would pinch her ears
86
Punishments — Cruelties.
with hot tongs, and throw hot embers on her legs. '■
Not being able to accomplish their object by these
means, they at last resorted to a method too in-
delicate, and too horrible to describe in detail.
Suffice it to say, it soon put an end to her life in
the most excruciating manner. If further testi-
mony to authenticate what I have stated is ne-
cessary, I refer you to Dr. Robert Mitchel who
then resided in the vicinity, but now lives at In-
diana, Pennsylvania, above Pittsburgh."
Mary Cowles.
Testimony of William Ladd, Esq., now of
Minot, Maine, formerly a slaveholder in Florida.
Mr. Ladd is now the President of the American
Peace Society. In a letter dated November
29, 1838, Mr. Ladd says :
" While I lived in Florida I knev/ a slaveholder
whose name was Hutchinson, he had been a
preacher and a member of the Senate of Georgia.
lie told mc that he dared not keep a gun in
his house, because he was so passionate ; and that
he had been the death of three or four men. I un-
derstood him to mean slaves. One of his slaves, a
girl, once came to m}- house. She had run away
from him at Indian river. The cords of one of
her hands were so much contracted that her hand
was useless. It was said that he had thrust her
hand into the fire while he was in a fit of passion,
and held it there, and this was the effect. My
wife had hid the girl, when Hutchinson came for
her. Out of compassion for the poor slave, I of-
fered him more than she was worth, which he re-
fused. We afterward let the girl escape, and I do
not know what became of her, but I believe he
never got her again. It was currently reported
of Hutcliinson, that he once knocked down a
new negro (one recently from Africa) who was
clearing up land, and who complained of the cold,
as it was mid-winter. The slave was stunned
with the blow. Hutchinson, supposing he had
the ' sulks,' applied fire to the side of the slave
until it was so roasted that he said the slave was
not worth curing, and ordered the other slaves to
pile on brush, and he was consumed.
" A murder occurred at the settlement, (Mus-
quito) while I lived there. An overseer from Geor-
gia, who was emplo3^9d by a Mr. Cormick, in a
fit of jealousy shot a slave of Samuel Williams,
the owner of the next plantation. He was ap-
prehended, but afterward suffered to escape.
This man told me that he had rather whip a ne-
gro than sit down to the best dinner. This man
had, near his house, a contrivance like that which
is used in armies where soldiers are punished
with the picket; by this the slave was drawn up
from the earth, by a cord passing round his wrists,
so that his feet could just touch the ground. It
somewhat resembled a New England well sweep,
and was used when the slaves were flogged.
" The treatment of slaves at Musquito I consi-
der much milder than that which 1 have witness-
ed in the Ihiited States. Florida was under the
Spanish government while I lived there. There
were about fifteen or twenty plantations at Mus-
quito. I have an indistinct recollection of four or
five slaves dying of the cold in Amelia Island.
They belonged to iVIr. Runer of Musquito. The
compensation of the overseers was a certain por-
tion of the crop."
Gerkit Smith, Esq. of Peterboro, in a letter,
dated Dec. 15, 1838, says :
" I have just been conversing with an inhabi-
tant of this town, on the subject of the cruelties
of slavery. My neighbors inform me that he is
a man of veracity. The candid manner of his
communication utterly forbade the suspicion that
he was attempting to deceive me.
" My informant says that he resided in Loui.^i-
lana and Alabama during a great part of the
years 1819 and 1820 : — that he frequently saw
slaves whipped, never saw any killed ; but often
heard of their being killed: — that in several in-
stances he had seen a slave receive, in the space <
of two hours, five hundred lashes — each stroke
drawing blood. He adds that this severe whip-
ping was always followed by the application of
strong brine to the lacerated parts-
" My informant further says, that in the spring
of 1819, he steered a boat from Louisville to New
Orleans. Whilst stopping at a plantation on the
east bank of the Mississippi, between Natchez and
New Orleans, for the purpose of making sale of
some of the articles with which the boat was
freighted, he and his fellow boatmen saw a shock-
ingly cruel punishment inflicted on a couple of
slaves for the repeated offence of running away.
Straw was spread over the whole of their backs,
and, after being fastened by a band of the sama
material, v/as ignited, and left to burn, until en-
tirely consumed. The agonies and screams of
the sufferers he can never forget."
Dr. David Nelson, late president of Marion '
College, Missouri, a native of Tennessee, and till
forty years old a slaveholder, said in an Anti-
Slavery address at Northampton, Mass, Jan.
1839—
" 1 have not attempted to harrow your feelings
with stories of cruelty. I Vv'ill, however, mention
one or two among the many incidents that came
under my observation as family physician. I was
one day dressing a blister, and the mistress of the
house sent a little black girl into the kitchen to
bring me some warm water. She probably mis-
took her message ; for she returned with a bowl
full of boiling water ; which her mistress no
sooner perceived, than she thrust her hand into
it, and held it there till it was half cooked."
Mr. He?jry H. Loomis, a member of the Pres-
byterian Theological Seminary in the city of
New York, says, in a recent letter —
" The Rev. Mr. Hart, recently my pastor, in
Otsego county, New York, and who has spent
some time at the south as a teacher, stated to
me that in the neighborhood in which he resided
a slave was set to watch a turnip patch near au
academy, in order to keep off the boys who occa-
sionally trespassed on it. Attempting to repeat tl le.
trespass in presence of the slave, they were told
that his ' master forbad it.' At this the boys
were enraged, and hurled brickbats at the slave,
until his face and other parts were much injured
and wounded — but nothing was said or done
about it as an injury to the slave.
" He also said, that a slave from the same neigh,
borhood was found out in the woods, with his
arms and legs burned almost to a cinder, up as
Punishments — Cruelties.
87
far as the elbow and knee joints ; and tlicrc ap-
peared to be but little more said or thought about
it than ;1 he had been a brute. It was supposed
that hia master was the cause of it— making him
•Jin example of punishment to the rest of the
gang I"
The following is an extract of a letter dated
March 5, 1839, from Mr. John Clarke, a highly
respected citizen cf Scriba, Oswego county, New
York, and a member of the Presbyterian church.
The ' Mrs. Turner' spoken of in Mr. C.'s let-
ter, is the wife of Hon. Fielding S. Turner, who
in 1803 resided at Lexington, Kentucky, and
was tlie attorney for the Commonwealth. Soon
after that, he removed to New Orleans, and was
for many vears Judge of the Criminal Court of
that city. Having amassed an immense fortune,
he returned to Lexington a few years since, and
still resides there. Mr. C. the writer, spent the
winter of 1836-7 in Lexington. He says,
" Yours of the 27th ult. is received, and I has-
ten to state the facts which came to my know-
ledge while in Lexington, respecting the occur-
rences about which you inquire. Mrs. Turner
was originally a Boston lady. She is from 35 to
40 years of age, and the wife of Judge Turner,
formerly of New Orleans, and worth a large
fortune in slaves and plantations. I repeatedly
heard, while in Lexington, Kentucky, during the
winter of 1836-7, of tlie wanton cruelty prac-
tised by this woman upon her slaves, and that
she had caused several to be tchipped to death;
but I never heard that she was suspected of
being deranged, otherwise than by the indulgence
of an ungoverned temper, until I heard that her
husband was attem.pting to incarcerate her in
the Lunatic Asylum. The citizens of Lexing-
ton, believing the charge to be a false one, rose
and prevented the accomplishment for a time,
until, lulled by the fair promises of his friends, they
left his domicil, and in the dead of night she v/as
taken by force, and conveyed to the asylum.
This proceeding being judged illegal by her
friends a suit was instituted to liberate her. I
heard the testimony on the trial, which related
only to proceedings had in order to getting her
admitted into the asylum ; and no facts came out
relative to her treatment of her slaves, other than
of a general character.
" Some days after the above trial, (which by
the way did not come to an ultimate decision,
as I believe) I was present in my brother's
office, when Judge Turner, in a long conversa-
tion with my brother on the subject of his trials
with his wife, said, ' That woman has been the
immediate cause of the death of six of my ser-
vants, by her severities'
" I was repeatedly told, while I was there, that
she drove a colored boy from the second story
window, a distance of 15 to 18 feet, on to the
pavement, which made him a cripple for a time.
" I heard the trial of a man for the nuu-derof his
slave, bv whipping, where the evidence was to
my mind pErfectly conclusive of his guilt; but
the jury were two of them for convicting him of
manslaughter, and the rest for acquitting him ;
and as they could not agree v/erc discharged — and
on a subsequent trial, as I learned by the papers,
the culprit was acquitted."
Rev. Thomas Savage, of Bedford, New Hamp-
shire, in a recent letter, states the following fact:
" The following circumstance was related to
me last summer, by my brother, now residing as
a physician, at Rodney, Mississippi ; and who,
though a pro-slavery man, spoke of it in terms of
reprobation, as an act of capricious, wanton cru-
elty. The planter who was the actor in it I my-
self knew ; and the whole transaction is so cha-
racteristic of the man, that, independent of the
strong authority I have, I should entertain but
little doubt of its authenticity. He is a wealthy
planter, residing near Natchez, eccentric, capri-
cious and intemperate. On one occasion he in-
vited a number of guests to an elegant enter-
tainment, prepared in the true style of southern
luxury. From some cause, none of the guests
appeared. In a moody humor, and under the
influence, probably, of mortified pride, he ordered
the overseer to call the people (a term by which
the field hands are generally designated,) on to
the piazza. The order was obeyed, and the
people came. ' Now,' said he, ' have them seat-
ed at the table. Accordingly they were seated at
the well-furnished, ghttering table, while he and
his overseer Vi-aited on them, and helped them to
the various dainties of the feast. ' Now,' said he,
after a while, raising his voice, ' take these ras-
cals, and give them twenty lashes a piece. I'll
show them'how to eat at my table.' The over-
seer, in relating it, said he had to comply, though
reluctantly, with this brutal command."
Mr. Henry P. Thompson, a native and still a
resident of Nicholasville, Kentucky, made the
following statement at a public meeting in Lane
Seminary, Ohio, in 1833. He vias at that time
a slaveholder.
" Cruelties, said he, are so common, I hardly
know what to relate. But one fact occurs to me
just at this time, that happened in the village
where I live. The circumstances are these. A
colored man, a slave, ran away. As he-vwas
crossing Kentucky river, a white man, who sus-
pected him, attempted to stop him. The negro
resisted. The white man procured help, and
finally succeeded in securing him. He then
Vv'reaked his vengeance on him for resisting —
flogging him till he was not able to walk. They
then put him on a horse, and came on with him
ten miles to Nicholasville. When they entered
the village, it was noticed that he sat upon his
horse like a drunken man. It was a very hot
day ; and whilst they were taking some refresh-
ment, the negro sat down upon the ground, under
the shade. When they ordered him to go, he
made several efForts before he could get up ; and
when he attempted to mount the horse, his
strength was entirely insufficient. One of the
men struck him, and with an oath ordered him to
get on the horse without any more fuss. The
negro staggered back a few steps, fell down, and
died. I do Dot know that any notice was ever
taken of it."
Rev. Coleman S, Hodges, a native and still
88
Punishments — Cruelties.
a resident of Western Virginia, gave the follow-
ing testimony at the same meeting.
" I have frequently seen the mistress of a fam-
ily in Virginia, with whom I was well acquaint-
ed, beat ilio woman who performed the kitehen
work, with a stxk two feet and a half long, and
nearly as thick as my wrist ; striking her over
the head, and across the small of the back, as
she was bent over at her work, with as much
epite as you would a snake, and for what I should
consider no ofience at all. There lived m this
same family a young man, a slave, who was in
the habit of running away. He returned one
time after a week's absence. The master took
him into tlie barn, stripped him entirely naked,
tied him up by his hands so high that he could
not reach the floor, tied his feet together, and put
a small rail between his legs, so that he could not
avoid the blows, and commenced whipping him.
He told me that he gave him five hundred lashes.
At any rate, he was covered with wounds from
head to foot. Not a place as big as my hand but
what was cut. Such things as these are per-
fectly common all over Virginia ; at least so far
as I am acquainted. Generally, planters avoid
punishing their slaves before strangers."
Mr. Calvin H. Tate, of Missouri, whose father
and brother were slaveholders, related the fol-
lowing at the same meeting. The plantation on
which it occurred, was in the immediate neigh-
borhood of his father's.
" A young woman, who was generally very
badly treated, after receiving a more severe whip
ping than usual, ran away. In a few days she
came back, and was sent into the field to work.
At this time the garment next her skin was stift'
like a scab, from the running of the sores made
by the whipping. Towards night, she told her
master that she was sick, and wished to go to
the house. She went, and as soon as she reach-
ed it. laid down on the floor exhausted. The
mistress asked her what the matter was ? She
made no reply. She asked again ; but received
no answer. ' I'll see,' said she, ' if I can't make
you, speak.' So taking the tongs, she heated
them red hot, and put them upon the bottoms of
her feet ; then upon her legs and body ; and,
finally, in a rage, took hold of her throat: This
had the desired effect. The poor girl faintly
whispered, • Oh, misse, don't — I am most gone ;'
and expired."
Extract of a letter from Rev. C. S. Renshaw,
pastor of the Congregational Church, Quincy,
Illinois.
" Judge Menzies of Boone county, Kentucky,
an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a slave-
holder, told me that he knew some overseers in
the tobacco growing region of Virginia, who, to
make their slaves careful in picking the tobacco,
that is taking the worms off", (you know what a
loathsome thing the tobacco worm is) would
make them eat some of the worms, and others
who made them eat every worm they missed in
picking."
" Mrs. Nancy Judd, a member of the Non-
Conformist Church in Osnaburg, Stark county,
Ohio, and formerly a resident of Kentucky, testi-
fies that she knew a slaveholder,
" Mr. Brubecker, who had a number of slaves,
among whom was one who would frequently
avoid labor by hiding himself; for which ho
would get severe floggings without the desired ef-
fect, and that at last iVlr. B. would tie large cats
on his naked body and whip them to malie them
tear his back, in order to break him of his habit of
hiding."
Rev. Horace Moulton, a minister of the Me-
thodist Episcopal Church in Marlborough, Mas
sachasetts, says :
" Some, when other modes of punishment will
not subdue them, cat-haul them ; that is, take a cat
by the nap of the neck and tail, or by its hind
legs, and drag the claws across the back until
satisfied ; this kind of puni.<hment, as 1 have vm-
derstood, poisons the flesh much worse than the
whip, and is more dreaded by the slave."
Rev. Abel Brown, Jr. late pastor of the first
Baptist Church, Beaver, Pennsylvania, in a com-
munication to Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, Editor of
the Christian Reflector, says :
" I almost daily see the poor heart-broken slave
making his way to a land of freedom. A short
time since, I saw a noble, pious, distressed, spirit-
crushed slave, a member of the Baptist church,
escaping from a (professed Christian) blood-
hound, to a land where he could enjoy that of
which he had been robbed during forty years.
His prayers would have made us all feel. I saw
a Baptist sister of about the same age, her chil-
dren had been torn from her, her head was cover-
ed with fresh wounds, while her upper lip had
scarcely ceased to bleed, in consequence of a blow
with the poker, which knocked out her teeth ;
she too, was going to a land of freedom. Only a
very few days since, I savsr a girl of about eigh-
teen, with a child as white as myself, aged ten
months ; a Christian master was raising her child
(as well his own perhaps) to sell to a southern
market. She had heard of the intention, and at
midnight took her only treasure and traveled
tv/enty miles on foot through a land of strangers —
she found fri&ids."
Rev. Henry T. Hopkins, pastor of the Primi-
tive Methodist Church in New York City, who
resided in Virginia from 1821 to 1826, relates the
following fact :
=' An old colored man, the slave of Mr. Emer-
son, of Portsmouth, Virginia, being under deep
conviction for sin, went into the back part of his
master's garden to pour out his soul in prayer to
God. For this offence he was whipped thirty-
nine lashes."
Extract of a letter from Doctor F. Julius Le
Moyne, of W"ashington, Pennsylvania, dated
Jan. 9, 1839.
" Lest you should not have seen the state,
ment to which I am going to allude, I subjoin a
brief cutlino of the facts of a transaction which
occurred in Western Virginia, adjacent to this
county, a number of years ago — a full account
Punishmejils — Wanton Cruelties.
89
of which was published in tlio " Witness" about
two years since by Dr. Mitchell, wiio now resides
in Indiana county, Pennjylvania. A slave boy
ran away in cold weather, and during his con-
cealment liad his legs frozen ; he returned, or was
retaken. After soine time the ficsh decayed and
sloughed — of course was offensive — he was car-
ried out to a field and left there without bed, or
shelter, deserted lo die. His only companions
were the house dogs which ho called to him. Ai'-
ter several days and nights spent in suffering and
exposure, he was visited by Drs. McKitchen and
Mitchell in the field, of their own accord, having
heard by report of his lamentable condition ; ihey
remonstrated with the master ; brought the boy
to the house, amputated both legs, and he finally
recovered."
Hon. James K. Paulding, the Secretary of the
Navy of the U. States, in his " Letters from the
South" published in 1817, relates the following :
" At one of the taverns along the road we
were set down in the same room with an elderly
man and a youth who seemed to be well acquaint-
ed with him, for they conversed familiarly and
with true republican independence — for they did
not mind who heard them. From the tenor of
his conversation I was induced to look particu-
larly at the elder. He was telling the youth
something like the following detested tale. He
was going, it seems, to Richmond, to inquire about
a draft for seven thousand dollars, which he had
sent by mail, but which, not having been ac-
knowledged by his correspondent, he was afraid
had been stolen, and the money received by
the thief. ' I should not like to lose it,' said he,
' for I worked hard for it, and sold many a poor
d 1 of a black to Carolina and Georgia, to
scrape it together.' He then went on to tell
many a perfidious tale. All along the road it
seems he made it his business to inquire wheie
lived a man who might be tempted to become a
party in this accursed traffic, and when he had
got some half dozen of these poor creatures, he
tied their hands behind their backs, and drove
them three or four hundred miles or more, bare-
headed and half naked through the burning
southern sun. Fearful that even southern huma-
nity would revolt at such an exhibition of human
misery and human barbarity, he gave out that
they were runaway slaves he was carrying home
to their masters. On one occasion a poor black
woman exposed this fallacy, and told the story of
her being kidnapped, and when he got her
into a wood out of hearing, he beat her, to use
his own expression, ' till her back was white.'
It seems he married all the men and women he
bought, himself, because they would sell better for
being man and wife ! But, said the youth, were
you not afraid, in traveling through the wild
country and sleeping in lone houses, these slaves
would rise and kill you ? ' To be sure I was,'
said the other, ' but I always fastened my door,
put a chair on a table before it, so that it might
wake me in falling, and slept with a loaded pistol
in each hand. It was a bad life, and I left it off
as soon as I could live without it ; for many is the
time I have separated wives from husbands, and
husbands from wives, and parents from children,
but then I made them amends by marrying them
12
again as soon as I had a chance, that is to say, I
made tlioni call each other man and wife, and
sleep together, which is quite enough for negroes.
I made one bad purchase though,' continued he.
' I bought a young mulatto girl, a lively creature,
a great bargain. She had been the favorite of
her master, who had lately married. The dif-
ficulty was to get her to go, for the |)Oor creature
loved liLr master. However, I swore most bit-
terly I was only going to take her to her mother's
at and she went with mo, though she seemed
to doubt ma very much. But when she discovered,
at last, that we were out of the state, I thought
she would go mad, and in fact, the next night she
drowned herself in the river close by. I lost a
good five hundred dollars by this foolish trick.' "
Vol. I. p. 121.
Mr. Spir.LMAN, a native, and till recently,
a resident of Virginia, now a member of the Pres-
byterian church in Delhi, Hamilton co., Ohio, has
furnished the two following facts, of which he had
personal knowledge.
''David Stallard, of Shenandoah Co., Virginia,
had a slave, who run away; he was taken up and
lodged in Woodstock jail. Stallard went with an-
other man and took him out of the jail — tied him
to their horses — and started for home. The day
was excessively hot, and they rode so fast, drag-
ging the man by the rope behind them, that he
became perfectly exhausted — fainted — dropped
down, and died.
" Henry Jones, of Culpepper co., Virginia,
owned a slave, who ran away. Jones caught
him, tied him up, and for two days, at intervals,
continued to flog him, and rub salt into his man-
gled flesh, until his back was literally cut up. The
slave sunk under the torture ; and for some days
it was supposed he must die. He, however, slow-
ly recovered ; though it was some weeks before he
could walk."
Mr. Nathan Cole, of St. Louis, Missouri, in a
letter to Mr. Arthur Tappan, of New-York, dated
July 2, 1334, says,—
"You will find inclosed an account of the pro-
ceedings of an inquest lately held in this city upon
the body of a slave, the details of which, if pub-
lished, not one in ten could be induced to believe
true.* It appears that the master or mistress, or
both, suspected the unfortunate wretch of hiding
a bunch of keys wliich were missing ; and to ex.
tort some explanation, which, it is more than pro-
bable, the slave was as unable to do as her mis-
tress, or any other person, her master. Major Har-
ney, an officer of our army, had whipped her for
three successive days, and it is supposed by some,
that she was kept tied during the time, until her
flesh was so lacerated and torn that it was impos-
sible for the jury to say whether it had been done
with a whip or hot iron ; some think both — but she
was tortured to death. It appears also that the
husband of the said slave had become suspected
of telling some neighbor of what was going on, for
* Tlie following is the newspaper notice referreii to : —
An inquest was held at the dwelling iioase of Blajor Har-
ney, in this city, on the 27th inst. by the coroner, on th&
body of Hannah, a slave. The jury, on their oaths, and
after hearing the testimony of physicians and several other
witnesses, found, that said slave " came to her death by
wounds inflicted by William S. Harney."
no
Punishments — Wanton Cruelties.
which Major Harney commenced torturing him,
until the man broke from him, and ran into the
Mississippi and drowned himself. The man was
a pious and very industrious slave, perhaps not
surpassed by any in this place. The woman has
been in the family of John Shackford, Esq., the
present doorkeeper of the Senate of the United
States, for many years ; was considered an excel-
lent servant — was the mother of a number of
children — and I believe was sold into the family
where she met her fate, as matter of conscience,
to keep her from being sent below."
Mr. EzEKiEL BiRBSEYE, a highly respected citi-
zen of Cornwall, Litchfield co., Connecticut, who
resided for many years at the south, furnished to
the Rev. E. R. Tyler, editor of the Connecticut
Observer, the following personal testimony.
"While I lived in Limestone co., Alabama, in
1826-7, a tavern-keeper of the village of Mores-
ville discovered a negro carrying away a piece of
old carpet. It was during the Christmas holidays,
when the slaves are allowed to visit their friends.
The negro stated that one of the servants of the
tavern owed him some twelve and a half or
twenty-five cents, and that he had taken the car-
pet in payment. This the servant denied. Tlie
innkeeper took the negro to a field near by,
and whipped him cruelly. He then struck him
with a slake, and punched him in the face and
mouth, knocking out some of his teeth. After
this, he took him back to the house, and com.
mitted him to the care of his son, who had
just then come home with another young man.
This was at evening. They whipped him by
turns, with heavy cowskins, and made the dogs
shake Mm. A Mr. Philhps, who lodged at the
house, heard the cruelty during the night. On
•getting up he found the negro in the bar-room,
terribly mangled with the whip, and his flesh so
torn by the dogs, that the cords were bare. He
remarked to the landlord that he was dangerously
hurt, and needed care. I'he landlord replied that
he deserved none. Mr. Phillips vvent to a neigh-
boring magistrate, who took the slave home \\ni\\
him, where he soon died. The father and son were
both tried, and acquitted ! ! A suit was brought,
however, for damages in behalf of the owner of
the slave, a yoimg lady by the name of Agnes
Jones. 1 10 as on the jury when these facts were
stated on oath. Two men testified, one that he
would have given $1000 for him. the other $900
or $950. The jury found the latter sum,
"At Union Court House, S. C, a tavem-keep.
er, by the name of Samuel Davis, procured the
conviction and execution of his own slave, for
stealing a cake of gingerbread from a grog shop.
The slave raised the latch of the back door, and
took the cake, doing no other injury. The shop
keeper, whose name was Charles Gordon, was
willing to forgive him, but his master procured his
conviction and execution by hanging. The slave
had but one arm ; and an order on the state trea-
sury by the court that tried him, which also as-
sessed his value, brought him more money than
he coiild have obtained for the slave in market."
Mr. , an elder of the Presbyterian Church
in one of the slave states, lately wrote a letter to
an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society, in v>?hich he
states the following fact. The name of the writer
is with the Executive Committee of the American
Anti-Slavery Society.
" I was passing through a piece of timbered land,
and on a sudden I heard a sound as of murder ;
I rode in that direction, and at some distance dis-
covered a naked black man, hung to the limb of
a tree by his hands, his feet chained together, and
a pine rail laid with one end on the chain between
his legs, and the other upon the ground, to steady
him ; and in this condition the overseer gave him
four hundred lashes. The miserably lacerated
slave was then taken down, and put to the care
of a physician. And what do you suppose was
the offence for which all this was done ? Simply
this : his owner, observing that he laid off" corn
rows too crooked, he replied, ' Massa, much com
grow on crooked row as on straight one.' This
was it — this was enough. His overseer, boasting of
his skill in managing a nigger, he was submitted
to him, and treated as above."
David L. Child, Esq., of Northampton, Massa-
chusetts, Secretary of the United States minister
at the Court of Lisbon during the administration of
President Monroe, stated the following fact in an
oration delivered by him in Boston, in 1834. (See
Child's " Despotism of Freedom," p. 30.
'' An honoralde friend, who stands high in the
state and in the nation,* was present at the burial
of a female slave in Mississippi, who had been
whipped to death at the stake by her master, be-
cause she was gone longer of an errand to the
neighboring town than her master thought neces-
sary. Under the lash she protested that she was
ill, and was obliged to rest in the fields. To com-
plete the climax of horror, she was delivered of a
dead infant while undergoing the punishment."
The same fact is stated by Mrs. Child in her
" Appeal." In answer to a recent letter, inquir-
ing of Mr. and Mrs. Child if they were now at
liberty to disclose the name of their informant,
Mr. C. says, —
'' The witness who stated to us the fact was
John James Appleton, Esq., of Cambridge, Mass.
He is now in Europe, and it is not without some
hesitation that I give his name. He, however,
has openly embraced our cause, and taken a con-
spicuous part in some anti-slavery public meet-
ings since the time that I felt a scruple at publish-
ing his name. Mr. Appleton is a gentleman of
high talents and accomplishments. He has been
Secretary of Legation at Rio Janeiro, Madrid,
and the Hague ; Commissioner at Naples, and
Charge d' Affaires at Stockholm."
The two following facts are stated upon the
authority of the Rev. Joseph G. Wilson, pastor of
the Presbyterian Church in Salem, Washington
CO., Indiana.
" In Bath co., Kentucky, Mr. L., in the year
'32 or '33, while intoxicated, in a fit of rage whip-
ped a female slave until she fainted and fell on
the floor. Then he whipped her to get up; then
* " The narrator of this fact is now abspnl from the United
States, and I do not feel at liberty to mention his name."
Punishments — Cruelties.
91
with red hot tongs he burned off her ears, and
whipped luragainl but all in vain. He then or-
dered his negro men to carry her to the cabin.
There she was i'ound dead next morning.
" One Wall, in Chester district, S. C, owned a
slave, whom he hired to his brother-in-law, Wni.
Beckman, for whom the slave worked eighteen
nmntlis, and worked well. Two weeks alter re-
turning to his master he ran away on account of
bad treatment. To induce him to return, the
master said him nominnlltj to his neighbor, to
whom She slave gave himself up, and by w^hom
he was returned to his master : — Punishment,
siripes. To prevent escape a bar of iron was fast-
encd with three bands, at the waist, knee, and
ankle. That night he broke the bands and bar,
and escaped. Next day he was taken and
whipped to death, by three men, the master.
Thorn, and the overseer. First, he was whipped
and driven towards home ; on the way he attempt-
ed to escape, and was shot at by the master, —
caught, and knocked down with the butt of the gun
b}' Thorn. In attempting to cross a ditch he fell,
with his feet down, and face on the bank ; they
whipped in vain to get him up — he died. His
soul ascended to God, to be a swift witness against
his oppressors. This took place at 12 o'clock.
Next evening an inquest was held. Of thirteen
jurors, summoned by the coroner, nine said it
was murder ; two said it was manslaughter, and
two said it was justifiable ! He was bound over
to com't, tried, and acquitted — not even fined !"
The following fact is stated on the authority of
j\Ir. Wm. Willis, of Green Plains, Clark eo. Ohio ;
formerly of Caroline co. on the eastern shore of
Maryland.
" Mr. W. knew a slave called Peter White, who
was sold to be taken to Georgia ; he escaped, and
lived a long time in the woods — was finally taken.
When he found himself surrounded, he surren-
dered himself quietly. When his pursuers had
him in their possession, they shot him in the leg,
and broke it, out of mere wantonness. The next
day a ?.Iethodist minister set his leg, and bound it
up with splints. The man who took him, then
went into his place of confinement, w^antonly
jumped upon his leg and crushed it. His name
was W^illiam Sparks."
Most of our readers are familiar with the hor-
rible atrocities perpetrated in New Orleans, in
1834, by a certain Madame La Laurie, upon her
slaves. They were published extensively in north,
em newspapers at the time. The following are ex-
tracts from the accounts as published in the New
Orleans papers immediately after the occurrence.
The New Orleans Bee says : —
" Upon entering one of the apartments, the most
appaUing spectacle met their eyes. Seven slaves,
more or less horribly mutilated, were seen sus-
pended by the neck, vv'ith their limbs apparently
stretched and torn, from one extremity to the
other. They had been confined for several months
in the situation from which they had thus provi-
dentially been rescued ; and had been merely kept
in existence to prolong their sufferings, and to
make th.^m taste all that a most refined cruelty
could inflict."
The New^ Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says :
" A negro woman was found chained, covered
with bruises and wounds from severe flogging. — -
All the apartments were then forced open. In a
room on the ground floor, two more were found
chained, and in a deplorable condition. Up stair.'^
and in the garret, four more were found chained ;
some so weak as to be unable to walk, and all co-
vered with wounds and sores. One mulatto boy
declares himself to have been chained for five
months, being fed daily with only a handful of
meal, and receiving every morning the most cruel!
treatment."
The New Orleans Courier says : —
" We saw one of these miserable beings. — He
had a large hole in his head — his body, from head
to foot, was covered with scars and filled with
worms."
The New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says ;
" Seven poor unfortunate slaves were found —
some chained to the floor, others with chain.s
around their necks, fastened to the ceiling ; and
one poor old man, upwards of sixty yea.rs of age,
chained hand and foot, and made fast to the floor,
in a kneeling position. His head bore the appear,
ance of having been beaten until it was broken,
and the worms were actually to be seen making
a feast of his brains ! ! A woman had her back
literally cooked (if the expression may be used)
vs'itli the lash ; the very bones might be seen pro-
jecting through the skin .'"
The New York Sun, of Feb. 21, 1837, contains
the following : —
" Two negroes, runaways from Virginia, were
overtaken a few days since near Johnstown, Co-
lumbia CO. N. Y. when the persons in pursuit called
out for them to stop or they would shoot them. —
One of the negroes turned around and said, he
would die before he would be taken, and at the
moment received a rifle ball through his knee :
the other started to run, but was brought to the
ground by a ball being shot in his back. After
receiving the above wounds they made battle with
their pursuers, but were captured and brought in.
to Johnstown. It is said that the young men
who shot them had orders to take them dead or
alive."
Mr. M. M. Shafter, of Townsend, Vermont,
recently a graduate of the Wesleyan University at
Middletown, Connecticut, makes the following^
statement :
" Some of the events of the Southampton, Va.
insurrection were narrated to me by Mr. Benja-
min W. Britt, from Riddicksviflc, N. C. Mr.
Britt claimed the honor of having shot a black on
that occasion, for the crime of disobeying Mr.
Britt's imperative ' Stop !' And Mr. Ashurst, of
Edenton, Georgia, told me that a neighbor of his
' fired at a likely negro boy of his mother,' because
the said boy encroached upon his premises."
Mr. David Hawley, a class leader in the Me-
thodist Episcopal Church at St. Albans, Licking-
county, Ohio, who moved from Kentucky to Ohio
in 1831, certifies as follows: —
" About the year 1825, a slave had escaped for
92
Punishme nts — Cruelties.
Canada, but was arrested in Hardin county. On
his return, I saw him in Hart county — his wrists
tied together before, his arms tied close to his body,
tlie rope then passing behind his body, thence to
the ncclt of a horse on which rode the master,
with a club about three feet long, and of the size
of a hoe handle ; which, by the appearance of the
slave, had been used on his head, so as to wear off
the hair and skin in several places, and the blood
was running freely from his mouth and nose ; his
heels very much bruised by the horse's feet, as his
master had rode on him because he would not go
fast enough. Such was the slave's appearance
when passing through where I resided. Such
cases were not unfrequent."
The following is furnished by Mr. F. A. Hart,
of Middletown, Connecticut, a manufacturer, and
an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. It occurred in 1824, about twenty-five
miles this side of Baltimore, Maryland. —
" I had spent the night with a Methodist bro-
ther; and while at breakfast, a person came in
and called for help. We went out and found a
crowd collected around a carriage. Upon ap-
proaching we discovered that a slave-trader was
endeavoring to force a woman into his carriage.
He had already put in three children, the young-
est apparently about eight years of age. The wo-
man was strong, and whenever he brought her to
the side of the carriage, she resisted so etfectually
with her feet that he could not get her in. The
woman becoming exhausted, at length, by her
frantic eiforts, he thrust her in with great violence,
stamped her down upon the bottom with his jeet !
shouted to the diiver to go on; and away they
rolled, the miserable captives moaning and shriek-
ing, until their voices were lost in the distance."
Mr, Samdel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col-
lege, Ohio, writes as follows : —
" Mr. Isaac C. Fuller is a member of the Me-
thodist Episcopal Church in Marietta. He was a
fellow student of mine while in college, and now
resides in this place. He says: — In 1832, as I
was descending the Ohio with a flat boat, near
the ♦ French Islands,' so called, below Cincinnati,
I saw two negroes on horseback. The horses ap-
parently took fright at something and ran. Both
jumped over a rail fence ; and one of the horses,
in so doing, broke one of his fore-legs, falling at
the same time and throwing the negro who was
upon his back. A white man came outof a house
not over two hundred yards distant, and came to
the spot. Seizing a stake from the fence, he
knocked the negro down five or six times in suc-
cession.
" In the same year I worked for a Mr. Now-
land, eleven miles above Baton Rouge, La. at a
place called 'Thomas' Bend.' He had an over-
seer who was accustomed to flog more or less of
the slaves every morning. I heard the blows and
screams as regularly as we used to hear the col-
lege bell that summoned us to any duty when we
went to school. This overseer was a nephew of
Nowland, and there were about 'fifty slaves on
his plantation. Nowland himself related the
following to me. One of his slaves ran away,
and came to the Homo Chitto river, where he
found no means of crossing. Here he fell in with
a white man who knew his master, being on a
journey from that vicinity. He induced Ihe slave
to return to Baton Rouge, under the promise of
giving him a pass, by which he might escape, but,
in reality, to betray him to his master. Th;s he did,
instead of fulfilling his promise. Nowland said
that he took the slave and inflicted five hundred
lashes upon him, cutting his back all to pieces,
and then threw on hot embers. The slave was
on the plantation at the time, and told me the
same story. He also rolled up his sleeves, and
showed me the scars on his arms, which, in con-
sequence, appeared in places to be callous to the
bone. I was with Nowland between five and six
months."
Rev. John Rankin, formerly of Tennessee, now
pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Ripley, Ohio,
has furnished the following statement: —
" The Rev. Ludwell G. Gaines, now pastor
of the Presbyterian Church of Goshen, Clermont
county, Ohio, stated to me, that while a resident
of a slave state, he was summoned to assist in
taking a man who had made his black woman
work naked several days, and afterwards mur-
dered her. The murderer armed himself, and
threatened to shoot the officer who went to take
him ; and although there was ample assistance at
hand, the officer declined further interference."
Mr. Rankin adds the following : —
" A Presbyterian preacher, now resident in a
slave state, and therefore it is not expedient to
give his name, stated, that he saw on board of a
steamboat at Louisville, Kentucky, a woman who
had been forced on board, to be carried off" from
all she counted dear on earth. She ran across
the boat and threw herself into the river, in order
to end a life of intolerable sorrov/s. She was
drawn back to the boat and taken up. The bru-
tal driver beat her severely, and she immediately
threw herself again into the river. She was hook-
ed up again, chained, and carried off"."
Testimony of Mr. William Hansborough, of
Culpepper county, Virgbinia, the ''owner" of sixty
slaves.
" I saw a slave taken out of prison by his mas-
ter, on a hot summer's day, and driven, by said
master, on the road before him, till he dropped
down dead."
The above statement was made by Mr. Hans-
borough to Lindley Coates, of Lancaster county,
Pa. a distinguished member of the Society of
Friends, and a member of the late Convention in
Pa. for altering the State Constitution. The let-
ter from Mr. C. containing this testimony of Mr.
H. is now before us.
Mr. Tobias Boudinot, a member of the Method.
ist Church in St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio,
says :
"In Nicholas villa, Ky. in the year 1823, he
saw a slave fleeing before the patrol, but he was
overtaken near where he stood, and a man v/ith
a knotted cane, as large as his wrist, struck the
slave a number of times on his head, until the
Punishments — Brandings.
93
club was broken and he made tame ; the blood
was thrown in every direction by the violence of
the blows."
The Rev. William Dickey, of Bloomingburg,
Fayette county, Ohio, wrote a letter to the Rev.
John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, thirteen years
since, containing a description of the cutting up
of a slave with a broad axe ; beginning at the feet
and gradually cutting the legs, arms, and body
into pieces 1 This diabolical atrocity was com-
mitted in the state of Kentucky, in the year 1807.
The perpetrators of the deed were two brothers,
Lilburn and Isham Lewis, nephews of President
Jefferson. The writer of this having been in.
iormed by Mr. Dickey, that some of the facts con-
nected with this murder were not contained in
his letter published by Mr. Rankin, requested him
to write the account aneio, and furnish the addi-
tional facts. This he did, and the letter contain,
ing it was published in the " Human Rights" for
August, 1837. We insert it liere, slightly abridg-
ed, with the introductory remarks which appeared
m that paper.
" Mr. Dickey's first letter has been scattered all
over the country, south and north ; and though
multitudes have affected to disbelieve its state-
ments, Kentuckians know the truth of them quite
too well to call them in question. The story is
fiction or fact — if fiction, why has it not been nail-
ed to the wall ? Hundreds of people around the
mouth of Cumberland River are personalh^ know-
ing to these facts. There are the records of the
court that tried the wretches. — There their ac-
quaintances and kindred still live. All over that
region of country, the brutal butchery of George
is a matter of public notoriety. It is quite need-
less, perhaps, to add, that the Rev. Wm. Dickey
is a Presbyterian clergyman, one of the oldest
members of the Chilicothe Presbytery, and greatly
respected and beloved by the churches in South-
em Ohio. He was born in South Carolina, and
was for many years pastor of a church in Ken-
tucky.
REV. WM. dickey's LETTER.
" In the county of Livingston, Ky. near the
mouth of Cumberland River, lived Lilburn Lewis,
a sister's son of the celebrated Jefferson. He was
the wealthy owner of a considerable gang of ne-
groes, whom he drove constantly, fed sparingly,
and lashed severely. The consequence was, that
they would run away. Among the rest was an
ill-thrived boy of about seventeen, who, having
just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to
the spring for water, and in returning let fall an
elegant pitcher : it was dashed to shivers upon
the rocks. This was made the occasion for reck-
oning with him. It was night, and the slaves
were all at home. The master had them all col-
lected in the most roomy negro-house, and a rous-
ing fire put on. When the door was secured, that
none might escape, either through fear of him or
sympathy with George, he opened to them the de-
sign of the interview, namely, that they might be
effectually advised to stay at home and obey his
orders. All things now in train, he called up
George, who approached his master with unre-
served submission. He bound him with cords ;
and by the assistance of Isham Lewis, his young-
est brother, laid him on a broad bericli, tlie meat-
block. He then proceeticd to hack off George at
the ankles! It was with the broad axe ! In vain
did the unhappy victim scream and roar ! for he
was completely in his master's power ; not a hand
among so many durst interfere : casting the feet
into the fire, he lectured them at some length. —
He next chopped him off below the knees.' George
roaring out and pra3'ing his master to begin at the
other end .' He admonished them again, throw-
ing the legs into the fire — then, above the knees,
tossing the joints into the fire — the next stroke
severed the thighs from the body ; these were also
committed to tlie flames — and so it may be said
of the arms, head, and trunk, until all was in the
fire ! He threatened any of them with similar
punishment who should in future disobey, run
away, or disclose tlie proceedings of that evening.
Nothing now remained but to consume the flesh
and bones ; and for this purpose the fire was
brightly stirred until two hours after midnight ;
when a coarse and heavy back-wall, composed of
rock and clay, covered the fire and the remains
of George. It was the Sabbath — this put an end
to the amusements of the evening. The negroes
were now permitted to disperse, with charges to
keep this matter among themselves, and never to
whisper it in the neighborhood, under the penalty
of a like punishment.
'' When he returned home and retired, his wife
exclaimed, 'Why, Mr. Lewis, where have you
been, and what were you doing ?' She had heard
a strange pounding and dreadful screams, and had
smelled something like fresh meat burning. The
answer he returned was, that he had never enjoy-
ed himself at a ball so well as he had enjoyed him-
self that night.
" Next morning he ordered the hands to rebuild
the back-wall, and he himself superintended the
work, throwing the pieces of flesh that still re-
mained, with the bones, behind, as it went up —
thus hoping to conceal the matter. But it could
not be hid — much as the negroes seemed to haz-
ard, they did whisper the horrid deed. The neigh-
bors came, and in his presence tore down the wall;
and finding the remains of the boy, they appre-
hended Lewis and his brother, and testified against
them. They were committed to jail, that they
might answer at the coming court for this shock-
ing outrage ; but finding security for their appear-
ance at court, TiiEY were admitted to bail !
" In the interim, other articles of evidence leak,
ed out. That of Mrs. Lewis hearing a pounding,
and screaming, and her smelling fresh meat burn-
ing, for not till now had this come out. He was
offended with her for disclosing these things, al-
leging that they might have some weight against
him at the pending trial.
" In connection with this is another item, full
of horror. Mrs. Lewis, or her girl, in making her
bed one morning after this, found, under her bol-
ster, a keen butcher knife ! The appalling disco,
very forced from her the confession that she con-
sidered her life in jeopardy. Messrs. Rice and
Philips, whose wives were her sisters, went to see
her and to bring her away if she wished it. Mr.
Lewis received them with all the expressions of
94
Personal Naraatives — Rev. Francis Hawley.
Virginia hospitality. As soon as they were seat-
ed they said, ' Well, Lelitia, we supposed that you
might be unhappy here, and afraid for your hfe ;
and we have come to-day to take you to your fa-
ther's, if you desire it.' She said, ' Thank you,
kind brotliers, I am indeed afraid for my hfe.' —
We need not interrupt the story to tell how mueh
surprised he affected to be with this strange
procedure of his brothers-in-law, and with this
declaration of his wife. But all his professions
of fondness for her, to the contrary notwith-
standing, they rode off with her before his eyes. —
He followed and overtook, and went with them
to her father's ; but she was locked up from him,
with her own consent, and he returned home.
" Now ho saw that his character was gone, his
respectable friends believed that he had massacred
George ; but, worst of all, he saw that they con-
'sidered the life of the harmless Letitia was in dan-
ger from his perfidious hands. It was too much
for his chivalry to sustain. The proud Virginian
sunk under the accumulated load of public odium.
He proposed to his brother Isham, who had been
his accomplice in the George affair, that they
should finish the play of life witli a still deeper
tragedy. The plan was, that they should shoot
one another. Having made the hot-brained bar-
gain, they repaired with their guns to the grave-
yard, which was on an eminence in the midst of
his plantation. It was inclosed with a railing,
say thirty feet square. One was to stand at one
railing, and the other over against him at the
other. They were to make ready, take aim, and
count deliberately 1, 2, 3, and then fire. Lilburn's
will was written, and thrown down open beside ,
him. They cocked their guns and raised them to ;
their faces ; but the peradventure occurring that
one of the guns might miss fire, Isham was sent
for a rod, and when it was brought, Lilburn cut
it off at about the length of two feet, and was
showing his brother how the survivor might do, '
provided one of the guns should fail ; (for they
were determined upon going together;) but for-
getting, perhaps, in the perturbation of the mo-
ment that the gun was cocked, when he touched
the trigger with the rod the gun fired, and he fell,
and died in a few minutes — and was with George
in the eternal world, where the slave is free from
his master. But poor Isham was so terrified with
this unexpected occurrence and so confounded
by the awful contortions ofhis brother's face, that
he had not nerve enough to follow up the play,
and finish the plan as was intended, but suffered
Lilburn to go alone. The negroes came running
to see what it meant that a gun should be fired in
the grave-3'ard. There lay their master, dead I
They ran for the neighbors. Isham still remain-
ed on the spot. The neighbors at the first charged
him with the murder of his brother. But he,
though as if he had lost more than half his miiffi,
told the whole s'tory ; and the course or range of
the ball in the dead man's body agreeing with his
statement, Isham was not farther charged with
Lilburn's death.
" The Court sat — Isham was judged to be guilty
of a capital crime in the affair of George He was
to be hanged at Salem. The day was set. My
good old father visited him in the prison — two or
three times talked and prayed v/ith him ; I visited
him once myself. We fondly hoped that he was
a sincere penitent. Before the day of execution
came, by some means, I never knew what, Isham
was missing. About two years after, we learned
that he had gone down to Natchez, and had mar-
ried a lady of some refinement and piety. I saw
her letters to his sisters, who were worthy mem-
bers of the church of which I was pastor. The
last letter told of his death. He was in Jackson's
army, and fell in the famous battle of New Or-
leans. " I am, sir, your friend,
"Wm. Dickey."
PERSONAL NARRATIVES-PART III.
NARRiVTIVE AND TESTJMONY OF REV. FRANCIS HAWLEY.
Mr. Hawley is the pastor of the Baptist Church
in Colebrook, Litchfield county, Connecticut.
He has resided fourteen years in the slave states,
North and South Carolina. His character and
standing with his own denomination at the
south, may be inferred from the fact, that the
Baptist State Convention of North Carolina ap-
pointed him, a few years since, their general
agent to visit the Baptist churches within their
bounds, and to secure their co-operation in the ob-
jects of the Convention. Mr. H. accepted the
appointment, and for some time traveled in that
capacity.
" I rejoice that the Executive Committee of
the American Anti-SIavcry Society have resolved
to publish a volume of facts and testimony rela-
tive to the character and workings of American
slavery. Having resided fourteen years at the
south, I cheerfully comply with your request, to
give the result of my observation and experience.
And I would here remark, that one may reside
at the south for years, and not witness extreme
cruelties ; a northern man,- and one who is not a
slaveholder, would be the last to have an oppor-
tunity of witnessing the infliction of cruel pun-
ishments.
PLANTATIONS.
«'A majority of the large plantations are
on the banks of rivers, far from the pubhc
eye. A great deal of low marshy ground lies
in the vicinity of most of the rivers at the south ;
consequently the main roads are several miles
from the rivers, and generally no public road
passes the plantations. A stranger traveling on
the ridge, would think himself in a miserably
poor country ; but every two or three miles he
will see a road turning off, and leading into the
swamp ; taking one of those roads, and travehng
from two to six miles, he will come to a large
gate ; passing which, he will find himself in a
clearing of several hundred acres of the first
quality of land ; passing on, he will see 30, or
Personal Narratives — Rev. Francis Hawley.
40, or more slaves — men, women, boys and girls,
at their task, every one witli a lioc ; or, if in cot-
ton picking season, with their baskets. The
overseer, with his whip, either riding or standing
about among them ; or if tlie weatlier is liot, sit-
ting under a shade. At a distance, on a htlle
rising ground, if si.ch Ihere be, he will sec a clus-
ter of huts, with a tolerable house in the midst,
for the overseer. Those huts are from ten to
liftecn feet square, built of logs, and covered,
not with shingles, but with boards, about four
feet long, split out of pine timber with a \fmw.'
The floors are very commonly made in this way.
Clay is first worked mitil it is soft ; it is then
spread upon the ground, about four or five inches
thick ; when it dries, it becomes nearly as hard
as a brick. The crevices between the logs are
sometimes filled with the same. These huts
generally cost the master nothing — they are com-
monly built by the negroes at night, and on Sun-
days. When a slave of a neighboring plantation
takes a wife, or to use the phrase common at the
south, ' takes up' with one of the women, he
builds a hut, and it is called her house. Upon
entering these huts, (not as comfortable in many
instances as the horse stable,) generally, you
will find no chairs, but benches and stools : no
table, no bedstead, and no bed, except a blanket
or two, and a few rags or moss ; in some in-
stances a knife or two, but very rarely a fork.
You may also find a pot or skillet, and generally
a number of gourds, which serve them instead of
bowls and plates. The cruelties practiced on
those secluded plantations, the judgment day
alone caa reveal. Oh, brother, could I summon
ten slaves from ten plantations that I could name,
and have them give but one year's history of
their bondage, it would thrill the land vi^ith hor-
ror. Those overseers who follow the business of
overseeing for a livelihood, are generally the
most unprincipled and abandoned of men. Their
wages are regulated according to their skill in
extorting labor. The one who can make the
most bags of cotton, with a given number of
jiands, is the one generally sought after ; and
there Is a competition among them to see who
shall make the largest crop, according to the
hands he works. I ask, what must be the con-
dition of the poor slaves, under the unlimited
power of such men, in whom, by the long-con-
tinued practice of the most heart-rending cruel-
ties, every feeling of humanity has been obliterat-
ed ? But it may be asked, cannot the slaves
have redress by appealing to their masters ? In
many instances it is impossible, as their masters
live hundreds of miles off. There are perhaps
thousands in the northern slave states, [and many
in the free states,] who own plantations in the
southern slave states, and many more spend their
summers at the north, or at the various watering
places. But what would the slaves gain, if they
should appeal to the master ? He has placed the
overseer over them, with the understanding that he
will make as large a crop as possible, and that he is
to have entire control, and manage them accord-
ing to his own judgment. Now, suppose that in the
midst of the season, the slaves make complaint
of cruel treatment. The master cannot get
along without an overseer — it is perhaps very
sickly on the plantation — he dare not risk his
own life there. Overseers are all engaged at that
season, and if he takes part with his slaves against
the overseer, he would destroy his authority, and
very likely provoke him to leave his service —
which would ol' course be a very great injury to
him. Thus, in nineteen cases out of twenty,
self-interest would prevent the master from pay-
ing any attention to the complaints of his slaves.
And, if any should complain, it would of course
come to the cars of the overseer, and the com-
plainant would be inhumanly punished lor it.
CLOTHING.
"The rule, where slaves are hired out, is
two suits of clothes per year, one pair of shoes,
and one blanket ; but as it relates to the great
body of the slaves, this cannot be called a general
rule. On many plantations, the children under
ten or twelve years old, go entirely naked — or, if
clothed at all, tliey have nothing more than a
shirt. The cloth is of the coarsest kind, far from
being durable or warm ; and their shoes fre-
quently come to pieces in a few weeks. I have
never known any provision made, or time allow-
ed for the washing of clothes. If they wish to
wash, as they have generally but one suit, they
go after their day's toil to some stream, build a
fire, pull off" their clothes and wash them in the
stream, and dry them by the fire ; and in some
instances they v.^ear their clothes until they are
worn off, without wasliing. I have never known,
an instance of a slaveholder putting himself to
any expense, that his slaves might have decent
clothes for the Sabbath. If, by making baskets,
brooms, mats, &c. at night or on Sundays, the
slaves can get money enough to buy a Sunday
suit, very well. I have never known an instance
of a slaveholder furnishing his slaves with stock-
ings or mittens. I Jmow that the slaves suffer
much, and no doubt many die in consequence of
not being well clothed.
FOOD.
"In the grain-growing part of the south, the
slaves, as it relates to food, fare tolerably
well ; but in the cotton, and rice-growing, and
sugar-making portion, some of them fare badly.
I have been on plantations where, from the ap-
pearance of the slaves, I should judge they were
half-starved. They receive their allowance very
commonly on Sunday morning. They are left
to cook it as they please, and when they please.
Many slavelaolders rarely give their slaves meat,
and very few give them more food than will
keep them in a working condition. They rarely
ever have a change of food. I have never known
an instance of slaves on plantations being fur-
nished either with sugar, butter, cheese, or milk.
WORK.
'• If the slaves on plantations were well fed
and clothed, and had the stimulus of wages,
they could perhaps in general perform their tasks
without injury. The horn is blown soon after
the dawn of day, when all the hands destined for
the field must be ' on the march.' If the field is
far from their huts, they take their breakfast with
them. They toil till about ten o'clock, when
they eat it. They then continue their toil till
the sun is set.
" A neighbor of mine, who has been an over-
seer in Alabama, informs me, that there they_ as-
certain how much labor a slave can perform in a
96
Personal Narratives — Rev. Francis Havvley.
day, in the following manner. When they com-
mence a new cotton field, the overseer takes his
watch, and marks how long it lakes Ihim to hoe
one row, and then lays oiF the task accordingly.
jMy neighbor also intbrms mc, that the slaves in
Alabama are worked very hard ; that the lash is
almost universalljr applied at the close of the day,
if they fail to perform their task in the cotton-
picking season. You will see them, with their
baskets of cotton, slowly bending their way to
the cotton house, where each one's basket is
weighed. They have no means' of knowing ac-
curately, in the course of the day, how they make
progress; so that they are in suspense, until their
basket is weighed. Here comes the mother, with
her childien ; she does not know whether her-
self, or children, or all of them, must take the
lash; they cannot weigh the cotton themselves —
the whole inust be trusted to the overseer. While
the weighing goes on, all is still. So many pounds
short, cries the overseer, and takes up his whip,
exclaiming, ' Step this way, you d — n lazy scoun-
drel,' or ' bitch.' The poor slave begs, and pro-
mises, but to no purpose. The lash is applied until
the overseer is satisfied. Sometimes the whip-
ping is deferred until the weighing is all over.
I have said that all must be trusted to the over-
seer. If he owes any one a grudge, or wishes to
enjoy the fiendish pleasure of whipping a little,
(for some overseers really delight in it,) they have
only to tell a falsehood relative to the weight of
their basket ; they can then have a pretext to
gratify their diabolical disposition ; and from
the character of overseers, I have no doubt that
it is frequently done. On all plantations, the
male and female slaves fare pretty much alike ;
those who are with child are driven to their task
till within a few days of the time of their deliv-
ery ; and when the child is a few weeks old, the
mother must again go to the field. If it is far
from her hut, she must take her babe with her,
and leave it in the care of some of the children —
perhaps of one not more than four or five years
old. If the child cries, she cannot go to its re-
lief; the eye of the overseer is upon her; and if,
when she goes to nurse it, she stays a little longer
than the overseer thinks necessary, he commands
her back to her task, and perhaps a husband and
falher must hear and witness it all. Brother,
you cannot begin to know what the poor slave
mothers suffer, on thousands of plantations at
the south.
" I will now give a few facts, showing the
workings of the system. Some years since, a
Presbyterian minister moved from North Caro-
lina to Georgia. He had a negro man of an
uncommon mind. For some cause, I know not
what, this minister whipped him most unmerci-
fully. He next nearly drowned him ; he then put
him in the fence ; this is done by lifting up the
corner of a ' worm' fence, and then putting the
feet through ; the rails serve as stocks. He kept
him there some time, how long I was not inform-
ed, but the poor slave died in a few days ; and,
if I was rightly informed, nothing was done
about it, either in church or state. After some
time, he moved back to North Carolina, and is
now a member of Presbytery. I have heard
him preach, and have been in the pulpit with him.
Mav God forgive me !
" At Laurel Hill, Richmond county. North
Carolina, it was reported that a runaway slave
was in the neighborhood. A number of young
men took their guns, and went in pursuit. Some
of them took tlieir station near the stage road,
and kept on the look-out. It was early in the
evening — the poor slave came along, when the
ambush rushed upon him, and ordered him to
surrender. He refused, and kept them off with
his club. They still pressed upon him with their
guns presented to his breast Without seeming
to be daunted, he caught hold of the muzzle of
one of the guns, and came near getting possession
of it. At length, retreating to a fence on one
side of the road, he sprang over into a corn-field,
and started to run in one of the rows. One of
the young men stepped to the fence, fired, and
lodged the whole charge between his shoulders ;
he lell, and died in a short time. He died with-
out telling who his master was, or whether he had
any, or what his own name was, or where he was
from. A hole was dug by the side of the road
his body tumbled into it, and thus ended the
whole matter.
" The Rev. Mr. C. a Methodist minister, held as
his slave a negro man, who was a member of
his own church. The slave was considered a
very pious man, had the confidence of his mas-
ter, and all who knew him, and if I recollect right,
he sometimes attempted to preach. Just before
the Nat Turner insurrection, in Southamptoii
county, Virginia, by which the whole south was
thrown into a panic, this worthy slave obtained
permission to visit his relatives, who resided either
in Southampton, or the county adjoining.
This was the onl}? instance that ever came to
my knowledge, of a slave being permitted to go
so far to visit his relatives. He went and return-
ed according to agreement. A few weeks after
his return, the insurrection took place, and the
whole country was deeply agitated. Suspicion
soon fixed on this slave. Nat Turner was a
Baptist minister, and the south became exceed-
ingly jealous of all negro preachers. It seemed
as if the whole community were impressed with
the belief that he knew all about it ; that he and
Nat Turner had concerted an extensive insurrec.
rection ; and so confident were they in this be-
lief, that they took the poor slave, tried him, and
hung him. It was all done in a few days. He
protested his innocence to the last. After the
excitement was over, many were ready to ac-
knowledge that they believed him innocent. He
v.'as hung upon suspicion .'
" In R county, North Carolina, lived a
Mr. B. who had the name of being a cruel mas-
ter. Three or four winters since, his slaves were
engaged in clearing a piece of new land. He
had a negro girl, about 14 3'ears old, whom he
had severely whipped a few days before, for not
performing, her task. She again failed. The
hands left the field for home ; she went with them
a part of the way, and fell behind ; but the ne-
groes thought she would soon be along ; the
evening passed away, and she did not come.
They finally concluded that she had gone back
to the new ground, to lie by the log heaps that
were on fire. But they were mistaken : she had
sat down by the foot of a large pine. She was
thinly clad — the night was cold and rainy. In
Personal Narratives — Rev. Francis Hawley.
97
the morning the poor jrirl was found, but she was f
speechless and died in a short time.
" One of my neijrjibors sold to a speculator a
neg:ro boy, about 14 years old. It was more
than his poor motlicr could bear. Her reason
fled, and she became a perfect maniac, and had
to be kept in close confinement. She would oc-
casionallj' get out and run ofF to the neighbors.
On one of these occasions she came to my house.
She was indeed a pitiable object. With tears
rollinnr down her ciieeks, and her frame shaking
witli as^ony, she would cry out, ' don't you hear
him — they are ivhipping him noio, and he is call-
ing for 7ne ." This neighbor of mine, who tore
the boy away from his poor mother, and thus
broke her heart, was a inember of the Preshjteri-
an church.
" Mr. S , of iMarion District, South Caro-
lina, informed me that a boy was killed by the
overseer on Mr. P ^"s plantation. The boy
was engaged in driving the horses in a cotton
gin. The driver generally sits on the end of the
sweep. Not driving to suit the overseer, he
knocked him off" with tiie butt of his whip. His
skull was fractured. He died in a short time.
" A man of my acquaintance in South Caro-
lina, and of considerable wealth, had an only son,
whom he educated for the bar ; but not succeed-
ing in his profession, he soon returned home.
His father having a small plantation three or
four miles ofF, placed his son on it as an overseer.
Following the example of his father, as I have
good reason to believe, he took the wife of one of
the negro men. The poor slave felt himself
greatly injured, and expostulated with him. The
wretch took his gun, and deliberately shot him.
Providentiallj' he only wounded him badly.
When the father came, and undertook to remon.
strate with his son about his conduct, he threat.
ened to shoot him also ! and finally, took the
negro woman, and went to Alabama, where he
Btill resided when I left the south.
" An elder in the Presbyterian church related
to me the following. — ' A speculator with his
drove of negroes was passing my house, and I
bought a little girl, nine or ten years old. After
a few months, I concluded that I would rather
have a plough-boy. Another speculator was
passing, and I sold the girl. She was much dis-
tressed, and was very unwilling to leave.' — She
had been with him long enough to become at-
tached to his ow"n and his negro children, and he
" I was acquainted with a very wealthy pla titer,
on tjie Pedec river, in Soutli Carolina, "wiio Jias
svncc died in consequence of intemperance. It
was said that he had occasioned tiie death of
twelve of his slaves, by compelling ilicm to work
in water, opening a ditch in tlie midst of wiater.
The disease with whieli they died was a pleurisy.
" In crossing Pedce river, at Cashvvay Ferry, 1
observed that the ferryman had no hair on eit'hcr
side of his head. I asked him tiic cause. He
informed me that it was caused Ijy his master's
cane. I said, you have a very bad master. 'Yes,
a very bad master.' I understood that he was
once a member of Congress from South Carolina.
" While traveling as agent for the North Caro.
lina Baptist State Convention, I attended a three
days' meeting in Gates county. Friday, the first
day, passed off. Saturday morning came, and
the pastor of the church, wlro lived a few miles
off, did not make his appearance. The day pass-
ed otT, and na news from the pastor. On Sab.
bath morning, he came hobbling along, havino-
but little use of one foot. He soon explained :
said he had a hired negro man, Avho, on Satur-
day morning, gave him a ' little slack jaw.' Not
having a stick at hand, he fell upon him with his
fist and foot, and in kicking him, he injured his
foot so seriously, that he could not attend meet-
ing on Saturday,
" Some of the slaveholding ministers at the
south, put their slaves under overseers, or hire
them out, and then take the pastoral care of
churches. The Rev. Mr. B , formerly of
Pennsylvania, had a plantation in Marlborough
District, South Carolina, and was the pastor of
a church in Darlington District. The Rev. Mr.
T , of Johnson county. North Carolina, has a
plantation in Alabama.
"I was present, and saw the Rev. J
W , of Mecklenburg county. North Carolina,
hire out four slaves to work in the gold mines in
Burke county. The Rev. H M , of Orange
county, sold for $900, a negro man to a specula-
tor, on a Monday of a camp meeting.
" Runaway slaves are frequently hunted with
guns and dogs. / loas once out on such an excur-
sion, with ray rifle and two dogs. I trust the
Lord has forgiven me this heinous wickedness !
We did not take the runawa3's.
" Slaves are sometimes most unmercifully pun-
ished for trifling offences, or mere mistakes.
"As it relates to amalgamation, I can say,
concluded by saying, that in view of the little i that I have been in respectable families, (so call-
gu-l's tears and cries, he had determined never to | ed,) where I could distinguisji the family resem-
do the like again. I would not trust him, for I i blance in the slaves v/ho waited upon the table,
know him to be a very avaricious man. " - ■ - - . -
" While traveling in Anson countj^ North Ca-
rohna, I put up for a night at a private house.
The man of the house was not at home when I
stopped, but came in the course of the evening,
and was noisy and profane, and nearly drunk. I
retired to rest, but not to sleep ; his cursing and
swearing were enough to keep a regiment awake.
About midnight he went to his kitchen, and
called out his two slaves, a man and woman.
His object, he said, was to whip them. They
both begged and promised, but to no purpose.
The whipping began, and continued for some
time. Their cries might have been heard at a
distance.
13
I once hired a slave who belonged to his own
uncle. It is so eominon for the female slaves to
have white children, that little or nothing is ever
said about it. Very few inquiries are made as to
who the father is.
" Thus, brother , I have given you very
briefly, the result, in part, of my observations and
experience relative to slavery. You can make
v/hat disposition of it you please. I am willing
that my name should go to the world with what
I have now written.
"Yours affectionately, for the oppressed,
" Francis Hawley."
Colebrook, Connecticut, March 18, 1835.
93
Personal Narratives — Reuben G. Macy and Richard Macy.
TESTIMONY OF REUBEN G. MACY AND RICHARD MACY.
The following is an extract of a letter recently
received from Charles Marriott of Hudson,
New York. Mr. Marriott is an elder in the Re-
ligious Society of Friends, and is extensively
known and respected.
" The two following brief statements, are fur-
nished by Richard Macy and Reuben G. Macy,
brothers, both of Hudson, New York. They are
head carpenters by trade, and have been well
known to me for more than thirty years, as esteem-
ed members of the Religious Society of Friends.
They inform me that during their stay in South
Carolina, a number more similar cases to those
here related, came under their notice, which to
avoid repetition thej^ omit.
C. Marriott.
TESTIMONY OF REUBEN G. MACY.
" During the winter of 1818 and 19, I resided
on an island near the mouth of the Savannah
river, on the South Carolina side. Most of the
slaves that came under my particular notice, be-
longed to a widow and her daughter, in whose fa-
mily I lived. No white man belonged to the
plantation. Her slaves were under the care of
an overseer who came once a week to give orders,
and settled the score laid up against such as their
mistress thought deserved punishment, which was
from twenty-five to thirty lashes on their naked
backs, with a whip which the overseer generally
brought with him. This whip had a stout handle
about two feet long, and a lash about four and a half
feet. From two to four received the above, I be-
lieve nearly every week during the winter, some-
times in my presence, and always in my hearing.
I examined the backs and shoulders of a number
of the men, which were mostly naked while they
were about their labor, and found them covered
with hard ridges in every direction. One da)^
while busy in the cotton house, hearing a noise, I
ran to the door and saw a colored woman plead.
ing with the overseer, who paid no attention to
her cries, but tied her hands together, and passed
the rope over a beam, over head, where was a
platform for spreading cotton, he then drew the
rope as tight as he could, so as to let her toes
*ouch the ground ; then stripped her body naked to
tiie waist, and went deliberately to work with his
whip, and put on twenty-five or thirty lashes, she
pleading in vain all the time. I inquired, the
cause of such treatment, and was informed it was
for answering her mistress rather ' short.'' "
" A woman from a neighboring plantation came
where I was, on a visit ; she came in a boat row-
ed by six slaves, who, according to the common
practice, were left to take care of themselves, and
having laid them down in the boat and fallen
asleep, the tide fell, and the water filling the stern
of the boat, wet their mistresses trunk of clothes.
When she discovered it, she called them up near
where I was, and compelled them to whip each
ether, till they all had received a severe flogging.
She standing by with a whip in her hand to see
that they did not spare each other. Their usual
allowance of food was one peck of corn per week,
which was dealt out to them every first day of
the week, and such as were not there to receive
their portion at the appointed time, had to live as
they could during the coming week. Each one
had the privilege of planting a small piece of
ground, and raising poultry for their own use
which they generally sold, that is, such as did
improve the privilege which were but few. They
had nothing allowed them besides the corn, ex-
cept one quarter of beef at Christmas which a
slave brought three miles on his head. They
were allowed three days rest at Christmas. Their
clothing consisted of a pair of trowsers and jacket,
made of whitish woollen cloth called negro cloth.
The women had nothing but a petticoat, and a very
short short-gown, made of the same kind of cloth.
Some of the women had an old pair of shoes,
but they generally went barefoot. The houses
for the field slaves were about fourteen feet square,
built in the coarsest manner, having but one
room, without any chimney, or flooring, with a
hole at the roof at one end to let the smoke out,
" Each one was allowed one blanket in which
they rolled themselves up. I examined their
houses but could not discover any thing like a
bed. I was informed that when they had a suf-
ficiency of potatoes the slaves were allowed some ;
but the season that I was there they did not raise
more than were wanted for seed. All their corn
was ground in one hand-mill, every night just as
much as was necessary for the family, then each
one his daily portion, which took considerable
time in the night. I often awoke and heard the
sound of the mill. Grinding the corn in the
night, and in the dark, after their day's labor, and
the want of other food, were great hardships.
" Tne tra,ve]ing in those parts, among the is-
lands, was altogether with boats, rowed by from^
four to ten slaves, which often stopped at our plan-
tation, and staid through the night, when the
slaves, after rowing through the day, were left t»
shift for themselves ; and when they went to Sa-
vannah with a load of cotton they v/ere obliged to
sleep in the open boats, as the law did not allow
a colored person to be out after eight o'clock in
the evening, without a pass from his master."
testimony of RICHARD MACY.
" The above account is from my brother. I
was at work on Hilton Head about twenty miles
north of my brother, during the same winter.
The same allowance of one peck of corn for a
week, the same kind of houses to live in, and the
same method of grinding their corn, and always
in the night, and in the dark, was practiced there.
" A number of instances of severe whipping
came under my notice. The first was this : — two
men were sent out to saw some blocks out of
large live oak timber on which to raise my build-
ing. Their saw was in poor order, and they
sawed them badly, for which their master strip-
ped them naked and flogged them.
" The next instance was a boy about sixteen
years of age. He had crept into the coach to sleep;
after two or three nights he was caught by the
coach driver, a «orf/ierw 7nan, and stripped entire-
Personal Narratives — Mr. Eleazar Powell.
99
ly naled, and whipped without mercy, his master
looking on.
"Another instance. The overseer, a young
white man, had ordered several negroes, a boat's
crew, to be on the spot at a given time. One man
did not appear until the boat had gone. The over-
seer was very angry and told him to strip and be
flogged ; he being slow, was told if he did not in-
stantly strip oft his jacket, he, the overseer, would
whip "it off, which he did in shreds, whipping him
cruelly.
'•■ The man ran into the barrens and it was about
a month before they caught him. He was nearly
starved, and at last stole a turkey ; then another,
and was caught.
" Having occasion to pass a plantation very early
one foggy morning, in a boat, we heard the
sound of the whip, before we could see, but as
we drew up in front of the plantation, we could
see the negroes at work in the field. The over-
sccr was going from one to the other causing
them to lay down tlicir hoe, strip off their gar-
mcnt, hold up their hands and receive their num-
ber of lashes. Thus he went on from one to the
other until we were out of sight. In the course
of the winter a family came where I was, on a
visit from a neighboring island ; of course, in a
boat with negroes to row them — one of these a
barber, told me that he ran away about two year.<
before, and joined a company of negroes who had
fled to the swamps. He said they suffered a great
deal — were at last discovered by a p^ty of liun-
ters, who fired among them, and caused them to
scatter. Hunself and one more fled to the coast,
took a boat and put off to sea, a storm' came on
and swamped or upset them, and his partner was
drowned, he was taken up by a passing vessel
and returned to his master.
Richard Macy.
Hudson, 12 mo. 29th, 1838.
TESTIMONY OF MR. ELEAZAR POWELL.
Extract of a letter from Mr. William Scott,
a highly respectable citizen of Beaver co. Pennsyl-
vania, dated Jan. 7, 1839.
Chippewa Township, Beaver co. Pa. )
Jan. 7, 1839. \
" I send you the statement of Mr. Eleazar Pow-
ell, who was bam, and has mostly resided in this
township from his birth. His character for so-
briety and truth stands above impcacJiment.
With sentiments of esteem,
I am your friend,
William Scott.
"In the month of December, 1836, I went to
the State of Mississippi to work at my trade,
(masonry and bricklaying,) and continued to
work in the counties of Adams and Jefferson, be-
tween four and five months. In following my
business I had an opportunity of seeing the treat-
ment of slaves in several places.
" In Adams county I built a chimney for a man
named Joseph Gwatney ; he had forty-five field
hands of both sexes. The field in which they
worked at that time, lay about two miles from
the house ; the hands had to cook and eat their
breakfast, prepare their dinner, and be in the field
at daylight, and continue there till dark. In the
evening the cotton they had picked was weighed,
and if they fell short of their task they were
whipped. One night I attended the weighing —
two women fell short of their task, and the mas-
ter ordered the black driver to take them to the
quarters and flog them ; one of them was to re-
ceive twenty-five lashes and pick a peck of cot-
ton seed. I have been with the overseer several
times through the negro quarters. The huts are
generally built of split timber, some larger than
rails, twelve and a half feet wide and fourteen
feet long — some with and some without chimneys,
and generally without floors ; they were generally
without daubing, and mostly had split clapboards
nailed on the cracks on the outside, though some
were without even that : in some there was a kind
of rough bedstead, made from rails, polished with
the axe, and put together in a very rough man-
ner, the bottom covered with clapboards, and
over that a bundle of worn out clothes. In some
huts there was no bedstead at all. The above
description applies to tte places generally with
which I was acquainted, and they were mostly
old settlements.
" In the east pan of Jefferson county I built a
fihimney for a man named M'Coy ; he had
forty-seven laboring handa. Near where I was at
work, M'Coy had ordered one of his slaves to set
a post for a gate. When he came to look at it, he
said the slave had not set it in the right place ;
and ordered him to strip, and lie down on his
face ; telling him that if he struggled, or attempt-
ed to get up, two n.en, who had been called to
the spot, should seise and hold him fast. The
slave agreed to be qiiet, and M'Coy commenced
flogging him on the bare back, with the wagon
whip. After some time the sufferer attempted
to get up ; one of the slaves standing by, seized
him by the feet and ield him fast ; upon which
he yielded, and M'Coj cortinued to flog him ten
or fifteen minutes. Wheri he was up, and had
put on his trowsers, the blood came through them.
"About half a mile from Il'Coy's was a planta-
tion owned by his step-daugater. The overseer's
name was James Farr, of v^hom it appears Mrs.
M'Coy's waiting woman was enamoured. One
night, while I lived there, M'Coy came from
Natchez, about 10 o'clock at night. He said that
Dinah was gone, and wished his overseer to go
with him to Farr's lodgings, They went accord-
ingly, one to each door, and caught Dinah as she
ran out, she was partly dressed in her mistress's
clothes ; M'Coy whipped her unmercifully, and
she afterwards made her escape. On the next
day, (Sabbath), M'Coy came to the overseer's,
where I lodged, and requested him and me to look
for her, as he was afraid that she had hanged her-
self. He then gave me the particulars of the
flogging. He stated that near Fan's he had
made her strip and lie down, and had flogged her
until he was tired ; that before he reached home
he had a second time made her strip, and again.
I flogged her until he was tired ; that when he
100
Persanal Narratives — Rev. William Scales.
reached home he had tied her to a peach-tree, and
after getting a drink hafi flogged her until he was
thirsty again ; and while he went to get a drink
the woman made her escape. He stated that he
knew, from the wlnpping he had given lier, there
must be in her back cuts an inch deep. He
showed the place where she had been tied to the
tree ; there appeared to be as much blood as if a
hog had been stuck there. The woman was
found on Sabbath evening, near the spring, and
had to be earned into the house.
" While Jlived there I heard M'Coy say, if the
slaves did not raise him three hundred bales of
cotton the ensuing season, he would kill every ne-
gro he hati.
" Another case of flogging came under my no-
tice : — Philip O.Hughes, sheriff of Jefferson coun-
ty, had hired a slave to a man, whose name I do
not recollect. On a Sabbath day the slave had
drank somewhat ireely ; he was ordered by the
tavern keeper, (where his present master had left
his horse and the ncorro,) to stay in the kitchen ;
the negro wished to be out. In persisting to go
out he was knocked down three times ; and after-
wards flogged until another young man and my-
self ran about half a nile, having been drawn by
the cries of the negro and the sound of the whip.
When we came up, a number of men that had
been about the tavern, were whipping him, and
at intervals would ask Ifm if he would take off
his clothes. At seeing- them drive down the
stakes for a regular flogging he yielded, and took
them off. They then flogged him until satisfied.
On the next morning I saw him, and his panta-
loons were all in a gore of blood.
" During my stay in Jefferson county, Philip O.
Hughes was out one day with his gun — he saw a
negro at some distance, wi'.h a club in one hand
and an ear of corn in the otlier — Hughes stepped
behind a tree, and waited his approach ; he sup-
posed the negro to be a rraaway, who had es-
caped about nine months before from his master,
living not very far distant. The negro discovered
Hughs before ho came up, and started to run ; he
refusing to stop, Hughes fired, and shot him
through the arm. Through loss of blood the ne.
gro was soon taken and put in jail. I saw hig
wound twice dressed, and heard Huglies make the
above statement.
"When in Jefferson county I boarded six
weeks in Fayette, the county town, with a tavern
keeper named James Truly. He had a slave
named Lucy, who occupied the station of chamber-
maid and table waiter. One day, just after dinner,
Mrs. Truly took Lucy and bound her arms round
a pine sapling behind the house, and commenced
flogging her with a riding- whip ; and when tired
would take her chair and rest. She continued thus,
alternately flogging and resting, for at least an hour
and a half. I afterwards learned from the bar-keep,
er, and others, that the woman's offence was that
she had bought two candles to set on the table the
evening before, not knowing there were yet some
in the box. I did not see the act of flogging
above related ; but it was com.menced before I
left the house after dinner ; and my work not be-
ing more than twenty rods from the house, I dis-
tinctly heard the cries of the v^oman all the time,
and the manner of tying I had from those who
did see it.
'' While I boarded at Truly's, an overseer shot
a negro about two miles northwest of Fayette, be-
longing to a man named Hinds Stuart. I heard
Stuart himself state the particulars. It appeared
that the negro's wife fell under the overseer's dis-
pleasure, and he went to whip her. The negro said
she should not be whipped. The overseer then
let her go, and ordered him to be seized. The negro,
having been a driver, rolled the lash of his whip
round his hand, and said he would not be whipped
at that time. The overseer repeated his orders.
The negro took up a hoe, and none dared to take
hold of him. The overseer then went to his coat,
that he had laid off to v/hip the negro's wife, and
took out his pistol and shot him dead. His mas-
ter ordered him to be buried in a hole without a
coflin. Stuart stated that he would not have
taken two thousand dollars for him. No punish,
ment was inflicted on the overseer.
Eleazar Powell, Jr."
TESTIMONY ON THE AUTHORITY OF REV. WM. SC.U.ES, LYNDON, VT.
The following is an extract of a letter from two ;
professional gentlemei and their wives, who have
lived for some years in a small village in one of
the slave states. They are all persons of the high-
est respectability, and are well known in at least
one of the New England states. Their names
are with the Executiv3 Committee of the Ameri-
can Anti-Slavery Society ; but as the individuals
would doubtless be murdered by the slaveholders,
if they were published, the Committee feel sacredly
bound to withhold them. The letter was ad-
dressed to arespected clergyman in New England.
The writers say :
" A man near us owned a valuable slave — his
best — most faithful servant. In a gust of passion,
he struck him dead with a lever, or stick of wood.
" During the years '36 and '37, the following
transpired. A slave in our neighborhood ran
away and went to a place about thirty miles dis-
taut. There he was found by his pui-suers on horse,
back, and compelled by the whip to run the dis-
tance of thirty miles. It was an exceedingly hot
day — and within a few hours after he arrived at
the end of his journey the slave was dead.
" Another slave ran away, but concluded to re-
turn. He had proceeded some distance on his re.
turn, when he was met by a company of two or
three drivers, who raced, whipped and abused
him until he fell down and expired. This took
place on the Sabbath." The writer after speaking
of another murder of a slave in the neighborhood,
without giving the circumstances, say — " There
is a powerful New England influence at " the
village where they reside — " We may therefore
suppose that there would be as little of barbarian
cruelty practiced there as any where ; — at least
we might suppose that the average amount of
cruelty in that vicinity would be sufficiently
favorable to the side of slavery. — Describe a cir-
PersoMl Narralwcs^5 oseph Ide, Esq.— Rev. Phiiieas Smith.
101
cic, the centre of wlich shall be ,the residence
of the writers, and tie radius fifteen miles, and in
about one year tnise, and I think four slaves
have been viuHeied, within tliat cirele, under
circumstances o^-lprrid cruelty.— What must have
been the amount of murder in the whole slave
territor}' ? The whole south is rife with the
crime of separating husbands and wives, parents
and children."
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH IDE, ESQ.
Mr. Ide .s i icspected member of the Baptist
Church in Shefield, Caledonia county, Vt. ; and
recently the Postmaster in that town. He spent a
few monthfat the south in the years 1837 and 8.
In a letter-o the Rev. Wm. Scales of Lyndon, Vt.
written a few weeks since, Mr. Ide writes as fol-
lows.
«' Ir ansn'ering ihe proposed inquiries, I will
say ffst; that although there are various other
mocfes resorted to, whipping v.'ith the cowskin is
the usual mode of inflicting punishment on the
Boor slave. I have never actually witnessed a
(vhipiing scene, for they are usually taken into
!omi back place for that purpose ; but I have
jfteL heard tiieir groans and screams while writh-
ing mder the lash ; and have seen the blood flow
from Uieir torn and lacerated skins after the ven-
ganoe of the inhuman master or mistress had
ben glutted. You ask if the woman where I
barded whipped a slave to death. I can give
vu the particulars of the transaction as they
■«re related to me. My informant was a gen-
eman — a member of the Presbyterian churcli in
[assachusetts — who the winter before boarded
-here I did. He said that Mrs. T had a
3male slave whom she used to whip unmerciful—
y, and on one occasion, she whipped her as long
5 she had strength, and after the poor creature
s^as suffered to go, she crawled off into a cellar.
^s she did not immediately return, Eoarcii was
nade, and she was found dead in the cellar, and
.he horrid deed was kept a secret in the family,
md it was reported that she died of sickness.
Phis wretch at the same time was a member of a
Presbyterian church. Towards her slaves she
was certainly the most cruel wretch of any wo-
' man with whom I was ever acquainted — yet she
vras nothing more than a slaveholder. She would
deplore slavery as much as I did, and often to)-i
me she was much of an abolitionist as I was. Fi^ie
was constant in the declaration that her i^ind
treatment to her slaves was proverbial. Tlvught
I, then the Lord have mercy on the res<- She
has often told me of the cruel treatment of the
slaves on a plantation adjoining her father'.s in the
low country of South Carolina. She says she
has often seen them driven to the necessity of
eating frogs and lizards to sustain I'fe. As to the
mode of living generally, my information is rather
limited, being with few cxce])tions confined to
the different families where I have boarded. My
stopping places at the south have mostly been in
cities. In them the slaves arc better fed and
clothed than on plantations. The house servants
are fed on what the families leave. But they are
kept short, and I think are oftener whipped f^r
stealing something to eat than any other crir»e.
On plantations their food is principally hoir^io-
ny, as the southerners call it. It is simply rfack-
ed corn boiled. This probably constitutcf sevcji-
eights of their living. The house-ser^'^iits m
cities are generally decently clothed, J-i'd some
favorite ones are richly dressed, but wc^c on the
plantations, especially in their dresr, if 't can be
called dress, exhibit the most haggirdand squahd
appearance. I have frequently sfcn those oi
both sexes more than two-thircs paked. I have
seen from forty to sixty, m^le/and female, a;t
work in a field, many of bati" sexes vnth their
bodies entirely naked— who c*'d not exhibit signs
of shame more than catt>^- As I did not go
among them much on thc^lantations, I have had
but few opportunities fop^-ammmg the backs of
slaves- but have freq/n% passed where they
were at work, and be;^ occasionally present with
them, and in almosc ^very case there were marks
of violence on sorn/*' parts of them— every age,
sex and conditiorx being hable to the whip. A
son of the gerdfUian with whom I boarded, a
young man about twenty-one years of age, had
a plantation and eight or ten slaves. He used to
boast alp^ost every night of whipping some of
them, ^ne day he related to me a case of whip-
pino- a.i old negro— I should judge sixty years of
acre'! He said he called him up to flog him for
soj^e real or supposed offence, and the poor old
n-an, being pious, asked the privilege of praying
Jefore he received his punishment. He said he
granted him the favor, and to use his own ex-
pression, ' The old nigger knelt down and pray,
ed for me, and then got up and took his whip-
ping.' In relation to negro huts, I will say that
planters usually ovi^n large tracts of land. They
have extensive clearings and a beautiful mansion
house — and generally some forty or fifty rods
from the dwelling are situated the negro cabins,
or huts, built of logs in the rudest manner.
Some consist of poles rolled up together and
covered with mud or clay — many of them not as
comfortable as northern pig-sties."
TESTIMONY OF REV. PHINEAS SMITH.
Mr. Smith is now pasior of the Presbyterian
•Church in Centreville, Allegany county, N. Y.
He has recently returned from a residence in the
slave states, and the American slave holdiiig set-
lements in Texas. The following is an extract
of a letter lately received from him.
" You inquire respecting instances of cruelty
that have come within my knowledge. I reply.
102
Personal Narratives — Mr. Philemon Bliss.
Avarice and cruelty constitute the very gist of
the whole slave system. Many of the enormities
committed upon the plantations will not be de.
ecribed till God brings to light the hidden things
of darkness, then the tears and groans and blood
of innocent men, women and children will be re-
vealed, and the oppressor's spirit must confront
that of his victim.
" I will relate a case of torture v/hich occurred
on the Brasses while I resided a few miles distant
upon tho Chocolate Bayou. The case should be
remembered as a true illustration of the nature
of slaveiy, as it exists at the south. The facts
are these. An overseer by the name of Alexan-
der, notorious for his cruelty, was found dead in
the timbered lands of the Brassos. It was sup-
posed that he was murdered, but who perpetrated
tie act was unknown. Two black men were
hoyever seized, taken into the Prairie and put to
the orture. A physician by the name of Parrott
from Tennessee, and another from New England
by the ^ame of Anson Jones, were present on this
occasion. The latter gentleman is now the
Texan nf^iister plenipotentiary to the United
totates, tnd resides at Washington. The unfor-
tunate skves being stripped, and all things ar-
ranged, thfctorVire commenced by whipping upon
their bare Kclw. Six athletic men were em-
ployed in this teei.e of inhumanity, the names of
some of whom iwe^l remember. There was one
of the name of L-ovn, and one or two of the
name of Patton. Those six executioners were
successively employe \^ cutting up the bodies of
these defenceless slav^, ^,bo pereisted to the last
m the avowal of their -nuocence. The bloody
whip was however kept i. motion till savage bar-
barity itself was glutted. When this was ac
complished, the bleeding vhtii^is were re-convey-
ed to the inclosure of the muxsion house where
they were deposited for a few moments. ' The
dying groans however incoimmilfg the ladies,
they were taken to a hack shed loTiere one of them
soon expired* ' The life of the other slave was
for a time despaired of, but after hany^ng over
the grave for months, he at length so far locover-
ed as to walk about and labor at light Npork.
These facts cannot be controverted. They \^ere
disclosed under the solemnity of an oath, at (!^.
lumbia, in a court of justice. I was present, anl
shall never forget them. The testimony of Drs.
Parrott and Jones was most appalling. I seem
to hear the death-groans of that murdered man.
His cries for mercy and protestations of inno-
* The words of Dr. Parrott, a witness on the trial hereaf-
ter referred to.
cence fell upon adaman;in« hearts. The facts
above stated, and others ia relation to this scene
of cruelty came to light in tl.e following manner.
The master of the murdc-ei man commenced
legal process against the aeon in this trao-edy for
the recovery of the value cf ihe chattel, as one
would institute a suit for a ione or an ox that
had been unlawfully killed. It vas a suit for the
recovery of damages merely. ISTo indictment was
even dreamed of. Among the 'vitnesscs brouglit
upon the stand in the progress of tais cause were
the physicians, Parrott and Joies above named.
The part which they were called to act in this
aifair was, it is said, to examine the pulse of the
victims during the process of tovtun. But thev
were mistaken as to the quantum of torture
which a human being can underjo axd not die
under it. Can it be belieyed ihot onv of these
physicians was born and educated '.n thft land of
the pilgrims ? Y6s, in my own native N^w En-
gland. It is even so I The stone-like apatW ma-
nifested at the trial of the above cause, an^ tho
screams and the death-groans of an innocent man,
as developed by the testimony of the witnessei,
can never be obliterated from my memory. The^
form an era in my life, a point to which [ lock
back with horror.
" Another case of cruelty occurred on the San
Bernard near Chance Prairie, where I resided for
some time. The facts were these. A slave naanSed
from his master, (Mr. Sweeny) and being closely
pursued by the overseer and a son of the owner,
he stepped a few yards in the Bernard and plaied
himself upon a root, from which there vas
no possibility of his escape, for he could lot
swim. In this situation he was fired upon wth
a blunderbuss loaded heavily with ball and gnpe
shot. The overseer who shot the gun was a a
distance of a few feet only. The charge enteiid
the body of the negro near the groin. He w.s
conveyed to the plantation, lingered in inexprtj.
sible agony a few days and expired. A physici^
was called, but medical and surgical skill was
unavailing. No notice whatever was taken of
this murder by the public authorities, and th«
murderer was not discharged from the service oj
his employer.
" When slaves flee, as they not unfrequently doi
to the timbered lands of Texas, they are hunted
with guns and dogs. 1
" The sufferings of the slave not unfrequently.
dSve him to despair and suicide. At a plantation
on%e San Bernard, where there were but five
slave?, two during the same year committed sui-
cide bj drowning."
TESTIMONY OF PHILEMON BLISS, ESQ.
Mr. Bliss is a highly respectable member of 1 1836, and pub'iished in the New York Evange
the bar, in Elyria, Lorain Co. Ohio, and member | list.
of the Presbyterian church, in that place. Hi
resided in Florida, during the years 1834 and 5.
The following extracts are from letters, writ-
ten by Mr. B. in 1835, while residing on a plan-
tation near Tallahassee, and published soon after
" In speaking of slavery as it is, I hardly know
where to begin. Tht physical condition of the slave
is far from being accurately known at the north.
Gentlemen traveling in the south can know
nothing of it. They must make the south their
residence ; they must live on plantations, before
in the Ohio Atlas ; also from letters written m they can have any opportunity of judgmg of the
Personal Narratives— ?\\i\cmon Bliss.
103
slave. J resided in Augustine five montlis, and
had I not made particular inquiries, which most
northern visltois very seldom or never do, I
should have left there with the impression that
the slaves were generally very loell treated, and
were a happy peoplo. Sueh is the report of
many northern travelers who have no more op-
portunity of knowing their teal condition than if
they had remained at home. What confidence
could we place in the reports of the traveler,
relative to the condition of the Irish peasantry,
who formed his opinion from the appearance of the
waiters at a Dublin hotel, or the household ser-
vants of a country gentleman ? And it is not
often on plantations even, iha.t strangers can wit-
ness the punishment of the slave I was conversing
the other daj'wiih a neighboring planter, upon the
brutal treatment of the slaves which I had wit-
nessed : he remarked, that had I been with him
I should not have seen this. " When I whip
niggers, I take them out of sight and hearing."
Such being the difliculties in the way of a stran-
ger's ascertaining the treatment of the slaves, it
is not to be woridered at that gentlemen, of un-
doubted veracity^ should give directly false state-
ments relative to it. But facts cannot lie, and in
giving these I confine myself to what has come
under my own personal observation.
" The negroes commence labor by daylight in the
morning', and. excepting the plowboys, who must
feed and rest their horses, do not leave the field
till dark in the evening. There is a good deal of
contention among planters, who shall make the
most cotton to the liand, or, who shall drive their
negroes the hardest ; and I have heard bets made
and staked upon the issue of the crops. Col. W.
was boasting of his large crops, and swore that
' he made for his force, the largest crops in the
country.' He was disputed of course. On ri-
ding home in company with Mr. C. the conver-
sation turned, upon Col. W. My companion re-
marked, that though Col, W. had the reputation
of making a large crop, yet he could beat him
himself, and did do it the last year. I remarked
that I considered it no honor to Col. W. to drive
his slaves to death to make a large crop. I have
heard no more about large crops from him since.
Drivers or overseers usually drive the slaves
worse than masters. — Their reputation for good
overseers depends in a great measure upon the
crops they make, and the death of a slave is no
loss to them.
" Of the extentand cruelty of the punishment of
the slave, the northern public know nothing.
From the nature of the case they can know little,
as I have before mentioned,
" I have seen a woman, a mother, compelled, in
the piesence of her master and mistress, to hold
up her clothes, and endure the whip of Ihe driver
on the naked body for more than twenty minutes,
and while her cries would have rent the heart of
anyone, who had not hardened himself to human
suffering. Her master and mistress were con-
versing with apparent indifference. What was
her crime ? She had a task given her of sewing
which she must finish that day. Late at night
she finished it ; but the stitches were too long,
and she must be whipped. The same was repeat-
ed three or four nights for the same offence.
/ have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet,
and receive 305 blows with the paddle* on the
fieshy parts of the body. Two others received
the same kind of punishment at the time, though
I did not count the blows. One received 230
lashes. Their crime was stealing mutton. I
have /re^ue^i/y heard the shrieks of the slaves,
male and female, accompanied by the strokes of
the paddle or whip, when I have not gone near
the scene of horror. I knew not their crimes,
excepting of one woman, which was stealinjj
four potatoes to eat with her bread ! The more
common number of lashes inflicted was fifty or
eighty ; and this I saw not once or twice, but bo
frequently that I can not tell the number of times
I have seen it. So frequently, that my own heart
was becoming so hardened that I could witness
with comparative indifference, the female writhe
under the lash, and her shrieks and cries for
mercy ceased to pierce my heart with that keen-
ness, or give me that anguish which they first
caused. It was not always that I could learn
their crimes ; but of those I did learn, the most
common was non-performance of tasks. I have
seen men strip and receive from one to three
hundred strokes of the whip and paddle. My
studies and meditations were almost nightly in-
terrupted by the cries of the victims of cruelty
and avarice. Tom, a slave of Col. N. obtained
permission of his overseer on Sunday, to visit his
son, on a neighboring plantation, belonging in part
to his master, but neglected to take a " pass."
Upon its being demanded by the other overseer,
he replied that he had permission to come, and
that his having a mule was sufficient evidence of
it, and if he did not consider it as such, he could
take him up. The overseer replied he would
take him up ; giving him at the same time a
blow on the arm with a stick he held in his hand,
sufficient to lame it for some time. The negro
collared him, and threw him ; and on the over-
seer's commanding him to submit to be tied and
whipped, he said he would not be whipped by
him but would leave it to massa J. They came
to massa J.'s. I was there. After the overseer
had related the case as above, he was blamed
for not shooting or stabbing him at once. — After
dinner the negro was tied, and the whip given to
the overseer, and he used it with a severity that
was shocking. I know not how many lashes
were given, but from his shoulders to his heels
there was not a spot unridged ! and at almost
every stroke the blood flowed. He could not
have received less than 300, well laid on. But
his offence was great, almost the greatest known,
laying hands on a white man ! Had he struck
the overseer, under any provocation, he would
have been in some way disfigm'ed, perhaps by"
the loss of his ears, in addition to a whipping :
or he might have been hung. The most com
mon cause of punishments is, not finishing tasks.
" But it would be tedious mentioning further
particulars. The negro has no other inducement
to work but the lash ; and as man never acts
without motive, the lash must be used so long
as all other motives are withheld. Hence cor-
poreal punishment is a necessary part of slavery.
"Punishments for runaways are usually severe.
* A piece of oak timber two and a half feet long, flat and
wide at one end.
104
Personal Narratives — Philemon Bliss.
Once whipping is not siifTicient, I have known
runaways to bo whipped for six or seven nights
in succession for one offence. I have known
others who, with pinioned hands, and a chain
extending from an iron collar on their neck
to the saddle of their master's horse, have been
driven at a smart trot, one or two hundred miles,
being compelled to ford water courses, their
drivers, according to their own confession, not
abating a whit in the rapidity of their journey for
the ease of the slave. One tied a kettle of sand to
his slave to render his journey more arduous.
" Various are the instruments of torture devised
to keep the slave in subjection. The stocks are
sometimes used. Sometimes blocks arc filled
with pegs and nails, and the slave compelled to
stand upon them.
" While stopping on the plantation of a Mr. C.
I saw a whip with a knotted lash lying on the
table, and inquired of my companion, who was
also an acquaintance of Mr. C.'e, if he used that
to whip his negroes ? "Oh," says he, " Mr. C.
is not severe with his hands. He never whips
very hard. The Inwis in the lash are so large
that he does not usually draw blood in whip-
ping them."
'' It was principally from hearing the conversa-
tion of southern men on the subject, that I judge
of the cruelty that is generalh' practiced toward
slaves. They will deny that slaves are generally
ill treated : but ask them if they are not whipped
for certain offences, which either a freeman
would iiavc no temptation to commit, or which
would not be an offence in any but a slave, and
for non-performance of tasks, they will answer
promptly in the affirmative. And frequently
have I heard them excuse their cruelty by citing
Mr. A. or Mr. B. who is a Christian, or Mr. C.
a preacher, or Mr. D. from the north, who
" drives his hands tighter, and whips them hard-
er, than we ever do." Driving negroes to the
utmost extent of their ability, with occasionally a
hundred lashes or more, and a few switchings in
the field if they hang back in the driving seasons,
viz : in the hoing and picking months, is perfect-
ly consistent with good treatment !
" While traveling across the Peninsula in a
stage, in company with a northern gentleman,
and southern lady, of great worth and piety, a
dispute arose respecting the general treatment
of slaves, the gentleman contending that their
treatment was generally good — ' O, no 1' inter-
rupted the lady, ' you can know nothing of the
treatment they receive on the plantations. Peo-
ple here do whip the poor negroes most cruelly,
and many half starve them. You have neither
of you had opportunity to know scarcely any
thing of the cruelties that are practiced in this
country,' and more to the same effect. I met with
several others, besides this lady, who appeared to
feel for the sins of the land, but they are few and
scattered, and not usually of sufficiently stern
mould to withstand the popular wave.
" Masters are not forward to publish their
" domestic regulations," and as neighbors are
usually several miles apart, one's observation
must be limited. Hence the few instances of
cruelty which break out can be but a fraction of
what is practised. A planter, a professor of re-
union, in conversation upon the universp.litv of
whipping, remarked that a planter in G- •, who
had whipped a great deal, at Icng-th got tired
of it, and invented the foJiowing excellent
method of punishment, which I saw practised
while I was paying him a visit. The negro was
placed in a sitting position, witJi his hands made
fast above his head, snd feet in the stocks, so
that he could not wove any part of the body.
" The master retired, intending to leave him till
morning, but we ivcre awakened in the night by
the groans of the negro, which were so doleful
that we feared lie was dying. We went to him,
and found him covered with a cold sweat, and
almost gone. He could not have lived an hour
lono-er. Mr. found the 'stocks' such an
effective punishment, that it almost superseded
the whip."
" How much do you give your niggers for a
task while hoeing cotton," inquired Mr. C •
of his neighbor Mr. H .
H. " I give my men an acre and a quarter, and
my women an acre."*
C. " Well, that is a fair task. Niggers do a
heap better if they are drove pretty tight."
H. " O yes, I have driven mine into complete
subordination. When I first bought them they
Vv'ere discontented and wished me to sell them,
but I soon whipped that out of them ; and they
nov/ work very contentedly !"
C. " Docs Mary keep up with the rest ?"
H. " No, she does'nt often finish the task alone,
she has to get Sam to help her out after he has
done his, to save her a whipping. There's no
other way but to be severe with them."
C. " No otiier, sir, if you favor a nigger you
spoil him."
" The whip is considered as necessary on a plan-
tation as the plough ; and its use is almost as
common. The negro whip is the common team-
stei-'s whip with a black leather stock, and a short,
fine, knotted lash. The paddle is also frequently
used, sometimes with holes bored in the flattened
end. The ladies (!) in chastising their domestic
servants, generally use the cowhide. I have
known some use shovel and tongs. It is, how-
ever, more common to commit them to the driver
to be whipped. The manner of whipping is as
follows : The negro is tied by his hands, and
sometimes feet, to a post or tree, and stripped to
the skin. The female slave is not always tied.
The number of lashes depends upon the character
for severity of the master or overseer.
" Another instrument of torture is sometimes
used, how extensively I knov/ not. The negro,
or, in the case which came to my knowledge,
the negress was compelled to stand barefoot
upon a block filled with sharp pegs and nails for
two or three hours. In case of sickness, if the
master or overseer thinks them seriously ill, they
are taken care of, but their complaints are usual-
ly not much heeded. A physician told me that
he was employed by a planter last winter to go
to a plantation of his in the country, as many if
the negroes were sick. Says he — " I found them
in a most miserable condition. The weather
was cold, and the negroes were barefoot, with
hardly enough of cotton clothing to cover their
nakedness. Those who had huts to shelter them
* Cotton is planted in drills about three feet apart, and is
Personal Narratives — Rev. Wm. A. Cliapin.
105
were obliged to build thcin nights and Sundays.
Many were sick and some had died. I had the
sick taken to an older plantation of their
masters, where they could be made comfortable,
and they recovered. I directed that they should
not go to work till after sunrise, and should not-
work in the rain till their health became establish-
ed. But the overseer refusing- to permit it, 1 de-
clined attending on them farther. I was call-
ed,' continued he, ' by tiie overseer of another
plantation to see one of the men. I found him
lyinsj by the side of a log in great pain. I asked
him^how he did, ' O,' says he, ' I'm most dead,
can live but little longer.' How long have you
been sick ? ' I've felt for more than six weeks
as though I could liardly stir.' Why didn't you
tell youV master, you waa sick ? ' I couldn't see
my master, and tiic overseer always whips us
when we complain, I could not stand a whip-
ping.' I did all I could for the poor fellow, but
his lungs were rotten. He died in three days
from the time he left ofF work.' The cruelty of
that overseer is such that the negroes almost
tremble at his name. Yet he gets a high salary,
for he makes the largest crop of any other man
in the neighborhood, though none but the hard-
iest negroes can stand it under him. " That
man," says the Doctor, " would be hung in my
country." He was a German.
TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM A. CHAPIN.
Rev. William Scales, of Lyndon, Vermont,
has furnished the following testimony, under date
of Dec. 15, 1838.
" I send you an extract from a letter that I
have just received, which you may use ad libitum.
The letter is from Rev. Wm. A. Chapin, Greens-
borousi^h, Vermont. To one who is acquainted
with Mr. C. his opinion and statements must
carry conviction even to the most obstinate and
incredulous. He observes, ' I resided, as a teach-
er, nearly two j^ears in the family of Carroll Webb,
Esq., of Hampstead, New Kent co. about twenty
miles from Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Webb had
three or four plantations, and was considered one
of the two wealthiest men in the county : it was
supposed he owned about two hundred slaves. He
was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and
was elected an elder while I was with him. He
was a native of Virginia, but a graduate of a New-
England college.
" ' The slaves were called in the morning before
daylight, I believe at all seasons of the year, that
they might prepare their food, and be ready to go
to work as soon as it was light enough to see. I
know that at the season of husking corn, October
and November, they were usually compelled to
work late — till 12 or 1 o'clock at night. I know
this fact because they accompanied their work
with a loud singing of their own sort. I usually
retired to rest between 11 and 12 o'clock, and
generally heard them at their work as long as I
was awake. The slaves lived in wretched log
cabins, of one room each, without floors or win-
dows. I believe the slaves sometimes suffer for
want of food. One evening, as I was sitting in
the parlor with Mr. W. one of the most resolute
of the slaves came to the door, and said, " Mas-
ter, I am willing to work for you, but I want
something to eat." The only reply was, " Clear
yourself." I learned that the slaves had been
without food all day, because the man who was
sent to mill could not obtain his grinding. He
went again the next day, and obtained his grist,
and the slaves had no food till he returned. He
had to go about five miles.*
" I know the slaves were sometimes severely
whipped. I saw the backs of several which had
numerous scars, evidently caused by long and
deep lacerations of the whip ; and I have good
reason to believe that the slaves were generally
in that condition ; for I never saw the back of
one exposed that was not thus marked, — and from
their tattered and scanty clothing their backs
were often exposed."
•* To this, Rev. Mr. Scales adds, "In familiar language,
and in more detail, as I have learned it in conversation with
Mr. Chapin, the fact is as follows : —
" Mr. W. kept, what he called a ' boy,' i. e. a man, to go
to mill. It was his custom not to give his slaves anything to
eat while he was gone to mill — let him have been gone long-
er or shorter — for this reason, if he was lazy, and delayed,
the slaves would become hungry : hence indignant, and
abuse him — ^this was his punishment. On that occasion he
went to mill in the morning. The slaves came up at noon,
and returned to work without food. At night, after having
worked hard all day, without food, went to bed without
supper. About 10 o'clock the next day. they came up in a
company, to their master's door, (that master an elder in
the church), and deputed one more resolute than the rest to
address him. This he did in the most respectful tones and
terms. " We are willing to work for you, master, but we
caji't work without food ; we want srjmething to eat."
" Clear yourself," was the answer. Tlie slaves retired ;
and in the morning were driven away to work without food.
At noon, I thinlj, or somewhat after, they were fed."
TESTIMONY OF MESSRS. T. D. M. AND F. C. MACY.
This testimony is communicated in a letter
from Mr. Cyrus Pierce, a respectable and well
known citizen of Nantucket, M ass. Of the wit-
nesses, Messrs. T. D. M. and F. C. Macy,
Mr. Pierce says, " They are both inhabitants of
this island, and have resided at the south ; they
are both worthy men, for whose integrity and
14
intelligence I can vouch unqualifiedly ; the for-
mer has furnished me with the following state-
ment.
" During the winter of 1832 — 3, I resided oit
the island of St. Simon, Glynn county, Georgia.
There are several extensive cotton plantations on
the island. The overseer of the plantation ois
106
Personal Narratives — T. D. M. and F. C. ]Via<. '.
>hat part of the island where I resided was a
Georgian — a man of stern character, and at
^imes cruelly abusive to his sla.vcs. 1 have often
been witness of the abuse of his power. In South
Carolina and Georgia, on the low lands, the cul-
tivation is chiefly of rice. The land where it is
raised is often inundated, and the labor of pre-
paring it, and raising a crop, is very arduous.
Men and women are in the held from earliest
dawn to dark — often without hats, and up to
their arm-pits in mud and water. At St. Si-
mon's, cotton was the staple article. Ocra, the
driver, usually waited on the overseer to receive
orders for the succeeding day. If any slave was
insolent, or negligent, the driver was authorized
to punish him with the whip, with as many blows
as the magnitude of the crime justified. He was
frequently cautioned, upon the peril of his skin, to
see that all the negroes were off to the field in
the morning. ' Ocra,' said the overseer, one
evening, to the driver, 'if any pretend to be
sick, send me word — allow no lazy wench or fel-
low to skulk in the negro house.' Next morning,
a few minutes after the departure of the hands to
the field, Ocra was seen hastening to the house
of the overseer. He was soon in his presence.
' Well, Ocra, what now ?' Nothing, sir, onl}'
Rachel says she sick — can't go to de field to-day.'
' Ah, sick, is she ? I'll sec to her ; you may be
off, She shall see if I am longer to be fooled
with in this way. Here, Christmas, mix these
salts — bring them to me at the negro house.'
And seizing his whip, he made off to the negro
settlement. Having a strong desire to see what
would be the result, I followed him. As I ap-
proached the negro house, I heard high words.
Rachel was stating her complaint — children were
crying from fright — and the overseer thi'catening.
Rachel. — ' I can't work to-day — I'm sick.' Over-
seer.— ' But you shall work, if you die for it.
Here, take these salts. Now move oiF— quick —
let me see your face again before night, and, by
G — d, you shall smart for it. Be ofll'— no beg-
ging— not a word ;' — and he dragged her from
the house, and followed her 20 or 30 rods, threat-
ening. The woman did not reach the field.
Overcome by the exertion of walking, and by
agitation, she sunk down exhausted by the road
side — was taken up, and carried back to the
house, where an abortion occurred, and her fife
was greatly jeoparded.
" It was 710 uncommon sight to see a whole
family, father, mother, and from two to five
children, collected together around their piggin
of hommony, or pail of potatoes, watched by the
overseer. One meal was always eaten in the
field. No time was allowed for relaxation.
" It was not unusual for a child of five or six
years to perform the office of nurse — because the
mother worked in a remote part of the field, and
was not allowed to leave her employment to take
care of her infant. Want of proper nutriment
induces sickness of the worst type.
" No matter what the nature of the service, a
peck of corn, dealt out on Sunday, must supply
the demands of nature for a week.
" The Sabbath, on a southern plantation, is a
mere nominal holiday. The slaves are liable to
hb called upon at all times, by those who have
authority over them.
'• When it rained, the slaves were allowed to
collect under a tree until the shower had passed.
Seldom, on a week day, were they permitted to
go to their huts during rain ; and even had this
privilege been granted, many of these miserable
habitations were in so dilapidated a condition,
that they would aftord little or no protection.
Negro huts are built of logs, covered with boards
or thatch, having 7io flooring, and but one apart-
ment, serving all the purposes of sleeping, cook-
ing, &c. Some are furnished with a temporary
loft. I have seen a whole family herded together
in a loft ten feet by twelve. In cold weather, they
gather around the fire, spread their blankets on the
ground, and keep as comfortable as they can.
Their supply of clothing is scanty — each slave
being allowed a Holland coat and pantaloons, of
the coarsest manufacture, and one pair of cow-
hide shoes. The women, enough of the same
kind of cloth for one frock. They have also one
pair of shoes. Shoes are given to the slaves in
the winter only. In summer, their clothing is
composed of osnaburgs. Slaves on different plan-
tations are not allowed without a written per-
mission, to visit their fellow bondsmen, under
penalty of severe chastisement. I Vi'itnessed the
chastisement of a young male slave, who was
found lurking about the plantation, and could
give no other account of himself, than that he
wanted to visit some of his acquaintance. Fifty
lashes was the penalty for this oficnce. I could
not endure the dreadful shrieks of the tortured
slave, and rushed away from the scene."
The remainder of this testimony is furnished
by Mr. F. C. Macy.
" I went to Savannah in 1820. Sailing up the
river, I had my first view of slavery. A large
number of men and women, with a piece of
board on their heads, carrying mud, for the pur-
pose of dyking, near the river. After tarrying a
while in Savannah, I went down to the sea
islands of De Fuskee and Hilton Head, where I
spent six months. Negro houses are small, built
of rough materials, and no floor. Their clothing,
(one suit,) coarse ; which tliey received on Christ,
mas day. Their food was three pecks of pota-
toes per week, in the potatoe season, and one peck
of corn the remainder of the year. The slaves
carried with them into the field their meal, and
a gourd of water. They cooked their hommony in
the field, and ate it with a wooden paddle
Their treatment was little better than that of
brutes. Whipping was nearly an every-day
practice. On Mr. M 's plantation, at the
island De Fuskee, I saw an old man whipped ;
he was about 60. He had no clothing on, except
a shirt. The man that inflicted the blows was
Flim, a tall and stout man. The whipping was
very severe. I inquired into the cause. Some
vegetables had been stolen from his master's gar.
den, of which he could give no account. I saw
several women whipped, some of whom were in
very delicate circumstances. The case of one I wil!
relate. She had been purchased in Charleston, and
separated from her husband. On her passage to
Savannah, or rather to the island, she was de-
livered of a child ; and in about three weeks alter
this, she appeared to be deranged. She woulci
leave her work, go into the woods, and smg
Personal Narriiives — A Clergyman.
107
Her master sent for her, and ordered the driwr ]
to whip her. I was near enough to hear tie
strokes.
'• I have known neojro boys, partly by persia-
t?i'on, and partly by I'orec, made to strip off llicir
clothing and right for the amusement of their
77iasters. They would fight until both got to
crying.
" One of the planters told me that his boat litd
been used witliout pcjniission. A number of his
negroes were called up, and put in a building
that was lathed and shingled. The covering
could be easily removed from the inside. He
called one out for examination. While examin-
ing this one, he discovered another negro, com-
ing out of the roof He ordered him back : he
obeyed. In a few moments he attempted it
again. The master took deliberate aim at his
head, but his gun missed fire. IJo told me he
should probably have killed him, had his gun
gone off. The negro jumped and run. The
master took aim again, and tired ; but he was so
far distant, that he received only a few shots in
the calf of his leg. After several days he return-
ed, and received a severe whipping.
'•Mr. B , planter at Hilton Head, freely
confessed, that he kept one of his slaves as a mis-
tress. She slept in the same room with him.
Tliis, I think, is a very common practice."
TESTIMONY O? A CLERGYMAN.
The following letter was written to Mr. Ai-
THUR TArp.\N, of New York, in the summer if
1833. As the name of the writer cannot be pub-
lished with safety to himself, it is withheld.
The following testimonials, from Mr. T.\ppvn,
Professor Wright, and Thomas Ritter, M. D.
of New York, establish the trust-worthiness and
high respectability of the writer.
" I received the following letters from the south
during the year 1833. They were written by a
gentleman who had then resided some years in
the slave states. Not being at liberty to give the
writer's name, I cheerfully certify that he is i
gentleman of established character, a graduate of
Yale College, and a respected minister of tie
gospel. " Arthur Tappan.'
" My acquaintance with the writer of the fol-
lowing letter commenced, I believe, in 1823 from
which time we were fellow students in Yafe Col-
lege till 1826. I have occasionally seen him since.
His character, so far as it has come w.thin my
knowledge, has been that of an upright and re-
markably candid man. I place great confidence
both in his habits of careful and unprejudiced ob-
servation and his veracity.
" E. Wright, jun.
"New York, April 13, 1839."
" I have been acquainted with the writer of
the following letter about twelve years, and know
him to be a gentleman of high respectability, in-
tegrity, and piety. We were fellow students in
Yale College, and my opportunities for judging
of his character, both at that time and since our
graduation, have been such, that I feel myself
fully warranted in making the above unequivocal
declaration. " Thomas Ritter.
'' 104, Cherry-street, New York."
"Natchez, 1833.
" It has been almost four years since I came to
the south-west ; and although I have been told,
from month to month, that I should soon wear off
my northern prejudices, and probably have slaves
of my own, yet my judgment in regard to oppres-
sion, or my prejudices, if they are pleased so to
call them, remain with me still. I judge still from
those principles which were fixed in my mind at
the north ; and a residence at the south has not
enabled me so to pervert truth, as to make m|us-
tite appear justice.
" I have studied the state of things here, now for
years, coolly and deliberately, with the eye of an
uninterested looker on ; and hence I may not be
altogether unprepared to state to you some facts,
and to draw conclusions from them.
" Permit me then to relate what I have seen ;
and do not imagine that these are all exceptions
to the general treatment, but rather believe that
thousands of cruelties are practised in this Chris-
tian land, every year, which no eye that ever shed
a tear of pity could look upon.
" Soon after my arrival I made an excursion into
the country, to the distance of some twenty miles.
And as I was passing by a cotton field, where
about fifty negroes were at work, I was inclined
to stop by the road side to view a scene which
was then new to me. While I was, in my mind,
comparing this mode of labor with that of my
own native place, I heard the driver, with a rough
oath, order one that was near him, who seemed
to be laboring to the extent of his power, to "lie
down." In a moment he was obeyed ; and ho
commenced whipping the offender upon his na-
ked back, and continued, to the amount of about
twenty lashes, with a heavy raw-hide whip, the
crack of which might have been heard more than
half a mile. Nor did the females escape ; for al-
though I stopped scarcely fifteen minutes, no less
than three were whipped in the same manner, and
that so severely, I was strongly inclined to interfere.
"You maybe assured, sir, that I remained not
unmoved : I could no longer look on suf^h cruel-
ty, but turned away and rode on, while the echoes
of the lash were reverberating in the woods around
me. Such scenes have long since become fami-
liar to me. But then the full effect was not lost ;
and I shall never forget, to my latest day, the
mingled feelings of pity, horror, and indignation
that took possession of my mind. I involuntarily
exclaimed, O God of my fathers, how dost thou
permit such things to defile our land ! Be mer-
ciful to us ! and visit us not in justice, for all our
iniquities and the iniquities of our fathers !
" As I passed on I soon found that I had escaped
from one horrible scene only to witness another.
A planter with whom I was well acquanted, had
caught a negro without a pass. And at the mo-
ment I was passing by, he was in the act of fas.
108
Personal Narrative. — A Clergyman.
tening his feet and hands to the trees, having
previously made him take ofl' all his clothing- ex.
cept his trowsers. When he had sufficiently se-
cured this poor creature, he beat him for several
minutes with a green switch more than sis feet
long ; vv-hile he was writhing with anguish, en^
deavoring in vain to break the cords with which
he was bound, and incessantly crying out, "Lord,!
master ! do pardon me this time ! do, master,'
have mercy 1" These expressions have recurred
to me a thousand times since ; and although they
came from one that is not considered among the
sons of mens yet I think they are well worthy of
remembrance, as they might lead a wise man to
consider whether such shall receive mercy from
the righteous Judge, as never showed merey to
their lellow men.
"At length I arrived at the dwelling of a planter
of my acquaintance, with whom I passed the
night. At about eight o'clock in the eveninir I
heard the barking of several dogs, mingled \i4th
the most agonizing cries that I ever heard fr»m
any human being. Soon after the gentlemm
came in, and began to apologize, by saying thit
two of his runaway slaves had just been brought
homo ; and as he had previously tried every spe-
cies of punishment upon them without effect, he
knew not what else to add, except to set his blood,
hounds upon them. 'And,' continued he, 'one
of them has been so badly bitten that he has been
trying to die. I am only sorry that he did not ;
for then I should not have been further troubled
with him. If he lives I intend to send him to
Natchez or to New Orleans, to work with the ball
and chain.'
" From this last remark I understood that private
individuals have the right of thus subjecting their
unmanageable slaves. I have since seen num-
bers of these ' ball and chain' men, both in Nat-
chez and New Orleans, but I do not know whe-
ther there were any among them except the state
convicts.
" As the summer was drawing towards a close,
and the yellow fever beginning to prevail in town,
I M^ent to reside some months in the country.
This was the cotton picking season, during which,
the planters say, there is a greater necessity for
logging than at any other time. And I can as-
sure you, that as I have sat in my window night
after night, while the cotton was being weighed,
I have heard the crack of the whip, without much
intermission, for a whole hour, from no less than
three plantations, some of which were a full mile
distant.
•' I found that the slaves were kept in the field
from daylight until dark ; and then, if they had
not gathered what the master or overseer thought
•sufficient, they were subjected to the lash. i
" Many by such treatment are induced to run
away and take up their lodging in the woods. 1 1
do not say that all who run away are thus closely
pressed, but I do know that many are ; and I have
known no less than a dozen desert at a time from
the same plantation, in consequence of the over-
seer's forcing them to work to the extent of their
power, and then whipping them for not having
done more.
" But suppose that they run away — what is to
become of them in the forest ? If they cannot
steal they must perish of hunger— if the nights ■
Ere cold, their feet will be frozen ; for if they make
a fire they may be discovered, and be shot at.
If they attempt to leave the country, their cluncg
o!" success is about nothing. The}' must letuin
be. whipped— if old offenders, wear the collar, per'
kaps be branded,and fare worse than before.
" Do you believe it, sir, not six months since, I
saw a number of my Christian neighbors packing
tip provisions, as I supposed for a deer hunt ; but
as I was about offi^ring myself to the party, I
learned that their powder and balls were destined
to a very diffisrent purpose : it was, in short, the
design of the party to bring home a number of
runaway slaves, or to shoot them if they should
tiot be able to get possession of them in any other
Ivay.
; " You will ask, Is not this murder? Call it, sir,
ny what name you please, such aie the facts:—
many arc shot every year, and that too while the
masters say they treat their slaves well.
"But let me turn your attention to another spe-
cies of cruelty. About a year since I knew a cer.
tain slave who had deserted his master, to be
caught, and for the first time fastened to the
stocks. In those same stocks, from which at mid-
night I have heard cries of distress, while the
master slept, and was dreamrng, perhaps, of drink.
ing wine and of discussing the price of cotton.
On the next morning he was chained in an im-
movable posture, and branded in both cheeks with
red hot stamps of iron. Such are the tender mer-
cies of men v>'ho love wealth, and are determined
to obtain it at any price.
" Suffiir me to add another to the list of enormi-
tes, and I will not offend you with more.
" There was, some time since, brought to trial in
thii town a planter residing about fifteen miles
dist^nt, for whipping his slave to death. You
will suppose, of course, that he was punished.
No, ar, he was acquitted, although there could
be no ;,oubt of the fact. I heard the tale of mur-
der fro». a man who was acquainted with all the
circumstances. ' I was,' said he , ' passing along
the road near the burying-ground of the plantat
tion, about nine o'clock at night, when I saw se-
veral lights gleaming through the woods ; and as
I approached, in order to see what was doing, I
beheld the coroner of Natchez, with a number of
men, standing around the body of a young female,
which by the torches seemed almost perfectly
white. On inquiry I learned that the master had
so unmercifully beaten this girl that she died un-
der the operation : and that also he had so severe-
ly punished another of his slaves that he was but
just alive.' "
We here rest the case for the present, so far as
respects the presentation of facts showing the con-
dition of the slaves, and proceed to consider the
main objections which are usually employed to
weaken such testimony, or wholly to set it aside.
But before we enter upon the examination of spe-
cific objections, and mtroductory to them, we re-
mark,—
1. That the system of slavery must be a sys-
tem of horrible cruelty, follows of necessity, from
the fact that two millions seven hundred thousand
human beings are held by force, and used as arti-
Personal Narratives — Remarks
cles of property. Nothing but a heavy yoke, and
an iron one, could possibly keep so many necks in
the dust. That must be a constant and mighty
pressure which holds so still such a vast army ;
nothing could do it but the daily experience of se-
verities, and the ceaseless dread and certainty of
the most terrible inflictions if they should dare to
toss in their chains.
2. Were there nothing else to prove it a system
of monstrous cruelty, the fact that fear is the
onlj' motive with whicli the slave is plied during
his whole existence, would be sufficient to brand
it with execration as the grand tormentor of man.
The slave's susceptihility of pain is the sole ful.
crum on which slavery works the lever that moves
liim. In this it plants all its stings ; here it sinks
its hot u-ons; cuts its deep gashes; flings its burn-
ing embers, and dashes its boiling brine and liquid
fire : into this it strikes its cold flesh liooks, grap-
gling irons, and instruments of nameless torture ;
and by it drags him shrieking to the end of his
pilgrimage. The fact that the master inflicts
pain upon the slave not merely as an end to grati-
fy passion, but constantly as a JHfffns of extorting
labor, is enough of itself to show that the system
of slavery is unmixed cruelty.
3. That the slaves must suffer frequent and
terrible inflictions, follows inevitably from the
character of those who direct their labor. What,
ever may be the character of the slaveholders them-
selves, all agree that the overseers are, as a class,
most abandoned, brutal, and desperate men. This
is so well known and believed that any testimony
to prove it seems needless. The testiraony of
Mr. WiUT, late Attorney General of the United
States, a Virginian and a slaveholder, is as fol-
lows. In his life of Patrick Henry, p. 36, speak-
ing of the different classes of society in Virginia,
he says, — " Last and lowest a feculum, of bemgs
called ' overseers' — the most abject, degraded, un-
principled race, always cap in hand to the dons
who employ them, and furnishing materials for
the exercise of thek pride, insolence, and spirit of
domination.''''
Rev. Phineas Smith, of Centreville, New- York,
who has resided some years at the south, says of
overseers —
" It need hardly be added that overseers are in
general ignorant, unprincipled and cruel, and in ;
such low repute that they are not permitted to
109
conic to the tables of their employers; yet they
haw the constant control of all the human cattle
tha| belong to the master.
'! These men are continually advancing from
thejr low station to the higher one of masters.
Thpse changes bring into the possession of power
a class of men of whose mental and moral quali-
I tics I have already spoken."
I Rev. Horace Moui.ton, of Marlboro', Massa-
chusetts, who lived in Georgia several years, says
of them, —
" The overseers are generally loose in their mo-
rals; it is the object of masters to employ those
whom they think will get the most work out of
their hands,— hence those who whip and tor-
ment the slaves the most arc in many instances
called the best overseers. The masters think
those whom the slaves fear the most are the best.
Quite a portion of the masters employ their own
slaves as overseers, or rather they are called
drivers ; these are more subject to the will of
the masters than the white overseers are ; some
of them are as lordly as an Austrian prince, and
sometimes more cruel even than the whites."
That the overseers are, as a body, sensual, bru-
tal, and violent men is proverbial. The tender
mercies of such men m,ust be cruel,
4. The ownership of human beings necessarily
presupposes an utter disregard of their happiness.
He who assumes it monopolizes their whole capi-
tal, leaves them no stock on which to trade, and
out of which to make happiness. Whatever is the
master's gain is the slave's loss, a loss VvTested
from him by the master, for the express p^^rpose
of making it his own gain ; this is the master's
constant employment — forcing the slave to toil —
violently wringing from him all he has and all he
gets, and using it as his own ; — like the vile bird
that never builds its nest from materials of its ovv^n
gathering, but either drives other birds from theirs
and takes possession of them, or tears them in
pieces to get the means of constructing their own.
This daily practice of forcibly robbing others, and
habitually living on the plunder, cannot but be-
get in the mind the habit of regarding the interests
and happiness of those whom it robs, as of no sort
of consequence in comparison with its own ; con-
sequently whenever those interesls and this hap-
piness are in the way of its own gratification, they
will be sacrificed without scruple. He who can-
not see this would be unable to feel it, if it were
seen.
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.
Objection I.— SUCH CRIELTIES ARE INCREDIBLE.
The enormities inflicted by slaveholders upon
their slaves will never be discredited except by
those who overlook the simple fact, that he who
holds human beings as his bona fide property, re-
gards them as property, and not as persons ; this
is his permanent state of mind toward them. He
does not contemplate slaves as human being;s, con-
sequently does not treat them as such ; and with
entire indifference sees them suffer privations and
writhe under blows, which, if inflicted upon
%vhites, would fill him with horror and indigna-
tbn. He regards that as good treatment of
slaves, which would seem to him insufferable
abuse if practiced upon others ; and would de-
nounce that as a monstrous outrage and horrible
cruelty, if perpretated upon white men and wo-
men, which he sees every day meted out to black
slaves, without perhaps ever thinking it cruel.
Accustomed all his life to regard them rather as
domestic animals, to hear them stormed at, and to
see them cuffed and caned ; and being himself in
the constant habit of treating them thus, such
practices have become to him a mere matter of
course, and make no impression on his mind.
True, it is incredible that men should treat as
chattels those whom they truly regard as human
beings ; but that they should treat as chattels and
working animals those whom they regard as such
is no marvel. The common treatment of dogs,
when they are in the way, is to kick them out of
it ; we see them every day kicked off the side-
walks, and out of shops, and on Sabbaths out of
churches, — yet, as they are but dogs, these do not
strike us as outrages ; yet, if we were to see men,
women, and children — our neighbors and friends,
kicked out of stores by merchants, or out of
churches by the deacons and sexton, we should
call the perpetrators inhuman wretches.
We have said that slaveholders regard their
slaves not as human beings, but as mere working
animals, or merchandise. The whole vocabulary
of slaveholders, their laws, their usages, and their
entire treatment of their slaves fully establish this.
The same terms are apphed to slaves that are
given to cattle. They are called " stock." So
when the children of slaves are spoken of pro-
spectively, they are called their "increase;" the
same term that is applied to flocks and herds. So
the female slaves that are mothers, are called
"breeders" till past child bearing ; and often the
same terms are applied to the different sexes that
are applied to the males and females among cat-
tie. Those who compel the labor of slaves and
cattle have the same appellation, "drivers:" the
names which they call them are the same and simi-
ilar to those given to their horses and oxen. The
laws of slave states make them property, equally
with goats and swine ; they are levied upon for debt
in the same way ; they are included in the same
advertisonents of public sales with cattle, swine,
and asses ; when moved from one part of the
country to another, they are herded in droves like
cattle, and like them urged on by drivers ; their
labor is compelled in the same waj\ They are
bought and sold, and separated like cattle : when
exposed for sale, their good qualities are described
as jockies show off the good points of their horses ;
their strength, activity, skill, power of endurance,
&c. are lauded, — and those vi^ho bid upon them
examine their persons, just as purchasers inspect
horses and oxen ; they open their mouths to see
if their teeth are sound ; strip their backs to see if
they are badly scarred, and handle their limbs
and muscles to see if they are firmly knit. Like
horses, they are warranted to be " sound," or to be
returned to the owner if " unsound." A father
gives his son a horse and a slave ; by his will he
distributes among them his race-horses, hounds,
game-cocks, and slaves. We leave the reader to
carry out the parallel which we have only begun.
Its details would cover many pages.
That slaveholders do not practically regard
slaves as huinan beings is abundantly shown by
their own voluntary testimony. In a recent work
entitled, " The South vindicated from the Treason
and Fanaticism of Northern Abolitionists," which
was written, we are informed, by Colonel Dayton,
late member of Congress from South Carolina ;
the writer, speaking of the awe with which the
slaves regard the whites, says. —
'' The northerner looks upon a band of negroes
as upon so many men, but the planter or southern-
er views themin a very different light."
Extract from the speech of Mr. Summers, of
Virginia, in the legislature of that state, Jan. 26,
1832. See the Richmond Whig.
" When, in the sublime lessons of Christianity,
he (the slaveholder) is taught to ' do unto others
as he would have others do unto him,' he never
DREAMS THAT THE DEGRADED NEGRO IS WITHPN THE
PALE OF THAT HOLY CANON."
President Jefferson, in his letter to Governor
Coles, of Illinois, dated Aug. 25, 1P14, asserts,
that slaveholders regard their slaves as bnates, in
the following remarkable language.
" Nursed and educated in the oaily habit of see-
ing the degraded condition, both bodily and men-
tal, of these unfortunate beings [the slaves], few
MINDS HAVE YET DOUBTED BUT THAT THEY WERE AS
Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
Ill
LEGITIMATE SUBJECTS OF rROl'ERTY AS THEIR HOUSES
OR CATTLE."
Havin-T shown that slaveholders regard their
slaves as mere working; animals and cattle, we
now proceed to show that their actual treatment
of them, is worse than it would be if they were
brutes. We repeat it, Slaveholders treat their
SLAVES WORSE THAN TiiEv DO THEIR BRUTES. Who-
ever heard of cows or sheep being deliberately
tied up and beaten and lacerated till they died ?
or horses coolly tortured by the hour, till covered
with mangled flesh, or of swine having their legs
tied and being suspended from a tree and lacerat-
ed with thongs for hours, or of hounds stretched
and made fast at full length, flayed with whips,
red pepper rubbed into their bleeding gashes, and
hot brine dashed on to aggravate the torture ?
Yet just such forms and degrees of torture arc
daily perpetrated upon the slaves. Now no man
that knows human nature will marvel at this.
Though great cruelties have always been inflicted
by men upon brutes, yet incomparably the most
horrid ever perpetrated, have been those of men
upon their own species. Any leaf of history turn-
ed over at random has proof enough of this.
Every reflecting mind perceives that when men
hold human beings as froperiy, they must, from
the nature of the case, treat them worse than
they treat their horses and oxen. It is impossible
for cattle to excite in men such tempests of fury
as men excite in each other. Men are often pro-
voked if their horses or hounds refuse to do, or
their pigs refuse to go where they wish to drive
them, but the feeling is rarely intense and never
permanent. It is vexation and impatience, rather
tlian settled rage, malignity, or revenge. If horses
and dogs were intelligent beings, and still held as
property, their opposition to the wishes of their
ov/ners, would exasperate them immeasurably
more than it would be possible for them to do,
with the minds of brutes. None but little chil-
di'cn and idiots get angry at sticks and stones that
lie in their way or hurt them ; bat put into sticks
and stones intelligence, and will, and power of
feeling and motion, while they remain as now, ar-
ticles of property, and what a towering rage would
men be in, if bushes whipped them in the face when
they walked among them, or stones rolled over
tlieir t^es when they climbed hills ! and what
exemplary vengeance would be inflicted upon
door-steps and hearth-stones, if they were to
move out of their places, instead of lying still
where they were put for their owners to tread
upon. The greatest provocation to human nature
is opposition to its loill. If a man's will be re-
sisted by one far below him, the provocation is
vastly greater, than when it is resisted by an
acknowledged superior. In the former case, it in-
flames strong passions, which in the latter lie
dormant. The rage of proud Haman knew no
bounds against the poor Jew who would not do
as he wished, and so he built a gallows for him.
ff the person opposing the will of another, be so
far below him as to be on a level with chattels,
and be actually held and used as an article of
property ; pride, scorn, lust of power, rage and
revenge explode together upon the hapless vic-
tim. The idea of property having a will, and
that too in opposition to the will of its owner,
and counteracting it, is a stimulant of terrible
power to the most relentless human passions ,
and from the nature of slavery, and the constitu-
tion of the human mind, this fierce stimulant
must, with various degrees of strength, act upon
slaveholders almost vnthout ceasing. The slave,
however abject and crushed, is an intelligent be-
ing : he has a will, and that will cannot be anni-
hilated, it tcill show itself; if for a moment it is
smothered, like pent up fires when vent is found,
it flames the fiercer. Make intelligence property,
and its manager will have his match ; he is met
at every turn by an opposing will, not in the form
of down-right rebellion and defiance, but yet, visi.
bly, an ever-opposing will. He sees it in the dissat-
isfied look, and reluctant air and unwilling move-
ment ; the constrained strokes of labor, the
drawling tones, the slow hearing, the feigned
stupidity, the sham pains and sickness, the short
memory ; and he feels it every hour, in innumer-
able forms, frustrating his designs by a ceaseless
though perhaps invisible countermining. This
unceasing opposition to the will of its ' owner,'
on the part of his rational ' property,' is to the
slaveholder as the hot iron to the neire. He
raves under it, and storms, and gnashes, and
smites ; but the more he smites, the hotter it
gets, and the more it burns him. Further, this
opposition of the slave's will to his owner's, not
only excites him to severity, that he may gratify
his rage, but makes it necessary for him to use
violence in breaking down this resistance — thus
subjecting the slave to additional tortures. There
is another inducement to cruel inflictions upon
the slave, and a necessity for it, which docs not
exist in the case of brutes. Oflfendors must be
made an example to others, to strike them with
terror. If a slave runs away and is caught, his
master flogs him with temble severity, not mere-
ly to gratify his resentment, and to keep him from
running away again, but as a warning to others.
So in every case of disobedience, neglect, stub-
bornness, unfaithfulness, indolence, insolence,
theft, feigned sickness, when his directions are
forgotten, or slighted, or supposed to be, or his
wishes crossed, or his property injured, or left ex-
posed, or his work ill-executed, the master is
tempted to inflict cruelties, not merely to wreak
his own vengeance upon him, and to make the
112
Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
slave more circumspect in future, but to sustain
his authority over the other slaves, to restrain
them from like practices, and to preserve his
own property.
A. multitude of facts, illustrating the position
that slaveholders treat their slaves worse than
they do their cattle, will occur to all who are
familiar with slavery. When cattle break through
their owners' inclosures and escape, if found, they
are driven back and fastened in again ; and even
slaveholders would execrate as a wretch, the
man who should tie them up, and bruise and la-
cerate them for straying away ; but when slaves
that have escaped are caught, tliey are flog-ged
with the most terrible severity. When herds of
cattle are driven to market, they are suffered to
go in the easiest way, each by himself; but when
slaves are driven to market, they are fastened
together with hapdcuffs, galled by iron collars
and chains, sud thus forced to travel on foot
hundreds o/ miles, sleeping at night in their
chains. Sheep, and sometimes homed cattle are
marked with their owners' initials — but this is
o-enerally done with paint, and of course pro-
duces no pain. Slaves, too, are often marked
with their owners' initials, but the letters are
stamped into their flesh with a hot iron. Cattle
are suffered *to graze their pastures without stint ;
but the slaves are restrained in then- food to a
fixed allowance. The slaveholders' horses arc
notoriously far better fed, more moderately work-
ed, have fewer hours of labor, and longer inter-
vals of rest than their slaves ; and their valuable
horses are far more comfortably housed and
lodged, and their stables more effectually defend-
ed from the weather, than the slaves' huts. Wc
have here merely heguna. comparison, which the
reader can easily carry out at length, from the
materials furnished in this work.
We will, however, subjoin a few testimonies of
slaveholders, and others who have resided in
slave states, expressly asserting that slaves are
treated worse than brutes.
The late Dr. George BnciiANAN. of Baltimore,
Maryland, a member of the American Philosopli- 1
ical Society, in an oration delivered in Baltimore,
July 4, 1791, page 10, says :
"The Africans whom you despise, whom you
tnore inJaimanly treat than hrutes, are equally
capable of improvement with yourselves."
The Rev. George Whitefiei.d, in his cele-
brated letter to the slaveholders of Maryland,
Virginia, North and South Carolina, p.nd Georgia,
written one hundred years ago, (See Benezet's
Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, page
13), says :
" Sure I am, it is sinful to use them as bad,
nay worse than if they were brutes ; and what-
ever particular exceptions there may be, (as I
would chariablty hope there are some) I fear the
generality of you that own negroes, are liable to
such a charge.'"
Mr. Rice, of Kentucky in his speech in the
Convejition that formed the Constitution of that
state, m 1790, says :
" He [the slave] is a rational creature, reduced
by the power of legislation to the state of a brute,
and thereby deprived of every privilege of hu-
manity. . " . . The brute may steal or rob, to
supply his hunger ; but the slave, though in the
most starving condition, dare not do either, on
penalty of death, or some severe punishment."
Rev. Horace Modlton, a minister of the Me-
thodist Episcopal Church, in Marlborough,
Mass. who lived some years in Georgia, sa3's :
" The southern horses and dogs have enough
to eat, and good care is taken of them ; but south-
ern negroes — who can describe their misery and
their wretchedness, their nakedness and their
cruel scourgings ! None but God. Should we
whip our horses as they whip their slaves, even
for small offences, we should expose ourselves to
the penalty of tlie law."
Rev. Phineas Smith, Cenlreville, Allegany
county. New York, who has resided four years
in the midst of southern slaver}^ —
" Avarice and cruelty are twin sisters ; and 1
do not hesitate to declare before the world, as my
deliberate opinion, that there is less compassion
for working slaves at the south, than for working
oxen at the north."
Stephen Sewall, Esq. Winthrop, Maine, a
member of the Congregational Church, and late
agent of the Winthrop Manfacturing Company,
who resided five years in Alabama, says —
" I do not think that hrutes, not even horses,
are treated with so much cruelty as American
slaves."
If the preceding considerations are insufficient
to remove incredulity respecting the cruelties
suffered by slaves, and if nortliein objectors still
say, ' We might believe such things of savages,
but that civilized men, and republicans, in this
Christian country, can openly and by system per-
petrate such enormities, is impossible ;' — to such
we reply, that this incredulity of the people of
the free states, is not only discreditable to their
intelligence, but to their consistency.
Who is so ignorant as not to know, or so in-
credulous as to disbelieve, that the early Baptists
of New England were fined, imprisoned, scourg-
ed, and finally banished by our puritan fore-
fathers ? — and that the Quakers were confined in
dungeons, publicly whipped at the cart-tail, had
their ears cut off, cleft sticks put upon their
tongues, and that five of them, four men and one
woman, were hung on Boston Common, for pro-
pagating the sentiments <rf the Society of Friends?
Who discredits the fact, that the civil authorities
in Massachusetts, less than a hundred and fifty
Oiiections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
113
years ago, confined in the public jail a little girl
of four years old, and publicly hung the Rev. Mr.
Burroughs, and eighteen other persons, mostly
women, and killed another, (Giles Corey,) by ex-
tending him upon his back, and piling weights
upon his breast till he was crushed to death* — and
tliis for no other reason than that these men and
women, and this little child, were accused by
others of bewitching ihcm.
Even the children in Connecticut, know tliat
the following was once a law of that state :
" No food or lodging shall be allowed to a
Quaker. If any person turns Quaker, he shall
be banished, and not be suffered to return on pain
of death."
These objectors can readily believe the fact,
that in the city of New York, less than a hundred
years since, thirteen persons were publiclj'^ burn-
ed to death, over a slow fire : and that the legis-
lature of the same State took under its paternal
care the African slave-trade, and declared (hat
" all encouragement should be given to the direct
importation of slaves; that all smuggling of
slaves should be condemned, as an eminent dis-
couragement to the fair trader.^'
They do not call in question the fact that the
African slave-trade was carried on from the ports
of the free states till within thirty years; that
even members of tlie Society of Friends were
actively engaged in it, shortly before the revolu-
tionary war ;t that as late as 1807, no less than
fifty-nine of the vessels engaged in that trade,
were sent out from the little state of Rhode
Island, which had then only about seventy thou-
sand inhabitants ; that among those most largely
engaged in these foul crimes, are the men whom
the people of Rhode Island delight to honor : that
the man who dipped most deeply in that trade of
blood (James De Wolf,) and amassed a most
princely fortune by it, was not long since their
senator in Congress ; and another, who was cap-
tain of one of his versels, was recently Lieutenant
Governor of the state.
They can believe, too, all the horrors of the
middle passage, the chains, suffocation, maim-
ings, stranglings, starvation, drownings, and cold
blooded murders, atrocities perpetrated on board
these slave-ship? by their own citizens, perhaps
by their own tov/nsmen and neighbors — possibly
by their own fathers : but oh ! they ' can't believe
that the slaveholders can be so hard-hearted to-
wards their slaves as to treat them with great
cruelty.' They can believe that His Holinef s the
Pope, v/ith hia cardinals, bishops and priests, have
* Judge Sewall, of Mass. in his diary, describing this
horrible scene, says that wlieii tlie tongue of llie poor suf-
ferer hud, in the extremity of liis dying agony, protruded
from his mouth, a person in attendance toolc liis cane and
thrust it back into liis mouth.
t See Life and Travels of John Woolman, page 92.
tortured, broken on the wheel, and burned to
death thousands of Protestants — that eighty thou,
sand of the Anabaptists were slaught(;red in Ger-
many— that hundreds of thousands of the blame,
less Waldenscs, Huguenots and Lollards, were
torn in pieces by the most titled dignitaries of
church and state, and that almost ever >/ professed-
ly Christian sect, has, at some period of its histonj,
persecuted unto blood those who dissented from
their creed. They can believe, also, that in Bos.
ton, New York, Utica, Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
Alton, and in scores of other cities and villages
of the free states, ' gentlemen of property and
standing,' led on by civil officers, by members
of state legislatures, and of Congress, by judges
and attorneys-general, by editors of newspa-
pers, aJid by professed ministers of the gospel,
have organized mobs, broken up lawful meetings
of peaceable citizens, committed assault and bat-
tery upon their persons, knocked them down with
stones, led them about with ropes, dragged them
from their beds at midnight, gagged and forced
them into vehicles, and driven them into unfre-
quented places, and there tormented and dis-
figured them — that they have rifled their houses,
made bonfires of their furniture in the streets,
burned to the ground, or torn in pieces the halla
or churches in which they were assembled — at-
tacked them with deadly weapons, stabbed some,
shot others, and killed ONE. They can believe all
this — and further, that a majority of the citizens
in the places where these outrages have been
committed, connived at them; and by refusing
to indict the perpetrators, or, if they were in-
dicted, by combining to secure their acquittal,
and rejoicing in it, have publicly adopted these
felonies .as their own. All these things they can
believe without hesitation, and that they have
even been done by their own acquaintances,
neighbors, relatives ; perhaps those with whom
they interchange courtesies, those for whom they
vote, or to whose salaries they contribute — but
yet, oh ! they can never believe that slaveholders
inflict cruelties upon their slaves !
They can give full credence to the kidnapping,
imprisonment, and deliberate murder of William
Morgan, and that by men of high standing in
society ; they can believe that this deed was
aided and abetted, and the murderers screened
from justice, by a large number of influential per-
sons, who were virtually accomplices, either be-
fore or after the fact ; and that this combination
was so effectual, as successfully to defy and tri-
umph over the combined powers of the govern-
ment ; — yet that those who constantly rob men
of their time, liberty, and wages, and all their
rights, fhould rob them of bits of flesh, and oc-
casionally of a tooth, make their backs bleed, and
put fetters on their legs, is too monstrous to be
114
Ohjections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
credited! Further these same persons, who 'can't
believe' that slaveholders are so iron-hearted as
to ill-treat their slaves, believe that the very
elite of these slaveholders, those most highly es-
teemed and honored among them, are continu-
ally daring each other to mortal conflict, and in
the presence of mutual friends, taking deadly
aim at each other's hearts, with settled purpose
to kill, if possible. That among the most dis-
tinguished governors of slave states, among their
most celebrated judges, senators, and representa-
tives in Congress, there is hardly one, who has
not either killed, or tried to kill, or aided and
abetted his friends in trying to kill, one or more
individuals. That pistols, dirks, bowie knives, or
other instrmnents of death, are generally carried
throughout the slave states — and that deadly
affrays with them, in the streets of their cities
and villages, are matters of daily occm-rence ;
that the sons of slaveholders in southern colleges,
bully, threaten, and fire upon their teachers, and
their teachers upon them ; that during the last
summer, in the most celebrated seat of science
and literature in the south, the University of Vir-
ginia, the professors were attacked by more than
seventy armed students, and, in the words of a
Virginia paper, were obliged ' to conceal them-
selves from their fury ;' also that almost all the
riots and violence that occur in northern col-
leges, are produced by the turbulence and lawless
passions of southern students. That such are
the furious passions of slaveholders, no conside-
rations of personal respect, none for the proprie-
ties of life, none for the honor of our national
legislature, none for the character of our country
abroad, can restrain the slaveholding members of
Congress from the most disgraceful personal en-
counters on the floor of our nation's legislature —
smiting their fists in each other's faces, throttling,
and even kicking and trying to gouge each other
— that even during the session of the Congress
just closed, no less than six slaveholders, taking
fire at words spoken in debate, have either rushed
at each other's throats, or kicked, or struck, or
attempted to knock each other down ; and that
in all these instances, they would doubtless have
killed each other, if their friends had not separat-
ed them. Further, they know full well, these
were not insignificant, vulgar blackguards, elect-
ed because they were the head bullies and bottle-
holders in a boxing ring, or because their consti-
tuents went drunk to the ballot box ; but they
were some of the most conspicuous members of
the House — one of them a former speaker.
Our newspapers are full of these and similar
daily occurrences among slaveholders, copied
verbatim from their own accounts of them in
their ov^n papers, and all this we fully credit ;
no man is simpleton enough to cry out, ' Oh, I
can't believe that slaveholders do such things,'
— and yet when we turn to the treatment which
these men mete out to their slaves, and show that
they are in the habitual practice of striking, kick-
ing, knocking down and shooting them as well as
each other — the look of blank incredulity that
comes over northern dough-faces, is a study for
a painter : and then the sentimental outcry, with
eyes and hands uplifted, 'Oh, indeed, I can't be-
lieve the slaveholders are so cruel to their slaves.'
Most amiable and touching charity ! Truly, of
all Yankee notions and free state products, there
is nothing like a ' doughface ' — the great north-
ern staple for the southern market — 'made to
order,' in any quantity, and always on hand.
' Dough faces !' Thanks to a slaveholder's con-
tempt for the name, with its immortality of truth,
infamy and scorn.*
Though the people of the free states affect to
disbelieve the cruelties perpetrated upon the
slaves, yet slaveholders believe each other guilty
of them, and speak of them with the utmost free-
dom. If slaveholders disbelieve any statement
of cruelty inflicted upon a slave, it is not on ac-
count of its enormity. The traveler at the south
will hear in Delaware, and in all parts of Mary-
land and Virginia, from the lips of slaveholders,
statements of the most horrible cruelties suffered by
the slaves/ari/ter south, in theCarolinasand Geor-
gia ; when he finds himself in those states he will
hear similar accounts about the treatment of the
slaves in Florida and Louisiana ; and in Missou-
ri, Kentucky, and Tennessee he will hear of the
tragedies enacted on the plantations in Arkansas,
Alabama and Mississippi. Since Anti-Slavery
Societies have been In operation, and slaveholders
have found themselves on trial before the vforld,
and put upon their good behavior, northern
slaveholders have grown cautious, and now often
substitute denials and set defences, for the volun-
tary testimony about cruelty in the far south,
which, before that period, was given with entire
freedom. Still, however, occasionally the ' truth
will out,' as the reader will see by the following
testimony of an East Tennessee newspaper, in
which, speaking of the droves of slaves taken
from the upper country to Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, &c., the editor says, they are ' travel-
ing to a region where their condition through time
WILL BE SECOND ONLY TO THAT OF THE WRETCHED
CREATURES IN HELL.' See " MaryviUe Intelli-
gencer," of Oct. 4, 1835. Distant cruelties and
cruelties long past, have been till recently, favor-
ite topics with slaveholders. They have not only
been ready to acknowledge that their fathers
* " Doe face," wJiich owes its pntemity to John Ran
dolph, age has mellowed into '■'dough face" — a cog
noraen quite as expressive and appropriate, if not as class-
ical
Ohjections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
115
have exercised great cruelty toward their slaves,
but have voluntarily, in their ofticial acts, made
proclamation of it and entered it on their public
records. The Legislature of North Carolina, in
1798, branded the successive Icgislatiurs of that
state for more than thirty years previous, with the
infamy of treatment towards their slaves, which
they pronounce to be ' disgraceful to humanity,
and degrading in the highest degree to the laws
and principles of a free, Christian, and enlightened
country.' This treatment was the enactment and
perpetuation of a most barbarous and cruel law.
But enough. As the objector can and does
believe all the preceding facts, if he still
•caH'^ believe' as to the cruelties of slavehold-
ers, it would be barbarous to tantalize his inca-
pacity either with evidence or argument. Let
him have the benefit of the act in such ease made
and provided.
Having sho^Ti that the mcrcdulity of the ob-
jector respecting the cruelty inflicted upon the
slaves, is discreditable to his consistency, wc
now proceed to show that it is equally so to his
intelligence.
Whoever disbelieves the foregoing statements
of cruelties, on the ground of their enormity, pro-
claims his own ignorance of the nature and histo-
ry of man. What ! incredulous about the atro-
cities perpetrated by those who hold human be-
ings as property, to be used for their pleasure,
when history herself has done little else m record-
ing human deeds, than to dip her blank chart in
the blood shed by arbitrary power, and unfold to
human gaze the great red scroll ? That cruelty is
the natural effect of arbitrary power, has been the
result of all experience, and the voice of univer-
sal testimony since the world began. Shall hu-
man nature's axioms, six thousand years old, go
for nothing ? Are the combined product of hu-
man experience, and the concurrent records of
human character, to be set down as ' old wives'
fables ?' To disbelieve that arbitrary power na-
turally and habitually perpetrates cruelties, where
it can do it with impunity, is not only ignorance
of man, but of things. It is to be Wind to innu-
merable proofs which are before every man's eyes ;
proofs that are stereotyped in the very words and
phrases that are on every one's lips. Take for
example the words despot and despotic. Despot,
sitrnifies etymologically, merely one who possesses
arbitrary power, and at first, it was used to desig-
nate those alone who possessed unlimited power
over human beings, entirely irrespective of the
way in which they exercised it, whether merciful-
ly or cruelly. But the fact, that those who pos-
sessed such power, made their subjects their vic-
tiins, has wrought a total change in the popular
meaning of the word. It now signifies, in com-
mon parlance, not one who possesses milimited
power over others, but one who exercises the power
that he has, whether little or much, cruelly. So des-
potic, instead of meaning what it once did, some-
thing pertaining to the ^ossess/ora of unlimited pow-
er, signifies something pertaining to the capricious,
unmerciful and releritless exercise of such power.
The word tyrant, is another example — former-
ly it implied merely a possession of arbitrary
power, but from the invariable abuse of such
power by its possessors, the proper and entire
meaning of the word is lost, and it now signifies
merely one who exercises power to the injury of
others. The words tyrannical and tyranny fol-
low the same analogy. So the word arbitrary ;
which formerly implied that which pertains to
the will of one, independently of others; but from
the fact that those who had no restraint upon
their wills, were invariably capricious, unreason-
able and oppressive, these words convey accu-
rately the present sense of arbitrary, when ap-
plied to a person.
How can the objector persist in disbelieving
that cruelty is the natural effect of arbitrary pow-
er, when the very words of every da}', rise up on
his lips in testimony against him — words which
once signified the 7nere possession of arbitrary
power, but have lost their meaning, and now sig-
nify merely its cruel exercise ; because such a use
of it has been proved by the experience of the
world, to be inseparable from its possession —
words now frigid with horror, and never used
fven by the objector without feehng a cold chill
run over him.
Arbitrary power is to the mind what alcohol is
to the body ; it intoxicates. Man loves power.
It is perhaps the strongest human passion ; and
the more absolute the power, the stronger the de.
sire for it ; and the more it is desired, the more its
exercise is enjoyed : this enjoyment is to human na.
ture a fearful temptation, — generally an overmatch
for it. Hence it is true, with hardly an exception,
that arbitrary power is abused in proportion as it
is desired. The fact that a person intensely de-
sires power over others, without restraint, shows
the absolute necessity of restraint. What woman
would marry a man who made it a condition that
he should have the power to divorce her whenever
he pleased ? Oh ! he might never wish to exer-
cise it, but the power he would have ! No wo.
man, not stark mad, would trust her happiness in
such hands.
Would a father apprentice his son to a master,
who insisted that his power over the laJ should be
absolute ? The master might perhaps, never
wish to comm.it a battery upon the boy, but if he
should, he insists upon having full swing ! He
who would leave his son in the clutches of such a
wretch, would be bled and blistered for a lunatic as
soon as his friends could get their hands upon him.
116
Oljeciions Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
The possession of power, even when greatly re-
strained, is such a fiery stimulant, that its lodge-
ment in human hands is always perilous. Give
men the handling of immense sums of money, and
all the eyes of Argus and the hands of Briareus
can hardly prevent embezzlement.
The mutual and ceaseless accusations of the
two great political parties in this country, show
the universal belief that this tendency of human
nature to abuse power, is so strong, that even the
most powerful legal restraints are insufficient for
its safe custody. From congress and state legisla-
tures down to grog-shop caucuses and street-
wranglings, each party keeps up an incessant din
about abuses of -power. Hardlj' an officer, either
of the general or state governments, from the
President down to the ten thousand postmasters,
and from governors to the fifty thousand consta-
bles, escapes the charge of ' abuse ofpower.^ ' Op-
pression,' 'Extortion,' 'Venality,' 'Bribery,'
•Corruption,' 'Perjury,' 'Misrule,' 'Spoils,' 'De-
falcation,' stand on every newspaper. Now with.
out any estimate of the lies told in these mu-
tual charges, there is truth enough to make each
party ready to believe of the other, and of their
best men too, any abuse of power, however mon-
strous. As is the Stato, so is the Church. From
General Conferences to circuit preachers ; and
from General Assemblies to church sessions,
abuses of power spring up as weeds from the
dunghill.
All legal restraints are framed upon the pre-
sumption, that men will abuse their power if not
hemmed in by them. This lies at the bottom of
all those checks and balances contrived for keep-
ing governments upon their centres. If there is
among human convictions one that is invariable
and universal, it is, that when men possess unre-
strained power over others, over their time, choice,
conscience, persons, votes, or means of subsist-
ence, they are under great temptations to abuse
it ; and that the intensity with which such power
is desired, generally measures the certainty and
the degree of its abuse.
That American slaveholders possess a power
over their slaves which is virtually absolute, none
will deny.* That they desire this absolute pow-
er, is shown from the fact of their holding and
exercising it, and making laws to confirm and en-
large it. That the desire to possess this power,
every tittle of it, is intense, is proved by the fact,
that slaveholders cling to it with such obstinate
* The following extracts from the laws of slave-states are
proofs sufficient.
"The slave is ENTIRELY subject to the WILL of his
master."— Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 273.
" Slaves shnll be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and ad-
judjied in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their
owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators
and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and pur
potEs, WHATSOEVER."— I„iwj of South Carolina, 2 Brev.
Dig. "229 ; Prince's Digest, 446, &c.
tenacity, as well as by all their doings and
sayings, their threats, cursings and gnashings
against all who denounce the exercise of such
power as usurpation and outrage, and counsel its
immediate abrogation.
From the nature of the case — from the laws of
mind, such power, so intensely desired, griped
with such a death-clutch, and with such fierca
spurningsofall curtailment or restraint, cannot but
be abused. Privations and inflictions must be its
natural, habitual products, with ever and anon,
terror, torture, and despair let loose to do their
worst upon the helpless victims.
Though power over others is in every case lia-
ble to be used to their injury, yet, in almost all
cases, the subject individual is siiielded from great
outrages by strong safeguards. If he have talents,
or learning, or wealth, or office, or personal re-
spectability, or influential friends, these, with the
protection of law and the rights of citizenship,
stand round him as a body guard : and even if he
lacked all these, yet, had he the same color, fea-
tures, form, dialect, habits, and associations with
the privileged caste of society, he would find in
them a shield from many injuries, which would be
invited, if in these respects he diffi^red widely
from the rest of the community, and was on that
account regarded with disgust and aver.sion. This
is the condition of the slave ; not only is he de-
prived of the artificial safeguards of the law, but
has none of those natural safeguards enume-
rated above, which are a protection to others. But
not only is the slave destitute of those peculiari-
ties, habits, tastes, and acquisitions, which by as
similating the possessor to the rest of the commu-
nity, excite their interest in him, and thus, in a
measure, secure for him their protection ; but he
possesses those peculiarities of bodily organization
which are looked upon with deep disgust, con-
tempt, prejudice, and aversion. Besides this, con- '
slant contact with the ignorance and stupidity of
the slaves, their filth, rags, and nakedness ; their
cowering air, servile employments, repulsive food,
and squalid hovels, their purchase and sale, and
use as brutes — all these associations, constantly
mingling and circulating in the minds of slave-
holders, and invetcrated by the hourly irritations
vrhich must assail all who use human beings as
things, produce in them a permanent state of feel-
ing toward the slave, made up of repulsion and
settled ill-will. When we add to this the corro-
sions produced by the petty thefts of slaves, the
necessity of constant watching, their reluctant
service, and indiff'erence to their master's interests,
their ill-concealed aversion to him, and spurning
of his authority ; and finally, that fact, as old as
human nature, that men always hate those whom
they oppress, and oppress those whom they hate,
thus oppression and hatred mutually begetting and
Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
117
perpetuating each otlier — and \vc have a raging
c DiMpound of fiery elements and disturbing forces,
fj sliniulating and inflaming the mind of the
slaveholder against tJie slave, that it cannot, but
break forth upon him with desolating^ fury.
To d.ny tliat ciueUyis the spontaneous and
uniform product of arbitrary power, and that the
natural and controlling tendency of such power is
to make its potsessor cruel, ojjprcssivc, and re.
vengeful towards those who arc subjected to his
control, is, wc repeat, to set at nought the com-
bined experience of the human race, to invalidate
its testimony, and to reverse its decisions from
time immemorial.
A volume might be filled with the testimony
of American slaveholders alone, to the truth of
the preceding position. We subjoin a few illus-
trations, and first, the memoi-able declaration of
President Jefferson, who lived and died a slave-
holder. It has been published a thousand times,
and will live forever. In his " Notes on Virginia,"
sixth Philadelphia edition, p. 251, he says, —
" The WHOLE COM:\IERCE between master
and slave, is a PERPEl'U-\L EXERCISE of
tlie most boisterous passions, the most unremit-
ting DESPOTISM on the one part, and degrad-
ing submission on the other The parent
storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments
of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of
smaller slaves, GIVES LOOSE TO THE
WORST OF PASSIONS ; and thus nursed, ed.
ucated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot
but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities."
Hon. Lewis Summers, Judge of the General
Court of Virginia, and a slaveholder, said in a
speech before the Virginia legislature in 1832 ;
(see Richmond Whig of Jan. 26, 1832,)
"A slave population exorcises the most perni-
cious injiuence upon the manners, habits an cha-
racter, of those among whom it exists. Lisping
infancy learns the vocabulary of abusive epithets,
and struts the embryo tyrant of its little domain.
The consciousness of superior destiny takes pos-
session of his mind at its earliest dawning, and
love cf power and rule, ' grows with his growth,
and strengthens with his strength.' LTnless en-
abled to rise above the operation of those powerful
causes, he enters the world with miserable notions
of self-importance, and under the government of
an unbridled temper."
The late Judge TacKEii of Virginia, a slave-
holder, and Professor of Law in the University of
William and Mary, in his " Letter to a Member
of the Virginia Legislature," 1801, says, —
"I say nothing of the baneful effects of slavery
on our moraJ. character, because I know you have
been long sensible of this point."
The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and
Georgia, consisting of all the clergy of that de-
nomination in those states, with a lay representa-
tion from the churches, most, if not all of whom ,
arc slaveholders, published a report on slavery in
1834, from which the following is an extract.
" Those only who have the management of ser.
vants, know what the hardening effect of it is
upon their own feelings towards them. There is
no necessity to dwell on this ])oint, as all owners
and managers fully understand it. He who com
mcnces to manage th';m with tenderness and with
a willingness to favor them in every way, must be
watchful, otherwise he wih settle down in indiffcr
ence, if not severiii/."
General William H. Harrison, now of Ohio,
son of the late Governor Harrison of Virginia, a
slaveholder, while minister from the United States
to the Republic of Colombia, wrote a letter to
General Simon Bolivar, then President of that
Republic, just as he was about assuming despotic
power. The letter is dated Bogota, Sept. 22,
182G. The following is an extract.
" From a knowledge of your own disposition
and present feelings, your excellency will not be
willing to believe tliat you could ever be brought
to an act of tyranny, or even to execute justice
with unnecessary rigor. But trust me. sir, there
is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destrue-
tive of the noblest and finest feelings of our na.
iure than the exercise of unlimited power. The
man, v,'lio in the begiiming of such a career, mio-ht
shudder at the idea of taking away the life of a
fellow-being, might soon have his conscience so
seared by the repetition of crime, that the agonies
of his murdered victims might become music to his
soul, and the drippings of the scaffold afford blood
to swim in. History is full of such excesses."
William H. Fitzhugh, Esq. of Virginia, a slave-
holder, says, — " Slavery, in its mildest form, is
cruel and unnatural ; its injurious effects on our
morals and habits are mutually felt."
Hon. Samuel S. Nicholas, late Judge of the
Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and a slaveholder,
in a speech before the legislature of that state,
Jan. 1837, says, —
" The deliberate convictions of the most ma-
tured consideration I can give the subject, are,
that the institution of slavery is a 7nost serious in-
jury to the habits, manners and ^norals of our
while population — that it leads to sloth, indolence,
dissipation, and vice."
Dr. Thomas Cooper, late President of the Col-
lege of South Carolina, in a note to his edition of
the " Institutes of Justinian," page 413, says, —
" All absolute power has a direct tendency, not
only to detract from the happiness of the persons
who are subject to it, but to deprave the good
qualities of those who possess it the whole
history of human nature, in the present and every
former age, will justify me in saying that such is
the tendency of power on the one hand and slavery
on the other."
A South Carolina slaveholder, whose name is
with the executive committee of the Am. A. S.
Society, says, in a letter, dated April 4, 1838 : —
" I think it (slavery) ruinous to the temper and
118
Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
to our spiritual life ; it is a thorn in the flesh, for
■ ever and for ever goading us on to say and to do
what the Eternal God cannot but be displeased
•with. I speak from experience, and oh ! my de-
sire is to be delivered from it."
Monsieur C. C. Robin, who was a resident of
Louisiana from 1802 to 1806, published a work
on that country ; in which, speaking of the effect
of slaveholding on masters and their children, he
says : —
" The young Creoles make the negroes who
surround them the play-things of their whims :
they flog, for pastime, those of their own age, just
as their fathers flog the others at their will. These
young Creoles, arrived at the ago in which the
passions are impetuous, do not know how to bear
contradiction ; they will have every thing done
which they command, possible or not ; and in de-
fault of this, they avenge their offended pride by
multiplied punishments."
Dr. George Buchanan, of Baltimore, Maryland,
member of the American Philosophical Society,
hi an oration at Baltunorc, July 4, 1791, said : —
" For sucli are the effects of subjecting man to
slavery, that it destroys every humane principle,
vitiates the mind, instils ideas of unlawful cruel-
ties, and eventually subverts the springs of govern-
ment."— Buchanan's Oration, p. 12.
President Edwards the younger, in a sermon
before the ConnccticiLt Abolition Society, in 1791,
page S, says : —
" Slavery has a most direct tendenc)' to liaugh-
tiness, and a domineering spirit and conduct in
the proprietors of the slaves, in their children, and
in all who have the control of them. A man who
has been bred up in domineering over negroes,
can scarcely avoid contracting such a habit of
haughtiness and domination as will express itself
in his general treatment of mankind, whether in
his private capacity, or in any office, civil or mill-
tary, with which he may be invested."
The celebrated Montesquieu, in his " Spirit
of the Laws," thus describes the effect of slave-
holding upon the master: —
" The master contracts aU sorts of bad habits ;
and becomes haughty, passionate, obdurate, vin.
dictive, voluptuous, and cruel.'"
"VViLBERFORCE, in his speech at the anniversary
of the London Anti-Slavery Society, in March,
1828, said :—
" It is utterly impossible that they who live in
the administration of the petty despotism of a slave
community, whose minds have been warped and
polluted by that contamination, should not lose
that respect for their fellow creatures over whom
they tjTannize, M'hich is essential in the nature
and moral being of man, to rescue them from the
abuse of power over their prostrate feUow crea-
tures."
In the great debate, in the British Parliament,
on the African slave-trade, Mr. Whitbread said :
" Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the
best."
But we need not multiply proofs to establisii
our position : it is sustained by the concurrent
testimony of sages, philosophers, poets, statesmen,
and moralists, in every period of the world ; and
who can marvel that those in all ages who have
wisely pondered men and things, should be unani-
mous in such testimony, when the history of arbi-
trary power has come down to us from the begin-
ning of time, struggling through heaps of slain,
and trailing her parchments in blood.
Time would fail to begin with the first despot
and track down the carnage step by step. All
nations, all ages, ail climes crowd forward as wit-
nesses, v/ith their scars, and wounds, and dying
agonies.
But to survey a multitude bewilders ; let us look
at a single nation. We instance Rome ; both be-
cause its history is more generally known, and
because it furnishes a larger proportion of in-
stances, in which arbitrary power was exercised
with comparative mildness, than any other nation
ancient of modern. And yet, her whole exist-
ence was a tragedj', every actor was an execu-
tioner, the curtain rose amidst shrieks and fell up-
on corpses, and the only shifting of the scenes
was from blood to blood. The whole world stood
aghast, as under sentence of death, awaiting exe-
cution, and all nations and tongues were driven,
with her own citizens, as sheep to the slaughter.
Of her seven kmgs, her hundreds of consuls, tri-
banes., decemvirs, and dictators, and her fifty em-
perors, there is hardly one whose name has come
down to us unstained by horrible abuses of power ;
and that too, notwithstanding we have mere
shreds of the history of many of them, owing to
their antiquity, or to the perturbed times in which
they lived; and these shreds gathered from the
records of their own partial countrymen, who
wrote and sung their praises. What does this
prove ? Not that the Romans were worse than
other men, nor that their rulers were worse than
other Romans, for liistory does not furnish nobler
models of natural character than many of those
same rulers, when first invested v/ith arbitrary
power. Neither was it mainly because the mar-
tial enterprise of the earlier Romans and tlie gross
sensuality of the later, hardened their hearts to
human suffering. In both periods of Roman his
tory, and in both these classes, we find men, the
keen sympathies, generosity, and benevolence of
whose general character embalmed their names
in the grateful memories of multitudes. They
were human beings, and possessed power without
restraint — this unravels the myster}'.
Who has not heard of the Emperor Trajan, of
his moderation, his clemency, his gushing sym-
pathies, his forgiveness of injuries and forgetful-
ness of self, his tearing in pieces his own robe, to
furnish bandages for the wounded — called by the
whole world in his day, " the best emperor of
Oijeciions Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
119
Rome ;" and so afFcctionatel}'- regarded by his sub-
jects, that, ever afterwards, in blessing' his suc-
cessors upon their accession to power, they al-
ways said, " May you have tlie virtue and good-
ness of Trajan !" yet tiic deadly conflict of gladia-
tors who are trained to kill each other, to make
sport for the spectators, furnished his chief pas-
time. At one time ho kept up those spectacles
for 123 days in succession. In the tortures which
lie inflicted on Christians, fire and poison, dag-
gers and dungeons, wild beasts and serpents, and
the rack, did their worst. He threw into the sea,
Clemens, the venerable bishop of Rome, with an
anchor about his neck ; and tossed to the famish-
ing lions in the amphitheatre the aged Ignatius.
Plinj- the 3-ounger, who was proconsul under
Trajan, may well be mentioned in connection
with the emperor, as a striking illustration of the
truth, that goodness and amiableness towards one
class of men is often turned into cruelty towards
another. History can hardly show a more gentle
and lovely character than Pliny. While pleading
at the bar, he always sought out the grievances
of the poorest and most despised persons, entered
into their wrongs with his whole soul, and never
took a fee. Who can read his admirable letters
without being touched by their tenderness and
warmed by their benignity and philanthropy : and
yet, this tender-hearted Pliny coolly plied with ex-
cruciating torture two spotless females, who had
served as deaconesses in the Christian church,
hoping to extort from them matter of accusation
against the Christians. He commanded Christians
to abjure their faith, invoke the gods, pour out liba-
tions to the statues of the emperor, burn incense to
idols, and curse Christ. If they refused, ho or.
dered them to execution.
Who has not heard of the Emperor Titus — so
beloved for his mild virtues and compassionate
regard for the suffering, that he was named " The
Delight of Mankind ;" so tender of the hves of his
subjects that he took the office of high priest, that
his hands might never be defiled with blood ; and
was heard to declare, with tears, that he had ra-
ther die than put another to death. So intent
upon making others happy, that when once about
to retire to sleep, and not being able to recall any
particular act of beneficence performed during
the day, he cried out in anguish, " Alas ! I have
lost a day !" And, finally, whom the learned
Kennet, in his Roman Antiquities, characterizes
as " the only prince in the world that has the cha-
racter of never doing an ill action." Yet, wit.
nessing the mortal combats of the captives taken
in war, kilhng each other in the amphitheatre,
amidst the acclamations of the populace, was a
favorite amusement with Titus. At one time he
exhibited shows of gladiators, which lasted one
hundred days, during which the amphitheatre
was flooded with human blood. At another of
his public exhibitions he caused five thousand wild
beasts to be baited in the amphitheatre. During
the siege of Jerusalem, ho set ambushes to seize
the famishing Jews, who stole out of the city by
night to glean food in the valleys : these he would
first dreadfully scourge, then torment them with all
conceivable tortures, and, at last, crucify them be-
fore the wall of the city. According to J oscphus, not
less than five hundred a day were thus tormented.
And when many of the Jews, frantic with famine,
deserted to the Romans, Titus cut olf their hands
and drove them back. After the destruction of
Jerusalem, ho dragged to Rome one hundred
thousand captives, sold them as slaves, and scat-
tered them through every province of the empire.
The kindness, condescension, and forbearance
of Adrian were proverbial ; he was one of the
most eloquent orators of his age ; and when
pleading the cause of injured innocence, would
melt and overwhelm the auditors by the pathos
of his appeals. It was his constant maxim, that
he was an Emperor, not for his own good, but
for the benefit of his fellow creatures. He stoop-
ed to relieve the wants of the meanest of his sub-
jects, and would peril his life by visiting them
when sick of infectious diseases ; he prohibited,
by law, masters from killing their slaves, gave to
slaves legal trial, and exempted them from tor-
tm-e ; yet towards certain individuals and classes,
he showed himself a monster of cruelty. He
prided himself on his knowledge of architecture,
and ordered to execution the most celebrated
architect of Rome, because he had criticised one
of the Emperor's designs. He banished all the
Jews from their native land, and drove them
to the ends of the earth ; and imloosed the blood-
hounds of persecution to rend in pieces his
Christian subjects.
The gentleness and benignity of the Emperor
Aurelius, have been celebrated in story and song.
History says of him, 'Nothing could quench his
desire of being a blessing to mankind ;' and Pope's
eulogy of him is in the mouth of every school-
boy— ' Like good Aurelius, let him reign ;' and yet,
^ good Aurelius,' lifted the flood gates of the
fourth, and one of the most terrible persecutions
against Christians that ever raged. He sent or.
ders into different parts of his empire, to have the
Christians murdered who would not deny Christ.
The blameless Polycarp, trembling under the
weight of a hundred years, was dragged to the
stake and burned to ashes. Pothinus, Bishop of
Lyons, at the age of ninety, was dragged through
the streets, beaten, stoned, trampled upon by the
soldiers, and left to perish. Tender virgins were
put into nets, and thrown to infuriated wild bulls ;
120
Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible.
others were fastened in red hot iron chairs; and
venerable matrons were thrown to be devoured by
dogs.
Constantine tlie Great has been the admiration
of Christendom for his virtues. The early Cliris-
tian writers adorn his justice, benevolence and
piety with the most exalted eulogy. He was bap-
tized, and admitted to the Christian church. He
abrogated Paganism, and made Christianity the
religion of his empire ; he attended the councils
of the early fathers of the church, consulted with
the bibhops, and devoted liiniself with the most
untiring zeal to the propagation of Christianity,
and to the promotion of peace and love among
its professors ; he convened the Council of Nice,
to settle disputes which had long distracted the
church, appeared in the assembly with admirable
modesty and temper, moderated the heats of the
contending parties, implored them to exercise
mutual forbearance, and exhorted them to love
unfeigned, to forgive one another, as they hoped
to be forgiven by Christ. Who would not think
it uncharitable to accuse such a man of barbarity
in the exercise of power ? — and yet he drove
Arius and his associates into banishment, for
opinion's sake, denounced death against all with
whom his books should afterwards be found, and
prohibited, on pain of death, the exercise, how-
ever peaceably, of the functions of any other- re-
ligion than Christianity. In a fit of jealousy and
rage, he ordered his innocent son, Crispus, to
execution, Vvithout granting him a hearing ; and
upon finding him innocent, killed his own wife,
who had falsely accused him.
To the preceding may be added Theodosius the
Great, the last Roman emperor before the division
of the empire. He was a member of the Christian
church, and in his zeal against paganism, and
what h« deemed heresy, surpassed all who were
before him. The Christian writers of his time
speak of him as a most illustrious model of justice,
generosity, magnanimity, benevolence, and every
virtue. And yet Theodosius denounced capital
punishments against those who held ' heretical'
opinions, and commanded inter-marriage between
cousins to be punished by burning the parties
alive. On hearing that the people of Antioch
had demolished the statues set up in that city,
in honor of himself, and had threatened the gov-
ernor, he flew into a transport of fury, ordered
the city to be laid in ashes, and all the inhabitants
to be slaughtered ; and upon hearing of a resist-
ance to his authority in Thessalonica, in which
one of his lieutenants was killed, he instantly or-
dered a general massacre of the inhabitants ; and
in obedience to his command, seven thousand
men, women and children were butchered in the
space of three hours.
The foregoing are a few of many instances in
the history of Rome, and of a countless multitude
in the history of the world, illustrating the truth,
that the lodgement of arbitrary power, in the best
human hands, is always a fearfully perilous ex-
periment ; that the mildest tempers, the mosthu
mane and benevolent dispositions, the most
blameless and conscientious previous life, with
the most rigorous habits of justice, are no securi-
ty, that, in a moment of temptation, the possess-
ors of such power will not make their subjects
their victims; illustrating also the truth, that,
while men may exhibit nothing but honor, hon-
esty, mildness, justice, and generosity, in their
intercourse with those of their own grade, or lan-
guage, or nation, or hue, they may practice
towards others, for whom they have contempt
and aversion, the most revolting meanness, per-
petrate robbery unceasingly, and inflict the se-
verest privations, and the most barbarous cruel-
ties. But this is not all : history is full of exam-
pies, showing not only the effects of arbitrary
power on its victims, but its terrible reaction on
those who exercise it ; blunting their sympathies,
and hardening to adamant their hearts toward
them, at least, if not toward the human race gen-
erally. This is shown in the fact, that almost
every tyrant in the history of the world, has en-
t-ered upon the exercise of absolute power with
comparative moderation ; multitudes of thera
with marked forbearance and mildness, and not
a few with the most signal condescension, mag-
nanimity, gentleness and compassion. Among
these last are included those who afterwards be-
came the bloodiest monsters that ever cursed the
earth. Of the Roman Emperors, almost every
one of whom perpetrated the most barbarous
atrocities, Viteflius seems to have been the only
one who cruelly exercised his power from the
outset. Most of the other emperors, sprung up
into fiends in the hot-bed of arbitrary power. If
they had not been plied with its fiery stimulants,
but had lived under the legal restraints of
other men, instead of going to the grave under
the curses of their generation, multitudes might
have called them blessed.
The moderation which has generally distin-
o-uished absolute monarehs at the commencement
of their reigns, was doubtless in some cases as-
sumed from policy ; in the greater number, how-
ever, as is manifest from their history, it has been
the natural workings of minds held in check by
previous associations, and not yet hardened into
habits of cruelty, by being accustomed to the ex-
ercise of power without restraint. But as those
associations have weakened, and the wielding of
uncontrolled sway has become a habit, like other
evil doers, they have, in the expressive language
of Scripture, ' waxed worse and worse.'
For eighteen hundred years an involuntary
Oljeciions Cmmdcred — Slaveholders' Dtuiial.
121
pnudder lias run over tlio human race, at tlic
mention of tiic name of Noro ; yet, at the com-
mencement of his reign, he burst into tears when
called upon to sign the death-warrant of a crim-
niai, and exclaimed, ' Oli, that I had never learn-
ed to write !' His mildness and magnanimity
won the affections of his subjects ; and it was not
till the poison of absolute power had worked with-
in his nature for years, that it swelled him into a
monster.
'I'iberius, Claudius, and Caligula, began the
exercise of tlicir power with singular forbearance,
and eacn grew into a prodigy of cruelty. So
averse was Caligula to bloodshed, that he refused
to looK at a list of conspirators against his own
life, which was handed to him ; yet afterwards, a
more cruel wretch never wielded a sceptre. In
his thirst for slaughter, he wished all the necks in
Rome one, that he might cut it off at a blow.
Doinitian, at the commencement of liis reign,
carried his abhorrence of cruelty to such lengths,
that he forbad the sacrificing of oxen, and would
sit whole days on the judgment-seat, reversing
the unjust decisions of corrupt judges ; j'et after-
wards, he surpassed even Nero in cruelty. The
latter was content to torture and kill by proxy,
and without being a spectator; but Domitian
could not be denied the luxury of seeing his vic-
tims writhe, and hearing them shriek ; and often
with his own hand directed the instrument of
torture, especially when some illustrious senator
or patrician was to be killed by piece-meal.
Commodus began with gentleness and conde-
scension, but soon became a terror and a scourge,
outstripping in his atrocities most of his prede-
cessors. Maximin too, was just and generous when
first invested with power, but afterwards rioted
in slaughter with the relish of a fiend. History
has well said of this monarch, ' the change in his
disposition may readily serve to show how dan-
gerous a thing is power, that could transform a
person of such rigid virtues into such a monster.'
Instances almost innumerable might be fur-
nished in the history of every age, illustrating
tiie blunting of sympathies, and the total trans-
formations of character wrought in individuals by
the exercise of arbitrary power. Not to detain
the reader with long details, let a single instance
suffice.
Perhaps no man has lived in modern times,
whose name excites such horror as that of Robes-
;)ierre. Yet it is notorious that he was naturally
of a benevolent disposition, and tender sympa-
thies.
" Before the revolution, when as a judge in his
native city of Arras he had to pronounce judg-
ment on an assassin, he took no food for two
days afterwards, but was heard frequently ex-
claiming, ' I am sure he was guilty ; he is a vil-
lain ; but yet, to put a human being to death ! !'
He could not support the idea ; and that the
same necessity might not recur, he relinquished
his judicial office. — -(See Laponneray's Life of
Robespierre, p. 8 ) Afterwards, in the Conven.
tion of 1791, he urged strongly the abolition of
the punishment of death; and yet, for sixteen
months, in 1793 and 1794, till he perished iiim-
self by the same guillotine which he had so iner
cilessly used on others, no one at Paris consigned
and caused so many fellow-creatures to be put to
death by it, with more ruthless insensibility." —
Turner's Sacred History of the World, vol. 2.
p. 119.
But it is time we had done with the objection,
" such cruellies are incredible." If the obj-ec-
tor still reiterates it, lie shall have the last word
without farther molestation.
An objection kindred to the preceding now
claims notice. It is the profound induction that
slaves must be well treated because slaveholders
say they are .'
Objection. II.— SLAVEHOLDERS PROTEST THAT THEY TREAT THEIR
SLAVES WELL.
Self-justification is human nature; self-con-
demnation is a sublime triumph over it, and as
rare as sublime. What culprits would be convict,
ed, if their own testimony were taken by juries as
good evidence ? Slaveholders are on trial, charg-
ed with cruel treatment to their slaves, and
though in their own courts they can clear them-
selves by their own oaths,* they need not think
to do it at the bar of the world. The denial of
* The law of which the following is an extract, exists in
South Carolina. " If any slave shall suffer in life, limb or
member, when no white person shall be present, or being
present, shall refuse to give evidence, the owner or other
person, who shall have the care of such slave, and in whose
power such slave shall be, shall be deemed guilty of such of
fenci, unless such owner or other person shall make the
contrary appear by good and suliicient evidence, or shall
10
crimes, by men accused of them, goes for noth-
ing as evidence in all civilized courts ; while the
voluntary confession of them, is the best evidence
possible, as it is testimony against themselves, and
in the face of the strongest motives to conceal
the truth. On the preceding pages, are hundreds
of just suoh testimonies ; the voluntary and ex-
plicit testimony of slaveholders against them-
selves, their families and ancestors, their constit-
uents and their rulers ; against their characters
and their memories ; against their justice, their
BY HIS OWN OATH CLEAR AND EXCULPATE HIMSELF. Which'
oath every court where such offence shall be tried, is here-
by empowered to administer, and to acquit the offender, if
clear proof of the offence be not made by too witnesses at
least." — 2 Brevard's Digest, 342. The state of Louisiana
has a similar law.
122
Objections Considered — Slaveholders' Denial.
honesty, their honor and their benevolence.
Now let candor decide between those two classes
of slaveholders, which is most entitled to credit ;
that which testifies in its own favor, just as self-
love would dictate, or that which testifies against
all selfish motives and in spite of them ; and
though it has nothing to gain, but every thing to
lose by such testimony, still utters it.
But if there were no counter testimony, if all
slaveholders were unanimous in the declaration
that the treatment of the slaves is good, such a
declaration would not be entitled to a feather's
weight as testimony ; it is not testimony but opin-
ion. 'I'estimony respects matters of fact, not
matters of opinion : it is the declaration of a
witness as to facts, not the giving of an opinion
as to the nature or qualifies of actions, or the
character of a course of conduct. Slaveholders
organize themselves into a tribunal to adjudicate
upon their own conduct, and give us in their
decisions, their estimate of their own character ;
informing us with characteristic modesty, that
they have a high opinion of themselves ; that in
their own judgment they are very mild, kind, and
merciful gentlemen ! In these conceptions of their
own merits, and of the eminent propriety of their
bearing towards their slaves, slaveholders remind
us of the Spaniard, who always took ofT his hat
whenever he spoke of himself, and of the Govern-
or of Schiraz, who, from a sense of justice to his
own character added to his other titles, those of,
' Flower of Courtesy,' ' Nutmeg of Consola-
tion,' and ' Rose of Delight.'
The sincerity of those worthies, no one calls
iu question ; their real notions of their own merits
doubtless ascended into the sublime : but for
aught that appears, they had not the arrogance
to demand that their own notions of their personal
excellence, should be taken as the proof of it.
Not so with our slaveholders. Not content with
offering incense at the shrine of their own virtues,
they have the effrontery to demand, that the
rest of the world shall offer it, because they do ;
and shall implicitly believe the presiding divini-
ty to be a good Spirit rather than a Devil, because
they call him so ! In other words, since slave-
holders profoundly appreciate their own gentle
dispositions toward their slaves, and their kind
treatment of them, and everywhere protest that
they do truly show forth these rare excellencies,
they demand that the rest of the world shall not
only believe that they think so, but that they
think rightly ; that these notions of themselves
are true, that their taking off their hats to them-
selves proves them worthy of homage, and that
their assumption of the titles of, ' Flower of
Kindness,' and ' Nutmeg of Consolation,' is
conclusive evidence that tliey deserve such ap-
pellations I
Was there ever a more ridiculous doctrine,
than that a man's opinion of his own actions is
the true standard for measuring them, and the
certificate of their real qualities ! — that his own
estimate of his treatment of others is to be taken
as the true one, and such treatment be set down
as good treatment upon the strength of his judg-
ment. He who argues the good treatment of the
slave, from the slaveholder's good opinion of such
treatment, not only argues against human nature
and all history, his own common sense, and even
the testimony of his senses, but refutes liis own
arguments by his daily practice. Every body
acts on the presumption that men's feelings will
vary with their practices ; that the light in which
they view individuals and classes, and their feelings
towards them, will modify their opinions of the
treatment which they receive. In any case of
treatment that affects himself, his church, or his
political party, no man so stultifies himself as to
argue that such treatment must be good, because
the author of it thinks so.
Who would argue that the American Colonies
were well treated by the mother country, because
parliament thought so ? Or that Poland was well
treated by Russia, because Nicholas thought so ? Or
that the treatment of the Cherokees by Georgia
is proved good by Georgia notions of it ? Or that
of the Greeks by the Turks, by Turkish opinions
of it ? Or that of the Jews by almost all nations,
by the judgment of their persecutors ? Or that of
the victims of the Inquisition, by the opinions of
the Inquisitor general, or of the Pope and his
cardinals ? Or that of the Quakers and Baptists, at
the hands of the Puritans, — to be judged of by
the opinions of the legislatures that authorized,
and the courts that carried it into effect. All
those classes of persons did not, in their own opin-
ion, abuse their victims. If charged with per-
petrating outrageous cruelty upon them, all those
o])pressors would have repelled the charge with
indignation.
Our slaveholders chime lustily the same song,
and no man with human nature within him, and
human history before him, and with sense enough
to keep him out of the fire, will be gulled by such
professions, unless his itch to be humbugged has
put on the type of a downright chronic incurable.
We repeat it — when men speak of the treatment
of others as being either good or bad, their decla-
rations are not generally to be taken as testimony
to matters of fact, so much as expressions of
their own feelings towards those persons or class-
es who are the subjects of such treatment. If
those persons are their fellow citizens ; if they are
in the same class of society with themselves ; of
the same language, creed, and color ; similar in
their habits, pursuits, and sympathies ; they will
objections Considered— S\a\eho\der^s Denial.
123
keenly feel an}- wrong done to them, and denounce
it as base, outrageous treatment ; but let the
same wrongs be done to persons of a condition in
all respects the reverse, persons whom they habit-
ually despise, and regard only in the light of mere
conveniences, to be used for their pleasure, and
the idea that such treatment is barbarous will be
laughed at as ridiculous. When wc hear slave-
holders say that their slaves are loell treated, we
have only to remember that they are not speaking
of pel sons, but of property ; not of men and wo-
men, but of chattels and things ; not of friends
and associates, but of I'^assals and victims; not
of those whom they respect and honor, but of those
whom they scoi n and trample on ; not of those witli
whom they s}'mpathize, and co-operate, and
interchange courtesies, but of those whom they
regard with contempt and aversion, and dis-
dainfully set with the dogs of their flock.
Reader, keep this fact in your mind, and you will
liave a clue to the slaveholder's definition oi^'good
treatment." Remember also, that a part of this
" good treatment" of which slaveholders boast,
is plundering the slaves of all their inalienable
rights, of the ownership of their own bodies, of
the use of their own limbs and muscles, of all their
time, liberty, and earnings, of the free exercise of
choice, of the rights of marriage and parental
authority, of legal protection, of the right to be,
to do, to go, to stay, to think, to feel, to work, to
rest, to eat, to sleep, to learn, to teach, to earn
money, and to expend it, to visit, and to be visit-
ed, to speak, to be silent, to worship according to
conscience, in fine, their right to be protected by
just and equal laws, and to be amenable to such
only. Oiall these rights the slaves are plundered ;
and this is a part of that " good treatment" of
which their plunderers boast ! What then is the
rest of it ? The above is enough for a sample, at
least a specimen-brick from the kiln. Reader,
we ask you no questions, but merely tell you what
you know, v/hen we say that men and women who
can habitually do such things to human beings,
can do any thing to them.
The declarations of slaveholders, that they treat
their slaves well, will put no man in a quandary,
who keeps in mind this simple principle, that the
state of mind towards others, which leads one to
inflict cruelties on them, blinds the ivjlicter to
the real nature of his own acts. To him, they do
not see?n to be cruelties ; consequently, when speak-
ing of such treatment toward such persons, he will
protest that it is not cruelty ; though, if inflicted
upon himself or his friends, he would indignantly
stigmatize it as atrocious barbarity. The objector
equally overlooks another every-day fact of hu.
man nature, which is this, that cruelties invariably
cease to seem cruelties when the habit is formed,
though previously the mind regarded them as
such, and shrunk from them with horror.
The following fact, related by the late lament-
ed Thomas Piunglk, whose Life and Poems have
recently been published in England, is an appro,
priate illusl ration. Mr. Pringlc states it on the au-
tliority of Captain W. F. Owen, of the Roya!
Navy.
" When his Majesty's ships, the Leven and the
Barracouta, em])loyed in surveying the coast of
Africa, were at Mozambique, in 1823, the officers
were introduced to the family of Scnor Manuel
Pedro d'Almeydra, a native of Portugal, who
was a considerable merchant settled on that
coast ; and it was an opinion agreed in by all,
that Donna Sophia d'Almeydra was the most su-
perior woman they had seen since they left Eng-
land. Captain Owen, the leader of the cxpedi-
tion, expressing to Senor d'Almeydra his detest-
ation of slavery, the Senor replied, 'You will not
be long here before j-ou change your sentiments.
Look at my Sophia there. Before she would
marry me, she made me promise that I should
give up the slave trade. When we first settled
at Mozambique, she was continually interceding
for the slaves, and she constantly wept when I
punished them ; and now she is among the slaves
from morning to night ; she regulates the whole
of my slave establishment ; she inquires into eve-
ry offence committed by them, pronounces sen-
tence upon the offender, and stands by and sees
them punished.'
" To this, Mr. Pringle, who was himself for
six years a resident of the English settlement at
the Cape of Good Hope, adds, 'The writer of this
article has seen, in the course of five or six years,
as great a change upon English ladies and gen-
tlemen of respectability, as that described to have
taken place in Donna Sophia d'Almeydra ; and
one of the individuals whom he has in his eye,
while he writes this passage, lately confessed to
him this melancholy change, remarking at the
same time, ' how altered I am in my feelings;
with regard to slavery. I do not appear to m}'-
self the same person I was on my arrival in this
colony, and if I would give the world for the feel-
ings I then had, I could not recall them.'"
Slaveholders know full well that familiaritv
with slavery produces indifference to its cruelties
and reconciles the mind to them. The late Judge
Tucker, a Virginia slaveholder and professor of
law in the University of William and Mary, in
the appendix to his edition of Blaekstone's Com-
mentaries, part 2, pp. 56, 57, commenting on
the law of Virginia previous to 1792, which out-
lawed fugitive slaves, says :
" Such are the cruelties to which slavery gives
rise, such the horrors to which the mind becomes
reconciled by its adoption."
The followirng facts from the pen of Charles
Stuart, happily illustrate the same principle :
"A young lady, the daughter of a Jamaica
planter, was sent at an early age to school in
England, and after completing her education, re-
turned to her native country.
" She is now settled with her husband and famio
124
Objections Considered — Slaveholder's Denial.
ly in England. I visited her near Bath, early
last spring, (1834.) Conversing on the above sub-
ject, the paralyzing effects of slaveholding on the
heart, she said :
" ' While at school in England, I often thought
with peculiar tenderness of the kindness of a
slave who had nursed and carried me about.
Upon returning to my fathers, one of my first
inquiries was about him. I was deeply afflicted
to find that he was on the point of undergoing a
*' law flogging for having run away." I threw
myself at my father's feet and implored with tears,
his pardon ; but my father steadily replied, that
it would ruin the discipline of the plantation, and
that the punishment must take place. I wept in
vain, and retired so grieved and disgusted, that
for some days after, I could scarcely bear with
patience, the sight of my own father. But many
months had not elapsed ere / was as ready as any
body to seize the domestic whip, and flog my
slaves without hesitation.''
" This lady is one of the most Christian and
noble minds of my acquaintance. She and her
husband distinguished themselves several years
ago, in Jamaica, by immediately emancipating
their slaves."
" A lady, now in the West Indies, was sent in
her infancy, to her friends, near Belfast, in Ire-
land, for education. She remained under their
charge from five to fifteen years of age, and grew
up every thing which her friends could wish.
At fifteen, she returned to the West Indies — was
married — and after some years paid her friends
near Belfast, a second visit. Towards white
people, she was the same elegant, and interesting
woman as before ; apparently full of ever}' vir-
tuous and tender feeling ; but towards the colored
people she was hke a tigress. If Wilberforce's
name was mentioned, she would say, ' Oh, I
wish we had the wretch in the West Indies, I
would be one of the first to help to tear his heart
outr — and then she would tell of the manner in
which the W^est Indian ladies used to treat their
slaves. ' I have often,' she said, ' when my wo-
men have displeased me, snatched their baby
from their bosom, and running with it to a well,
have tied my shawl round its shoulders and pre-
tended to be drowning it : oh, it was so funny to
hear the mother's screams ! !' — and then she
laughed almost convulsively at the recollection."
Mr. -John M. Nelson, a native of Virginia,
whose testimony is on a preceding page, furnishes
a striking illustration of the principle in his own
case. He says:
" When I was quite a child, I recollect it griev-
ed me very much to see one tied up to be whip-
ped, and I used to intercede with tears in their
behalf, and mingle my cries with theirs, and fee]
almost willing to take part of the punishment.
Yet such is the hardening nature of such scenes,
that from this kind of commiseration for the suf-
fering slave, I became so blunted that I could
not only witness their stripes with composure, but
myself inflict them, and that without remorse.
Wlien I was perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of
age, I undertook to correct a young fellovi^ named
i^ed, for some supposed offence, I think it was
leaving a bridle out of its proper place ; he be.
ing larger and stronger than myself took hold of
my arms and held me, in ojder to prevent my
striking him ; this I considered the height of in-
solence, and cried for help, when my faiher and
mother both came running to my rescue. My
father stripped and tied him, and took him into
the orchard, vvhere switches were plenty, and di-
rected me to whip him ; when one switch wore
out he supplied me with others. After I had
whipped him a while, he fell on his knees to im.
plore forgiveness, and I kicked him in the face;
my father said, ' don't kick him but whip him,'
this I did until his back was literally covered with
loeZis."
W. C. GiLDERSLEEVE, Esq., a native of Georgia,
now elder of the Presbyterian church, Wilkes,
barre, Penn. after describing the flogging of a
slave, in which his hands were tied together, and
the slave hoisted by a rope, so that his feet could
not touch the ground ; in which condition one
hundred lashes were inflicted, says :
" I stood by and witnessed the whole without
feeling the least compaf.sion ; so hardening is the
influence of slavery that it very much destroys
feeling for the slave."
Mrs. Child, in her admirable "Appeal," has tne
following remarks :
'• The ladies who remove from the free States
into the slaveholding ones almost invariably write
that the sight of slavery was at first exceedingly
painful ; but that they soon become habituated to
it ; and after a while, they are very apt to vindi-
cate the system, upon the ground that it is ex-
tremely convenient to have such submissive ser-
vants. This reason was actually given by a lady
of my acquaintance, who is considered an unusu
ally fervent Christian. Yet Christianity express
ly teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
This shows how dangerous it is, for even the
best of us, to become accustomed to what is
wrong.
"A judicious and benevolent friend lately tola
me the story of one of her relatives, who married
a slave owner, and removed to his plantation.
The lady in question was considered very amia-
ble, and had a serene, affectionate expression ot
countenance. After several years residence
among her slaves, she visited New England.
' Her hi.«tory was written in her face,' said my
friend; ' its expression had changed into that of
a fiend. She brought but few slaves with her ;
and those few were of course compelled to per-
form additional labor. One faithful negro wo-
man niu-sed the twins of her mistress, and did all
the washing, ironing, and scouring. If, after a
sleepless night with the restless babes, (driven
from the bosom of their mother,) she performed
her toilsome avocations with diminished activity,
her mistress, withher own lady-like lipnds, applied
the cowskin, and the neighborhood resounded
with the cries of her victim. The instrument of
punishment was actually kept hanging in the
entry, to the no small disgust of her New Eng-
land visitors. For my part,' continued my friend,
' I did not try to be polite to her ; for I was not
hypocrite enough to conceal my indignation.' "
Objections Considered — Slavcholding Hospitality.
125
The fact that the greatest cruelties may be ex-
crcised quite unconsciouiily when cruelty has be-
come a habit, and that at the same time, the
mind may feel great sympathy and commiseration
towards other persons and even towards irration-
al animals, is ilhistrated in the case of Tamer-
lane the Great. In his Life, written by himself,
he speaks with the greatest sincerity and tender-
ness of his grief at having accidentally crushed
an ant ; and yet he ordered melted lead to be
poured down the throats of certain persons who
drank wine contrary to his commands. He was
manifestly sincere in thinking himself humane,
and when speaking of the most atrocious cruelties
perpetrated by himself, it does not seem to ruffle
in the least the self-complacency with which
he regards his own humanity and piety. In one
place he says, " I never undertook anything but I
commenced it placing my faith on God " — and he
adds soon after, " the people of Shiraz took part
with Shah Mansur, and put my governor to
death ; I therefore ordered a general 7nassacrc of
all the inhahitants."
It is one of the most common caprices of hu-
man nature, for the heart to become by habit, not
only totally insensible to certain forms of cruelty,
wliich at first gave it inexpressible pain, but even
to find its chief amusement in such cruelties, till
ntterly intoxicated by their stimulation ; -while
at the same time the mind seems to be pained as
Jieenly as ever, at forms of cruelty to which it has
not become accustomed, thus retaining apparent-
ly the same general susceptibilities. Illustrations
of this are to be found every where ; one happens
to lie before us. Bourgoing, in his history of
modern Spain, speaking of the bull fights, the bar-
barous national amusement of the Spaniards, says :
"Young ladies, old men, people of all ages and
of all characters, are present, and yet the habit
of attending these bloody festivals docs not cor-
rect their weakness or their timidity, nor injure
the sweetness of their manners. I have more-
over known foreigners, distinguished by tiie gen-
tleness of their manners, who experienced at first
seeing a bull-fight such very violent emotions as
made them turn pale, and they became ill ; but,
notwithstanding, this entertainment became after-
wards an irresistible attraction, without operat-
ing anj' revolution in their characters."
Modern Slate of Spain, by J. F. Couif;oin<;, Minister
Plenipotentiary from France to the Court of Madrid, Vol
ii., page 342.
It is the novelty of cruelty, rather than the de-
gree, which repels most minds. Cruelty in a new
form, however slight, will often pain a mind that
is totally unmoved by the most horrible cruelties
in a form to which it is accustomed. When
Pompey was at the zenith of his popularity in
Rome, he ordered some elephants to be tortured
in the amphitheatre for the amusement of the
populace ; this was the first time they had wit-
nessed the torture of those animals, and though
for years accustomed to witne;!s in the same
place, the torture of lions, tigers, leopards, and
almost all sorts of wild beasts, as well as that of
men of all nations, and to shout acclamations
over their agonies, yet, this novel form of cruelty
so shocked the beholders, that the most popular
man in Rome was execrated as a cruel monster,
and came near falling a victim to the fury of
those who just before were ready to adore
him.
We will now briefly notice another objection,
somev hat akin to the preceding, and based
mainly upon the same and similar fallacies
Objection III.— SLAVEHOLDERS ARE PROVERBIAL FOR THEIR KINDNESS,
HOSPITALITY, BENEVOLENCE, AND GENEROSITY.
Multitudes scout as fictions the cruelties in.
flicted upon slaves, because slaveholders are famed
for their courtesy and hospitality. They tell us
that their generous and kind attentions to their
guests, and their well-known sympathy for the
sniFering, sufliciently prove the charges of cruelty
brought against them k) be calumnies, of which
their tmiform character is a triumphant refutation.
Now that slaveholders are proverbially hospitable
to their guests, and spare neither pains nor expense
in ministering to their accommodation and plea-
sure, is freely admitted and easily accounted for.
That those who make their inferiors work for
them, without pay, should be courteous and hos-
pitable to those of their equals and superiors whose
good opinions they desire, is human nature in its
every-day dress. The objection consists of a fact
and an inference : the fact, that slaveholders have
a special care to the accommodation of their
guests; the inference, that therefore they must
seek the comfort of their slaves — that as they are
bland and obliging to their equals, they must be
mild and condescending to their inferiors — tliat
as the wrongs of their own grade excite their in-
dignation, and their woes move their sympathies,
they must be touched by those of their chattels —
that as they are full of pains-taking toward those
v/hose good opinions and good offices they seek,
they will, of course, show special attention to
those to whose good opinions they are indifferent,
and whose good offices they can compel — that as
they honor the literary and scientific, they must
treat with high consideration those to whom they
deny the alphabet — that as they are courteous to
certain persons, they must be so to " property'' —
eager to anticipate the wishes of visitors, they
126
Oijeciions Considered — Slaveholding Hospitality.
cannot but gratify those of their vassaLs — ^jealous
lor the riglits of the Texans, quick to feel at the
disfranchisement of Canadians and of Irishmen,
ahve to the oppressions of the Greeks and the
Poles, they must feel keenly for their negroes I
Such conclusions from such premises do not call
for serious refutation. Even a half-grown boy,
w!io should argue, that because men have certain
feelings toward certain persons in certain circum-
etences, thc;y must have the same feelings toward
all persons in all circumstances, or toward per-
sons in opposite circumstances, of totally different
grades, habits, and personal peculiarities, might
fairly be set dowm as a hopeless simpleton : and
yet, men of sense and reflection on other subjects,
seem bent upon stultifying themselves by just such
sliallow inferences from the fact, that slaveholders
are hospitable and generous to certain persons in
certain grades of society belonging to their own
caste. On the ground of this reasoning, all the
crimes ever committed may be disproved, by show-
ing, that their perpetrators were hospitable and
generous to those who sympathized and co-oper-
ated with them. To prove that a man does not
hate one of his neighbors, it is only necessary to
show that he loves another; to make it appear
that he does not treat contemptuously the igno-
rant, he has only to show that he bows respect-
fully to the learned ; to demonstrate that he does
not disdain his inferiors, lord it over his depend-
ents, and grind the faces of the poor, he need only
show that he is polite to the rich, pays deference
to titles and office, and fawns for favor upon those
above him ! The fact that a man always smiles
on his customers, proves that he never scowls at
those who dun him ! and since he has always a
melodious "good morning!" for " gentlemen of
property and standing," it is certain that he never
snarls at beggars. He vpho is quick to make room
for a doctor of divinity, will, of course, see to it
that he never runs against a porter ; and he who
clears the way for a lady, will be sure never to run
against a market-woman, or jostle an apple-seller's
board. If accused of beating down his laundress
to the lowest fraction, of making his boot-black
call a dozen times for his pay, of higgling and
screv/ing a fish, boy till he takes off two cents, or
of threatening to discharge his seamstress unless
she will work for a shilling a day ! how easy to
brand it all as slander, by showing that he pays
his minister in advance, is generous in Christmas
presents, gives a splendid new-year's party, ex-
pends hundreds on elections, and puts his name
with a round sum on the subscription paper of the
missionary society.
Who can forget the hospitality of King Herod,
that model of generosity " beyond all ancient
fame," who offered half his kingdom to a guest,
as a comj/ensation for an hour's amusement. —
Could such a noble spirit have murdered John
the Baptist ? Incredible ! Joab too ! how his soft
heart was pierced at the exile of Absalom ! and
how his bowels yearned to restore him to his
home ! Of course, it is all fiction about his assas-
sinating his nephew, Amasa, and Abner the cap-
tain of the host ! Since David twice spared the
life of Saul when he came to murder him, wept
on the neck of Jonathan, threw himself upon the
ground in anguish when his child sickened, and
bewailed, with a broken heart, the loss of Absa-
lom— it proves that he did not coolly plot and de-
liberately consummate the murder of Uriah; As
the Government of the United States generously
gave a township of land to General La Fayette,
it proves that they have never defrauded the In-
dians of theirs ! So the fact, that the slaveholders
of the present Congress are, to a man, favorable
to recognizing the independence of Texas, with
her fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants, before she
has achieved it, and before it is recognized by
any other government, proves that these same
slaveholders do not oppose the recognition of Hay.
ti, with her million of inhabitants, whose in depend-
ence was achieved nearly half a century ago, and
which is recognized by the most powerful goTcrn-
ments on earth !
But, seriously, no man is so slightly versed in
human nature as not to know that men habitually
exercise the most opposite feelings, and indulge
in the most opposite practices toward different
persons or different classes of persons around
them. No man has ever lived who was more
celebrated for his scrupulous observance of the
most exact justice, and for the illustration furnish-
ed in his life of the noblest natural virtues, than
the Roman Cato. His strict adherence to the
nicest rules of equity — his integrity, honor, and in.
corruptible faith — his jealous watchfulness over
the rights of his fellow citizens, and his generous
devotion to their interest, procured for him the
sublime appellation of " The Just." Towards/ree-
men his life was a model of every thing just and
noble : but to his slaves he was a monster. At
his meals, when the dishes were not done to his
liking, or when his slaves were careless or inat.
tentive in serving, he would seize a thong and
violently beat them, in presence of his guests. —
When they grew old or diseased, and were no
longer serviceable, however long and faithfully
they might have served him, he either turned
them adrift and left them to perish, or starved
them to death in his own family. No facts in his
history are better authenticated than these.
No people were ever more hospitable and rnu.
nificent than the Romans, and none more touched
with the sufferings of others. Their public thea.
tres often rung with loud weeping, thousands sod
bing convulsively at once over fictitious woes and
Ohjectimis Considered — Slaveholding Hospitality.
127
imaginary sufferers : and yet those same multi-
tudes would shout amidst the groans of a thou-
sand dying gladiators, forced by their conquerors
to kill each other in the amphitheatre for the
amusement of the public.*
Alexander, the tyrant of Phcrses, sobbed like a
child over the misfortunes of the Trojan queens,
when the tragedy of .\ndromache and Hecuba
was played before him ; yet he used to murder
liis subjects every day for no crime, and without
even setting up the pretence of any, but merely
to make himself sport.
The fact that slaveholders ma}' be full of bene-
volence and kindness toward their equals and to-
v.-ard whites geiierall}^ even so much so as to at-
tract the esteem and admiration of all, while they
treat with the most inhuman neglect their own
slaves, is well illustrated by a circumstance men-
tioned by the Rev. Dr. Cuanning, of Boston, (who
once lived in Virginia,) in his work on slavery,
p. 162, 1st edition : —
" I cannot," says the doctor, " forget my feel-
ings on visiting a hospital belonging to the plant-
ation of a gentleman highly esteemed for his vir-
tues, and whose manners and conversation ex-
pressed much benevolence and conscientiousness.
When I entered with him the hospital, the first
object on which my eye fell was a young woman
very ill, probably approaching death. She was
stretched on the floor. Her head rested on some-
thing like a pillow, but her body and limbs were
extended on the hard boards. The owner, I doubt
not, had, at least, as much kindness as myself;
but he was so used to see the slaves living with-
out common comforts, that the idea of unkind,
ness in the present instance did not enter his
mind."
Mr. George A. Avery, an elder of a Presbyte-
rian church in Rochester, N. Y. who resided some
years in Virginia, says : —
" On one occasion I was crossing the planta-
tion and approaching the house of a friend, when
I met him, rifle in hand, in pursuit of one of his
negroes, declaring he would shoot him in a mo-
ment if he got his eye upon him. It appeared
that the slave had refused to be flogged, and ran
off to avoid the consequences ; and yet the gener.
ous hospitality of this inan to myself, and white
friends generally, scarcely knew any bounds.
* Dr. Leland, in his " Necessity of a Divine Revelation,"
thus desciibes the prevalence of these shows among the
Romans :— " They were exhibited at the funerals of great
and rich men, and on many other occasions, by the Roman
consuls, prstors, adiles, senators, knights, priests, and al-
most all that bore great oifices in the state, as well as by the
emperors; and in general, by all that had a mind to make
an interest with the people, who were extravagantly fond
of those kinds of shows. Not only the men, but the women,
ran eagerly after them ; who were, by the prevalence of
custom, so far divested of that compassion and softness
which is natural to the sex, that they took a pleasure in
seeing them kill one another, and only desired that they
should fall genteelly, and in an agreeable attitude. Such
was the frequency of those shows, and so great the number
of men that were killed on those occasions, that Lipsius says,
no war caused such slaughter of mankind, as did these
Bp<irt3 of pleasure, throughout the several provinces of the
vast Roman empire."— /.eland's JVeces. of Div. Rev. -vol.
a. p. 51.
" There were amongst my slaveliolding friends
and acquaintances, persons who were as humane
and conscientious as men can be, and persist in
tlic impious claim of property in a fellow being.
Still 1 can recollect but one instance of corporal
punishment, whether the subject were male or
female, in which the infliction was not on the
bare back with the riiio hide, or a similar instru-
ment, the subject being tied during the operation
to a post or tree. The exception was in\(ier the
following circumstances. I liad taken a v.'alk with
a friend on his plantation, and approaching his
gang of slaves, 1 sat down whilst he proceeded to
the spot where they were at work ; and address-
ing himself somewhat earnestly to a female who
was wielding the hoe, in a moment caught up
what I supposed a tobacco stick, (a stick some
three feet in length, on which the tobacco, when
cut, is suspended to dry,) about the size oi a marl's
wrist, and laid on a number of blows furiously
over her head. The woman crouched, and seem-
ed stunned with the blows, but presently recom-
menced the motion of her hoe."
Dr. David Nelson, a native of Tennessee, and
late president of Marion College, Missouri, in a
lecture at Northampton, Mass. in January, 1839,
made the following statement : —
" I remember a young lady who played well on
the piano, and was very ready to weep over any
fictitious tale of suffering. I was present when
one of her slaves lay on the floor in a high fever,
and we feared she might not recover. I saw that
young lady stainp upon her with her feet; and
the only remark her mother made was, ' I am
afraid Evelina is too much prejudiced against poor
Mary.' "
General William Eaton, for some years U. S.
Consul at Tunis, and commander of the expedi.
tion against Tripoli, in 1805, thus gives vent to
his feelings at the sight of many hundreds of Sar-
dinians who had been enslaved by the Tunisian*:
" Many have died of grief, and the others lin-
ger out a life less tolerable than death. Alas !
remorse seizes my whole soul when I reflect, that
this is indeed but a copy of the very barbarity
which m,y eyes have seen in my own native coun-
try. How frequently, in the southern states of
my own country, have I seen weeping mothers
leading the guiltless infant to the sales with as
deep anguish as if they led them to the slaughter ;
and yet felt my bosom tranquil in the view of these
aggressions on defenceless humanity. But when
I see the same enormities practised upon beings
whose complexions and blood claim kindred with
my own, / curse the perpetrators, and weep over
the wretched victims of their rapacity. Indeed,
truth and justice demand from me the confession,
that the Christian slaves among the barbarians of
Africa are treated with more humanity than the
African slaves among professing Christians of
civilized America ; and yet here [in Tunis] sensibil-
ity bleeds at every pore for the wretches whon*
fate has doomed to slavery."
Rev. H. Lyman, late pastor of the free Presby-
terian Church, Buffalo, N. Y. who spent the win
ter of 1832-3 at the south, says : —
128
Objections Considered — Slaveholding Hospitality.
•' In the interior of Mississippi I was invited to
the house of a planter, where I was received with
groat cordiality, and entertained with marked
hospitality.
" There I saw a master in the midst of his
household slaves. The evening passed most plea-
santly, as indeed it must, where assiduous hospi-
talities are exorcised towards the guest.
" Late in the morning, when I had gained the
tardy consent of my host to go on my way, as a
final act of kindness, he called a slave to show
me across the fields by a nearer route to the main
road. ' David,' said he, 'go and show this gen.
tleman as far as the post-office. Do you know
the big bay tree ?' ' Yes, sir.' ' Do you know
where the cotton mill is ?' ' Yes, sir.' ' Where
Squire Malcolm's old field is ?' ' Y-e-s, sir,' said
David, (beginning to be bewildered). " Do you
know where Squire Malcolm's cotton field is ?'
' No, sir.' ' No, sir,' said the enraged master,
levelling his gun at him. 'What do you stand
here, saying, Yes, yes, yes, fi3r, when you don't
know ?' All this was accompanied with threats
and imprecations, and a manner that contrasted
strangely with the religious conversation and gen-
tle manners of the previous evening."
The Rev. James H. Dickey, formerly a slave-
holder in South Carolina, now pastor of the Pres-
byterian Church in Hennepin, 111. in his " Review
of Nevins' Biblical Antiquities," after asserting
that slaveholding tends to beget "a spirit of cru-
elty and tyranny, and to destroy every generous
and noble feeling," (page 33,) he adds the follow-
ing as a note : —
" It may be that this will be considered censo-
rious, and the proverbial generosity and hospital-
ity of the south will be appealed to as a full con-
futation of it. The writer thinks he can appre-
ciate southern kindness and hospitality. Having
been born in Virginia, raised and educated in
South Carolina and Kentucky, he is altogether
southern in his feelings, and habits, and modes of
familiar conversation. He can say of the south
as Cowper said of England, ' With all thy faults
I !ovc thee still, my country.' And nothing but
the abominations of slavery could have induced
him willingly to forsake a land endeared to him
by all the associations of childhood and youth.
'' Yet it is candid to admit that it is not all gold
that glitters. There is a fictitious kindness and
hospitality. The famous Robin Hood was kind
and generous — no man more hospitable — he rob.
bed the rich to supply the necessities of tlie poor.
Others rob the poor to bestow gifts and lavish
kindness and hospitality on their rich friends and
neighbors. It is an easy matter for a man to ap-
pear kind and generous, when he bestows that
which others have earned.
" I said, there is a fictitious kindness and hos-
pitality. I once knew a man who left his wife
and children three days, without fire-wood, with,
out bread-stufl^, and without shoes, while the
ground was covered with snow — that he might in-
dulge in his cups. And when I attempted to
expostulate with him, he took the subject out of
my handri, and expatiating on the evils of intern-
perance more eloquently than I could, concluded
by warning me, with tears, to avoid the snares of
the latter. He had tender feelings, yet a hard
heart. I once knew a young lady of polished
manners and accomplished education, who would
weep with sympathy over the fictitious woes ex-
hibited in a novel. And waking from her reverie
of grief, while her eye was yet wet with tears,
would call her little waiter, and if she did not
appear at the first call, would rap her head with
her thimble till my head ached.
" I knew a man who was famed for kindly
sympathies. He once took off his shirt and gave
it to a poor white man. The same man hired a
black man, and gave him for his daily task,
through the winter, to feed the beasts, keep fires,
and make one hundred rails : and in case of fail-
ure the lash was applied so freely, that, in the
spring, his back was one continued sore, from his
shoulders to his waist. Yet this man was a pro-
fessor of religion, and famous for his tender sym-
pathies to white men !"
Objection IV.— ' NORTHERN VISITORS AT THE SOUTH TESTIFY THAT THE
SLAVES ARE NOT CRUELLY TREATED.'
Answer : — Their knowledge on this point
must have been derived, either from the slave-
holders and overseers themselves, or from the
slaves, or from their own obsen^ation. If from
the slaveholders, their testimony has already
been weighed and found wanting ; if they derived
it from the slaves, they can hardly be so simple
as to suppose that the gtiest, associate and friend
of the master, would be likely to draw from his
slaves any other testimony respecting his treat-
ment of them, than such as would please him.
The great shrewdness and tact exhibited by
slaves in keeping themselves out of difficult]!, when
close questioned by strangers as to their treat-
ment, cannot fail to strike every accurate ob-
server. The following remarks of Chief Justice
Henderson, a North Carolina slaveholder, in his
decision (in 1830,) in the case of the State versus
Charity, 2 Devsreaux's North Carolina Reports,
543, illustrate the folly of arguing the good
treatment of slaves from their owri declarations,
while in the poioer of their masters. In the case
above cited, the Chief Justice, in refusing to per-
mit a master to give in evidence, declarations
made to him by his slave, says of masters and
I slaves generally —
" The master has an almost absolute control
! over the body and ?nind of his slave. The mas.
j tor's will is the slave's will. All his acts, all his
1 sayings, arc made with a view to propitiate his
I master. His confessions arc made, not from a
love of truth, not from a sense of duty, not to
speak a falsehood, but to please his master — and
Ohjecttons Considered — Northern Visitors.
120
it is in vain that his master tells liiin to speak the
truth, and conceals from him how lie wishes the
question answered. The slave wil/. ascertain, or,
■which is the same thing-, think that he has ascer-
tained t/ie wis/ies of his master, and mould his
ANSWER ACCORDINGLY. We therefore more often
get the wishes of the master, or the slave's belief
of his wishes, than the truth."
The followinc^ extract of a letter from the Hon.
Skth 31. Gates, member elect of the next Con-
gress, furnishes a clue b}' which to interpret the
looks, actions, and protestations of slaves, when
in the presence of their masters' guests, and the
pains sometimes taken by slaveholders, in teach-
ing their slaves the art of pretending that they
are treated well, love their masters, are happy,
&c. Thd' letter is dated Leroy, Jan. 4, 1839.
" I have sent your letter to Rev. Joseph M.
Sadd, Castile, Genesee county, who resided five
years in a slave state, and left, disgusted with
slavery. I trust he will give you some facts. I
remember one fact, which his wife witnessed. A
relative, where she boarded, returning to his
plantation after a temporary absence, was not
met by his servants with such demonstrations of
joy as was their wont. He ordered his horse
put out, took dovim his whip, ordered his servants
to the barn, and gave them a most cruel beating,
because they did not run out to meet him, and
pretend great attachment to him. Mrs. Sadd
had overheard the servants agreeing not to go
out, before his return, as they said they did not
love him — and this led her to watch his conduct
to them. This man was a professor of religion !"
If these northern visitors derived their informa-
tion that the slaves arc 7iot cruelly treated from
their own observation, it amounts to this, they did
not see cruelties inflicted on the slaves. To
which we reply, that the preceding pages con-
tain testimony from hundreds of witnesses, who
testify that they did see the cruelties whereof
they affirm. Besides this, they contain the sol-
emn declarations of scores of slaveholders them-
selves, in all parts of the slave states, that the
slaves are cruelly treated. These declarations
are moreover fully corroborated, by the laws of
slave states, by a multitude of advertisements in
their newspapers, describing runaway slaves, by
their scars, brands, gashes, maimings, cropped
ears, iron collars, chains, &c. &c.
Truly, after the foregoing array of facts and
testimony, and after the objectors' forces have
one after another filed off before thera, now to
march up a phalanx of northern visitors, is to
beat a retreat. ' Visitors I' What insight do
casual visitors get into the tempers and daily
practices of those whom they visit, or of the
treatment that their slaves receive at their hands,
especially if these visitors are strangers, and from
a region where there are no slaves, and which
claims to be opposed to slavery ? What oppor-
tunity has a stranger, and a temporary guest, to
17
learn the every-day habits and caprices of his
host ? Oh, these northern visitors tell us they
have visited scores of families at the south, and
never saw a master or mistress whip their slaves.
Indeed ! They have, doubtless, visited hundreds
of families at the north — did they ever see, on
such occasions, the father or mother whip their
children ? If so, they must associate with very
ill-bred persons. Because well-bred parents do
not whip their children in the presence, or within
the hearing of their guests, are we to infer that
they never do it out of their sight and hearing ?
But perhaps the fact that these visitors do not
rcmcmhcr seeing slaveholders strike their slaves,
merely proves, that they had so little feeling for
them, that though they might be struck every
day in their presence, 3'et as they were only slaves
and ' niggers,' it produced no effect upon them ;
consequently they have no impressions to recall.
These visitors have also doubtless rode with
scores of slaveliolder--. Are they quite certain
they ever saw them whip their horses ? and can
they recall the persons, times, places, and circum-
stances ? But even if these visitors regarded the
slaves with some kind feelings, when they first
went to the south, yet being constantly with their
oppressors, seeing them used as articles of proper-
ty, accustomed to hear them charged with all
kinds of misdemeanors, their ears filled with com.
plaints of their laziness, carelessness, insolence,
obstinacy, stupidity, thefts, elopements, &c. and
at the same time, receiving themselves the most.
gratifying attentions and caresses from the same
persons, who, vdute they make to them these
representations of their slaves, are giving them
airings in their coaches, making parties for them,
taking them on excursions of pleasure, lavishin<r
upon them their choicest hospitalities, and ui-ging
them to protract indefinitely their stay — what
more natural tlian for the flattered guest to ad-
mire such hospitable people, catch their spirit,
and fully sympathize with their feelings toward
their slaves, regarding with increased disgust
and aversion those who can habitually tease and
wony such loveliness and generosity.* After
* Well saith the Scripture, " A gift blindetli tlie eyes."
Tiip slaves understand tliis, tliough tlic guest may not ; they
know very well that tlicy have no sympathy to expect from
their master's guests; that the good cheer of the "big
house," and the attentions shown them, will generally
commit them in tlicir master's favor, and against tliem-
sclves. Messrs. Thome and Kimball, in their late wor.k,
state the following fact, in illustration of this feeling among
the negro apprentices in Jamaica.
" The governor of one of the islands, shortly after his ar-
rival, dined with one of the wealthiest proprietors. Tho
next day one of the negroes of the estate said to another,
" De new gubner been pot.so«'d." "What dat you say ■?"'
inquired the other in astonishment, "De gubner'been poi-
soned! Dah, now: — IIow him poisoned?'' ^'^ Him eat
massa's turtle soup fast night" said the shrewd negro. The
other took his meaning at once ; and his sympatliy for tlie
governor was turned into concern for himself when he
perceived that the poison was one from whicii hs was likely
130
Ohjeciions Considered — Northern Visitors.
the visitor had been in contact with the slave-
holding spirit long enough to have imbibed it,
(no very tedious process,) a cuff, or even a kick
administered to a slave, would not be likely to
give him such a shock that his memory would
long retain the traces of it. But lest we do these
visitors injustice, we will suppose that they car-
ried with them to the south humane feelings for
the slave, and that those feelings remained un-
blunted ; still, what opportunity could they have
to witness the actual condition of the slaves ?
They come in contact with the house-servants
only, and as a general thing, with none but the
select ones of these, the parlor-servaxits ; who
generally differ as widely in their appearance
and treatment from the cooks and scullions in
the kitchen, as parlor furniture does from the
kitchen utensils. Certain servants are assigned to
the parlor, just as certain articles of furniture are
selected for it, to be seen — and it is no less ridic-
ulous to infer that the kitchen scullions are
clothed and treated like those servants who wait
at the table, and are in the presence of guests,
than to infer that the kitchen is set out with so-
fas, ottomans, piano-fortes, and full-length mir-
rors, because the parlor is. But the house-slaves
are only a fraction of the whole number. The
field-hands constitute the great mass of the
slaves, and these the visitors rarely get a glimpse
at. Tliey are away at their work by day-break,
and do not return to their huts till dark. Their
huts are commonly at some distance from the mas-
ter's mansion, and the fields m which they labor,
generally much farther, and out of sight. If the
visitor traverses the plantation, care is taken that
he does not go alone ; if he expresses a wish to
see it, the horses are saddled, and the master or
his son gallops the rounds with him ■, if he ex-
presses a desire to see the slaves at work, his
conductor will know where to take him, and
when, and which of them to show ; the overseer,
too, knowa.quite too well the part he has to act on
such occasions, to shock the uninitiated ears of
iie visitors with the shrieks of his victims. It is
manifest that visitors can see only the least re-
pulsive parts of slavery, inasmuch as it is wholly
at the option of the master, what parts to show
them ; as a matter of necessit}^ he can see only
the outside — and that, like the outside of door-
knobs and andirons, is furbished up to be looked
at. So long as it is human nature to wear the
best side out, so long the northern guests of
southern slaveholders will see next to nothing of
the reality of slavery. Those visitors may still
keep up their autumnal migrations to the slave
states, and, after a hasty survey of the tinsel
hung before the curtain of slavery, without a sin-
to suffer more than his excellency." — Emancipation in the
IVest Indies, p. 331.
gle glance behind it, and at the paint and varnisf?
that cover up dead men's bones, and while those
who have hoaxed them with their smooth stories,
and white-washed specimens of slavery, are tit .
teringat their gullibility, they return in the spring
on the same fool's-errand with their predecessors,
retailing their lesson, and mouthing the praises
of the masters, and the comforts of the slaves-
They now become village umpires in all disputes
about the condition of the slaves, and each thence
forward ends all controversies with his oracular,
" I've seen, and sure I ought to know."
But all northern visitors at the south are not
thus easily gulled. Many of them, as the pre-
ceding pages show, have too much sense to be
caught with chaff.
We maj' add here, that those classes of visitors
whose representations of the treatment of slaves
are most influential in moulding the opinions of
the free states, are ministers of the gospel, agents
of benevolent societies, and teachers who have
traveled and temporarily resided in the slave
states — classes of persons less likely than any
others to witness cruelties, because slaveholders
generally take more pains to keep such visitors
in ignorance than others, because their vocations
would furnish them fewer opportunities for wit-
nessing them, and because they come in contact
with a class of society in which fewer atrocities
are committed than in an}^ other, and that too.
under circumstances which make it almost im-
possible for them to witness those which arc
actually committed.
Of the numerous classes of persons from the
north who temporarily reside in the slave states,
the mechanics who find employment on the plan,
taiions, are the only persons who are in circum ■
stances to look " behind the scenes." Merchants,
pedlars, venders of patents, drovers, speculators,
and almost all descriptions of persons who go
from the free states to the south to make money,
see little of slavery, except upon the road, at pub-
lic inns, and in villages and cities.
Let not the reader infer from what has been
said, that the parlor-sla.ves, chamber-maids, &c.
in the slave states are not treated with cruelty —
far from it. They often experience terrible in-
flictions ; not generally so terrible or so frequent
as the field-hands, and very rarely in the presence
of guests.* House-slaves are for the most part
treated fai better than plantation-slaves, and
* Rev. JosEi-n M. Sadd, a Presbyterian clergyman, in
Castile, Genesee -Tounty, N. Y. recently from Missouri,
where he has preached five years, in the midst of slave-
holders, says, in a letter just received, speaking of the
pains taken by slaveholders to conceal from the ej-es of
stratigers and visitors, the cruelties which they inflict upon
their slaves —
" It is difficult to be an eye-witness of these things ; the
master and mistress almost invariably punish their slaves,
only in the preselice of other slaves, or before other meri-
[ bers of their own family, and often at the dead of night."
Objections Considered — Northern Visitors.
131
those under the immediate direction of the mas-
ter and mistress, than those under overseers and
drivers. It is quite worthy of remark, that of
the thousands of northern men who have visited
the south, and arc always lauding the kindness
of slaveholders and the comfort of the slaves,
protesting that they have never seen cruelties
inflicted on them, &c. each perhaps, without
exception, has some story to tell which reveals,
better perhaps than the most barbarous butchery
could do, a public sentiment toward slaves,
showing that the most cruel inflictions must of
necessity be the constant portion of the slaves.
Though facts of this kind lie thick in every
corner, the reader will, we are sure, tolerate even
a needless illustration, if told that it is from the
pen of N. P. Rogers, Esq. of Concord, N. H.
who, whatever he writes, though it be, as in this
case, a mere hasty letter, always finds readers to
the end.
" At a court session at Guilford, Stafford county,
N. H. in August, 1837, the Hon. Daniel M. Du-
rell, of Dover, formerly Chief Justice of the Com-
mon Pleas for ihat state, and a member of Con.
gross, was charging the abolitionists, in presence
of several gentlemen of the bar, at their boarding
house, with exaggerations and misrepresentations
of slave treatment at the south. ' One instance
in particular,' he witnessed, he said, where he
' knew they misrepresented. It was in the Con-
gregational meeting house at Dover. He was
passing by, and saw a crowd entering and about
the door; andon inquiry, found that abolition loas
going on in there. He stood in the entry for a
moment, and found the Englishman, Thompson,
\\Tis holding forth. The fellow was speaking of
the treatment of slaves ; and he said it was no
uncommon thing for masters, v/hen exasperated
with the slave, to hang him up by the two thumbs,
and flog him. I knew the fellow ligd there,' said
the judge, ' for I had traveled through the south,
from Georgia north, and I never savv a single
instance of the kind. The fellow said it was a
common thing.' ' Did you see any exasperated
masters. Judge,' said I, ' in your journey V ' No
sir,' said he, ' not an individual instance.' ' You
hardly are able to convict Mr. Thoinpson of
falsehood, then. Judge,' said I, ' if I understood
you right. He spoke, as I understood you, of
exasperated masters — and you say you did not
see any. Mr. Thompson did not say it was com-
mon for masters in good humor to hang up their
slaves.' The Judge did not perceive the materi-
ality of the distinction. ' Oh, they misrepresent
and lie about this treatment of the niggers,' he
continued. ' In going through all the states I
visited, I do not now remember a single instance
of cruel treatment. Indeed, I remember of see.
ing but one nigger struck, during my whole jour-
ney. There was one instance. We were riding
in the stage, pretty early one morning, and we
met a black fellow, driving a span of horses, and
a load (I think he said) of hay. The fellow
turned out before we got to him, clean down
into the ditch, as far as he could get. He knew,
you see, what to depend on, if he did not give the
road. Our driver, as we passed the fellow,
fetched him a smart crack with his whip across
tlic cliops. He did not make any noise, though
I guess it hurt him some — he grinned. — Oh, no !
tiicsc fellows exaggerate. The niggers, aa a gen-
eral thing, are kindly treated. There may be ex-
ceptions, but I saw nothing of it.' (By the way,
the Judge did not know there were any abolition-
ists present.) ' What did you do to the driver,
Judge,' said I, ' for striking that man ?' ' Do I'
said he, ' I did notliing to him, to be sure.' 'What
did you say to him, sir V said I. ' Nothing,' he
replied : ' I said nothing to him.' ' What did the
other passengers do V said I. ' Nothing, sir,'
said the Judge. ' The fellow turned out the
white of his eye, but he did not make any noise.'
' Did the driver say any thing, Judge, when he
struck the man?' 'Nothing,' said the Judge,
' only he damned him, and told him he'd learn
him to keep out of the reach of his whip ' ' Sir,'
said I, ' if George Thompson had told this story,
in the warmth of an anti-slavery speech, I should
scarcely have credited it. I have attended many
anti-slavery meetings, and I never heard an in-
stance of such cold-blooded, wanton, insolent,
DIABOLICAL cruclty as this ; and, sir, if I live to
attend another meeting, I shall relate this, and
give Judge Durell's name as the witness of it.'
An infliction of the most insolent character, en-
tirely unprovoked, on a perfect stranger, who had
showed the utmost civility, in giving all the road,
and only could not get beyond the long reach of
the driver's whip — and he a stage driver, a class
generous next to the sailor, in the sober hour of
morning — and borne in silence — and told to show
that the colored man of the south was kindly treat
ed — all evincing, to an unutterable extent, that
the temper of the south toward the slave is mer-
ciless, even to diabolism — and that the north
regards him with, if possible, a more fiendish in-
difference still !"
It seems but an act of simple justice to say, in
conclusion, that many of the slaveholders from
whom our northern visitors derive their informa-
tion of the " good treatment" of the slave, may
not design to deceive them. Such visitors are
often, perhaps, generally brought in contact with
the better class of slaveholders, whose slaves are
really better fed, clothed, lodged, and housed ;
more moderately worked ; more seldom whipped,
and with less severity, than the slaves generally.
Those masters in speaking of the good condition
of their slaves, and asserting that tliey are treated
loell, use terms that are not absolute but compara-
tive : and it may be, and doubtless often is true
that their slaves are treated well as slaves, in com-
parison with the treatment received by slaves
generally. So the overseers of such slaves, and the
slaves themselves, may, without lying or designing
to mislead, honestly give the same testimony. As
the great body of slaves within their knowledge
fare worse, it is not strange that, when speaking
of the treatment on their own plantation, they
should call it good.
132
Oijections Considered — Interest of Masters.
Ejection V.—' IT IS FOR THE INTEREST OF THE MASTERS TO TREAT THEIR
SLAVES WELL.'
So it is for the interest of the drunkard to quit
his cups ; for the glutton to curb his appetite ; for
the debauchee to bridle his lust ; for the sluggard
to be up betimes ; for the spendthrift to be eco-
nomical, and for all sinners to stop sinning. Even
if it were for the interest of masters to treat their
slaves well, he must be a novice who thinks that
a proof that the slaves are well treated. The
whole history of man is a record of real interests
sacrificed to present gratification. If all men's
actions were consistent with their best interests,
iolly and sin would be words without meaning.
If the objector means that it is for the pecu-
niary interests of masters to treat their slaves
v/ell, and thence infers their good treatment, we
reply, that though tiie love of money is strong, yet
appetite and lust, pride, anger and revenge, the
love of power and honor, are each an overmatch
for it ; and when either of them is roused by a
sudden stimulant, the love of rtoney is worsted in
the grapple with it. Look at the hourly lavish
outlays of money to procure a momentary gratifi.
cation for those passions and appetites. As tlie de-
sire for money is, in the main, merely a desire for
the means of gratifjring other desires, or rather
for one of the means, it must be the servant not
the sovereign of those desires, to whose gratifica-
tion its only use is to minister. But even if the
love of money were the strongest human passion,
who is simple enough to believe that it is all the
time so powerfully excited, that no other passion
or appetite can get the mastery over it ? Who
does not knov/ that gusts of rage, revenge, jea-
lousy and lust drive it before them as a tempest
tosses a feather ?
The objector has forgotten his first lessons ; they
taught him that it is human nature to gratify the
uppermost passion : and is prudence the upper-
most passion with slaveholders, and self-restraint
their great characteristic ? The strongest feeling
of any moment is the sovereign of that moment,
and rules. Is a propensity to practice economy
the predominant feeling with slaveholders ? Ri-
diculous ! Every northerner knows that slave-
holders are proverbial for lavish expenditures,
never higgling about the price of a gratification.
Human passions have not, like the tides, regular
ebbs and flows, with their stationary, high and
low water marks. They are a dominion convulsed
with revolutions ; coronations and dethronements
in ceaseless succession — each ruler a usurper and
a despot. Love of money gets a snatch at the
sceptre as well as the rest, not by hereditary right,
but because, in the fluctuations of human feel-
ings, a chance wave washes him up to the throne,
and the next perhaps washes him off, without
time to nominate his successor. Since, then, as a
matter of fact, a host of appetites and passions do
hourly get the better of love of money, what pro-
tection does the slave find in his master's interest,
against the sweep of his passions and appetites ?
Besides, a master can inflict upon his slave hor-
rible cruelties without perceptibly injuring his
health, or taking time from his labor, or lessening
his value as property. Blows with a small stick
give more acute pain, than with a large one. A
club bruises, and benumbs the nerves, while a
switch, neither breaking nor braising the flesh, in-
stead of blunting the sense of feeling, wakes up
and stings to torture all the susceptibilities of pain.
By this kind of infliction, more actual cruelty can
be perpetrated in the giving of pain at the instant,
than by the most horrible bruisings and lacerations ;
and that, too, with little comparative hazard to
the slave's health, or to his value as property, and
without loss of time from labor. Even giving to
the objection all the force claimed for it, what
protection is it to the slave ? It professes to
shield the slave from such treatment alone, as
would either lay him aside from labor, or injure
his health, and thus lessen his value as a working
animal, making him a damaged article in the
market. Now, is nothing had treatment of a hu-
man being except that which produces these ef-
fects ? Does the fact that a man's constitution is
not actually shattered, and his life shortened by
his treatment, prove that he is treated well ? Is
no treatment cruel except what sprains muscles,
or cuts sinews, or bursts blood vessels, or breaks
bones, and thus lessens a man's value as a work-
ing animal ?
A slave may get blows and kicks every hour in
the day, without having his constitution broken,
or without suffering sensibly in his health, or flesh,
or appetite, or power to labor. Therefore, beaten
and kicked as he is, he must be treated well, ac-
cording to the objector, since the master's inter,
est does not suffer thereby.
Finally, the objector virtually maintains that all
possible privations and inflictions suffered by
slaves, that do not actually cripple their power to
labor, and make them ' damaged merchandize,'
are to be set down as ' good treatment,' and that
nothing is bad treatment except what produces
these effects.
Thus we see that even if the slave were effect-
ually shielded from all those inflictions, which, by
lessening his value as property, would injure the
interests of his master, he would still have no
protection against numberless and terrible cruel-
ties. But we go further, and maintain that in re-
spect to large classes of slaves, it is for the in-
Ohjections Considered — Interest of Masters.
133
tercst of their masters to treat them with barbarous
inhumanity.
1. Old slaves. It would be for the interest of
the masters to sliortcn their days.
2. Worn out slaves. Multitudesof slaves by be-
ing overworked, have their constitutions broken in
middle life. It would be economical for masters
to starve or flog such to death.
3. The incurably diseased and 7naimcd. In all
such cases it would be cheaper for masters to buy
poison than medicine.
4. The blind, lunatics, and idiots. As all such
would be a tax on him, it would be for his interest
to shorten their days.
5. The deaf and dumb, and persons greatly de-
formed. Such might or might not be serviceable
to him ; many of tliem at least would be a burden,
and few men carry burdens when they can throw
them off.
6. Feeble infants. As such would require much
nursing, the time, trouble and expense necessary
to raise them, would generally be more than they
would be worth as working animals. How many
such mfants would be likely to be ' raised,' from
disinterested benevolence ? To this it may be
added that in the far south and south west, it is
notoriously for the interest of the master not to
' raise' slaves at all. To buy slaves when nearly
grown, from the northern slave states, would be
cheaper than to raise them. This is shown in the
fact, that mothers with infants sell for less in those
states than those without them. And when slave-
traders purchase such in the upper country, it is
notorious that they not unfrequently either sell
their infants, or give them away. Therefore it
would be for the interest of the masters, through-
out that region, to have all the new-born chil-
dren left to perish. It would also be for his
interest to make such arrangements as effectually
to separate the sexes, or if that were not done, so
to overwork the females as to prevent childbearing.
7. Incorrigible slaves. On most of the large
plantations, there are, more or less, incorrigible
slaves, — that is, slaves w*ho will not be profitable
to their masters — and from whom torture can ex-
tort little but defiance.* These are frequently
slaves of uncommon minds, who feel so keenly
the wrongs of slavery that their proud spirits
spurn their chains and defy their tormentors.
They have commonly great sway over the
other slaves, their example is contagious, and their
influence subversive of 'plantation discipline.'
Consequently they must be made a warning to
* Advertisements like the following are not unfrequent in
the southern papers.
Prom the Elizabeth (JV. C; Phenix, Jan. 5, 1839.
"The subscriber offers for sale his blacksmith Nat, 28
years of age, and remarkably large and likely. Tlie only
cause of my selling him is I cannot control him.
Hertford, Dec. 5, 1838. J. Gordon."
others. It is for the interest of the masters (at
least they believe it to be) to put upon such slaves
iron collars and chains, to brand and crop them ;
to disfigure, lacerate, starve and torture them — in
a word, to inflict upon them such vengeance as
shall strike terror into the other slaves. To this
class may be added the incorrigibly thievish and
indolent; it would be for the interest of the mas-
ters to treat them with such sevcrit}^ as would Av-
tcr others from following their example.
7. Runaways. When a slave has once runaway
from his master and is caught, he is thencefor-
ward treated with severity. It is for the interest
of the master to make an example of him, by the
greatest privations and inflictions.
8. Hired slaves. It is for the interest of thof^e
who hire slaves to get as much out of them as
they can ; the temptation to overwork them is
powerful. If it be said that the master could, in
that case, recover damages, the answer is, that
damages would not be recoverable in law unless
actual injury — enough to impair the power of
the slave to labor be proved. And this ordi-
narily would be impossible, unless the slave has
been worked so greatly beyond his strength as
to produce some fatal derangement of the vital
functions. Indeed, as all who are famihar with
such cases in southern coiirty well laiow, the proof
of actual injury to the slave, so as to lessen his
value, is exceedingly difficult to make out, and
every hirer of slaves can overvvork them, give
them insufficient food, clothing, and shelter, and
inflict upon them nameless cruelties with entire
impunity. We repeat then that it is for the inter-
est of the hirer to push his slaves to their utmost
strength, provided he does not drive them to such
an extreme, that their constitutions actually give
way under it, while in his hands. The supreme
court of Maryland has decided that, 'There must
be at least a diminution of the faculty of the slave
for bodily labor to warrant an action by the mas-
ter.'— 1 Hams and Johnson^s Reports, 4.
9. Slaves under overseers whose wages are pro-
portioned to the crop ivhich they raise. This is an
arrangement common in the slave states, and in its
practical operation is equivalent to a bounty on
hard driving — a virtual premium offered to over-
seers to keep the slaves whipped up to the top of
their strength. Even where the overseer has a
fixed salary, irrespective of the value of the crop
which he takes off, he is strongly tempted to over-
work the slaves, as those overseers get the highest
wages who can draw the largest income from a
plantation with a given number of slaves ; so that
we may include in this last class of slaves, the
majority of all those who are under overseers,
whatever the terms on which those overseers are
employed.
Another class of slaves may be mentionefl ; we
134
Objections Considered — Interest of Masters.
refer to the slaves of masters who bet upon their I
crops. In the cotton and sugar region there is a
fearful amount of this desperate gambling, in
which, though money is the ostensible stake and
forfeit, human life is the real one. The length
to which this rivalry is carried at the south and
south west, the multitude of planters who en-
gage in it, and the recklessness of human life
exhibited in driving the murderous game to its
issue, cannot well be imagined by one who has
not lived in the midst of it. Desire of gain is
only one of the motives that stimulates them ; —
the eclat of having made the largest crop with a
given number of hands, is also a powerful stimu-
lant ; the southern newspapers, at the crop sea-
son, chronicle carefully the " cotton brag," and
the " crack cotton picking," and " unpai'alleled
driving," &c. Even the editor of professedly
religious papers, cheer on the melee and sing
the triumphs of the victor. Among these we
recollect the celebrated Rev. J. N. Maffit, recent-
ly editor of a religous paper at Natchez, Miss, in
which he took care to assign a prominent place,
and capitals to '' the cotton brag." The testimo-
ny of Mr. Bliss, page 38, details some of the
particulars of this betting upon crops. All the
preceding classes of slaves are in circumstances
■whicli make it " for the interest of their masters,"
or those who have the management of them, to
treat them cruelly.
Besides the operation of the causes already
specified, which make it for the interest of mas-
ters and overseers to treat cruelly certain classes of
their slaves, a variety of others exist, which
make it for their interest to treat cruelly the
great body of their slaves. These causes are,
the nature of certain kinds of products, the kind
of labor required in cultivating and preparing
them for market, the best times for such labor,
the .state of the market, fluctuations in prices,
facilities for transportation, the weather, seasons,
&c. <fcc. Some of the causes which operate to
produce this are —
1. The early market. If the planter can get
his crop into market early, he may save thousands
which might be lost if it arrived later.
2. Changes in the market. A sudden rise in
the market with the probability that it will bo
short, or a gradual fall with a probabihty that it
will be long, is a strong temptation to the mas-
ter to push his slaves to the utmost, that he may
in the one case make all he can, by taking the
tide at the flood, and in the other lose as little as
may be, by taking it as early as possible in the
ebb.
3. High prices. Whenever the slave grown
staples bring a high price, as is now the
case with cotton, every slaveholder is tempted to
overwork his slaves. By forcing them to do
double work for a few weeks or months, while
the price is up, he can afford to lose a number ol
them and to lessen the value of all by over-
driving. A cotton planter with a hundred vigor-
ous slaves, would have made a profitable specu
lation, if, during the years '34, 5, and 6, when
the average price of cotton was 17 cents a pound,
h5 had so overworked his slaves that half of
them died upon his hands in '37, when cotton had
fallen to six and eight cents. No wonder that
the poor slaves pray that cotton and sugar maj?
be cheap. The writer has frequently heard it
declared by planters in the lower country, that,
it is more profitable to drive the slaves to such
over exertion as to use them up, in seven or eight
years, than to give them only ordinary tasks and
protract their lives to the ordinary period.*
4. Untimely seasons. When the winter en-
croaches on the spring, and makes late seed time,
the first favorable weather is a temptation to
overwork the slaves, too strong to be resisted by
those who hold men as mere working animals.
So when frosts set in early, and a great amount ot
work is to be done in a little time, or great loss
suffered. So also after a long storm either in
seed or crop time, when the weather becomes
favorable, the same temptation presses, and in
all these cases the master would save monej by
overdriving his slaves.
5. Periodical pressure of certain lands of labor.
The manufacture of sugar is an illustration.
In a work entitled " Travels in Louisiana in
1802," translated from the French, by John
Davis, is the following testimony under this
head : —
" At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from
two to three months, they (the slaves in Louisi-
ana,) work both night and day. Abridged of
theh' sleep, they scarcely retire to rest dm'ing the
whole period." See page 81.
In an article on the agriculture of Louisiana,
published in the second number of the " Western
Review," is the following : — " The work is ad-
mitted to be severe for the hands, (slaves) requir-
ing, when the process of making sugar is com
menced, to be pressed night and dav."
It would be for the interest of the sugar planter
greatly to overwork his slaves, during the amiual
process of sugar-making.
The severity of this periodical pressure, in
preparing for market other staples of the slave
states besides sugar, may be infen-ed from the
following. Mr. Hammond, of South Carohna,
in his speech in Congress, Feb. 1. 1836, (See
National Intelligencer) said, " In the heat of tho
crop, the loss of one or two days, would inevit
ably ruin it."
6. Times of scarcity. Drought, long rain,
frost, &c. are liable to cut off the corn crop, upon
* The reader is referred to a variety of facts and testimo-
ny on this point on the 39th page of this work.
Oijeciians Considered — Interest of Masters.
135
which the slaves arc fed. If this liappcns when
the staple wliic'i they raise is at a low price, it is
for the interest of the master to put the slave on
short rations, thus forcing him to sutler from
hunger.
7. The raisivg of crops for cxportatiort. In all
those states where cotton and sugar are raised
for exportation, it is, for the most part, more
profitable to buy provisions for the slaves than to
raise them. Where this is the case the slave-
liolders believe it to be for their interest to give
their slaves less food, than their hunger craves,
and they do generally give them insufficient sus-
tenance.*
Now let us make some estimate of the propor-
tion which the slaves, included in the foregoing
nine classes, sustain to the whole number, and
then of the proportion affected by the operation
of the seven causes just enumerated.
It would be nearly impossible to form an esti-
mate of the proportion of the slaves included in a
number of these classes, such as the old, the worn
out, the incurably diseased, maimed and deform-
ed, idiots, feeble infants, incorrigible slaves, &c.
More or less of this description arc to be found
on all the considerable plantations, and often,
many on the same plantation ; though we have
no accurate data for an estimate, the proportion
cannot be less than one in twenty-five of the
* Hear the testimony of a slaveholder, on this subject, a
member of Congress from Virginia, from lfal7 to 1830,
Hon. Alexander Smyth.
In the debate on the Missouri question in the U. S.
Congress. 1819-20, the admission of Missouri to the Union, as
a slave state, was urged, among other grounds, as a measure
of Immanity to the slaves of the south. Mr. Smyth, of Vir-
ginia said, ■' The plan of our opponents seems to be to confine
the slave population to tlie southern states, to the countries
wheie sug'ar, cotton, and tobacco are cultivated. But, sir,
by confining the slaves to a part of the country vvliere
crops are raised for exportation, and tlie bread and meat are
purchased, you doom them to scarcity and hunger. Is it
not obvious that the way to render their situation more
comfortable, is to allow tliem to be taken where there is
not the same motive to force tlie slave to incessant toil,
that there is in the country where cotton, sugar, and tobac-
co, are raised for exportation. It is proposed to hem in the
blacks where they are hard worked and ill fed, that
they maybe rendered unproductive and the race be pre-
vented from increasing. . . . The proposed measure
would be EXTRExME CRL'ELTY to the blacks. . . . You
would . . . doom them to scarcity and hard
LABOR."— [Speech of Mr. Smyth, Jan. 28, 1S20.]— See
National Intelligencer.
Those states where the crops are raised for exportation,
and a large part of the provisions purchased, are, Louisiana,
Mis.-'issippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Western Teimessee,
Georgia, Florida, and, to a considerable extent. South Caro-
lina. That this is the case in Louisiana, is siiowri by the
following. " Corn.'fiour, and bread stufts, generally are ob-
tained from Kentucky, Ohio," &c. See " Emigrant's Guide
through the Valley of the Mississippi," Page 275. That it is
the case with Alabama, appears from the testimony of VV.
Jefferson Jones, Esq. a lawyer of high standing in Mobile.
In a series of articles published by hiih in tlie Mobile Morn-
ing Chronicle, he says ; (See that paper for Aug. 26, 1837.)
" The people of Alabama export wliat they raise, and
import nearly all they consume." But it seems quite un-
necessary to prove, what all persons of much inteUigence
weU know, that the states mentioned export the larger part of
what they raise, and import the larger part of what they
consume. Now more than one viillion of slaves are held
in those states, and parts of states, where provisions are
mainly imported, and consequently they are " doomed to
scarcity and hunger."
whole number of slaves, which would give a total
of more than owe hundred thoiisand. Of some of
the remaining classes we have data for a pretty
accurate estimate.
1st. Lunatics. — Various estimates have been
made, founded upon the data procured by actual
investigation, prosecuted under the direction of
the Legislatures of different States ; but the re-
turns have been so imperfect and erroneous, that
little reliance can be placed upon them. The Le-
gislature of New Hampshire recently ordered in-
vestigations to be made in every town in the state,
and the number of insane persons to be reported.
A committee of the legislature, who had the sub-
ject in charge say, in their report — " From many
towns no returns have been received, from others
the accounts are erroneous, there being cases
known io the committee which escaped the notice
of the ' selectmen.' The actual number of in-
sane persons is therefore much larger than appears
by the documents submitted to the committee."
The Medical Society of Connecticut appointed a
committee of their number, composed of some of
the most eminent physicians in the state, to as-
certain and report the whole number of insane
persons in that state. The committee say, in
their report, " The number of towns from which
returns have been received is seventy, and the
cases of insanity which have been noticed in them
are five hundred and ten." The committee add,
" fifty more towns remain to be heard from, and
if insanity should be found equally prevalent in
them, the entire number v,nll scarcely fall short
of one thousand in the state." This investigation
was made in 1821, when the population of the
state was less than two hundred and eighty thou
sand. If the estimate of the Medical Society be
correct, the proportion of the insane to the whole
population would be about one in two hundred
and eighty. This strikes us as a large estimate,
and yet a committee of the legislature of that
state in 1837, reported seven hundred and seven
insane persons in the state, who were either whol-
ly or in part supported as town paupers, or by
charity. It can hardly be supposed that more
than two-thirds of the insane in Connecticut be-
long to families unable to support them. On this
supposition, the whole number would be greater
than the estimate of the Medical Society sixteen
years previous, when the population was perhaps
thirty thousand less. But to avoid the possibility
of an over estimate, let us suppose the present
number of insane persons in Connecticut to be
only seven hundred.
The population of the state is now probably
about three hundred and twenty thousand ; ac.
cording to this estimate, the proportion of the in-
sane to the whole population, would be one to
about four hundred and sixty. Making this the
136
Ohjections Considered — Interest of Masters.
basis of our calculation, and estimating the slaves in
the United States at two millions, seven hundred
thousand, their present probable number, and we
come to this result, that there arc about six thou-
sand insane persons among the slaves of the United
States. We have no adequate data by which to
judge whether the proportion of lunatics among
slaves is greater or less than among the whites ;
some considerations favor the supposition that it
is. But the dreadful physical violence to which
the slaves are subjected, and the constant sunder-
ings of their tendcrest ties, might lead us to sup-
pose that it would be more. The only data in our
possession is the official census of Chatham coun-
ty, Georgia, for 1838, containing the number of
lunatics among the whites and the slaves. — (Sec
the Savannah Georgian, July 24, 1838.) Accord-
ing to this census, the number of lunatics among
eight thousand three hundred and seventy three
whites in the country, is only two, whereas, the
number among ten thousand eight hundred and
ninety-one slaves, is fourteen.
2d. The Deaf and Dumb. — The proportion of
deaf and dumb persons to the other classes of the
com.munity, is about one in two thousand. This
is the testimony of the directors of the ' Ameri-
can Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb,' located at
Hartford, Connecticut. Making this the basis
of our estimate, there would be one thousand six
hundred deaf and dumb persons among the slaves
of the United States.
3d. The Blind. — We have before us the last
United States census, from which it appears, that
in 1830, the number of blind persons in New
Hampshire was one hundred and seventeen, out
of a population of two hundred and sixty-nine
thousand live hundred and thirty-three. Adopt-
ing this as our basis, the number of blind slaves in
the United States would be nearly one thousand
three hundred.
4th. Runaivays. — Of the proportion of the
slaves that run away, to those that do not, and
of the proportion of the runaways that are taken
to those that escape entirely, it would be difficult
to make a probable estimate. Something, how-
ever, can be done towards such an estimate. We
have before us, in the Grand Gulf (Miss.) Ad-
vertiser, for August 2, 1838, a list of runawa3's
that were then in the jails of the two counties of
Adams and Warren, in that State ; the names,
ages, &c. of each one given ; and their owners
are called upon to take them away. The num-
ber of runaways thus taken up and committed in
these tiDO counties, is forty-six. The whole
number of counties in Mississippi is fiftysix.
Many of them, however, are thinly populated.
Now, without making this the basis of our esti-
mate for the whole slave population in all the
state — which would doubtless make the num-
ber much too large — we are sure no one who has
any knowledge of facts as they arc in the
south, will charge upon us an over-statement,
when we say, that of the present generation of
slaves, probably one in thirty is of that class — i. c.,
has at some time, perhaps often, runaway and
been retaken ; on that supposition the whole
number would be not far from ninety thousand.
5th. Hired Slaves. — It is impossible to csti.
mate with accuracy the proportion which the hired
slaves bear to the whole number. That it is very
large all who have resided at the south, or tra-
velled there, with their eyes open well know.
Some of the largest slaveholders in the country,
instead of purchasing plantations and working
their slaves themselves, hire them out to others
This practice is very common.
Kev. Horace Moulton, a minister of the Me-
thodist Episcopal church in Marlborough, Mass.,
who lived some years in Georgia, says : " A
large proportion of the slaves are owned by mas
tcrs who keep them on purpce to hire out."
Large numbers of slaves, especially in Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Florida,
arc owned by non-residents ; thousands of them by
northern capitalists, who hire them out. These
capitalists in many cases own large plantations,
vdiich are often leased for a term of j^ears with a
' stock ' of slaves sufficient to work them.
Multitudes of slaves 'belonging ' to heirs, are
hired out by their guardians till such heirs become
of age, or by the executors or trustees of persons
deceased.
That the reader may form some idea of the
large number of slaves that are hired out, we in-
sert below a few advertisements, as a specimen
of hundreds in the newspapers of the slave states.
From the " Pensacola Gazette," May 27.
'' Notice TO Slaveholders. Wanted upon my
contract, on the Alabama, Florida and Georgia
Rail Road, FOUR HUNDRED BLACK LA-
BORERS, for which a liberal in-ice will be paid.
R. LORING, Contractor."
The same paper has the following, signed by
an officer of the United States.
" Wanted at the Navy Yard, Pensacola, sixty
LAEOREiis. The owners to subsist and quarter
them beyond the limits of the yard. Persons
having Laborers to hire, will apply to the Com-
manding Officer. W. K. LATIMER."
From the " Richmond (Va.) Enquirer," April
10, 1838.
" Laborers wanted. — The James River, and
Kenawha Company, are in immediate want of
sevioral hundred good laborers,. Gentlemen
wishing to send negroes from the country, are
assured that the very best care shall be taken of
them. RICHARD REINS,
Agent of the James River, and Kenawha. Co."
Ohjections Considered — Interest of Masters.
137
From the " Vicksburg (Mis.) Register," Dec.
27, 1S3S.
" 60 Nkuroes, males and females, for hire, for
the rear 1839. Apply to H. HENDREN."
From the " Georgia Messenger," Dec. 37,
1S38.
" Negroes to hire. On the first Tuesdav next.
Including CARPENTERS, BLACKSMITHS,
SHOEMAKERS, SEAMSTRESSES, COOKS,
<Sic. &.C. For information ; Apply to
OSSIAN GREGORY."
From the " Alexandria (D. C.) Gazette," Dec.
30, 1837.
" THE subscriber wishes to employ by the month
or year, oxe hundred able bodied men, and
THIRTY Bovs. Pcrsons having servants, will do
well to give him a call. PHILIP ROACH,
near Alexandria."
From the " Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," May
19, 1838.
" Wanted to hire, twelve or fifteen NEGRO
GIRLS, from ten to fourteen years of age. They
are wanted for the term of two or three years.
E. H. & J. FISHER."
"Negroes wanted. The Subscriber is desirous
of hiring 50 or GO Jirst rate Negro Men.
WILSON NESBITT."
From the " Norfolk (Va.; Beacon," March
21, 1838.
" Laborers wanted. One hundred able bodied
men are wanted. The hands will be required to
be delivered in Halifax by the oioners. Apply to
SHIELD & WALKE."
From the " Lynchburg Virginian," Dec. 13,
1838.
" 40 NEGRO MEN. The subscribers wish to hire
for the next year 40 NEGRO MEN.
LANGHORNE, SCRUGGS vSc COOK."
'' Hiring of negroes. On Saturday, the 29th
day of December, 1838, at Mrs. Tayloe's tavern,
in Amherst county, there will be hired thirty or
forty valuable Negroes.
In addition to the above, I have for hire, 20
men, vromen, boys, and girls — several of them
excellent house servants.
MAURICE H. GARLAND."
From the " Savannah Georgian," Feb. 5, 1838.
•' Wanted to hire, one hundred prime negroes,
by the year. J. V. REDDEN."
From the " North Carolina Standard," Feb.
31, 1838.
'• Negroes wanted.— W. & A. STITH, will
give twelve dollars per month for FIFTY strong
Ne^ro fellows, to commence work immediately ;
and for FIFTY more on the first day of Febua-
ry, and for FIFTY on the first day of March."
From the " Lexington (Ky.) Reporter," Dec.
26, 1838.
"Will be hired, for one year, on the first
day of January, 1839, on the farm of the late Mrs.
Meredith, a number of valuable NEGROES.
R. S. TODD, Sheriff of Fayette Co.
And Curator for James and
Ehzabeth Breekenridge."
18
" Negroes to hire. On Wednesday, the 26th
inst. I will hire to the highest bidder, the
NEGROES belonging to Charles and Robert
Inncs. GEO. W. WILLIAMS.
Guardian.^''
The following niuc advertisements were pub.
lished in one column of the "Winchester Virgi-
nian," Dec. 20, 1838.
" NEGRO HIRINGS.'
" Will be offered for hire, at Captain Long's
Hotel, a number of SLAVES — men, women,
boys and girls — belonging to the orphans of
George Ash, deceased.
RICHARD W. BARTON."
Guardian.
" Will be offered for hire, at my Hotel, a num-
ber of SLAVES, consisting of men, women,
boys and girls. JOSEPH LONG.
Exr. of Edmund Shackleford, dec'd."
" Will be offered for hire, for the ensuing year,
at Capt. Long's Hotel, a number of SLAVES.
MOSES R. RICHARDS."
'' Will be offered for hire, the slaves belonging
to the estate of James Bowen, deceased, consist-
ing of men, and women, boj's and girls.
GILES COOK.
One of the Exrs. of James Bowen dec^d."
" The hiring at Millwood will take place on
Friday, the 28th day of December, 1838.
BURWELL."
" N. B. We are desired to say that other valua-
ble NEGROES will also be hired at Millwood
on the same day, besides those offered by Mr. B."
" The SLAVES of the late John Jolliffe, about
twenty in number, and of all ages and both
sexes, will be offered for hire at Cain's Depot.
DAVID W. BARTON.
Administrator."
" I Will hire at public hiring before the tavern
door of Dr. Lacy, about 30 NEGROES, consist-
ing of men, and women.
JAMES R. RICHARDS."
" Will be hired, at Carter's Tavern, on 31st of
December, a number of NEGROES.
JOHN J. H. GUNNELL."
" Negroes for hire, (prfvately.) About twelve
servants, consisting of men, women, boys, and
girls, for hire privately. Apply to the subscriber
at Col. Smith's in Battletown.
JOHN W. OWEN."
A volume might easily be filled with advertise-
ments like the preceding, showing conclusively
that hired slaves must be a large proportion of
the whole number. The actual proportion has
been variously estimated, at J, I, \, i, &c. if we
adopt the last as our basis, it will make the
number of hired slaves, in the United States,
FIVE hundred and FORTY THOUSAND !
6th, Slaves under overseers whose wages are a
part of the crop. — That this is a common usage
appears from the following testimony. The late
138
Objections Considered — Interest of Masters.
Hon. John Taylor, of Caroline Co. Virginia, one
of the largest slaveholders in the state, President
of the State Agricultural Society, and three
times elected to the Senate of the United States,
says, in his " Agricultural Essays," No. 15. P.
57,
" This necessary class of men, (overseers,) are
bribed by agriculturalists, not to improve, but to
impoverish their land, by a share of the crop for
one year. . . . The greatest annual crop,
and not the most judicious culture, advances his
interest, and establishes his character ; and the
fees of these land-doctors, are much higher for
killing than for curing. . . . TJie most
which the land can yield, and seldom or never
improvement with a view to future profit, is a
point of common consent, and mutual need be-
tween the agriculturist and his overseer. , .
Must the practice of hiring a man for one year,
by a share of the crop, to lay out all his skill and
industry in killing land, and as little as possible
in improving it, be kept up to commemorate the
pious leaning of man to his primitive state of ig-
norance and barbarity ? Unless this is abolished,
the attempt to fertilize our lands, is needless."
Philemon Bliss, Esq. of Elyria, Ohio, who
lived in Florida, in 1834-5, says,
" It is common for owners of plantations and
slaves, to hire overseers to take charge of them,
while they themselves reside at a distance.
Their wages depend principally upon the amount
of labor which they can exact from the slave.
The term " good overseer," signifies one who
can make the greatest amoimt of the staple, cot-
ton for instance, from a given number of hands,
besides raising sufficient provisions for their con-
sumption. He has no interest in the hfe of the
slave. Hence the fact, so notorious at the south,
that negroes are driven harder and fare worse
under overseers than under their owners.
William Ladd, Esq. of Minot, Maine, formerly
a slaveholder in Florida, speaking, in a recent
letter of the system of labor adopted there, says ;
'' The compensation of the overseers was acer-
, tain portion of the crop."
E.ev. Phineas Smith, of Centreville, Allegany
Co. N. y. who has recently retm-ned from a four
years' residence, in the Southern slave states and
Texas, says,
" The mode in which many plantations are
managed, is calculated and designed^ as an in-
ducement to the slave driver, to lay upon the
slave the greatest possible burden, the overseer
being entitled by contract, to a certain share of
the crop.'"
We leave the reader to form his own opinion,
as to the proportion of slaves under overseers,
whose wages are in proportion to the crop, raised
by them. We have little doubt that we shaU
escape the charge of wishing to make out z
" strong case" when we put the proportion at 'jnc
eighth of the whole number of slaves, which
would be three hundred and. ffty thousand.
Without drawing out upon the page a sum in
addition for the reader to " run up,"' it is easily
seen that the slaves in the preceding classes,
amount to more than eleven hundred thousand,
exclusive of the deaf and dumb, and the blind,
many of whom, especially the former, might ht
profitable to their '' owners."
Now it is plainly for the interest of the " owners'
of these slaves, or of those who have the charge
of them, to treat them cruelly, to overwork,
under-feed, half-clothe, half-shelter, poison, or
kill outright, the aged, the broken down, the
incurably diseased, idiots, feeble infants, most o\
the blind, some deaf and dumb, &c. It is be-
sides a part of the slave-holder's creed, that it is
for his interest to treat with terrible severity, all
runaways and the incorrigibly stubborn, thievish,
lazy, &c.; also for those who hire slaves, to over-
work them ; also for overseers to overv/ork the
slaves under them, when their own wages are
increased by it.
We have thus shown that it would be ^^ for the
interest," of masters and overseers to treat witli
habitual cruelty more than one million of tlie
slaves in the United States. But this is not all ;
as we have said already, it is for the interest of
overseers generally, whether their wages are
proportioned to the crop or not, to overwork the
slaves ; we need not repeat the reasons.
Neither is it necessary to re-state the argu
ments, going to show that it is for the interest
of slaveholders, who cultivate the great south-
ern staples, especially cotton, and the sugar cane,
to overwork periodically all their slaves, and
habitually the majority of them, when the de-
mand for those staples creates high prices, as has
been the case with cotton for many years, with
little exception. Instead of entering into a
labored estimate to get at the proportion of
the slaves, affected by the operation of these and
the other causes enumerated, we may say, that
they operate directly on the " field hands,"
employed in raising the southern staples, and in-
directly upon all classes of the slaves.
• Finally, we conclude this head by turning the
objector's negative proposition into an afhrma.
five one, and state formally what has been already
proved.
It is for the interest of slaveholders, upon their
own principles, and by their oicn showing, to
TREAT CRUEiJ-Y the great body of their slaves
Objections Considered — Rapid Increase of Slaves.
139
Oejection VI.—' THE FACT THAT THE SLAVES MULTIPLY SO RAPIDLY PROVES
THAT THEY ARE NOT INHUMANLY TREATED, BUT ARE IN A
COMFORTABLE CONDITION.'
To this we reply in brief, 1st. It has been al-
ready shown under a previous head, that, m con-
siderable sections of the slave states, especially
in the South West, the births among slaves arc
fewer than the deaths, which would exhibit a
fearful decrease of the slave population in those
sections, if the deficiency were not made up by
the slave trade from the upper country.
2d. The fact that all children born of slave
mothers, whether their fathers are whites or free
colored persons, are included in the census with
the slaves, and further that all children born of
white mothers, whose fathers are mulattos or
blacks, are also included in the census with color-
ed persons and almost invariably with slaves,
shows that it is impossible to ascertain with any
accuracy, what is the actual increase of the slaves
alone.
3d. The fact that thousands of slaves, gener-
ally in the prime of life, are annually smuggled
into the United States from Africa, Cuba, and
elsewhere, makes it manifest that all inferences
drav/n from the increase of the slave population,
wliich do not make large deductions, for con-
stant importations, must be fallacious. Mr.
Middleton of South Carolina, in a speech in Con-
gress in 1819, declared that "thiiiteen thou-
sand AFRICANS ARE ANNUALLY SMUGGLED INTO
THE SOUTHERN STATES." Mr. Mercer of Virgi-
nia, in a speech in Congress about the same
time declared that " Cargoes," of African slaves
were smuggled mto the South to a deplorable
extent.
Mr. Wright, of Maryland, m a speech in Con-
gress, estimated the number annually at fifteen
THOUSAND. Miss Martiucau, in her recent work,
(Society ui America,) informs us that a large
slaveholder in Louisiana, assured her in 1835,
that the annual importation of native Africans
was from thirteen to fifteen thousand.
The President of the United States, in his mes-
sage to Congress, December, 1837, says,
" The large force under Commodore Dallas, [on
the West India station,] has been most actively
and efficiently employed in protecting our com-
merce, IN PREVENTING THE IMPORTATION OF SLAVES,"
&C. &C.
and ages, been violated whenever the inducements
to do SO afi'orded hopes of great profit.
'• The United States' law againsL the importa-
tion of Africans, could it he strictly enforced,
might in a few years give the sugar and cotton
planters of Texas advantage over those of this
state ; as it would, we apprehend, enable the
former, under a stable government, to famish cot-
ton and sugar at a lower price than we can do.
When giving pubhcity to ^uch reflections as the
subject seems to suggest, we protest against being
considered advocates for any violation of the laws
of our country. Every good citizen must respect
those laws, notwithstanding we may deem them
likely to be evaded by men less scrupulous."
That both the south and north swarm with
men ' less scrupulous,' every one knows.
The Norfolk (Va.; Beacon, of June 8, 1837,
has the following :
" Slave.Trade. — Eight African negroes have
been taken into custody, at Apalaehicola, by the
U. S. Deputy Marshal, alleged to have been im-
ported from Cuba, on board the schooner Empe-
ror, Captain Cox. Indictments for piracy, under
the acts for the suppression of the slave trade,
have been found against Captain Cox, and other
parties implicated. The negroes were bought in
Cuba by a Frenchman named Malherbe, fonner-
ly a resident of Tallahassee, who was drowned
soon after the arrival of the schooner."
The New Orleans Courier of 15th February,
1839, has these remarks :
" It is believed that African negroes have been
repeatedly introduced into the United States.
The number and the proximity of the Florida
ports to the island of Cuba, make it no difficult
matter ; nor is our extended frontier on the Sa-
bine and Red rivers, at all unfavorable to the
smuggler. Human laws have, in all countries
The following testimony of Rev. Horace
MouLTON, now a minister of the Methodist Epis
copal Church, in Marlborough, Mass. who re
sided some years in Georgia, reveals some of the
secrets of the slave-smugglers, and the connivance
of the Georgia authorities at their doings. It is
contained in a letter dated February 24, 1839.
"The foreign slave-trade was carried on to
some considerable extent when I was at the
south, notwithstanding a law had been made
some ten years previous to this, making this traffic
piracy on the high seas. I was somewhat ac-
quainted with the secrets of this traffic, and, I
suppose, I might have engaged in it, had I so de-
sired. Were you to visit all the plantations in
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Missis-
sippi, I think you would be convinced that the
horrors of the traffic in human flesh have not yet
ceased. I was surprised to find so many that
could not speak English among the slaves, until
the mystery was explained. This was done,
when I learned that slave.cargoes were landed
on the coast of Florida, not a thousand miles from
St. Augustine. They could, and can still, in ray
opinion, be landed as safely on this coast as in
any port of this continent. You can imagine for
yourself how easy it was to carry on the traffic
between this place and the West Indies. When
landed on the coast of Florida, it is an easy mat-
ter to distribute them throughout the more south
em states. The law which makes it piracy to
traffic in the foreign slave trade is a dead letter ;
140
Objections Considered— Ra^id Increase of Slavfes.
and I doubt not it has been so in the more south-
ern states ever since it was enacted. For you
can perceive at once, that interested men, who
believe the colored man is so much better off here
than he possibly can be m Africa, will not hesi-
tate to kidnap "the blacks whenever an opportu-
nity presents itself. I will notice one fact that
came under my own observation, which will con-
vince you that the horrors of the foreign slave-
trade have not yet ceased among our southern
gentry. It is as follows. A slave ship, which I
have reason to believe was employed by southern
men, came near the port of Savannah with about
FIVE HUNDRED SLAVES, from Guinea and Congo.
It was said that the ship was driven there by con-
trary winds; and the crew, pretending to be
short of provisions, run the ship into a hj place,
near the shore, between Tybce Light and Darien,
to recruit their stores. Well, as Providence would
have it, the revenue cutter, at that time taking a
trip along the coast, fell in with this slave ship,
took her as a prize, and brought her up into the
port of Savannah. The cargo of human chattels
was unloaded, and the captives were placed m
an old barracks, in the fort of Savannah, under
the protection of the city authorities, they pre-
tending that they should return them all to their
native countrv again, as soon as a convenient
opportunity presented itself. The ship's crew of
course were arrested, and confined in jail. Now
for the sequel of this history. About one third
part of the negroes died in a few weeks after they
were landed, in seasoning, so called, or in be-
coming acclimated — or, as I should think, a dis-
temper broke out among them, and they died
hke the Israelites, when smitten with the plague.
Those who did not die in seasoning, must be
hired out a little while, to be sure, as the city au-
thorities could not afford to keep them on expense
doing nothinsr. As it happened, the man in
whose employ I was when the cargo of human
beings arrived, hired some twenty or thirty of
them, and put them under my care. They con-
tinued with me mitil the sickly season drove me
off to the north. I soon returned, but could not
hear a word about the crew of pirates. They had
something like a mock trial, as I should thmk,
for no one, as I ever learned, was condemned,
fined, or censured. But where were the poor
captives, who were going to be returned to Afri-
ca by the city authorities, as soon as they could
make it convenient? Oh, forsooth, those of
whom I spoke, being under my care, were tug-
ging away for the same man ; the remainder
were scattered about among different planters.
When I returned to the north again, the next
year, the city authorities had not, down to that
time, made' it convenient to return these poor
victims. The fact is, they belonged there ; and,
in my opinion, they were designed to be landed
near by the place where the revenue cutter seized
them. Probably those very planters for whom
they were originally designed received them ; and
still there was a pretence kept up that they would
be returned to Africa. This must have been
done, that the consciences of those might be
quieted, who were looking for justice to be ad-
ministered to these poor captives. It is easy for
a company of slaveholders, who desire to traffic
in human flesh, to fit out a vessel, under Spanish
colors, and then go prowhng about the African
coast for the victims of their lusts. If all the
facts with relation to the African slave-trade,
now secretly carried on at the south, could be
disclosed, the people of the free states would be
filled with amazement."
It is plain, from the nature of this trade, and
the circumstances under which it is carried on,
that the number of slaves imported would be
likely to be estimated far below the truth. There
can be httle doubt that the estimate of Mr.
Wright, of Maryland, (fifteen thousand annu-
ally,) is some thousands too small. But even
according to his estimate, the African slave-trade
adds ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND SLAVES TO
EACH United States' census. These are in the
prime of life, and their children would swell the
slave population many thousands annually — thus
making a great addition to each census.
4. It is a notorious fact, that large numbers of
free colored persons are kidnapped every year in
the free states, taken to the south, and sold as
slaves.
Hon. George M. Stroud, Judge of the Crim-
inal Court of Philadelphia, in his sketch of the
slave laws, speaking of the kidnapping of free
colored persons in the northern states, says—
" Remote as is the city of Philadelphia from,
those slaveholding states in which the introduc-
tion of slaves from places within the territory of
the United States is freely permitted, and where
also the market is tempting, it has been ascertain,
ed, that more than thirty free colored per-
sons, MOSTLY children, HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED
HERE, AND CARRIED AWAY, WITHIN THE LAST TWO
YEARS. Five of these, through the kind interpo-
sition of several humane gentlemen, have been
restored to their friends, though not svithout great
expense and difficulty; the others are still retain-
ed in bondage, and if rescued at all, it must be by
sending white witnesses a journey of more than a
thousand miles. The costs attendant upon law-
suits, under such circumstances, will probably
fall but little short of the estimated value, as
slaves, of the individuals kidnapped."
The following is an extract from Mrs. Child's
Appeal, pp. 64-6.
" I know the names of four colored citizens of
Massachusetts, who went to Georgia on board a
vessel, were seized under the laws of that state,
and sold as slaves. They have sent the most
earnest exhortations to their families and friends,
to do something for their rehef ; but the attendant
expenses require more money than the friends of
negroes are apt to have, and the poor fellows, as
yet, remain unassisted.
" A New York paper, of November, 1829, con
tains the following caution.
"Beware of Kidnappers:— It is well under-
stood that there is at present in this city, a gang
of kidnappers, busily engaged in their vocation,
of stealing colored children for the southern mar-
I ket. It is believed that three or four have been
Oljections Considered — Kidnapping.
141
stolen within as many days. There are suspi-
cions of a foul nature connected with some who
servo the pohce in subordinate capacities. It is
liinted that tlicre may be those in some authority,
not altogether ignorant of these diabolical prac-
tices. Let the public be on their guard ! It is
still fresh in the memories of all, that a cargo, or
rather drove of negroes, was made up from this
city and Philadelphia, about the time that the
emancipation of all the negroes in this state took
place, under our present constitution, and were
taken through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Ten-
nessee, and disposed of in the state of Mississippi.
Some of those who were taken from Philadelphia
^were persons of intelligence ; and after they had
been driven through the country in chains, and
disposed of by sale on the Mississippi, wrote back
to their friends, and were rescued from bondage.
The persons who were guilty of this abominable
transaction are known, and now reside in North
Carolina. They may very probably be engaged
in similar enterprizes at the present time — at
least there is reason to believe, that the system cf
kidnapping free persons of color from the northern
cities, has been carried on more extensively than
the public are generally aware of."
George Bradburn, Esq. of Nantucket, Mass.
a member of the Legislature of that state, at its
last session, made a report to that body, March
6, 1839, ' On the deliverance of citizens liable to
be sold as slaves.' That report contains the fol-
- lowing facts and testimony.
" The following facts are a few out of a vast
MULTITUDE, to wliicli the attention of the under-
signed has been directed.
" On the 27th of February last, the undersigned
had an interview with the Rev. Samuel Snowden,
a respectable and intelligent clergyman of the
city of Boston. This gentleman stated, and he
is now ready to make oath, that during the last
six years, he has himself, by the aid of various
benevolent individuals, procured the deliverance
from jail of six citizens of Massachusetts, who
had been arrested and imprisoned as runaway
slaves, and who, but for his timely interposition,
would have been sold into perpetual bondage.
The names and the places of imprisonment of
those persons, as stated by Mr. S. were as follows :
"James Hight, imprisoned at Mobile ; William
,, Adams, at Norfolk; William Holmes, also at
Norfollv ; James Oxford, at Wilmington ; James
Smith, at Baton Rouge ; John Tidd, at New
Orleans.
" In 1836, Mary Smith, a native of this state,
returning from New Orleans, whither she had
been in the capacity of a servant, was cast upon
the shores of North Carolina. She was there
seized and sold as a slave. Information of the
fact reached her friends at Boston. Those friends
made an effort to obtain her liberation. They
invoked the assistance of the Governor of this
Commonwealth. A correspondence ensued be-
tween His Excellency and the Governor of North
Carolina : copies of which were offered for the
inspection of your committee. Soon afterwards,
by permission of the authorities of North Caroli-
na, ' Mary Smith' returned to Boston. But it
turned out, that this was not the Mary Smith,
whom our w^orthy Governor, and other excellent
individuals of Boston, had taken so unwearied
pains to redeem from slavery. It was another
woman, of the same name, who was also a native
of Massachusetts, and had been seized in North
Carolina as a runaway slave. The Mary Smith
has not yet been heard of. If alive, she is now,
in all probability, wearing the chains of slavery.
" About a year and a half since, sevei-al citizens
of different free states were rescued from slavery,
at New Orleans, by the direct personal efforts of
an acquaintance of the undersigned. The be.
nevolent individual alluded to is Jacob Barker,
Esq. a name not unknown to the commercial
world. Mr. Barker is a resident of New Or-
leans. A statement of the cases in reference is
contained in a letter addressed by him to the Hon.
Samuel H. Jenks, of Nantucket."
The letter of Mr. Barker, referred to in this
report to the Legislature of Massachusetts, bears
date August 19, 1837. The following are extracts
from it.
"A free man, belonging to Baltimore, by the
name of Ephraim Larkin, who came here cook
of the William Tell, was arrested and thrown into
prison a few weeks since, and sent in chains to
work on the road. I heard of it, and with diffi-
culty found him ; and after the most diligent and
active exertions, got him released — in effectiaig
which, I traveled in the heat of the day, ther-
mometer ranging in the shade from 94 to 100,
more than twenty times to and fi'om prison, the
place of his labor, and the different courts, a dis-
tance of near three miles from my residence ; and
after I had established his freedom, had to pay
for his arrest, maintenance, and the advertising
him as a runaway slave, f$29 89, as per copy of
bill herewith — the allowance for work not equal-
ling the expenses, the amount augments with
every day of confinement.
" In pursuing the cook of the William Tell, I
found three other free men, confined in the same
prison ; one belonged also to Baltimore, by the
name of Leaven Dogerty : he was also released,
on my paying $'28 expenses ; one was a descend-
ant of the Indians who once inhabited Nantucket
— his name is Eral Lonnon. Lonnon had been six
weeks in prison ; he was released without diffi-
culty, on my paying .^20 38 expenses — and no
one seemed to know why he had been confined
or arrested, as the law does not presume persons
of mixed blood to be slaves. But for the others,
I had great difficulty in procuring what was con-
sidered competent witnesses to prove them free.
No complaint of improper conduct had been
made against either of them. At one time, the
Recorder said the witness must be white ; at an-
other, that one respectable witness was insuffi-
cient ; at another, that a person who had been
(improperly) confined and released, was not a
competent witness, &c. &c. Lonnon has been
employed in the South Sea fishery from Nan-
tucket and New Bedford, nearly all his life ; has
sailed on those voyages in the ships Eagle, Mary-
land, Gideon, Triton, and Samuel. He was
bom at Marshpee, Plymouth [Barnstable] coun-
ty, Mass. and prefers to encounter the leviathan
of the deep, rather than the turnkeys of New
Orleans.
142
Objections Considered — Kidnapping.
" The other was born in St. Johns, Nova Sco-
tia, and bears the name of Wilham Smith, a
seaman by profession.
"Immediately after these men were released,
two others were arrested. They attempted to
escape, and being pursued, ran for the river, in
the vain hope of being able to swim across the
Mississippi, a distance of a mile, with a current
of four knots. One soon gave out, and made for
a boat which had been despatched for their re-
covery, and was saved ; the other being a better
swimmer, continued on until much exhausted,
then also made for the boat — it was too late ; he
sank before the boat could reach him, and was
drowned. They claimed to be freemen.
"On Sunday" last I was called to the prison of
the Municipality in which I reside, to serve on
an inquest on the body of a drowned man. There
I saw one other free man confined, by the name
of Henry Tier, a yellow man, born in New York,
and formerly in my employ. He had been con-
fined as a supposed runaway, near six months,
without a particle of testimony ; although from his
color, the laws of Louisiana presume him to be
free. I applied immediately for his release, which
was promptly granted. At first, expenses simi-
lar to those exacted in the third Municipahty
were required ; but on my demonstrating to the
recorder that the law imposed no such burthen
on free men, he was released without any charge
whatever. How free men can obtain satisfac-
tion for having been thus wrongfully imprisoned,
and made to work in chains on the highway, is
not for me to decide. I apprehend no satisfac-
tion can be had without more active friends,
willing to espouse their cause, than can be found
m this" quarter. Therefore I repeat, that no per-
son of color should come here without a certifi-
cate of freedom from the governor of the state to
which he belongs.
" Very respectfully, your assured friend,
''Jacob Barker."
» N". B. — Since writing the preceding, I have
procured the release of another free man from
the prison of the third Municipality, on the pay-
ment of ^39 65, as per bill, copy herewith. His
.name is William Lockman— he was born in New
Jersey, of free parents, and resides at Philadel-
))hia. A greater sum was required which was re.
duced by the allowance of his maintenance (writ-
ten labor,) while at work on the road, which the
law requires the Blunicipality to pay ; but it had
not before been so expounded in the third Muni-
cipality. I hope to get it back in the case of the
other three. The allowance for labor, in addition
to their maintenance, is twenty-five cents per
day ; but they require those illiterate men to ad-
vance the whole before they can leave the prison,
and then to take a certificate for their labor, and
go for it to another department — to collect which,
is ten times more trouble than the money when
received is worth. While these free men, with-
out having committed any fault, were compelled
to work in chains, on the roads, in the burning
sun, for 25 cents per day, and pay in advance
18 3-4 cents per day for maintenance, doctor's,
and other bills, and not able to work half their
time, I paid others, working on ship-board, in
sight, two dollars per day. J. B."
The preceding letter of Mr. Barker, furnishes
grounds for the belief, that hundreds, if not thou-
sands of free colored persons, from the different
states of this Union, both slave and free from the
West Indies, South America, Mexico, and the
British possessions in North America, and from
other parts of the world, are reduced to slaverj'
every year in our slave states. If a single indi-
vidual, in the com'se of a few days, accideritally
discovered six colored free men, working in irons,
and soon to be sold as slaves, in a single southern
city, is it not fair to infer, that in all the slave ^
states,, there must be multitudes of such persons,
now in slavery, and that this number is rapidly
increasing, by ceaseless accessions ?
The letter of Mr. Barker is valuable, also, as a
graphic delineation of the ' public opinion' of the
south. The great difficulty with which the re-
lease of these free men was procured, notwith-
standing the personal efforts of Mr. Jacob
Barker, who is a gentleman of influence, and
has, we believe, been an alderman of New Or-
leans, reveals a 'public opinion,' insensible as
adamant to the liberty of colored men.
It would be easy to fill scores of pages with de-
tails similar to the preceding. We have furnish-
ed enough, however, to show, that, in all proba.
bility, each United States' census of the slave
population, is increased by the addition to it of '•■
thousands of free colored persons, kidnapped and
sold as slaves.
5th. To argue that the rapid multiplication of
any class in the community, is proof that sucii
a class is well-clothed, well-housed, abundantly
fed, and very comforfaile, is as absurd as to argue
that those who have feto children, must, of
course, be ill-clothed, ill.houscd, badly lodged,
overworked, ill-fed, &c. &c. True, privations
and inflictions may be carried to such an extent
as to occasion a fearful diminishment of popula
tion. That was the case generally with the
slave population in the West Indies, and, as has
been shown, is true of certain portions of the
southern states. But the fact that such an effect >
is not produced, does not prove that the slaves do
not experience great privations and severe inflic-
tions. They may suffer much hardship, and
great cruelties, without experiencing so great a
derangement of the vita.l functions as to prevent
child-bearing. The Israelites multiplied with
astonishing rapidity, under the task-masters and -
burdens of Egypt. Does this falsify the declara-
tions of Scripture, that ' they sighed by reason of
their bondage,' and that the Eg}T)tians 'made
them serve with rigor,' and made ' their lives
bitter with hard bondage.' ' I have seen,' said
God, ' their afflictions. I have heard their groan
ings,' &c. The history of the human race shows,
that great privations and much suffering may be
Ohjeclions Considered — Public Opinion.
143
experienced, ■without materially checking the
rapid increase of population.
Besides, if we should give to the objection all
it claims, it would merely prove, that the female
skves, or rather a portion of them, are in a com-
fortable condition ; and that, so far as the abso-
lute necessities of life are concerned, the females
of child-hearing age, in Delaware, Maryland,
northern, western, and middle Virginia, the upper
parts of Kentucky and Missouri, and among tho
mountains of cast Tennessee and western North
Carolina, are in general tolerably well supplied.
The same remark, with some qualifications, may-
be made of the slaves generally, in those parts of
the country where the people are slaveholders,
mainly, that they may enjoy the privilege and
profit of being slave-breeders.
Objection VIII.— ' PUBLIC OPINION IS A PROTECTION TO THE SLAVE;
AxswER. It was public opinion that iiiade man
a slave. In a republican government the people
make the laws, and those laws are merely public
opinio.! in legal forms. We repeat it, — public
opinion made them slaves, and keeps them slaves ;
in other words, it sunk them from men to chattels,
and now, forsooth, this same public opinion will
see to it, that these chnttels are treated like vien I
By looking a little into this matter, and finding
out how this ' public opinion' (law) protects the
slaves in some particulars, we can judge of the
amount of it? protection in others. 1. It protects
the slaves from robbery, by declaring that those
who robbed tlieir mothers may rob them and their
children, " All negroes, mulatoes, or mestizoes
who now are, or shall hereafter be in this province,
and all their ofrspring, are hereby declared to be,
and shall remain, forever, hereafter, absolute
slaves, and shall follow th<3 condition of the mo-
ther."— Law of So'ith Carolina, 2 Brevard's Di-
gest, 229. Others of the slave states have similar
laws.
2. It protects their persons, by giving their master
a right to flog, wound, and beat them v/hen he
pleases. See Devereaux's North Carolina Re-
ports, 263. — Case of the State vs. Mann, 1829; in
which the Supreme Court decided, that a master
who shot at a female slave and wo'mded her, be-
cause she got loose from him when he was flog-
ging her, and started to run from him, had violated
710 law, AND COULD NOT BE INDICTED. It has been
decided by the highest courts of the slave states
generally, that assault and battery upon a slave i-s
not indictable as a criminal oiFence.
The following decision on this point was made
by the Supreme Court of South Carolina in the
case of the State vs. Cheetwood, 2 Hiirs Re.
ports, 459.
Protection of slaves. — " The criminal ofienceof
assault and battery cannot, at common law, le
committed on the person of a slave. For, notwith.
standing for some purposes a slave is regarded in
law as a person, yet generally he is a mere chattel
personal, and his right of personal protection be-
longs to his master, who can maintain an action
of trespass for the battery of his slave.
'' There can be therefore no offence against the
j state for a mere beating of a slave, unaccompa-
nied by any circumstances of cruelty, or an at.
I tempt to kill and murder. The peace of the
I state is not thereby broken ; for a slave is not
generally regarded as legally capable of being
wilhin the peace of the state. He is not a
citizen, and is not in that character entitled to
her protection."
This 'public opinion' protects the persons of
the slaves by depriving them of Jury trial ;* their
consciences, by forbidding them to assemble for
worship, unless their oppressors are present ;t
their characters, by branding them as liars, in de.
nying them their oath in law ;t their modesty, by
leaving their master to clothe, or let them go na-
ked, as he pleases :§ and their health, by leaving
him to feed or starve them, to work them, wet or
dry, with or without sleep, to lodge them, with
or v/ithout covering, as the whim takes him ,iJ
and their liberty, marriage relations, parental au-
thority, and filial obligations, by annihilating the
whole. T This is the protection which ' public
OFiNioN,' in the form of laic, affords to the slaves;
this is the chivalrous knight, always in stirrups,
with lance in rest, to champion the cause of the
slaves.
Public opinion, protection to the slave ! Brazen
effrontery, h3'pocrisy, and falsehood ! We have,
in the laws cited and referred to above, the for
mal testimony of the Legislatures of the slave
states, that, ' public opinion' does pertinaciously
refuse to protect the slaves ; not onl}' so, but that
it does itself persecute and plunder them all : that
it originally planned, and now presides over, sanc-
tions, executes and perpetuates the whole system
of robbery, torture, and outrage under which they
groan.
In all the slave states, this ' public opinion' has
* Law of South Carolina. James' Digest, 392-3. Law
of Louisiana. Martin's Digest, 042. Law of Virginia. Eev,
Code, 429.
t Miss. Rev. Code, 390. Similar laws exist in the slave
states generally.
t " A slave cannot be a witness against a white person,
either in a civil or criminal cause." Stroud's Sltetch of
the Laws of Slaver}-, 65.
^ Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws, 132.
0 Stroud's Sketch, 26—32.
IT Stroud's Sketch, 22—24.
144
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
taken away from the slave his liberty; it has
robbed him of his right to his own body, of his
right to improve his mind, of his right to read the
Bible, of his right to worship God according to
his conscience, of his right to receive and enjoy
what he earns, of his right to live with his wife
and children, of his right to better his condition,
of his right to eat when he is hungry, to rest
when he is tired, to sleep when he needs it, and
to cover his nakedness with clothing : this ' pub-
lic opinion' makes the slave a prisoner for hfe on
the plantation, except when his jailor pleases to
let him out with a ' pass,' or sells him, and trans.
fers him in irons to another jail-j-ard : this ' pub.
lie opinion' traverses the country, buying up men,
women, children — chaining them in coffles, and
driving them forever from their nearest friends ;
it sets tliem on the auction table, to be handled,
scrutinized, knocked off to the highest bidder; it
proclaims that they shall not have their liberty ;
and, if their masters give it them, ' public opinion'
seizes and throws them back into slavery. This
same ' public opinion' has formally attached the
following legal penalties to the following acts of
slaves.
If more than seven slaves are found togetJier
in any road, without a white person, twenty lashes
a piece ; for visiting a plantation without a writ.
ten pass, ten lashes ; for letting loose a boat from
%vhere it is made fast, thirty-nine lashes for the
first offence; and for the second, 'shall have cut
off from his head one ear ;' for keeping or carry-
ing a club, thirty.nine lashes ; for having any ar-
ticle for sale, without a ticket from his master,
ten lashes; for traveling in any other than 'the
most usual and accustomed road,' when going
alone to any place, forty lashes; for traveling in
the night, without a pzss, forty lashes; for being
found in another person's negro-quarters, forty
lashes; for hunting with dogs in the woods,
thirty lashes; for being on horseback wdthout the
written permission of his master, twenty five lash-
es; for riding or going abroad in the night, or
riding horses in the day time, without leave, a
slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the
cheek with the letter R, or otherwise punished,
not extending to life, or so as to render him
unfit for labor. The laws referred to may be
found by consulting 2 Brevard's Digest, 228, 243,
246 ; Haywood's Manual, 78, chap. 13, pp. 518,
529 ; 1 Virginia Revised Code, 722-3 ; Prince's
Digest, 454; 2 Missouri Laws, 741; Mississippi
Revised Code, 371. Laws similar to these exist
throughout the southern slave code. Extracts
enough to fill a volume might be made from these
laws, showing that the protection which ' public
opinion' grants to the slaves, is hunger, naked,
ness, terror, bereavements, robbery, imprison.
ment, the stocks, iron collars, hunting and wor-
rying them with dogs and guns, mutilating their
bodies, and murdering them.
A few specimens of the laws and the judi-
cial decisions on them, will show what is th?
state of 'public opinion' among slaveholders to-
wards their slaves. Let the following suffice.—
' Any person may lawfully kill a slave, who hts
been outlawed for running away and lurking in
swamps, &c.' — Law of North Carolina : Juc^ge
Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws, 103 ; Hiy-
wood's Manual, 524. ' A slave endeavoring to
entice another slave to runaway, if provisicms,
&:-c. be prepared for the purpose of aiding in such
running away, shall be punished with deatu.
And a slave who shall aid the slave so endeavoring
to entice another slave to run away, shall also suffer
DEATH.' — Law of South Carolina ; Stroud's Sketch
of Slave Laws, 103-4 ; 2 Brevard's Digest, 233,
244. Another law of South Carolina provides
that if a slave shall, when absent from the plan-
tation, refuse to be examined by 'any wiite per-
son,' (no matter how crazy or drank,) 'such white
person may seize and chastise him ; and if the
slave shall strike such white person, such slave
maybe lawfully killed.' — 2 Brevard's Digest, 231 ,
The following is a law of Georgia. ' If any
slave shall presume to strike any whitJ person, such
slave shall, upon trial and conviction before the
justice or justices, suffer such punishment for the
first offence as they shall think fit, not extending
to life or limb ; and for the .^econd offence,
DEATH.' — Prince's Digest, 450. The same law
exists in South Carolina, with this difference, that
death is made the punishment for the third
offence. In both states, tiie law contains this
remarkable proviso ; ' Provided always, that such
strikings be not done by the command and in the
defence of the person or property of the owner,
or other person liaving tiie government of such
slave, in which case the slave shall be wholly ex.
cused.' According to this law, if a slave, by the
direction of Yus overseer, strike a white man who
is beating ss,id overseer's dog, ' the slave shall
be wholly excused ;' but if the white man has
rushed upon the slave himself, instead of the dog,
and is fur.'ouslv boating him, if the slave strike
back but a single blow, the legal penalty is 'any
punishrent not extending to life or limb ;' and if
the tortured slave has a second onset made upon
him, and, after suffering all but death, again
strike back in self-defence, the law kills him for
it. So, if a female slave, in obedience to her
mistress, and in defence of ' her property,' strike
a white man who is kicking her mistress' pet
kitten, she ' shall be wholly excused,' saith the
considerate law ; but if the unprotected girl,
when beaten and kicked herself, raise her hand
against her brutal assailant, the law condemns
her to ' any punishment, not extending to life or
Oljections Considered — Public Opinion.
145
limb ;' and if a wretch assail licr ag-ain, and at-
tempt to violate her cliastity, and the trembling
girl, in her anguish and terror, instinctively raise
her hand against him in self-defence, she shall,
saith the law, ' suffer deai u.'
Reader, this diabohcal law is the ' public opin-
ion' of Georgia and South Carolina toward the
slaves. This is the vaunted ' protection' afforded
Ihem by their ' high-souled chivalry.' To show
that the ' public opinion' of the slave states far
more effectually protects the property of the mas-
ter than the person of the slave, the reader is re-
ferred to two laws of Louisiana, passed in 1819.
The one attaches a penalty ' not exceeding one
thousand dollars,' and ' imprisonment not exceed-
ing two years,' to the crime of ' cutting or break-
ing any iron chain or collar,' which any master
of slaves has used to prevent their running away ;
the other, a penalty ' not exceeding five hundred
dollars,' to ' wilfully cutting out the tongue, put-
ting out the eye, cnielly burning, or depriving
any slave of any limb.' Look at it — the most
horrible dismemberment conceivable cannot be
punished by a fino of more than five hundred
dollars. The law expressly fixes that, as the
utmost limit, and it may not be half that sum ;
not a single moment's imprisonment stays the
wretch in his career, and the next hour he may
cut out another slave's tongue, or burn his hand
off. But let the same man break a chain put
upon a slave, to keep him from running away,
and, besides paying double the penalty that could
be exacted from him for cutting off a slave's leg,
the law imprisons him not exceeding two years .'
Tliis law reveals the heart of slaveholders to-
wards their slaves, their diabolical indifference tJ
the most excruciating and protracted tormpits
inflicted on them by ' any person ;' it reveahj too,
the relative pTolection afforded by 'pubj'i opin-
ion' to the person of the slave, in appa-'dng con-
trast with the vastly surer protect^n v/hich it
affords to the master's property in -ae slave. The
wretch who cuts out the tong^^e, tears out the
eyes, shoots off the arms, or b^rns off the feet of
a slave, over a slow fire, catnot legally be fined
more than five hundred dollars ; but if he should
in pity loose a chain from his galled neck, placed
there by the master to keep him from escaping,
and thus put his property in some jeopardy, he
may be fined one thousand dollars, and thrust into
a dungeon for two years ! and this, be it remem.
bered, not for stealing the slave from the master,
nor for enticing, or even advising him to run
away, or giving him any information how he can
effect his escape; but merely, because, touched
with sympathy for the bleeding victim, as he
sees the rough iron chafe the torn fles-h at every
turn, he removes it ; — and, as escape without this
incumbrance would be easier than with it, the
19
master's propcrt}' in the slave is put at some
risk. For having caused this slight risk, the law
provides a punishment — fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceed-
ing two years. We say ' slight rislc,' because tho
slave may not be disposed to encounter the dan-
gers, and hunger, and other sufferings of the
woods, and the certainty of terrible inflictions if
caught; and if he should attempt it, the risk of
losing him is small. An advertisement of five
lines will set the whole community howling on
his track ; and the trembling and famished fugi.
tivc is soon scented out in his retreat, and drag-
ged back and delivered over to his tormentors.
The preceding law is another illustration of
the ' protection' afforded to the limbs and mem-
bers of slaves, by ' public opinion' among slave-
holders.
Here follow two other illustraiions of the bru-
tal indifference of ' public opinii)n' to the torments
of the slave, v/hile it is full of zeal to compensate
the master, if any one disables his slave so as to
lessen his market value. The first is a law of
South Carolina. It povides, that if a slave, en-
gaged in his ownc^s service, be attacked by a
person 'not bavin,;' sufiicient cause for so doing,'
and if the slave jhall be ' maimed or disabled' by
him, so that tte owner suffers a loss from his in-
ability to jtbor, the person maiming him shall
pay for hi-* ' lost time,' and ' also the charges for
the cujrf of the slave !' This Vandal law does
not ddgn to take the least notice of the anguish
of t.'ie ' maimed' slave, made, perhaps, a groaninp
c'ipple for life ; the horrible wrong and injurj'^
done to him, is passed over in utter silence. It
is thus declared to be not a criminal act. But the
pecuniary interests of the master are not to be
thus neglected by ' public opinion.' Oh no ! its
tender bowels run over with sympathy at the
master's injury in the ' lost time' of his slave, and
it carefully provides that he shall have pay for
the whole of it.— See 2 Brevard's Digest, 231, 2.
A law similar to the above has been passed in
Louisiana, which contains an additional provision
for the benefit of the master — ordaining, that ' if
the slave' (thus maiined and disabled,) ' be forever
rendered unable to work,' the person maiming,
shall pay the master the appraised value of the
slave before the injury, and shall, in addition,
take the slave, and maintain him during life,'
Thus ' public opinion' transfers the helpless crip-
ple from the hand of his master, who, as he has
always had the benefit of his services, might pos-
sibly feel sopie tenderness for him, and puts him
in the sole power of the wretch who has disabled
him for life — protecting the victim from the fury
of his tormentor, by putting him into his hands !
What but butchery by piecemeal can, under such
circumstances, be expected from a man brutal
146
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
enough at first to 'maim' and 'disable' him,
and now exasperated by being obliged to pay his
lull value to the master, and to have, in addition,
the daily care and expense of his maintenance.
Since writing the above, we have seen the fol-
lowing judicial decision, in the case ofJourdan,
vs. Patton — 5 Martin's Louisiana Reports, 615.
A slave of the plaintiff had been deprived of his
only eye, and thus rendered useless, on which ac-
count the court adjudged that the defendant
should pa}: the plaintiff his full value. The case
went up, by appeal, to the Supreme court. Judge
Mathews, in his decision said, that ' when the
defendant had paid the sum decreed, the slave
ought to be placed in his possession,' — adding,
that ' the judgment making full compensation to
the owner operates a change of property.^ He
adds, ' The principle of humanity which would
lead us to suppose, that the mistress whom he
had long served, vould treat her miserable blind
slave with more kii^ncss than the defendant to
whom the judgment aught to transfer him, can-
not BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION !' The full
compensation of the misti-»sB for the loss of the
services of the slave, is worthy of all ' considera-
tion,' even to the uttermost farthing; 'public
opinion ' is omnipotent for het protection ; but
when the food, clothing, shelter, hie and lodging,
medicine and nurser}^ comfort and entire condi-
tion and treatment of her poor bind felave,
throughout his dreary pilgrimage, is the question
— ah ! that, says the mouth-piece of the la^x, and
the representative of ' public opinion,' ' ca\^ot
BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION.' Protection fef
slaves by ' public opinion ' among slaveholders 1 1 1
The foregoing illustrations of southern ' public
opinion,' from the laws made by it and embody-
ing it, are sufficient to show, that, so far from
being an efficient protection to the slaves, it is
their deadliest foe, persecutor and tormentor.
But here we shall probably be met by the legal
lore of some ' Justice Shallow,' instructing us that
the lije of the slave is fully protected by law,
however unprotected he may be in other respects.
This assertion we meet with a point blank denial.
The law docs not, in reality, protect the life of
the slave. But even if the letter of the law
would fully protect the life of the slave, ' pubhc
opinion ' in the slave states would make it a dead
letter. The letter of the law would have been
all-sufficient for the protection of the lives of the
miserable gamblers in Vicksburg, and other places
in Mississippi, from the rage of tliose whose mo-
ney they had won ; but ' gentlemen of property
and standing ' laughed the law to scorn, rushed
to the gamblers' house, put ropes round their
necks, dragged them through the streets, hanged
tliem in the public square, and thus saved the
sum they had not yet paid. Thousands witness.
ed this wholesale murder, yet of the scores of
legal officers present not a soul raised a finger to
prevent it, the whole city consented to it, and
thus aided and abetted it. How many hundreds
of them helped to commit the murders, iDith their
ovm hands, does not appear, but not one of them
has been indicted for it, and no one made the,
least effort to bring them to trial. Thus, up to
the present hour, the blood of those murdered
men rests on that whole city, and it will continue
to be a CITY oy murderers, so long as its citizens
agree together to shield those felons from punish,
ment ; and they do thus agree together so long as
they encourage each other in refusing to bring
them to justice. Now, the laws of Mississippi
were not in fault that those men were murdered ;
nor are they now in fault, that their murderers are
not punished ; the laws demand it, but the people
of Mississippi, the legal officers, the grand juries
and legislature of the state, with one consent agree,
that the law shall he a dead letter, and thus the
whole state assumes the guilt of those murders,
and in bravado, flourishes her reeking hands in
the face of the world.*
The letter of the law on the statute book is one
thing, the practice of the community under that
law often a totally different thing. Each of the
slave states has laws providing that the life of no
white man shall be taken without his having first
been indicted by a grand jury, allowed an impar-
tial trial by a petit jury, with the right of counsel,
cross-examination of witnesses, &c. ; but who
does not know that if Arthur Tappan were
pointed out in the streets of New Orleans, Mo-
bile, Savannah, Charleston, Natchez, or St Louis,
f-e would be torn in pieces by the citizens with
ont accord, and that if any one should attempt to
bring his murderers to punishment, he would be
torn iu pieces also. The editors of southera-
newspapers openly vaunt, that every abolitionist
who sets fcr,t in their soil, shall, if he be disco-
vered, be huhg at once, without judge or jury.
What mockery to qiiote the letter of the law in
those states, to diov/ that abolitionists would
have secured to then', the legal protection of an
impartial trial !
Before the objector cai^ make out his case, that
the life of the slave is protected by the law, he
must not only show that tht words of the late
* We have just learned from Mississippi papers, that the
citizens of Vicksburg are erecting a public inonument in ho-
nor of Dr. H. S. Bodley, who was tlie rinj-leadtr of the
Lynchers, in their attack upon their miserable \'ictims.
To give to crime the cold encouragement of impunity
alone, or such slight tokens of favor as a home and a sanc-
tuary, is beneath the chivalry and hospitality of Mississip-
pians ; so they tender it incense, an altar, and a crown of
glory. Let the marble rise till it be seen from afar, a bea-
con marking the spot where law lies lifeless by the hand of
felons ; and murderers, with chaplets on their heads, da]ic9
and siiout upon its grave, while ' all the people say, amen.'
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
M7
grant him such protection, but that such a state
of pubhc sentiment exists as will carry out the
provisions of tlie law in iJicir true spirit. Any
thing short of this will hs set down as mere prat-
ing by ever3' man of common sense. It lias been
already abundantly shown in the preceding pages,
that the public sentiment of the slaveholding
states toward the slaves is diabolical. Now, if
there were laws in those states, the loords of
which granted to tlic life of the slave the same
protection granted to that of the master, what
would they avail ? Acts constitute protection ;
and is tliat public sentiment which makes the
slave ' property,' and perpetrates hourly robbery
and batteries upon him, so penetrated with a
sense of the sacrcdness of his right to life, that it
will protect it at all hazards, and drag to the gal.
lows his OWNER, if lie take the life of his own
property ? If it be asked, why the penalty for
killing a slave is not a mere_^«e then, if his life is
not really regarded as sacred by public sentiment
— we answer, that formerly in most, if not in all
the slave states, the murder of a slave was pun-
ished by a mere fine. This was the case in South
Carolina till a few years since. Yes, as late as
1821, in the state of South Carolina, which boasts
of its chivalry and honor, at least as loudly as any
state in the Union, a slaveholder might butcher
his slave in the most deliberate manner — with the
most barbarous and protracted torments, and yot
not be subjected to a single hour's imprisonment —
])ay his fine, stride out of the court and kill another
— pay his fine again and butcher anotter, and so
long as he paid to the state, cash down, its own
assessment of damages, without putt'ng it to the
trouble of prosecuting for it, ke might strut ' a
gentleman.' — See 2 Brevard's Digest, 241.
The reason assigned by che legislature for en-
acting a law which published the wilful murder
of a human being by s.fine, was that ' cruelty is
HIGHLY UNBECOMING,' and 'ODIOUS.' It was doubti-
less the same reason that induced the legislature
in 1821, to make a show of giving 7nore protec-
tion to the iJ/e of the slave. Their fathers, when
they gave some protection, did it because the time
had cane when, not to do it would make them
* oDioPs.' So the legislature of 1821 made a
show of giving still gi-eater protection, because,
not to do it would make them ' odious.' Fitly
did they wear the mantles of their ascending
fathers ! In giving to the life of a slave the mis-
erable protection of a fine, their fathers did not
even pretend to do it out of any regard to the sa-
credness of his life as a human being, but merely
because cruelty is 'unbecoming' and 'odious.'
The legislature of 1821 nominally increased this
protection ; not that they cared more for the
slave's rights, or for the inviolabity of his life as a
human being, but the civilized world had ad-
vanced since the date of the first law. The
slave-trade which was then honorable merchan-
dise, and plied by lords, governors, judges, and
doctors of divinity, raising them to immense
wealth, had grown 'unbecoming,' and only raised
its votaries by a rope to the yard arm ; besides
this, the barbarity of the slave codes throughout
the world was fast becoming ' odious ' to civilized
nations, and slaveholders found that the only con-
ditions on which they could prevent themselves
from being thrust out of the pale of civilization,
was to meliorate the iron rigor of their slave code,
and thus seem to secure to their slaves some pro-
tection. Further, the northern states had passed
laws for the al)oIition of slavery — all the South
American states were acting in the matter ; and
Colombia and Chili passed acts of abolition that
very year. In addition to all this the Missouri
question had been for two years previous under
discussion in Congress, in State legislatures, and
in every village and stage coach ; and this law of
South Carolina had been held up to execration by
northern members of Congress, and in newspa-
pers throughout the free states — in a word, the
legislature of South Carolina found that they
were becoming ' odious ;' and while in their sense
of justice and humanity they did not surpass their
fathers, they winced with equal sensitiveness
under the sting of the world's scorn, and with
equal promptitude sued for a truce by modifying
the law.
The legislature of South Carolina modified an-
other law at the same session. Previously, the
killing of a slave ' on a sudden heat or passion, or
by undue correction,' was punished by a fine of
three hundred and fifty pounds. In 1821 an act
was passed diminishing the fine to five hundred
dollars, but authorizing an imprisonment ' not ex-
ceeding six months.' Just before the American
Revolution, the Legislature of North Carohna
passed a law making imprisonment the penalty
for the wilful and malicious murder of a slave.
About twenty years after the revolution, the state
found itself becoming ' odious,' as the spirit of
abolition was pervading the nations. The legisla-
ture, perceiving that Christendom would before
long rank them with barbarians if they so cheap-
ened human life, repealed the law, candidly as-
signing in the preamble of the new one the rea-
son for repealing the old — that it was ' disgrace-
ful ' and ' degrading.' As this preamble ex-
pressly recognizes the slave as ' a human crea-
ture,' and as it is couched in a phraseology which
indicates some sense of justice, we would gladly
give the legislature credit for sincerity, and be-
lieve them really touched with humane movings
towards the slave, were it not for a proviso in the
law clearly revealing that the show of humanity
and regard for their rights, indicated by the
148
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
words, is nothing more than a hollow pretence — I which is, slight chastisement; it is not even whip-
a hypocritical flourish to produce an impression
favorable to their justice and magnanimity. Af-
ter declaring that he who is ' guilty of wilfully
and maliciously killing a slave, shall suffer the
same punishment as if he had killed a freeman ;'
the act concludes thus : ' Provided, always, this
act shall not extend to the person killing a slave
outlawed by virtue of any act of Assembly of
this state ; or to any slave in the act of resistance
to his lawful overseer, or master, or to any slave
dying under their moderate correction.'' Reader,
look at this proviso. 1. It gives free license to all
persons to kill outlawed slaves. Well, what is
an outlawed slave ? A slave who runs away,
lurks in swamps, &c., and kills a hog or any
other domestic animal to keep himself from starv-
ing, is subject to a proclamation of outlawry ;
(Haywood's Manual, 521,) and then whoever
finds him may shoot him, tear him in pieces with
dogs, bm-n him to death over a slow fire, or kill
him by any other tortures. 2. The proviso grants
full license to a master to kill his slave, if the
slave resist him. The North Carolina Bench has
decided that this law contemplates not only ac-
tual resistance to punishment, &c., but also offer,
ing to resist. (Stroud's Sketch, 37.) If, for ex-
ample, a slave undergoing the process of branding
should resist by pushing aside the burning stamp ;
or if wrought up to frenzy by the torture of the
lash, he should catch and hold it fast ; or if he
break loose from his master and rim, refusing to
stop at his command ; or if he refuse to be flog-
ged ; or struggle to keep his clothes on while his
master is trying to strip him ; if, in all these, or
any one of the hundred other ways he resist, or
oflfer, or threaten to resist the infliction ; or, if the
master attempt the violation of the slave's wife,
and the husband resist his attempts without the
least effort to injure him, but merely to shield his
wife from his assaults, this law does not merely
permit, but it authorizes the master to murder the
slave on the spot.
The brutality of these two provisos brands its
authors as barbarians. But the third cause of ex-
emption could not be outdone by the legislation
of fiends. ' Dying under moderate correction ."
MoDEUATE coirection and death — cause and efTectl
' Provided always,' says the law, ' this act shall
not extend to any slave dying under moderate
correction ." Here is a formal proclamation of
impunity to murder — an express pledge o? acquit.
tal to all slaveholders who wish to murder their
slaves, a legal absolution — an indulgence granted
before the commission of the crime ! Lock at
the phraseology. Nothing is said of maimings,
dismemberments, skull fractures, of severe bruis-
ings, or lacerations, or even of floggings ; but a
word is used, the common-parlance import of
ping, but ' correction.^ And as if hypocrisy and
malignity were on the rack to outwit each other,
even that weak word must be still farther diluted ;
so 'moderate'' is added: and, to crown the cli-
max, compounded of absurdity, hypocrisy, and
cold-blooded murder, the legal definition of 'mo-
derate correction' is covertly given ; which is,
any punishment that kills the victim. All in-
flictions are either moderate or immoderate; and
the design of this law was manifestly to shield
the murderer from conviction, hy carrying on its
face the rule for its own interpretation ; thus ad-
vertising, beforehand, courts and juries, that the
fact of any infliction producing death, was no evi-
dence that it was immoderate, and that beating a
man to death came within the legal meaning of
' moderate correction !' The design of the-legis-
lature of North Carolina in framing this law is
manifest ; it was to produce the impression upon
the world, that they had so high a sense of justice
as voluntarily to grant adequate protection to the
lives of their slaves. This is ostentatiously set
forth in the preamble, and in the body of the law.
That this was the most despicable hypocrisy, and
that they had predetermined to grant no such pro-
tection, notwithstanding the pains taken to get the
credit of it, is fully revealed by the proviso, which
was framed in such a way as to nullify the law,
foT the express accommodation of slaveholding
gentV.men murdering their slaves. All such find
in this proviso a convenient accomplice before the
fact, and a. packed jury, with a ready-made ver-
dict of ' not ffuilty,' both gratuitously furnished
by the govemmont '. The preceding law and pro-
viso are to be fout.d in Haywood's Manual, 530 ;
also in Laws of Tennessee, Act of October 23,
1791 ; and in Stroud's Sketch, 37.
Enough has been said already to show, that
though the laws of the slave states profess to grant
adequate protection to the life of the slave, such
professions are mere empty pretence, no such pro-
tection beinfr in reality afforded by them. But
there is still another fact, showing t'nat all laws
which profess to protect the slaves from injury by
the whites are a mockery. It is this — l^at the
testimony, neither of a slave nor of a free colored
person, is legal testimony against a white. To
this rule there is no exception in any of the slave
states : and this, were there no other evidence,
would be suflicient to stamp, as hypocritical, all
the provisions of the codes which profess to pro-
tect the slaves. Professing to grant protection,
while, at the same time, it strips them of the only
means by which they can make that protection
available ! Injuries must be legaWj proved before
they can be legally redressed : to deprive men of
the power of proving their injuries, is itself the
greatest of all injuries ; for it not only exposes to
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
149
all, but invites them, by a virtual guarantee of
impunity, and is tlius the author of all injuries.
It matters not what other laws exist, professing
to tlirow safeguards round the slave — this makes
them blank paper. How can a slave prove out-
rages perpetrated upon him by his master or over-
seer, when his own testimony and that of all his
fellow-slaves, his kindred, associates, and ac-
quaintanccs, arc ruled out of court ? and when he
is entirely in the power of those who injure him,
ana when the only care necessary, on their part,
is, to see that no white witness is looking on. Or-
dinarily, but one white man, the overseer, is with
the slaves while they are at labor ; indeed, on
most plantations, to commit an outrage in the
presence of a white witness would he, more diffi-
cult than in their absence. He who wished to
commit an illegal act upon a slave, instead of be-
mg obliged to take pains and watch for an oppor-
tunity to do it unobserved by a white, would find
'.t difficult to do it in the presence of a white if he
wished to do so. The supreme court of Louisi-
ana, in their decision, in the case of Crawford vs.
Cherry. 15, (Martin's La. Rep. 142; also "Law
oj Slavery " 249.) where the defendant was sued
for the value of a slave whom he had shot and
killed, say, " The act charged here, is one rarely
committed in the presence of witnesses," (whites).
So in the case of the State vs. Mann, (Devereux,
N. C. Rep. 263 ; and " Law of Slavery," 247 ;) in
'.vhich the defendant was charged with shooting
a slave girl ' belonging' to the plaintiff; the Su-
preme Court of North Carolina, in their decision,
speaking of the provocations of the master by the
slave, and ' the consequent wrath of the master
prompting him to bloody vengeance, add, ' a ven-
geance generally practised with impunity, by rea-
son of its privacy.''
Laws excluding the testimony of slaves and
free colored persons, where a white is concerned,
do not exist in all the slave states. One or two
of them have no legal enactment on the subject ;
but, in those, ' public opinioii' acts with the force
of law, and the courts invariably reject it. This
brings us back to the potency of that oft-quoted
■ public opinion,' so ready, according to our ob-
jector, to do battle for the protection of the slave !
Another proof that 'public opinion,' in the
slave states, plunders, tortures, and murders the
slaves, instead oi protecting them, is found in the
fact, that the laws of slave states inflict capital
punishment on slaves for a variety of crimes, for
which, if their masters commit them, the legal
penalty is merely imprisonment. Judge Stroud,
in his Sketch of the Laws of Slavery, says, that,
by the laws of Virginia, there are ' seventy-one
crimes for which slaves are capitally punished,
though in none of these are whites pun shed in a
manner more severe than by imprisonment in the
penitentiary.' (P. 107, where the reader will find
all the crimes enumerated.) It should be added,
however, that though the penalty for each of tlieso
seventy. one crimes is ' death,' yet a majorHy of
them are, in the words of the law, ' death with-
in clergy ;' and in Virginia, clergyahle offences,
though technically capital, arc not so in fact. In
Mississippi, slaves are punished capitally for more
than thirty crimes, for which whites are punished
only by fine or imprisonment, or both. Eight of
these are not recognized as crimes, either by com-
mon law or by statute, when committed by
whites. In South Carolina slaves arc punished
capitally for nine more crimes than the whites —
in Georgia, for six — and in Kentucky, for seven
more than whites, &c. We surely need not de-
tain the reader by comments on this monstrous
inequality with which the penal codes of slave
states treat slaves and their masters. When we
consider that guilt is in proportion to intelligence,
and that these masters have by law doomed their
slaves to ignorance, and then, as they darkle and
grope along their blind way, inflict penalties upon
them for a variety of acts regarded as praise,
worthy in whites ; killing them for crimes,
when whites are only fined or imprisoned — to call
such a ' public opinion' inhuman, savage, mur-
derous, diabolical, would be to use tamo words, if
theEnglish vocabulary could supply others of more
horrible import.
But slaveholding brutality does not stop here.
While punishing the slaves for crimes with vastly
greater severity than it does their masters for the
same crimes, and making a variety of acts crimes
in law, which are right, and often duties, it per-
sists in refusing to make known to the slaves that
complicated and barbarous penal code which
loads them with such fearful liabilities. The slave
is left to get a knowledge of these laws as he can,
and cases must be of constant occurrence at the
south, in which slaves get their first knowledge
of the existence of a law by suffering its penalty.
Indeed, this is probably the way in which they
commonly learn what the laws are ; for how else
can the slave get a knowledge of the laws ? He
cannot read — he cannot learn to read ; if he try
to master the alphabet, so that he may spell out
the words of the law, and thus avoid its penalties,
the law shakes its terrors at him ; while, at the
same time, those who made the laws refuse to
make them known to those for whom they are de-
signed. The memory of Caligula will blacken
with execration while time lasts, because he hung
up his laws so high that people could not read
them, and then punished them because they did
not keep them. Our slaveholders aspire to blacker
infamv. Caligula was content wnth hanging up
his laws y/here his subjects could see them ; and
if they could not read them, they knew where
150
Objecticms Considered — Public Opinion,
they were, and might get at them, if, in their zeal
to learn his will, they had used the same means
to get up to them that those did who hung them
there. Even Caligula, wretch as he was, would
have shuddered at cutting their legs off, to pre-
vent their climbing to them ; . or, if they had got
there, at boring their eyes out, to prevent their
reading them. Our slaveholders virtually do
both ; for thej^ prohibit their slaves acquiring that
knowledge of letters which would enable them to
read the laws ; and if, by stealth, they get it in
spite of them, they prohibit them books and pa-
pers, and flog them if they are caught at them.
Further — Caligula merely hung his laws so high
that they could not be read — our slaveholders
have hung theirs so high above the slave that
they cannot be seen — they are utterly out of sight,
and he finds out that they are there only by the
falling of the penalties on his head.* Thus the
" public opinion" of slave states protects the de-
fenceless slave by arming a host of legal penal-
ties and setting them in ambush at every thicket
along his path, to spring upon him unawares.
Stroud, in his Sketch of the Laws of Slavery,
page 100, thus comments on this monstrous bar-
barity.
"The hardened convict moves their sympathy,
and is to be taught the laws before he is expected
to obey them ;t yet the guiltless slave is subjected
to an extensive system of cruel enactments, of no
part of which, probably, has he ever heard."
Having already drawn so largely on the read-
er's patience, in illustrating southern ' public opi-
nion' by the slave laws, instead of additional illus-
trations of the same point from another class of
those laws, as was our design, we will group toge-
ther a few particulars, which the reader can take
in at a glance, showing that the "public opinion"
of slaveholders towards their slaves, which exists at
* The following extract from the Alexandria (D. C.) Ga-
zette is an illustration. "Criminals Condemned. — On
Monday last the Court of tljo borough of Norfolk, Va. s.it
on the trial of four negro boys arraigned for burglar}'. Tlie
first indictment charged them with breaking into the hard-
ware store of Mr. E. P. Tabb, upon which two of them were
found guilty by the Court, and condemned to suffer the
penalty' of the law, which, in the case of a slave, is death.
The second Friday in April is appointed for the execution
of their awful sentence. Their ages do not exceed sixteen.
The first, a fine active boy, belongs to a widow lady in Al-
exandria: the latter, a house servant, is owned by a gentle-
man in the borough. The value of one was fixed at $1000,
and the otlier at ^00 ; which sums are to be re-imburscd
to their respective owners out of the state treasury." In all
probability these poor boys, who are to be hung for stealing,
never dreamed tliat death was the legal penalty of the crime.
Here is another, from the " New Orleans Bee" of 14.
1837. — "The slave who strtck some citizens in Canal-
street, some weeks since, has been tried and found guilty,
and is sentenced to be iiusg on the "tth.
t " It shall be the duty of the keeper [of the penitentiary]
oil the receipt of each prisoner, to read to him or her such
parts of the penal laws of this state as impose penalties for
escape, and to malce all the prisoners in the penitentiary
acquainted with the same. It shall also be his duty, on tlie
discharge of such prisoner, to read to him or her such parts
of the said laws as impose additional punishments for the
repetition of offences." — Rule Vith^for the internal gov-rn-
vicnt of the Pcnitentianj of Georgia. See 20 of the Peni-
tentiary .Bet 0/1816. — Prince's Digest, -386.
the south, in the form of law, tramples on all those
fundamcntalprinciplesofright, justice, and equity,
which are recognized as sacred by all civilized na-
tions, and receive the homage even of barbarians.
1. One of these principles is, that the benefits
of law to the subject shoidd overbalance its bur-
dens— its protection more than compensate for its
restraints and exactions — and its blessings alto-
gether outweigh its inconveniences and evils —
the former being numerous, positive, and perma-
nent, the latter few, negative, and incidental. To-
tally the reverse of all this is true in the case of
the slave. Law is to him all exaction and no pro-
tection : instead of lightening his waiujaZ burdens,
it crushes him under a multitude of artificial ones;
instead of a friend to succor him, it is his deadliest
foe, transfixing him at every step from the cradle
to the grave. Law has been beautifully defined
to be " benevolence acting by rule ;" to the Ame-
rican slave it is malevolence torturing by system.
It is an old truth, that responsibility increases
with capacity ; but those same laws which make
the slave a " chattel," require of him more than
of men. The same law Vt'hich makes him a thing
incapable of obligation, loads him with obligations
superhuman — while sinking him below the level of
a brute in dispensing its benefits, he lays upon him
burdens which would break down an angel.
2. Innocence is entitled to the protection of law.
Slaveholders make innocence free plunder ; this
is their daily emplo3^ment ; their laws assail it,
make it their victim, inflict upon it all, and, in
some respects, more than all the penalties of the
greatest guilt. To other innocent persons, law
is a blessing, to the slave it is a curse, only a
curse and that continually.
3. Deprivation of liberty is one of the highest
punishments of crime ; and in proportion to its
justice when inflicted on the guilty, is its injus-
tice when inflicted on the innocent ; this terrible
penalty is inflicted on two million seven hundred
thousand, innocent persons in the Southern states.
4. Self-preservation and self-defence, are uni.
versally regarded as the most sacred of human
rights, yet the laws of slave states punish the
slave with death for exercising these rights in
that wa}% which in others is pronounced worthy
of the highest praise.
5. The safe-guards of law are most needed
where natural safe-guards are weakest. Every
principle of justice and equity requires, that, those
who are totally unprotected by birth, station,
wealth, friends, influence, and popular favor,
and especially those who are the innocent objects
of public contempt and prejudice, should be
more vigilantly protected by law, than those who
are so fortified by defence, that they have far less
need of legal protection ; yet the poor slave who
is fortified by none of these personal bulwarks, is
Objections Co7isidered—? nhUc Opinion.
151
denied the protection of law, while the master, \
surrounded by them all, is panoplied in the mad
of leo-al protection, even to the hair of his head ;
vea, his very shoe-tic and coat-button are legal
protegees.
6. The grand object of law is to protect men's
natural rights, but instead of protecting the
natural rights of the slaves, it gives slaveholders
license to wrest them from the weak by violence,
protects them in holding their plunder, and kills
tlie rightful owner if he attempt to recover it.
Thrs is the protection thrown around the rights
of American slaves by the ' public opinion,' of
slaveholders ; these the restraints that hold back
their masters, overseers, and drivers, from in-
flicting injuries upon them 1
In a Republican government, laio is the pulse
of its heart — as the heart beats the pulse beats, ex-
cept that it often beats weaker than the heart,
never stronger — or to drop the figure, laws are
never worse than those who make tliem, very
often better. If human history proves any-
thing, cruelty of practice will always go beyond
cruelty of law.
Law-making is a formal, deliberate act, per-
formed by persons of mature age, embodying the
mtelligencc, wisdom, justice and humanity, of
the community ; performed, too, at leisure, after
full opportunity had for a comprehensive survey
of all the relations to be affected, after careful
investigation and protracted discussion. Conse-
quently laws must, in the main, be a true index
of the permanent feelings, the settled /rame of
mind, cherished by the community upon those
subjects, and towards those persons and classes
v.-hose condition the laws are designed to estab-
lish. If the laws are in a high degree cruel and
inhuman, towards any class of persons, it proves
that the feelings habitually exercised towards
that class of persons, by those who make and
perpetuate those laws, are at least equally cruel
and inhuman. We say at least equally so ; for
if the habitual state of feehng towards that class
be unmerciful, it must be unspeakably cruel, re-
lentless and mahgnant when provoked ; if its
ordinary action is inhuman, its contortions and
spasms must be tragedies ; if the waves run high
when there has been no wind, where will they
not break when the tempest heaves them !
Further, when cruelty is the spirit of the law
towards a proscribed class, when it legalizes great
outrages upon them, it connives at, and abets
greater outrages, and is virtually an accomplice
of all who perpetrate them. Hence, in such
cases, though the degree of the outrage is illegal,
the perpetrator will rarely be convicted, and, even
if convicted, will be almost sure to escape pun-
ishment. This is not theory but history. Every
judge and lawyer in the slave states knows, that
the legal conviction and punishment of masters
and mistresscs,for illegal outrages upon their slaves,
is an event which has rarely, if ever, occurred
in the slave stutes ; they know, also, that although
hundreds of slaves have been murdered by their
masters and mistresses in the slave states, witiiin
the last twent3r-five years, and though the fact of
their having committed those murders has been
established beyond a doubt in the minds of the
Surrounding community, yet that the murderers
have not, in a single instance, suffered the penalty
of the law.
Finally.since slaveholders have deliberately legal-
ized the perpetration of the most cold-blooded atro-
cities upon their slaves, and do pertinaciously re-
fuse to make these atrocities illegal, and to punish
those w ho perpetrate them, they stand convicted
before the world, upon their own testimony, of
the most barbarous, brutal, and habitual inhu-
manity. If this be slander and falsehood, their
own lips have uttered it, their own fingers have
written it, their own acts have proclaimed it ;
and however it may be with their morality, they
have too much human nature to perjure them-
selves for the sake of publishing their own in-
famy.
Having dwelt at such length on the legal code
of the slave states, that unerring index of the
public opinion of slaveholders tov.'ards their slaves :
and having sliown that it does not protect the
slaves from cruelty, and that even hi the few in-
stances in which the letter of the law, if executed,
would afford some protection, it is virtually nulli-
fied by the connivance of courts and juries, or by
popular clamor; we might safely rest the case
here, assured that every honest reader would
spurn the absurd falsehood, that the ' public
opinion' of the slave states protects the slaves
and restrains the master. But, as the assertion
is made so often by slaveholders, and with so
much confidence, notwithstanding its absurdity
is fully revealed by their ov/n legal code, we pro-
pose to show its falsehood by applying other
tests.
We lay it down as a truth that can be made
no plainer by reasoning, that the same ' public
opinion,' which restrains men from committing
outrages, will restrain them from publishing such
outrages, if they do commit them ; — in other
words, if a man is restrained from certain acts
through fear of losing his character, should they
become known, he will not voluntarily destroy
his character by making them known, should he
be guilty of them. Let ub look at this. It is
assumed by slaveholders, that ' public opinion'
at the south so frowns on cruelty to the slaves,
that fear of disgrace would restrain from the in-
fliction of it, were there no other consideration.
Now, that this is sheer fiction is shown by the
152
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
fact, that the newspapers in the slaveholding
states, teem with advcrtisarncnts for runaway
slaves, in v/hich the masters and iiiisiresses de-
scribe their men and women, as having been
' branded with a hot iron,' on their ' cheeks,'
'jaws,' 'breasts,' 'arms,' 'legs,' and 'thighs;'
also as ' scarred,' ' very much scarred,' ' cut up,'
' marked,' &c. ' with the whip,' also with ' iron
collars on,' ' chains,' ' bars of iron,' ' fetters,'
' bells,' ' horns,' ' shackles,' &c. They, also, de-
scribe them as having been wounded by ' buck-
shot,' ' rific-balls,' &c. fired at them by their
' owners,' and others when in pursuit ; also, as
having ' notches,' cut in their ears, the tops or
bottoms of their ears ' cut off,' or ' slit,' or ' one
ear cut off,' or ' both ears cut off,' &c. &c.
The masters and mistresses who thus advertise
their runaway slaves, coolly sign their names to
their advertisements, giving the street and num-
ber of their residences, if in cities, their post of-
fice address, &c. if in the country ; thus ma-
king public proclamation as widely as possible
that they 'brand,' 'scar,' 'gash,' ' cut up,' &-c.
tlie flesh of their slaves; load them with irons, cut
off their ears, 6cc. ; they speak of these things with
the utmost sang fioid, not seeming to think it
possible, that any one will esteem them at all the
less because of these outrages upon their slaves ;
further, these advertisements swarm in many of
the largest and most widely circulated political
and commercial papers that are published m the
slave states. The editors of those papers con-
stitute the main body of the literati of the slave
states ; they move in the highest circle of socie-
ty, are among the ' popular' men in the commu.
nity, and as a class, are more influential than any
other ; yet these editors publish these advertise-
ments with iron indifference. So far from pro-
claiming to such felons, homicides, and murder-
ers, that they will not be their blood-hounds, to
hunt down the innocent and mutilated victims
who have escaped from their torture, they freely
furnish them with every facility, become their
accomplices and share their spoils ; and instead
of outraging ' public opinion,' by doing it, they
are the men after its own heart, its organs, its
representatives, its self^
To show that the ' public opinion' of the slave
states, towards the slaves, is absolutely diabolical,
we will insert a few, out of a multitude, of simi-
lar advertisements from a variety of southern
papers now before us.
The North Carolina Standard, of July l8,
1838, contains the following : —
" TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD. Ran-
away from the subscriber, a n^gro woman and
two children ; the woman is tall and black, and
a few days before she went off, I burnt her with
A HOT IRON ON THE LEFT SIDE OF HER FACE ; I
TRIED TO MAKE THE LETTER M, and sJie kept a
cloth over her head and face, and a fly bonnet on
her head so as to cover the burn ; her children
are both boys, the oldest is in his seventh year ;
he is a mulatto and has blue eyes ; the j'oungest
is black and is in his fifth year. The woman's
name is Betty, commonly called Bet.
MiCAJAH Ricks.
Nash County, July 7, 1838.
Hear the wretch tell his story, with as much
indifference as if he were describing the cutting
of his initials in the bark of a tree.
" / burnt her with a hot iron on the left side of
her face,"- — " / tried to make the letter M," and
this he says in a newspaper, and puts his name
to it, and the editor of the paper who is, also, its
proprietor, publishes it for him and pockets his
fee. Perhaps the reader will say, ' Oh, it must
have been published in an insignificant sheet
printed in some obscure corner of the state ; per-
haps by a gang of ' squatters,' in the Dismal
Swamp, universally regarded as a pest, and edit-
ed by some scape-gallows, who is detested by the
whole communitjT. To this I reply that the
" North Carolina Standard," the . paper which
contains it, is a large six columned weekly paper,
handsomely printed and ably edited ; it is the
leading Democratic paper in that state, and is
published at Raleigh, the Capital of the state,
Thomas Loring, Esq. Editor and Proprietor.
The motto in capitals under the head of the pa-
per is, " The constitution and the union of
THE states THEY MUST BE PRESERVED." Tho
same Editor and Proprietor, who exhibits such
brutality of feeling towards the slaves, by giving
the preceding advertisement a conspicuous place
in his columns, and taking his pay for it, has ap-
parently a keen sense of the proprieties of life,
where whites are concerned, and a high regard
for the rights, character and feelings of those
whose skin is colored like his own. As proof of
this, we copy from the number of the paper con-
taining the foregoing advertisement, the follov/ing
Editorial on the pending political canvass.
" We cannot refrain from expressing the hope
that the Gubernatorial canvass will be conduct-
ed with a liue re^flr<Z to the character, and feeL
irigs of the distinguished individuals who are can-
didates for that office ; and that the pi-ess of
North Carolina will set an example in this respect,
worthy of imitation and of praise."
What is this but chivalrous and honorable feel-
ing ? The good name of North Carolina is dear to
him — on the comfort, ' character and feelings,'
of her white citizens he sets a high value ; he feels
too, most deeply for the character of the Press of
North Carolina, sees that it is a city set on a
hill, and implores his brethren of the editorial
corps to ' set an example' of courtesy and
magnanimity worthy of imitation and praise.
Now, reader, put all these things together and
con them over, and then read again the preceding
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
153
advertisement contained in the same number of
tlie paper, and you have the true "North Carolina
Standard," by which to measure the protection
extended to slaves by the ' public opinion' of
that state.
J. P. Ashford advertises as follows in the
" Natchez Courier," August 24, 1838.
" Ranawaj^, a negro girl called Mary, has a
small scar over her eye, a good many teeth mis-
sing, the letter A. is branded on her cheek and
forehead."
A. B. Metcalf thus advertises a woman in the
ra.me paper, June 15, 1838.
" Ranaway, Mary, a black woman, has a scar
on her back and right arm near the shoulder,
caused by a riflle ball."
John Henderson, in the " Grand Gulf Adver-
tiser," August 29, 1838, advertises Betsey.
" Ranaway, a black woman Betsey, has an
iron bar on her right leg."
Robert Nicoll, whose residence is in Mobile, in
Dauphin street, between Emmanuel and Concep-
tion streets, thus advertises a woman in the
" Mobile Commercial Advertiser."
" TEN DOLLARS REWARD will be given
for my negro woman Liby. The said Liby is
about SQ years old. and VERY MUCH SCAR.
RED ABOUT THE NECK AND EARS, occa-
sioned by whipping, had on a handkerchief tied
round her ears, as she commonly wears it to hide
THE SCARS."
To show that slaveholding brutality now is the
same that it was the eighth of a century ago, we
publish the following advertisement from the
" Charleston (S. C.) Com-ier," of 1825.
" TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD— Ran-
away from the subscriber, on the 14th instant,
a negro girl named Molly.
" The said girl was sold by Messrs. Wm. Payne
& Sons, as the property of an estate of a
Mr. Gearrall, and purchased by a Mr. Moses,
and sold by him to a Thomas Prisley, of Edge-
field District, of whom I bought her on the 17th
of April, 1819. She is 16 or 17 years of age,
slim made, lately branded on the left cheek,
THUS, R, AND A PIECE TAKEN OFF OF HER EAR
ON THE SAME SIDE *, THE SAME LETTER ON THE
INSIDE OF BOTH HER, LEGS.
" Abner Ross, Fairfield District."
But instead of filling pages with similar ad-
vertisements, illustrating the horrible brutality of
slaveholders towards their slaves, the reader is
referred to the preceding pages of this work, to
the scores of advertisements vsTritten by slave-
holders, printed by slaveholders, published by
slaveholders, in newspapers edited by slaveholders,
and patronized by slaveholders ; advertisements
describing not only men and boys, but women,
aged and middle-aged, matrons and girls of
tender years, their necks chafed with iron collars
with prongs, their limbs galled with iron rings,
and chains, and bars of iron, iron hobbles and
20
shackles, all parts of their persons scarred with
the lash, and branded with hot irons, and torn
with rifle bullets, pistol balls and buck shot, and
gashed with knives, their eyes out, their cars cut
oflT, their teeth drawn out, and their bones broken.
He is referred also to the cool and shocking indif-
ference with which these slaveholders, ' gentle-
men' and ' ladies,' Reverends, and Honorable?,
and Excellencies, write and print, and publish
and pay, and take money for, and read and cir.
culate, and sanction, such infernal barbarity.
Let the reader ponder all this, and then lay it to
heart, that this is that ' public opinion' of the
slaveholder, which protects their slaves from all in-
jury, and is an effectual guarantee of personal
security.
However far gone a community may be in bru-
tality, something of protection may yet be hoped
for from its ' public opinion,' if respect for woman
survives the general wreck ; that gone, protection
perishes ; public opinion becomes universal rapine ;
outrages, once occasional, become habitual ; the
torture, which was before inflicted only by pas-
sion, becomes the constant product of a system^
and, instead of being the index of sudden and
fierce impulses, is coolly plied as the permanent
means to an end. When women are branded
with hot irons on their faces ; when iron collars,
with prongs, are riveted about their necks ; when
iron rings are fastened upon their limbs, and they
are forced to drag after them chains and fetters ;
when their flesh is torn with tvhips, and mangled
with bullets and shot, and lacerated with knives ;
and when those who do such things, are regarded
in the community, and associated with as ' gen-
tlemen' and ' ladies ;' to say that the ' public opin-
ion' of such a community is a protection to its
victims, is to blaspheme God, whose creatures
they are, cast in his own sacred miage, and dear
to him as the apple of his eye.
But we are not yet quite ready to dismiss this
protector, ' Public Opinion.' To illustrate the
hardened brutality with which slaveholders re-
gard their slaves, the shameless and apparently
unconscious indecency with which they speak of
their female slaves, examine their persons, and
describe them, under their own signatures, in
newspapers, hand-bills, &c. just as they would
describe the marks of cattle and swine, on all
parts of their bodies ; we will make a few extracts
from southern papers. Reader, as we proceed
to these extracts, remember our motto — ' True
humanity consists not in a squeamish ear.'
Mr. P. Abdie, of New Orleans, advertises in
the New Orleans Bee, of January 29, 1838, for
one of his female slaves, as follows ;
" Ranaway, the negro wench named Betsey,
aged about 22 years, handsome-faced, and good
countenance ; having the marks of the whip be-
hind her neck, and several others on her rump.
154
Ohjectioiis Considered — Public Opinion.
The above reward, ($10,) will be given to who-
ever will bring that wench to P. Abdie."
The New Orleans I5ee, in which the advertise-
ment of this Vandal appears, is the ' Official Ga-
zette of the State — of the General Council — and
of the first and third Municipalities of New Or-
leans.' It is the largest, and the most influential
paper in the south-western states, and perhaps the
most ably edited — and has undoubtedly a larger
circulation than any other. It is a dally paper,
of ^12 a year, and its circulation being mainly
among the larger merchants, planters, and pro-
fessional men, it is a fair index of the ' public
opinion' of Louisiana, so far as represented by
those classes of persons. Advertisements equally
gross, indecent, and abominable, or nearly so,
can be found in almost every number of that pa-
per.
Mr. William Robinson, Georgetown, District
of Columbia, advertised for his slave in the Na-
tional Intelligencer, of Washington City, Oct. 2,
1837, as follows:
" Eloped from my residence a young negress,
22 years old, of a chesnut, or brown color. She
has a very singular mark — this mark, to the best
of my RECOLLECTION, covers a part of her breasts,
body, a.\\A limbs ; and when her neck and arms
are uncovered, is very perceptible ; she has been
frequently seen east and south of the Capitol
Square, and is harbored by ill-disposed persons, of
every complexion, for her services."
Mr. John C. Beasley, near Huntsville, Ala-
bama, thus advertises a young girl of eighteen,
in the Huntsville Democrat, of August 1st, 1837.
" Ranawaj' Maria, about 18 years old, very far
advanced with child." He then offers a reward
to any one who will commit this young girl, in
this condition, to jail.
Mr. James T. De Jarnett, Vernon, Antauga
CO. Alabama, thus advertises a woman in the
Pensacola Gazette, July 14. 1838. " Celia is a
bright copper-colored negress, fine figure and very
smart. On examining her back, you will find
marks caused by the whip." He closes the advert-
isement, by offering a reward of five hundred dol-
lars to any person who will lodge her in jail, so
that he can get her.
A person who lives at 124 Chartres street,
New Orleans, advertises in the ' Bee,' of May
31, for " the negress Patience, about 28 years
old, has large hips, and is bow-legged." A Mr.
T.Cuggy, in the same paper, thus describes " the
negress Caroline." ''She has awkward feet,
clumsy ankles, turns out her toes greatly in walk-
ing, and has a sore on her left shin."
In another, of June 22, Mr. P. Bahi advertises
"Maria, with a clear white complexion, and double
nipple on her right breast."
Mr. Charles Craige, of Federal Point, New
Hanover co. North Carolina, in the Wilmington
Advertiser, August 11, 1837, offers a reward for
his slave Jane, and sa3's " she is far advanced in
pregnancy."
The New Orleans Bulletin, August 18, 1838,
advertises '' the negress Mary, aged nineteen, has
a scar on her face, walks parrot-toed, and is
pregnant."
Mr. J. G. MuiR, of Grand Gulf, Mississippi,
thus advertises a woman in the Vicksburg Regis-
ter, December 5, 1838. " Ranaway a negro
girl — has a number of olacJc lumps on her breasts,
and is in a state of pregnancy."
Mr. Jacob Besson, Donaldsonville, Louisiana,
advertises in the New Orleans Bee, August 7,
1838, '' the negro woman Victorine — she is ad-
vanced in pregnancy."
Mr. J. H. Leverich & Co. No. 10, Old Levee,
New Orleans, advertises in the ' Bulletin,' Janua-
ry 22, 1839, as follows.
" $50 Reward. — Ranaway a negro girl named
Caroline about 18 years of age, is far advanced
in child-bearing. The above reward will be paid
for her delivery at either of the jails of the city."
Mr. John Duggan, thus advertises a woman in
the New Orleans Bee, of Sept. 7.
'■ Ranaway from the subscriber a mulatto wo-
man, named Esther, about thirty years of age,
large stomacJi, \v3Lnts her upper front teeth, and
walks pigeon-toed — supposed to be about the
lower fauxbourg.
Mr. Francis Foster, of Troup co. Georgia,
advertises in the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of
June 22, 1837 — " My negro woman Patsey, has
a stoop in her walking, occasioned by a severe
burn on her abdomen."
The above are a few specimens of the gross de-
tails, in describing the persons of females, of all
ages, and the marks upon all parts of their bodies ;
proving incontestabl}-, that slaveholders are in the
habit not only of stripping their female slaves of
their clothing, and inflicting punishment upon
their 'shrinking flesh,' but of subjecting their
naked persons to the most minute and revolting
inspection, and then of publishing to the world
the results of their examination, as well as the
scars left by their own inflictions upon them,
their length, size, and exact position on the body ;
and all this without impairing in the least, the
standing in the community of the shameless
wretches who thus proclaim their own abomina-
tions. That such things should not at all affect
the standing of such persons in society, is cer-
tainly no marvel : how could they affect it, when
the same communities enact laws requiring their
own legal officers to inspect minutely the per.
sons and bodily marks of all slaves taken up as
runaways, and to publish in the newspapers a
particular description of all such marks and pe-
culiarities of their persons, their size, appearance,
Oljections Considered — Public Opinion.
155
position on tlic body, tStc. Yea, verily, when the
' public opinion' of the community, in the solemn
form of law, commands jailors, slieritl's, captains
of police, «fcc. to divest of their clothing aged ma-
trons and young girls, minutely examine their
naked persons, and publish the results of their
examination — who can marvel, that the same
' public opinion' should tolerate the slaveholders
themselves, in doing the sanae things to their
own propcrt}', which they have appointed legal
officers to do as their proxies.*
The zeal with which slavcholding 'public
opinion' protects the lives of the slaves, may be
illustrated by the following advertisements, taken
from a multitude of similar ones in southern pa-
pers. To show that slavcholding ' public opinion'
is the same now, that it was half a century ago,
we will insert, in the first place, an advertisement
published in a North Carolina newspaper, Oct.
^9, 1785, by W. Skinner, the Clerk of the
Count}^ of Perquiraous, North Carolina.
" Ten silver dollars reward will be paid for ap
prehending and delivering to me my man Moses,
who ran away tjiis morning ; or 1 will give five
times the sum to any person who will make due
proof of his being killed, and never ask a question
to know by vi'hom it was done."
W. Skinner.
Perquimons County, N. C. Oct. 29, 1785.
The late John Parrish, of Philadelphia, an
eminent minister of the religious society of
Friends, who traveled through the slave states
about thirty-Jive years since, on a religious mis-
sion, published on his return a pamphlet of forty
pages, entitled ' Remarks on the Slavery of the
Black People.' From this work we extract the
following illustrations of ' public opinion' in
North and South Carolina and Virginia at that
period.
" When I was traveling through North Caro-
lina, a black man, who was outlawed, being shot
by one of his pursuers, and left wounded in the
woods, they came to an ordinary where I had
stopped, to feed my horse, in order to procure a
cart to bring the poor wretched object in. An-
other, I was credibly informed, was shot, his
head cut off, and carried in a bag by the perpe-
trators of the murder, who received the reward,
* As a sample of these laws, we give the following ex-
tract from one of the laws of Maryland, where slave-
holding ' public opinion' exists in its mildest form.
"It shall be the duty of the sheriffs of the several coun-
ties of this state, upon any runaway scr\-aiit or slave being
committed to his custody, to cause the same to be adver-
tised, &c. UTid to make particular and minute descriptions of
live, person and Jorfii?/ mar/i:.s of such runaway." — Laws of
Maryland of 1802, Chap. 96, Sec. 1 and 2.
That the sheriffs, jailors, &c. do not neglect this part of
tlieir official ' duty,' is plain from the minute description
which they give in the advertisements of marks upon all
parts of the jiersons of females, as well as males ; and also
from the occasional declaration, ' no scars discoverable on
any part,' or 'no marks discoverable about her;" which
last is taken from an advertisement in the Milledgeville
(Geo.) Journal, June 25, 1838, signed ' T. S. Densler, Jailor.'
which was said to bo J$200, continental currcn.
cy, and that his head was stuck on a coal house
at an iron works in Virginia — and tliis for going
to visit his wife at a distance. Crawford gives
an account of a man being gibbetted alive in
Sontli Carolina, and the buzzards came and
picked out his eyes. Another was burnt to
death at a stake in Charleston, surrounded by a
multitude of spectators, some of whom were
people of the first rank ; the poor object
was heard to cry, as long as he could breathe,
' not guilty — not guilty.' "
The following is an illustration of the ' public
opinion' of South Carolina about fifty years ago.
It is taken from Judge Stroud's Sketch of the
Slave Laws, page 39.
" I find in the case of ' the State vs. M'Gee,' 1
Bay's Reports, 164, it is said incidentally by
Messrs. Pinckney and Ford, counsel for the state
(of S. C), ' that the frerptency of the offence {wil-
ful murder of a slave) was owing to the nature
of the punishment,^ &-c. . . . This remark was
made in 1791, when the above trial took place. It
was made in a public place — a court-house — and
by men of great personal respectability. There
can be, therefore, no question as to its truth, and
as little of its notoriety."
In 1791 the Grand Jury for the district of Che-
raw, S. C. made a presentment, from which the
following is an extract.
" We, the Grand Jurors of and for the district
of Cheraw, do present the inefficacy of the pre-
sent punishment for kdling negroes, as a great de
feet in the legal system of this state : and we do
earnestly recommend to the attention of the le-
gislature, that clause of the negro act, which con-
fines the penalty for killing slaves to fine and im-
prisonment only : in full confidence, that they
will provide some other more effectual measures
to prevent the frequency of crimes of this na-
ture."— Matthew Carey's American Museum, for
Feb. 1791. — Appendix, p. 10.
The following is a specimen of the 'public opin.
ion' of Georgia twelve years since. We give it iia
the strong words of Colonel Stone, Editor of
the New- York Commercial Advertiser. We take
it from that paper of June 8, 1827.
" Hunting men with dogs. — A negro who had
absconded from his master, and for whom a re-
ward of ^100 was offered, has been apprehended
and committed to prison in Savannah. The edi-
tor, who states the fact, adds, with as much cool-
ness as though there were no barbarity in the mat-
ter, that he did not surrender till he was consider
ably MAIMED BY the dogs that had been set on
him — desperately fighting them — one of which he
badly cut with a sword."
Twelve days after the publication of the pre-
ceding fact, the following horrible transaction took
place in Perry county, Alabama. We extract it
from the African Observer, a monthly periodi-
cal, published in Philadelphia, by the society of
Friends. See No. for August, 1827.
"Tuscaloosa, Ala. June 20, 1827.
" Some time during the last week a Mr. M'Neil-
156
Objections Co7isidered — Public Opinion.
ly having lost some clothing, or other property of
no great value, the slave of a neighboring planter
was charged with the theft. M'Neilly, in compa-
ny with his brother, found the negro driving his
master's wagon ; they seized him, and either did,
or were about to chastise him, when the negro
stabbed M'Neilly, so that he died in an hour after-
wards. The negro was taken before a justice of
the peace, who waved his authority, perhaps
through fear, as a crowd of persons had collected
to the number of seventy or eighty, near Mr.
People's (the justice) house. He acted as presi.
dent of the mob, and put the vote, when it was de-
cided he should be immediately executed by being
burnt to death. The sable culprit was led to a
tree, and tied to it, and a large quantity of pine
knots collected and placed around him, and the
fatal torch applied to the pile, even against the re-
monstrances of several gentlemen who were pre-
sent ; and the miserable being was in a short time
burned to ashes.
" This is the SECOND negro who has been
THUS put to death, without judge or jury, in this
county."
The following advertisements, testimony, &.c.
will show that the slaveholders of to-day are the
children of those who shot, and hunted with
bloodhounds, and burned over slow fires, the
slaves of half a century ago ; the worthy inherit-
ors of their civilization, chivalry, and tender
mercies.
The "Wilmington (North Carolina) Adver-
tiser" of July 13, 1838, contains the following ad-
vertisement.
" $100 will be paid to any person who may ap-
prehend and safely confine in any jail in this state,
a certain negro man, named Alfred. And the
same reward will be paid, if satisfactory evidence
is given of his having been killed. He has one
or more scars on one of his hands, caused by his
having been shot.
"the citizens of ONSLOW.
" Richlands, Onslow co. May 16th, 1838."
In the same column with the above and direct-
ly under it is the following : —
"Ranaway my negro man Richard. A re-
ward of ^25 will be paid for his apprehension
DEAD or ALIVE. Satisfactory proof will only
be required of his being KILLED. He has with
him, in all probability, his wife Eliza, who ran
away from Col. Thompson, now a resident of Al-
abama, about the time he commenced his journey
to that state. durant h. Rhodes."
In the " Macon (Georgia) Telegraph," May 28,
is the following : —
"About the 1st of March last the negro man
Ransom left me without the least provocation
whatever ; I will give a reward of twenty dollars
for said negro, if taken dead or alive, — and if
killed in any attempt, an advance of five dollai s
will be paid. bryant johnson.
" Crawford co. Georgia.'"'
See the " Newbcrn (N. C.) Spectator," Jan. 5,
1338, for the following :—
** RANAWAY, from the subscriber, a negro
man named SAMPSON. Fifty dollars reward
will be given for the delivery of him to me, or
his confinement in an}' jail so that I get him,
and should he resist in being taken, so that vio.
lence is necessary to arrest him, I will not hold
any person liable for damages should the slave
be KILLED. Enoch Foy.
" Jones County, N. C."
From the " Macon (Ga.) Messenger," Jmie
14, 1838.
" To the owners of runaway negroes, a large
mulatto Negro man, between thirty-five and
forty years old, about six feet in height, having
a high forehead, and hair slightly grey, was
KILLED, near my plantation, on the 9th inst. He
would not surrender, but assaulted Mr. Bowen,
who killed him in self-defence. If the owner
desires further information relative to the death
of his negro, he can obtain it by letter, or by
calling on the subscriber ten miles south of Perry,
Houston county. Edm'd. Jas. McGehee."
From the ' Charleston (S. C.) Courier,' Feb,
20, 1836.
" $300 REWARD. Ranaway from the sub-
scriber, in November last, his two negro men,
named Billy and Pompey.
" Billy is 25 years old, and is known as the
patroon of my boat for many years ; in all pro .
bability he may resist ; in that event 50 dollars
will be paid for his HEAD."
From the ' Newbern (N. C.) Spectator,' Dec.
2. 1836.
" .f 200 REWARD. Ranaway from the sub-
scriber, about three years ago, a certain negro
man named Ben, commonly known by the name
of Ben Fox. He had but one eye. Also, one
other negro, by the name of Rigdon, who ran-
away on the 8th of this month.
" I will give the reward of one hundred dollars
for each of the above negroes, to be delivered to
me or confined in the jail of Lenoir or Jones
county, or for the killing of them, so that I
CAN SEE them. W. D. Cobb."
" In the same number of the Spectator two
Justices of the Peace advertise the same run-
aways, and give notice that if they do not imme.
diately return to W. D. Cobb, their master, they
will be considered as outlaws, and any body may
kill them. The following is an extract from the
proclamation of the justices.
" And we do hereby, by virtue of an act of tiic
assembly of this state, concerning servants and
slaves, intimate and declare, if the said slaves do
not surrender themselves and return home to
their master immediately after the publication of
these presents, that any person may kill and de-
stroy said slaves by such means as he or they
think fit, without accusation or impeachment of
any crime or offence for so doing, or ivithout in-
curring any penalty or forfeiture thereby.
" Given under our hands and seals, this 12th
November, 1836.
" B. Coleman, J. P. [Seal.]
"Jas. Jones, J. P. [Seal.] "
On the 28th, of April 1836, in the city of St.
Louis, Missouri, a black man, named Mcintosh,
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
157
who had stabbed an officer, that had arrested him,
was seized by the multitude, fastened to a tree
in the midst of the city, wood piled around him,
and in open day and in the presence of an im-
mense throng of citizens, he was burned to death.
The Allon (111.) Telegraph, in its account of the
scene says ;
«' All was silent as death while the execution-
ers were piling wood around their victim. He
said not a word, until feeling that the flames had
seized upon him. He then uttered an awful
howl, attempting to sing and pray, then hung
his head, and suffered ni silence, except in
the following instance : — After the flames had
surrounded their pre}', his eyes burnt out of his
head, and his mouth seemingly parched to a
cinder, some one in the crowd, more compassion-
ate than the rest, proposed to put an end to his
misery by shooting him, when it was replied, 'that
would be of no use, since he was already out of
pain.' ' No, no,' said the wretch, ' I am not, I
am sufficing as much as ever ; shoot me, shoot
me.' ' No, no,' said one of the fiends who was
standing about the sacrifice they were roasting,
' he shall not be shot. / would sooner slacken
the fire, if that would increase his misery f and
the" man who said this was, as we understand,
an OFFICER OF JUSTICE 1"
The St. Louis correspondent of a New York
paper adds,
" The shrieks and groans of the victim were
loud and piercing, and to observe one limb after
another drop into the fire was awful indeed. He
was about fifteen minutes in dying. I visited
the place this morning, and saw his body, or the
remains of it, at the place of execution. He was
burnt to a crump. His legs and arms were gone,
and only a part of his head and body were left."
Lest this demonstration of ' public opinion'
should be regarded as a sudden impulse merely,
not an index of the settled tone of feeling in that
community, it is important to add, that the Hon.
Luke E. Lawless, Judge of the Circuit Court of
Missouri, at a session of that Court in the city of
St. Louis, some months after the burning of this
man, decided officially that since the burning of
Mcintosh was the act, either directly or by
countenance of a majority of the citizens, it is ' a
case which transcends the jurisdiction,' of the
Grand Jm-y ! Thus the state of Missouri has
proclaimed to the world, that the wretches who
perpetrated that unspeakably diabolical murder,
and the thousands that stood by consenting to it,
were her representatives, and the Bench sancti-
fies it with the solemnity of a judicial decision.
The ' New Orleans Post,' of June 7, 1836, pub-
hshes the following ;
'' We understand, that a negro man was
lately condemned, by the mob, to be burned
OVER A SLOW FIRE, wliich was put into execu-
tion at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, for murdering a
black woman, and her master."
Mr. Henry Bradley, of Pennyan, N. Y., has
furnished us with an extract of a letter written by
a gentleman in Mississippi to his brother in that
village, detailing the particulars of the preceding
transaction. The letter is dated Grand Gulf,
Miss. August 15, 183G. The extract is as fol
lows :
'' I left Vicksburg and came to Grand Gulf.
This is afine place immediately on thebanksof the
Mississippi, of something like fifteen hundred in-
habitants in the winter, and at this time, 1 sup- .
pose, tliere arc not over two hundred while inhabi-
tants, but in the town and its vicinity there are
negroes by thousands. The day I arrived at this
place there was a man by the name of G
murdered by a negro man that belonged to him.
G was born and brought up in A , state
of New York. His father and mother now live
south of A . He has left a property here, it
is supposed, of forty thousand dollars, and no fa-
mily.
" They took the negro, mounted him on a horse,
led the horse under a tree, put a rope around his
neck, raised him up by throwing the rope over a
limb; they then got into a quarrel among them-
selves ; some swore that he should be burnt alive ;
the rope was cut and the negro dropped to the
ground. He immediately jumped to his feet;
they then made him walk a short distance to a
tree ; he was then tied fast and a fire kindled,
when another quarrel took place ; the fire was
pulled away from him when about half dead, and
a committee of twelve appointed to say in what
manner he should be disposed of. They brought in
that he should then be cut down, his head cut ofF, his
body burned, and his head stuck on a pole at the
corner of the road in the edge of the town. That
was done and all parties satisfied !
" G owned the negroes wife, and was in the
habit of sleeping with her ! The negro said he
had killed him, and he beheved he should be re-
warded in heaven for it.
" This is but one instance among many of a
similar nature. S. S."
We have received a more detailed account of
this transaction from Mr. William Armstrong, of
Putnam, Ohio, through Maj. Horace Nye, of that
place. Mr. A. who has been for some years em-
ployed as captain and supercargo of boats de-
scending the river, was at Grand Gulf at the
time of the tragedy, and witnessed it. It was on the
Sabbath. From Mr. Armstrong's statement, it ap-
pears that the slave was a man of uncommon in-
telligence ; had the over-sight of a large business
— superintended the purchase of supplies for his
master, &c. — that exasperated by the intercourse
of his master with his wife, he was upbraiding
her one evening, when his master overhearing
him, went out to quell him, was attacked by the
infuriated man and killed on the spot. The name
of the master was Green ; he was a native of Au-
burn, New York, and had been at the south but
a few years.
Mr. EzEKiEL BiRDSEYE, of Comwall, Conn., a
gentleman well known and highly respected in
158
Oijeciions Considered — Public Opinion.
Litchfield county, who resided a number of years
in South Carolina, gives the following testimo-
Jiy : —
"A man by the name of Waters was killed by
his slaves, in Newberry District. Three of them
Vifcre tried before the court, and ordered to be
burnt. I was but a few miles distant at the time,
and conversed with those who saw the execution.
The slaves were tied to a stake, and pitch pine
wood piled around them, to which the fire was
communicated. Thousands were collected to
witness this barbarous transaction. Other execu-
tions of this kind look place in various parts of
the state, during my residence in it,fro7nl8l8 to
1824. About three or four years ago, a young
negro was burnt in Abbeville District, for an at-
tempt at rape."
In the fall of 1837. there was a rumor of a pro-
jected insurrection on the Red River, in Louisia-
na. The citizens forthwith seized and hanged
NINE SLAVES, AND THREE FREE COLORED MEN, WITH-
OUT TRIAL. A few months previous to that trans-
action, a slave was seized in a similar manner
and publicly burned to death, in Arkansas. In
July. 1835, the citizens of Madison county, Mis-
sissippi, were alarmed by rumors of an insurrec-
tion • arrested five slaves and publicly executed
them without trial.
The Missouri Republican, April 30, 1838, gives
the particulars of the deliberate murder of a negro
man named Tom, a cook on board the steamboat
Pawnee, on her passage up from New Orleans to
St. Louis. Some of the facts stated by the Re-
publican are the following :
" On Friday night, about 10 o'clock, a deaf
and dumb German girl was found in the store-
room with Tom. The door was locked, and at
first Tom denied she was there. The girl's
father came. Tom unlocked the door, and
the girl was found secreted in the room behind a
barrel. The next morning some four or five of
the deck passengers spoke to the captain about it.
This was about breakfast time. Immediately
after he left the deck, a number of the deck pas-
sengers rushed upon the negro, bound his arms
behind his back and carried him forward to the
bow of the boat. A voice cried out ' throw him
overboard,' and was responded to from every
quarter of the deck — and in an instant he was
plunged into the river. The whole scene of
tying him and throwing him overboard scarcely
occupied ten minutes, and was so precipitate that
the officers were unable to interfere in time to
save him.
" There were between two hundred and fifty
and three hundred passengers on board."
The whole process of seizing Tom, dragging
him upon deck, binding his arms behind his back,
forcing him to the bow of the boat, and throwing
him overboard, occupied, the editor informs us,
about TEN MINUTES, and of the two hundred and
fifty or three hundred deck passengers, with perhaps
as many cabin passengers, it docs not appear that
a single individual raised a finger to prevent this
deliberate murder ; and the cry " throw him over-
board," was it seems, ''responded to from every
quarter of the deck !"'
Rev. James A. Tiiojie, of Augusta, Ky., son of
Arthur Thome, Esq , till recently a slaveholder,
published five years since the following descrip-
tion of a scene witnessed by him in New Or-
leans :
" In December of 1833, I landed at New Oi-
lcans, in the steamer W . It was after night,
dark and rainy. The passengers were called out
of the cabin, from the enjoyment of a fire, which
the cold, damp atmosphere rendered very comfort-
able, by a sudden shout of, ' catch him — catch
liim — catch the negro.' The cry vt^as answered
by a hundred voices — ' Catch him — kill him,' and
a rush from every direction toward our boat, in-
dicated that the object of pursuit was near. The
next moment we heard a man plunge into the
river, a few paces above us. A crowd gathered
upon the shore, with lamps and stones, and clubs,
still crying, ' catch him — kill him — catch him —
shoot him.'
" I soon discovered the poor man. He had
taken refuge under the prow of another boat, and
was standing in the water up to his waist. The
angry vociferation of his pursuers, did not intim-
idate him. He defied them all. ' Don't you
dare to come near me, or I will sink you in the
river.' He was armed with despair. For a
moment the mob was palsied by the energy
of his threatenings. They were afraid to
go to him with a skiff, but a number of them
went on to the boat and tried to seize him. They
threw a noose rope down repeatedly, that they
might pull him. up by the neck .' but he planted
his hand firmly against the boat and dashed the
rope away with his arms. One of tliem took a
long bar of wood, and leaning over the prow, en.
deavorcd to strike him on the head. The blow
must have shattered the skull, but it did not reacii
low enough. The monster raised up the heavy
club again and said, 'Come out now, you oldras.
cal, or die.' •' Strike,' said the negro ; ' strike —
shiver my brains now ; I want to die ;' and
down went the club again, without striking.
This was repeated several times. The mob, see-
ing their efforts fruitless, became more enraged
and threatened to stone him, if he did not surren-
der himself into their hands. He again defied
them, and declared that he would drown himself
in the river, before they should have him. They
then resorted to persuasion, and promised they
would not hurt him. ' I'll die first ;' was his only
reply. Even the furious mob was awed, and for
a while stood dumb.
" After standing in the cold water for an hour,
the miserable being began to fail. We observed
him gradually sinking — his voice grew weak and
tremulous — yet he continued to curse '. In the
midst of his oaths he uttered broken sentences —
' I did'nt steal the meat — I did'nt steal — my mas-
ter lives — master — master lives up the river — (his
voice began to gurgle in his throat, and he was so
chilled that his teeth chattered audibly) — I did'nt
— steal — I did'nt steal — :my — my master — mj^--
I want to see my master — I didn't — no — my mas
— ^you want — you want to kill me — I didn't steal
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
159
the' — ^His last words could just be heard as he
sunk under the water.
" Durino; this indescribable scene, not one of the
hundred that stood around made any effort to save
the man until he was apparenthj drowned. He
was then dragged out and stretclied on the bow
of the boat, and soon sufficient means were used
for his reco\'ery. The brutal captain ordered him
to bo taken off liis boat — declaring, witli an oath,
that he would throw him into the river again, if
he was not immediately removed. I withdrew,
sick and horrilied with this appalling exhibition
of wickedness.
" Upon inquiry, I learned (hat tlie colored man
lived some fifty miles up the Misssissippi ; that he
had been charged with stealing some article from
the wharf; was fired upon with a pistol, and pur-
sued hy the mob.
" In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty —
this insensibility to suffering and disregard of life
— I exclaimed,
' Is there no flesh in man's obdurate heart V
One poor man, chased like a wolf by a hundred
blood hoimds, yelling, howling, and gnashing
their teeth upon him — plunges into the cold river
to seek protection ! A crowd of spectators wit-
ness the scene, with all the composure with
which a Roman populace would look upon a gla-
diatorial show. Not a voice heard in the sufferer's
behalf. At length the powers of nature give way ;
the blood flov,-s back to the heart — the teeth
chatter — the voice trembles and dies, while the
victim drops down into his grave.
*' What an atrocious system is that which leaves
two millions of souls, friendless and powerless —
hunted and chased — afflicted and tortured and
driven to death, without the means of redress. —
Yet such is the system of slavery."
The ' public opinion ' of slaveholders is illus-
trated by scores of announcements in southern
papers, like the following, from tlie Raleigh, (N.
C.) Register, August 20, 1838. Joseph Gales
and Son, editors and proprietors — the father and
brother of the editor of the National Intelligencer,
Washington city, D. C.
" On Saturday night, Mr. George Holmes, of
this county, and some of his friends, were in pur-
suit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr.
Holmes) and fell in with him in attempting to
make his escape. Mr. H. discharged a gun at
his legs, for the purpose of disabling him ; but un-
fortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot
struck him near the small of the back, of which
wound he died in a short time. The slave con-
tinued to run some distance after he was shot,
until overtaken by one of the party. We are sa
tisfied, from all that we can learn, that Mr. H.
had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound."
Oh 1 the gentleman, it seems, only shot at his
legs, merely to ' disable ' — and it must be expect-
ed that every gentleman will amuse himself in
shooting at his own property whenever the notion
takes him, and if he should happen to hit a little
higher and go through the small of the back in-
stead of the legs, v,-hy every body says it is ' un-
fortunate,' and the whole of the editorial corps,
instead of branding him as a barbarous wretch for
shooting at his slave, whatever jiart ho aimed ai,
join with tlic oldest editor in North Carolina, in
complacently exonerating Mr. Holmes by say-
ing, " We are satisfied that Mr. li. had no inten-
tion of inflicting a mortal wound." And so 'pub-
lie opinion ' wraps it up !
The Franklin (La.) Republican, August 19,
1837, has the following :
"Negroes Take."J. — Four gentlemen of this
vicinity, went out yesterday for the purpose of
finding the camp of some noted runaways, sup-
posed to be near this place ; the camp was disco,
vercd about 11 o'clock, the negroes four in num-
ber, three men and one woman, finding they
were discovered, tried to make tiicir escape
through the cane ; two of them were fired on, one
of which made iiis escape ; the other one fell after
running a short distance, his wounds are not sup-
posed to be dangerous ; the other man was taken
without any hurt ; the woman also made her es-
cape."
Thus terminated the morning's amusement of
the ^fo7ir gentlemer),' whose exploits are so com
placently chronicled by the editor of the Franklin
Republican. The three men and one woman
were all fired upon, it seems, though only one of
them was shot down. The half famished runa-
Vv-ays made not the least resistance, they merely
rushed in panic among the canes, at the sight of
their pursuers, and the bullets whistled after them
and brought to the ground one poor fellow, who
was carried back by his captors as a trophy of
the ' public opinion' among slaveholders.
In the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Nov. 27, 1838,
we find the following account of a runaway's den,
and of the good luck of a ' Mr. Adams,' in run-
ning down one of them ' with his excellent dogs :'
" A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday
near the Washington Spring, in a little patch of
woods, where it had been for several months, so
artfully concealed under ground, that it was de-
tected only by accident, though in sight of two
or three houses, and near the road and fields
where there has been constant daily passing.
The entrance v/as concealed by a pile of pine
straw, representing a hog bed — which being re-
moved, discovered a trap door and steps that led
to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled
with plank, containing a small fire-place the flue
of which was ingeniously conducted above ground
and concealed by the straw. The inmates took
the alarm and made their escape ; but Mr. Adams
and his excellent dogs being put upon the trail,
soon run down and secured one of them, which
proved to be a negro fellow who had been out
about a year. He stated that the other occupant
was a woman, who had been a runaway a still lon-
ger time. In the den was found a quantity of
meal, bacon, com, potatoes, &c., and various
cooking utensils and wearing apparel."
Yes, Mr. Adams' ' excellent dogs ' did the
work! They were well trained, swift, fresh,
160
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
keen-scented, 'excellent' men-hunters, and i himself Isaac Turner; the other two are quite
though the poor fugitive in his frenzied rush for black, the one passing- by the name_of James
liberty, strained every muscle, yet they gained
upon him, and after dashing through fens, brier,
beds, and the tangled undergrowth till faint and
torn, he sinks, and the blood-hounds are upon
him. What blood-vessels the poor struggler burst
in his desperate push for life — how much he was
bruised and lacerated in his plunge through the
forest, or how much the dogs tore him, the Macon
editor has not chronicled — they are matters of no
moment. — but his heart is touched with the merits
of Mr. Adams' ' excellent dogs,' that ' soon run
down and secwred ' a guiltless and trembling hu.
man creature !
The Georgia Constitutionalist, of Jan. 1837,
contains the following letter from the coroner of
Barnwell District, South Carolina, dated Aiken,
S. C. Dec. 20, 1836.
«' To the Editor of the Constitutionalist :
" I have just returned from an inquest I held
over the body of a negro man, a runaway, that
was shot near the South Edisto, in this District,
(Barnwell,) on Saturday last. He came to his
death by his own recklessness. He refused to be
taken alive — and said that other attempts to take
him had been made, and he was determined that
he would not be taken. He was at first, (when
those in pursuit of him found it absolutely neces-
sary,) shot at with small shot, with the intention
of merely crippling him. He was shot at several
times, and at last he was so disabled as to be
compelled to surrender. He kept in the run of a
creek in a very dense swamp all the time that
the neighbors were in pursuit of him. As soon
as the negro was taken, the best medical aid was
procured, but he died on the same evening. One
of the witnesses at the Inquisition, stated that the
negro boy said he was from Mississippi, and be-
longed to so many persons, that he did not know
who his master was, but again he said his mas-
ter's name was Brown. He said his name was
Sam, and when asked by another witness, who
his master was, he muttered something like Au-
gusta or Augustine. The boy was apparently
above thirty -five or forty years of age, about six
feet high, slightly yellow in the face, very long
beard or whiskers, and very stout built, and a
stern countenance ; and appeared to have been a
runaway for a long time.
" William H. Pritchard,
" Coroner (Ex-officio,) Barnwell Dist. S. C.
The Norfolk (Va.) Herald, of Feb. 1837, has
the following :
"Three negroes in a ship's yawl, came on
shore yesterday evening, near New Point Com-
fort, and were soon after apprehended and lodged
in jail. Their story is, that they belonged to a
brig from New York bound to Havana, which
was cast away to the southward of Cape Henry,
some day last week ; that the brig was called the
Maria, Captain Whittemore. I have no doubt
they arc deserters from some vessel in the bay, as
their statements are very confused and inconsist-
ent. One of these fellows is a mulatto, and calls
Jones and the other John Murray. They have
all their clothing with them, and are dressed in
sea-faring apparel. They attempted to make
their escape, and it was not till a musket was fired
at them, and one of them slightly wounded, that
they surrendered. They will be kept in jail till
something further is discovered respecting them."
The ' St. Francisville (La.) Chronicle,' of
Feb. 1, 1839. Gives the following account of a
' negro hunt,' in that Parish.
" Two or three days since a gentleman of this
parish, in hunting runaway negroes, came upon
a camp of them in the swamp on Cat Island.
He succeeded in arresting two of them, but the
third made fight ; and upon being shot in the
shoulder, fled to a sluice, where the dogs suc-
ceeded in drowning him before assistance could
arrive."
" The dogs succeeded in drowning him" ! Poor
fellow ! He tried hard for his life, plunged into
the sluice, and, with a bullet in his shoulder, and
the blood hounds unfleshing his bones, he bore up
for a moment with feeble stroke as best he might,
but ' public opinion,' ' succeeded in drowning
him,' and the same ' public opinion,' calls tlie
man who fired and crippled him, and cheered on
the dogs, ' a gentleman,' and the editor v/ho cele-
brates the exploit is a ' gentleman' also !"
A large number of extracts similar to the
above, might here be inserted from Southern
newspapers in our possession, but the foregoing
are more than sufficient for our purpose, and wo
bring to a close the testimony on this point, v/ith
the following. Extract of a letter, from the Rev.
Samuel J. May, ol South Scituate, Mass. dated
Dec. 20, 1838.
" You doubtless recollect the narrative given
in the Oasis, of a slave in Georgia, who having
ranaway from his master, (accoimted a very
hospitable and even humane gentleman,) was
hunted by his master and his retainers with
horses, dogs, and rifles, and having been driven
into a tree by the hounds, was shot down by his
more cruel pursuers. All the facts there given,
and some others equally shocking, connected
with the same case, were first communicated to
me in 1833, by Mr. W. Russell, a highly respect-
able teacher of youth in Boston. He is doubt-
less ready to vouch for them. The same gentle-
man informed me that he was keeping school on
or near the plantation of the monster who per-
petrated the above outrage upon humanity, that
he was even invited by him to join in the liunt,
and when he expressed abhorrence at the thought,
the planter holding up the rifle which he had in
his hand said with an oath, ' damn that rascal,
this is the third time he has runaway, and he
shall never run again. I'd rather put a ball into
his side, than into the best buck in the land.' "
Mr. Russell, in the account given by him of
this tragedy in the ' Oasis,' page 267, thus de-
scribes the slaveholder who made the above ex-
pression, and was the leader of the ' hunt,' and
Oijections Considered — Public Opinion.
161
m whose family he resided at the time as an in-
etructor ; Jic says of him — He was " an opulont
planter, in whose family the evils of slaveholding;
were palliated by every expedient that a humane
and generous disposition could suggest. He
was a man of noble and elevated character, and
distinguished for his generosity, and kindness of
heart."
In a letter to Mr. May, dated Feb. 3, 1839,
Mr. Russell, speaking of the Imnting of run-
aways with dogs and guns, says : " Occurrences
of a nature similar to the one related in the
' Oasis,' were not unfrequent in the interior of
Georgia and South Carolina twenty years ago.
Several such fell under my notice within the
space of fifteen months. In tvi'o such ' hunts,'
I was solicited to join."
The following was written by a sister-in-law of
Gerrit Smith, Esq., Peterboro. She is married to
the son of a North Carolinian.
" In North Carolina, some years ago, several
slaves were arrested for committing serious
crimes and depredations, in the neighborhood of
Wilmington, among other things, burning houses,
and, in one or more instances, murder.
'• It happened that the wife of one of these slaves
resided in one of the most respectable families in
W. in the capacity of nurse. Mr. J. the first
lawyer in the place, came into the room, where
the lady of the house was sitting, with the nurse,
who held a child in her arms, and, addressing
the nurse, said, Hannah ! would you know your
husband if you should see him ? — Oh, yes, sir,
she replied — when he drew from beneath his
CLOAK THE HEAD OF THE SLAVE, at the sight of
which the poor woman immediately fainted. The
heads of the others were placed upon poles, in
some part of the town, afterwards known as
* Negro Head Point.' "
We have just received the above testimony, en-
closed in a letter from Mr Smith, in which he
says, " that the fact stated by my sister-in-law,
actually occurred, there can be no doubt."
The following extract from the Diary of the
Rev. Ell\s CoRXELias, we insert here, having
neglected to do it under a preceding head, to
which it more appropriately belongs.
" New Orleans, Sabbath, February 15, 1818.
Early this morning accompanied A. H. Esq. to
the hospital, with the view of making arrange-
ments to preach to such of the siek as could un-
derstand English. The first room we entered
presented a scene of human misery, such as I
had never before witnessed. A poor negro man
was lying upon a couch, apparently in great dis.
tress ; a more miserable object can hardly be
conceived. His face was much disfigured, an
IRON COLLAR, TWO INCHES WIDE AND HALF AN
INCH THICK, WAS CLASPED ABOUT HIS NECK, while
one of his feet and part of the leg were in a state
of putrefaction. We inquired the cause of his
being in this distressing condition, and he an-
swered us in a faltering voice, that he was will-
mg to tell us all the truth.
" He belonged to Mr. a Frenchman, ran-
21
away, was caught, and punished with one hun-
dred lashes ! This happened about Christmas ;
and dining the cold weather at that time, he
was confined in the Cmie-hoitse, with a scanty
portion of clothing, and loithout fire. In this
situation his foot had frozen, and mortified, and
having been removed from place to place, he
was j^esterday brought here by order of his new
master, who was an American. I had no time
to protract my conversation with liim then, but
resolved to return in a few hours and pray with
him. * *
" Having returned home, I again visited the
hospital at half past eleven o'clock, and concluded
first of all [he was to preach at 12,] to pray with
the poor lacerated negro. I entered the apart-
ment in which he lay, and observed an old man
sitting upon a couch ; but, without saying any-
thing went up to the bed-side of the negro, who
appeared to be asleep. I spoke to him, but he
gave no answer. I spoke again, and moved his
head, still he said nothing. My apprehensions
were immediately excited, and I felt for his pulse,
but it was gone. Said I to the old man, ' surely
this negro is dead.' ' No,' he answered, ' he has
fallen asleep, for he had a very restless sea-
son last night.' I again examined and called
the old gentleman to the bed, and alas, it was
found true, that he was dead. Not an ej^e had
witnessed his last struggle, and I was the fii-st,
as it should happen, to discover the fact. I call-
ed several men into the room, and without cere-
mony they wrapped him in a sheet, and carried
him to the dead.house as it is called." — Edwards?
Life of Rev. Ellas Cornelius, pp. 10], 2, 3.
THE PROTECTION EXTENDED BY ' PUBLIC OPINION,'
TO THE HEALTH* OF THE SLAVES.
This may be judged of from the fact that it is per-
fectly notorious among slaveholders, both North
and South, that of the tens of thousands of slaves
sold annually in the northern slave states to be
transported to the south, large numbers of them
die under the severe process of acclimation, all
suffer more or less, and multitudes much, in their
health and strength, during their first years in
the far south and south west. That such is the
case is sufliciently proved by the care taken by all
who advertise for sale or hire in Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, &c. &c. to
inform the reader, that their slaves are ' Creoles,'
' southern born,' country born,' &c. or if they are
from the north, that they are ' acclimated,' and the
importance attached to their acclimation, is shov>rn
in the fact, that it is generally distinguished from
the rest of the advertisements either by italics or
CAPITALS. Almost every newspaper published in
the states far south contains advertisments like the
tollowing.
From the " Vicksburg (Mi.) Register," Dec.
27, 1838.
" I OFFER my plantation for sale. Also seven-
ty-five acclimated Negroes. O. B. Cobb."
From the " Southerner," June 7, 1837.
" I WILL sell ray Old-River plantation near Co-
* See pp. 37-39.
102
Oijeciions Considered — Public Opinion.
lumbia in Arkansas ;— also ONE HUNDRED
AND THIRTY ACCLIMATED SLAVES.
Benj. Hcgiies."
Fort Gibson, Jan. 14, 1837.
From the " Planters' (La.) Intelligencer,"
March 22.
" Probate sale — Will be offered for sale at
Public Auction, to the highest bidder, ONE
HUNDRED AND THIRTY acclimated slaves."
G. W. Keeton.
Judge of the Parish of Concordia."
From the '• Arkansas Advocate," May 22,
1837.
" By virtue of a Deed of Trust, executed to me,
I will sell at public auction at Fisher's Prairie,
Arkansas, sixty LIKELY NEGROES, consist-
ing of Men, Women, Boys and Girls, the most of
whom are well acclimated.
GUANDISON D. RoYSTON,
Trustee."
From the " New Orleans Bee," Feb. 9, 1838.
" VALUABLE ACCLIMATED NEGROES."
" Will be sold on Saturday, 10th inst. at 12
o'clock, at the city exchange, St. Louis street."
Then follows a description of the slaves, closing
with the same assertion, which forms the cap.
tion of the advertisement " all acclimated."
General Felix Houston, of Natchez, advertises
in the « Natchez Courier," April 6, 1838, " Thir-
ty five very fine acclimated Negroes."
Without inserting more advertisements, suf-
fice it to say, that when slaves are advertised for
sale or hire, in the lower southern country, if they
are natives, or have lived in that region long
enough to become acclimated, it is invariably
stated.
But we are not left to cmjeciure the amount
of suffering experienced bj' slaves from the north
in undergoing the severe process of ' seasoning'
to the climate, or ' acclimation.^ A writer in the
New Orleans Argus, September, 1830, in an arti-
cle on the culture of the sugar cane, says : ' The
ftDSS by death in bringing slaves from a northern
climate, which our planters are under the neces-
sity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per
CENT.'
Nothwithstanding the immense amount of
suffering endured in the process of acclimation,
and the fearful waste of life, and the notori-
ety of this fact, still the ' public opinion' of
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Mis-
souri, (fee. annually drives to the far south, thou-
sands of their slaves to undergo these sufferings,
and the ' public opinion,' of the far south bu3rs
them, and forces the helpless victims to endure
them.
THE ' PROTECTION,' VOUCHSAFED BY ' PUBLIC OPIN-
ION,' TO LIBERTY.
This is shown by hundreds of advertisements
in southern papers, like the following :
From the " Mobile Register," July 21. 1837-
" WILL BE SOLD CHEAP FOR CASH, in
front of the Court House of Mobile County, on
the 22d day of July next, one mulatto man
named HENRY HALL, who says he is free ;
his owner or owners, if any, having failed to de-
mand him, he is to be sold according to the
statute in such cases made and provided, to pay
Jail fees. Wm. Magee, Sh'ff. M. C."
From the " Grand Gulf (Miss.) Advertiser,"
Dec. 7, 1838.
" COMMITTED to the jail of Chickasaw Co.
Edmund, Martha, John and Louisa ; the man 50,
the woman 35, John 3 years old, and Lousia 14
months. They say they are free and were de-
coyed to this state."
The " Southern Argus," of July 25, 1837, con-
tains the following.
" RANAWAY from my plantation, a negro
boy named William. Said boy was taken up by
Thomas Walton, and says he "xas free, and that
his parents live near Shawneetown, Illinois, and
that he was taken from that place in July 1836 ;
says his father's name is William, and his mother's
Sally Brown, and that they moved from Frede-
ricksburg, Virginia. I will give twenty dollars to
any person wlio will deliver said boy to me or
Col. Byrn, Columbus. SAMUEL H. BYRN."
The first of the following advertisements was a
standing one, in the " Vicksburg Register," from
Dec. 1835 till Aug. 1836. The second advertises
the same free man for sale.
" SHERIFF'S SALE."
" COMMITTED, to the jail of Warren coun-
ty, as a Runaway, on the 23d inst. a Negro man,
who calls himself John J. Robinson ; says thai he
is //ee, says that he kept a baker's shop in Co-
lumbus, Miss, and that he peddled through the
Chickasaw nation to Pontotoc, and came to
Blemphis, where he sold his horse, took water,
and came to this place. The owner of said boy
is requested to come forward, prove property, pay
charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt
with as the law directs.
Wm. Everett, Jailer.
Dec. 24, 1S35."
" NOTICE is hereby given, that the above
described boy, who calls himself John J. Robin-
son, having been confined in the Jail of Warren
county as a Runaway, for six months — and hav-
ing been regularly advertised during this period,
I shall proceed to sell said Negro boy at public
auction, to the highest bidder for cash, at the
door of the Court House in Vicksburg, on Mon-
day, 1st day of August, 1836, in pursuance of
the statute in such cases made and provided.
E. W. Morris, Sheriff.
Vicksburg, July 2, 1836."
See "Newburn (N. C.) Spectator," of Jan. 5,
1838, for the following advertisement.
" RANAWAY, from the subscriber a negro
man known as Frank Pilot. He is five feet
eight inches high, dark complexion, and about
50 years old, has been free sinck 1829 — is now
my property, as heir at law of his last owner,
1 Samuel Ralston, dec. I will give the above re-
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
163
ward if he is taken and confined in any jail so
that I can get him. Samuel Ralston.
Pactolus, Pitt County."
From the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) " Flag of the
Union," June 7.
» COMMITTED to the Jail of Tuscaloosa
county, a negro man, who says his name is
Robert Winticld, and says he is free.
R. W. Barber, Jailer"
That " public opinion," in the slave states af-
fords no protection to the liberty of colored per-
sons, even after those persons become legally free,
by the operation of their own laws, is declared
by Governor Comegys, of Delaware, in his re-
cent address to the Legislature of that state, Jan.
1839. The Governor, commentmg upon the
law of the state which provides that persons con-
victed of certain crimes shall be sold as servants
for a limited time, says,
'' The case is widely different with the negro (.')
Although ordered to be disposed of as a servant
for a term of years, perpetual slavery in the south
is his inevitable doom ; unless, peradventure, age
or disease may have rendered him worthless, or
some resident of the State, from motives of benevo-
lence, will pay for him three or four times his
intrinsic value. It matters not for how short a
time he is ordered to be sold, so that he can be
carried from the State. Once beyond its limits,
all chance of restored freedom is gone — for he is
removed far from the reach of any testimony to
aid him in an effort to be released from bondage,
when his legal term of servitude has expired.
Of the many colored convicts sold out of the State,
it is believed none ever return. Of course they
are purchased with the express view to their trans-
portation for life, and bring such enormous
prices as to prevent all competition on the part of
those of our citizens who require their services,
and would keep them in the State."
From the " Memphis (Ten.) Enquirer," Dec.
28, 1838.
'• $50 Reward. Ranaway, from the subscri-
ber, on Thursday last, a negro man named Isaac,
22 years old, about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high,
dark complexion, well made, full face, speaks
quick, and very correctly for a negro. He was
originally from New-York, and no doubt will at-
tempt to pass himself as free. I will give the
above reward for his apprehension and delivery,
or confmement, so that I obtain him, if taken
out of the state, or $ 30 if taken within the state.
Jno. Simpson.
Memphis, Dec. 28."
Mark, with what shameless hardihood this Jno.
Simpson, tells the public that he knew Isaac
Wright was a free man ! ' He was originally
FROM New York,' he tells us. And yet he adds
with brazen effrontery, ' he will attempt to pass
himself as free!' This Isaac Wright, was ship-
ped by a man named Lewis, of New Bedford,
Massachusetts, and sold as a slave in New Or-
leans. After passing through several hands, and
being flogged nearly to death, he made his escape,
and five days ago, (March 5,) returned to his
friends in Pliiladelpliia.
From the " Baltimore Sun," Dec. 23, 1838.
" Free ]N egroes. — Merry Ewall, a free negro,
from Virginia, was committed to jail, at Snow
Hill, Md. last week, for remaining in the State
longer than is allowed by the law of 1831. The
fine in his case amounts to $225. Capril Purnell,
a negro from Delaware, is now in jail in the
same place, for a violation of the same act.
His fine amounts to four thousand dollars, and
he WILL be sold in a short time."
The following is the decision of the Supreme
Court, of Louisiana, in the case of Gomez vs.
Bonneval, Martin's La. Reports, i)56, and Wheel-
er's '' Law of Slaverj'," p. 380-1.
Marginal remark of the Compiler. — " A slave
does not become free on his being illegally im-
ported into the state."
" Per Cur. Derbigny, J. The petitioner is a
negro in actual state of slavery ; he claims his
freedom, and is bound to prove it. In his at-
tempt, however, to show that he was free before
he was introduced into this country, he has failed,
so that his claim rests entirely on the laws prohibit-
ing the introduction of slaves in tlie United
States. That the plaintiff was imported since
that prohibition does exist is a fact sufficiently
established by the evidence. What right he has
acquired under the laws forbidding such importa-
tion is the only question which we have to ex-
amine. Formery, while the act dividing Louisiana
into two territories was in force in this country,
slaves introduced here in contravention to it,
were freed by operation of law ; but that act was
merged in the legislative provisions which were
subsequently enacted on the subject of importa-
tion of slaves into the United States generally.
Under the now existing laws, the individuals thus
imported acquire no personal right, they are
mere passive beings, who are disposed of accord-
ing to the will of the different state legisla.
tures. In this country they are to remain slaves,
and TO be sold for the benefit of the state.
The plaintiff, therefore, has nothing to claim as a
freeman ; and as to a mere change of master,
should such be his wish, he cannot be listened to
in a court of justice."
Extract from a speech of Mr. Thomson of Penn.
in Congress, March 1, 1826, on the prisons in
the District of Columbia.
" I visited the prisons twice that I might my-
self ascertain the truth. * * In one of these
cells (but eight feet square,) were confined at
that time, seven persons, three women and four
children. The children were confined under a
strange system of law in this District, bj^ which
a colored person who alleges he is free, and
appeals to the tribunals of the country, to have
the matter tried, is committed to prison, till the
decision takes place. They were almost naked •
one of them was sick, lying on the damp brick,
floor, without bed, pilloio, or covering. In this-
abominable cell, seven human beings were con-
fined day by day, and night after night, without
a bed, chair, or stool, or any other of the most
164
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
common necessaries of life." — Gales' Congres-
sional Debates, v. 2, p. 1480.
The following facts serve to show, that the pre-
sent generation ol' slaveholders do but follow in
the footsteps of their fathers, in their zeal for
LIBERTY.
Extract from a document submitted by the
Committee of the yearly meeting of Friends in
Philadelphia, to the Committee of Congress, to
whom was referred the memorial of the people
called Quakers, in 1797.
" In the latter part of the year 1776, several of
the people called Quakers, residing in the coun-
ties of Perquimans and Pasquotank, in the state
of North Carolina, liberated their negroes, as it
was then clear there was no existing law to pre-
vent their so doing ; for the law of 1741 could not
at that time be carried into effect ; and they were
suffered to remain free, until a law passed, in the
spring of 1777, under which they were taken up
and sold, contrary to the Bill of Rights, recog-
nized in the constitution of that state, as a part
thereof, and to which it was a,nnexed.
" In the spring of 1777, when the General As-
sembly met for the first time, a law was enacted
to prevent slaves from being emancipated, except
for meritorious services, &c. to be judged of by
the county courts or the general assembly ; and
ordering, that if any should be manumitted in
any other way, they be taken up, and the comity
courts within whose jurisdictions they are appre-
hended should order them to be sold. Under this
law the county courts of Perquimans and Pasquo-
tank, in the year 1777, ordered a large number
OF PERSONS TO BE SOLD, WHO WERE FREE AT THE
TIME THE LAW WAS MADE. In the year 1778 seve-
ral of those cases were, b}^ certiorari, brought be-
fore the superior court for the disti-ict of Eden-
torn, where the decisions of the county courts
were reversed, the superior court declaring, that
said county courts, in such their proceedings,
have exceeded their jurisdiction, violated the
rights of the subject, and acted in direct opposi-
tion to the Bill of Rights of this state, considered
justly as part of the constitution thereof; by giv-
ing to a law, not intended to affect this case, a
retrospective operation, thereby to deprive free-
men of this state of their liberty, contrary to the
laws of the land. In consequence of this decree
several of the negroes were again set at liberty ;
but the next General Assembly, early in 1779,
passed a law, wherein they mention, that doubts
liave arisen, whether the purchasers of such slaves
have a good and legal title thereto, and confirm
the same ; under which they were again taken
up by the purchasers and reduced to slavery."
[The number of persons thus re-enslaved was
134.]
The follownig are the decrees of the Courts,
ordering the sale of those freemen : —
" Perquimans Ci«mty, July term, at Hartford,
A. D. 1777.
" These may certify, that it was then and there
ordered, that the sheriff of the county, to-morrow
morning, at ten o'clock, expose to sale, to the
highest bidder, for ready money.at the court-house
door, the several negroes taken up as free, and m
his custody, agreeable to law.
" Test. Wm. Skinner, Clerk.
" A true copy, 25th August, 1791.
"Test. J. Harvey, Clerk."
" Pasquotank County, September Court, &,c. &c.
1777.
" Present, the Worshipful Thomas Boyd, Tim-
othy Hickson, John Paclin, Edmund Chancey,
Joseph Reading, and Thomas Rees, Esqrs. Jus-
tices.
" It was then and there ordered, that Thomas
Reading, Esq. take the free negroes taken up
under an act to prevent domestic insurrections
and other purposes, and expose the same to the
best bidder, at public vendue, for ready money,
and be accountable for the same, agreeable to the
aforesaid act ; and make return to this or the next
succeeding court of his proceedings.
" A copy. Enoch Reese, C. C."
the protection of " PUBLIC OPINION" TO
domestics ties.
The barbarous indifference with which slave,
holders regard the forcible sundering of husbands
and wives, parents and children, brothers and
sisters, and the unfeeling brutality indicated by
the language in which they describe the efforts
made by the slaves, in their yearnings after those
from whom they have been torn away, reveals a
'public opinion' towards them as dead to their
agony as if they were cattle. It is well nigh im-
possible to open a southern paper without finding
evidence of this. Though the truth of this asser-
tion can hardly be called in question, we subjoin a
few illustrations, and could easily give hundreds.
From the " Savannah Georgian," Jan. 17, 1839.
" ^100 reward will be given for my two fellows.
Abram and Frank. Abram has a wife at Colonel
Stewart's, in Liberty county, and a sister in Sa.
vannah, at Capt. Grovenstine's. Frank has a wife
at Mr. Le Cont's, Liberty county ; a mother a'c
Thunderbolt, and a sister in Savannah.
Wm. Robarts.
" Wallhourville, 5th Jan. 1839 "
From the " Lexington (Ky.) Intelligencer.'
July 7, 1838.
•' ($160 Reward. — Ranavray from the subscrib-
ers, living in this city, on Saturday 16th inst. a
negro man, named Dick, about 37 years of age.
It is highly probable said boy will make for New
Orleans, as he has a loife living in that city, and
he has been heard to say frequently that he teas
determined to go to New Orleans.
" Drake & Thompson.
" Lexington, June 17, 1838."
From the " Southern Argus," Oct. 31, 1837.
" Runaway — my negro man, Frederick, about
20 years of age. He is no doubt near the planta-
tion of G. W. Corprew, Esq. of Noxubbee county,
Mississippi, as his wife belongs to that gentleman,
and he followed her from ?ny residence. The above
reward will be paid to any one who will confine
him in jail and inform me of it at Athens, Ala.
" Athens, Alabama, Kerkman Lewis."
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
165
From the '' Savannah Georgian," July 8, 1837.
" Ran away from the subscriber, his man Joe.
He visits the city occasionally, where he has been
harbored by his mother and sister. I will give
one hundred dollars for proof sufficient to convict
Iiis har borers, R. P. T. Mongin."
The " Macon (Georgia) Messenger," Nov. 23,
1837, has the following : —
" ^25 Reward. — Ran away, a negro man,
named Cain. He was brought from Florida, and
has a wife near Mariana, and probably will at,
tempt to make his way there.
H. L. Cook."
From the " Riclimond (Va.) Whig," July 25,
1837.
" Absconded from the subscriber, a negro man,
by the name of Wilson. He was born in the
county of New Kent, and raised by a gentleman
named RatlifFe, and by him sold to a gentleman
named Taylor, on whose farm he had a wife and
several children. Mr. Taylor sold him to a Mr.
Slater, who, in consequence of removing to Ala-
bama, Wilson left ; and when retaken was sold,
and afterwards purchased, by his present owner,
from T. Mc Cargo and Co. of Richmond."
From the " Savannah (Ga.) Republican," Sept.
3, 1838.
" ^20 Reward for my negro man Jim. — Jim is
about 50 or 55 years of age. It is probable he
will aim for Savannah, as he said he had children
in that vicinity. J. G. Owens.
" Barnwell District, S. C."
From the " Staunton (Va.) pectator," Jan.
3, 1839.
"Ranaway, Jesse. — He has a wife, who be-
longs to Mr. John RufF, of Lexmgton, Rockbridge
county, and he may probably be lurking in that
neighborhood. Moses Mc Cue,"
From the "Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle," July
10, 1837.
" §120 Reward for my negro Charlotte. She
is about 20 years old. She was purchased some
months past from Mr. Thomas J. Walton, of Au-
gusta, by Thomas W. Oliver ; and, as her mother
and acquaintances live in that city, it is very
likely she is harbored by some of them.
Martha Oliver."
From the "Raleigh (N.C.) Register," July 18,
1837.
" Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man
named Jim, the property of Mrs. Elizabeth Whit-
field. He has a wife at the late Hardy Jones',
and may probably be lurking in that neighbor-
hood. John O'Rorke."
From the " Richmond (Va.) Compiler," Sept.
8, 1837.
" Ranaway from the subscriber, Ben. He ran
off without any knov/n cause, and / suppose he is
aiming to go to his wife, who was carried from
the neighborhood last winter, John Hunt."
From the " Charleston (S. C.) Mercury," Aug.
1, 1837.
" Absconded from Mr. E. D. Bailey, on Wad-
malaw, his negro man, named Saby. Said fellow
was purchased in January, from Francis Dickin-
son, of St. Paul's parish, and is probably now in
that neighborhood, where he has a wife.
Thomas N. Gadsden."
From the " Portsmouth (Va.) Times," August
3, 1838.
" $50 dollars Reward will be given for the ap-
prehension of my negro man Isaac. He has a
loife at James M. Riddick's, of Gates county, N.
C. where he may probably be lurking.
C. Miller."
From the " Savannah (Georgia) Republican,"
May 24, 1838.
" ^40 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber
in Savannah, his negro girl Patsey. She was
purchased among the gang of negroes, known as
the HargreaveN estate. She is no doubt lurking
about Liberty county, at which place she has rela-
tives. Edward Houstoun, of Florida."
From the " Charleston (S. C.) Courier," June
29, 1837.
" §20 Reward will be paid for the apprehension
and delivery, at the work-house in Charleston, of
a mulatto woman, named Ida. It is probable she
may have made her way into Georgia, where she
has connections.
Matthew Muggridge."
From the "Norfolk (Va.) Beacon," March
31, 1838.
" The subscriber will give §20 for the appre-
hension of his negro woman, Maria, who ran
away about twelve months since. She is known
to be lurking in or about Chuckatuch, in the
county of Nansemond, where she has a husband,
axiA. formerly belonged.
Peter Oneill."
From the " Macon (Georgia) Messenger," Jan.
16, 1839.
" Ranaway from the subscriber, two negroes.
Davis, a man about 45 years old ; also Peggy,
his wife, near the same age. Said negroes will
probably make their way to Columbia county, as
they have children living in that county. I will
liberally reward any person v/ho may deliver them
to me. Nehemiah King."
From the " Petersburg (Va.) Constellation,"
June 27, 1837.
" Ranaway, a negro man, named Peter. He
has a wife at the plantation of Mr. C. Haws, near
Suffolk, where it is supposed he is still lurking.
John L. Dunn."
From the "Richmond (Va.) Whig," Dec. 7,
1739.
" Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man,
named John Lewis. It is supposed that he is
lurking about in New Kent county, where he pro-
fesses to have a wife. Hill Jones,
"Agent for R. F. & P. Railroad Co.''
From the " Red River (La.) Whig," June 2d,
1838.
" Ran away from the subscriber, a mulatto wo-
166
Objections Considered — Public Opinion,
man, named Maria. It is probable she may be
found in the neighborhood of Mr. Jesse Bynum's
plantation, where she has relations, &c.
Thomas J. Wells."
From the " Lexington (Ky.) Observer and Re-
porter," Sept. 28, 1838.
" ,^50 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber,
a negro girl, named Maria. She is of a copper
color, between l3 and 14 years of age — bare head-
ed and bare footed. She is small of her age —
very sprightly and very likely. She stated she
was going to see her mother at Maysville.
Sanford Thomson."
From the "Jackson (Tenn.) Telegraph," Sept.
14, 1838.
" Committed to the jail of Madison county, a
negro woman, who calls her name Fanny, and
says she belongs to William Miller, of Mobile.
She formerly belonged to John Givins, of this
county, who now owns several of her children.
David SniiorsHiRE, Jailor."
From the " Norfolk (Va.) Beacon," July 3d,
1838.
" Runaway from my plantation below Eden.
ton, my negro man. Nelson. He has a mother
living at Mr. James Goodwin's, in Ballahack,
Perquimans county ; and tioo brothers, one be-
longing to Job Parker, and the other to Josiah
Coffield. Wm. D. Rascoe."
From the " Charleston (S. C.) Courier," Jan.
12, 1838.
"$100 Reward. — Run away from the sub-
scriber, his negro fellow, John. He is well known
about the city as one of my bread carriers : has a
wife living at Mrs. Weston's, on Hempstead.
John formei-ly belonged to Mrs. Moor, near St.
Paul's church, where his inother still lives, and
has been harbored by her before.
John T. Marshall.
60, Tradd-street."
From the " Newbern (N. C.) Sentinel," March
17, 1837.
" Ranaway, Moses, a black fellow, about 40
years of age — ^has a wife in Washington.
Thomas Bragg, Sen.
Warren ton, N. C."
From the " Richmond (Va.) Whig," June 30,
1837.
" Ranaway, my man Peter. — He has a sister
and mother in New Kent, and a wife about fifteen
or eighteen miles above Richmond, at or about
Taylorsville. Theo. A. Lacy."
From the "New Orleans Bulletin," Feb. 7,
1838.
" Ranaway, my negro Philip, aged about 40
years. — He may have gone to St. Louis, as he has
a wife there.
W. G. Clark, 70 New Levee."
From the " Georgian," Jan. 29, 1838.
" A Reward of .^5 will be paid for the appre-
hension of his negro woman, Diana. Diana is
from 45 to 50 age. She formerly belonged to
Mr. Nath. Law, of Liberty county, where her hus-
band still lives. She will endeavor to go thero
perhaps. D. O'Byrne."
From the " Richmond (Va.) Enquirer," Feb.
20, 1838.
" ^10 Reward for a negro woman, named Sal.
ly, 40 years old. We have just reason to believe
the said negro to be now lurking on the James
River Canal, or in the Green Spring neighbor,
hood, where, we arc informed, her husband re.
sides. The above reward will be given to any
person securing her.
Polly C. Shields.
Mount Elba, Feb. 19, 1838."
" ^50 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, -,
his negro man Pauladore, commonly called Paul.
I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne has purchased
his wife and children from H. L. Pinckney, Esq.
and has them now on his plantation at Goose,
creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently
lurking. T. Davis."
" ^25 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber,
a negro woman, named Matilda. It is thought
she may be somewhere up James River, as she
was claimed as a wife by some boatman in Gooch-
land. J. Alvis."
" Stop the Runaway ! ! ! — $25 Reward. Ran.
away from the Eagle Tavern, a negro fellow,
named Nat. He is no doubt attempting to follow
his wife, who was lately sold to a speculator named
Redmond. The above reward will be paid by
Mrs. Lucy M. Downman, of Sussex county, Va."
Multitudes of advertisements like the above ap. ^
pear annually in the southern papers. Reader,
look at the preceding list — mark the unfeeling
barbarity with which their masters and mistresses
describe the struggles and perils of sundered hus-
bands and wives, parents and children, in their
weary midnight travels through forests and rivers,
with torn limbs and breaking hearts, seeking the
embraces of each other's love. In one instance,
a mother torn from all her children and taken to
a remote part of another state, presses her way
back through the wilderness, hundreds of miles,
to clasp once more her children to her heart : but,
when she has arrived within a few miles of them,
in the same county, is discovered, seized, dragged
to jail, and her purchaser told, through an adver.
tisement, that she awaits his order. But we need
not trace out the harrowing details already before
the reader.
Rev. C. S. Renshaw, of Quincy, Ilhnois, who
resided some time in Kentucky, says ; —
" T was told the following fact by a young lady,
daughter of a slaveholder in Boone county, Ken-
tucky, who lived within half a mile of Mr. Hughes'
farm. Hughes and Neil traded in slaves down
the river : they had bought up a part of their
stock in the upper counties of Kentucky, and
brought them dow"n to Louisville, where the re-
mainder of their drove was in jail, waiting their
arrival. Just before the steamboat put off for the
lower country, two negro women were offered for
sale, each of them having a young child at the
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
167
breast. The traders bouglit tlicm, took tlicir babes |
from tlicir arms, and ortercd them to the highest
bidder ; and they were sold for one dollar apiece,
whilst the stricken parents were driven on board
the boat, and in an hour were on their way to the
New Orleans market. You are aware that a
young babe decreases the value of a field hand in
the lower country, whilst it increases her value
in the ' breeding states.' "
The following is an extract from an address,
published by the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky,
to the churches under their care, m 1835 : —
" Brothers and sisters, parents and children,
husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and per-
mitted to see each other no more. These
acts are daily occurring in the midst of us.
The shrieks and the agony, often witnessed on
such occasions, proclaim, with a trumpet tongue,
the iniquity of our system. There j« not a neigh.
horhood where these heart-rending scenes are not
displayed. There is not a village or road that
dges not behold the sad procession of manacled
oiitcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that
they are exiled by force from all that tiiejr
HEARTS HOLD DEAR." AddrCSS, p. 12.
Professor Andrews, late of the University of
North Carolina, in his recent w^ork on Slavery
and the Slave Trade, page 147, in relating a con-
versation with a slave-trader, whom he met near
Washington City, says, he inquired,
" ' Do you often buy the wife without the hus-
band ?' 'Yes, VERY often; and FREQUENT-
LY, loo, they sell me the mother while they keep
her children. I have often known them take away
the infant from its mother's breast, and keep it,
while they sold her.'' "
The following sale is advertised in the " Geor-
gia Journal," Jan. 2, 1838.
" Will be sold, the following property, to wit :
One Child, by the name of James, about
eight months old, levied on as the property of
Gabriel Gunn."
The following is a standing advertisement in
the Charleston (S. C.) papers : —
" 120 Negroes for Sale. — The subscriber has
just arrived from Petersburg, Virginia, with one
hundred and twenty likely young negroes of both
sexes and every description, which he offers for
sale on the most reasonable terms.
" The lot now on hand consists of plough boys,
several likely and well-qualified house servants of
both sexes, several women loith children, small
girls suitable for nurses, and several small boys
without their mothers. Planters and traders are
earnestly requested te give the subscriber a call
previously to making purchases elsewhere, as he
is enabled and will sell as cheap, or cheaper, than
can be sold by any other person in the trade.
Benjamin Davis.
Hamburg, S. C. Sept. 28, 1838."
Extract of a letter to a member of Congress.
from a friend in Mississippi, published in the
"Washington Globe," June, 1837.
" The times are truly alarming here. Many
plantations are entirely stripped of negroes (pro-
tection !) and horses, by the marshal or sheriff. —
Suits are multiplying — two thousand five hundred
in the United States Circuit Court, and three
thousand in Hinds County Court "
Testimony of Mr. Silas Stone, of Hudson,
New York. Mr. Stone is a member of the Epis-
copal Cliurch, has several times been elected an
Assessor of the city of Hudson, and for three
years has filled the office of Treasurer of the
County. In the fall of 1807, Mr. Stone witness-
ed a sale of slaves, in Charleston, South Caroli-
na, which he thus describes in a communication
recently received from him.
" I saw droves of the poor fellows driven to
the slave markets kept in different parts of the
city, one of which I visited. The arrangements
of this place appeared something like our north-
ern horse-markets, having sheds, or barns, in the
rear of a public house, where alcohol was a
handy ingredient to stimulate the spirit of jockey-
ing. As the traders appeared, lots of negroes
were brought from the stables into the bar room,
and by a flourish of the whip were made to as-
sume an active appearance. ' What will you
give for these fellows V ' How old are they ?
'Are they healthy?' 'Are they quick?' &c.
at the same time the owner would give them a
cut with a cowhide, and tell them to dance and
jump, cursing and swearing at them if they did
not move quick. In fact all the transactions in
buying and selling slaves, partakes of joekey-
ship, as much as buying and selling horses. There
was as little regard paid to the feelings of the
former as we witness in the latter.
" From these scenes I turn to another, which
took place in front of the noble ' Exchange
Buildings,' in the heart of the city. On the left
side of the stops, as you leave the main hall, im-
mediately under the windows of that proud build-
ing, was a stage built, on which a mother with
eight children were placed, and sold at auction.
I watched their emotions closely, and saw their
feelings were in accordance to human nature.
The sale began with the eldest child, who, being
struck off to the highest bidder, was taken from
the stage or platform by the purchaser, and led
to his wagon and stowed away, to be carried
into the country ; the second, and third were also
sold, and so until seven of the children were torn
from their mother, while her discernment told
her they were to be separated probably forever,
causing in that mother the most agonizing sobs
and cries, in which the children seemed to share.
The scene beggars description ; suffice it to say, it
was suflicient to cause tears from one at least
' whose skin was not colored like their own,' and
I was not ashamed to give vent to them."
the " protection" afforded by ' PUBLIC opinion'
to childhood and old age.
In the "New Orleans Bee," May 31, 1837, Mr.
P. Bahi, gires notice that he has committed to
JAIL as a runaway ' a little negro aged about
seven years.'
In the " Mobile Advertiser," Sept. 13, 1838,
William Magee, Sheriff, gives notice that George
Walton, Esq. Mayor of the city has committed to
JAIL as a runaway slave, Jordan, about twelve
168
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
^',
YEARS OLD, and the Sheriff proceeds to give no-
tice that if no one claims him the boy will be
anld as a slave to pay jail fees.
In the '' Memphis (Tenn.) Gazette," May 2,
1837, W. H. Montgomery advertises that he
will sell at auction a boy aged 14, another aged
12, AND A girl lO, to pay the debts of their dc-
ceased master.
" B. F. Chapman, Sheriff, Natchitoches (La.)
advBrtises in the ' Herald,' of May 17, 1837,
thaX he h&s'' committed to jail, as a runaway a
negro boy between 11 and 12 years oe age."
In the " Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle," Feb. 13,
1838. E.. H. Jones, jailor, says, " Brought to jail
a negro woman Sarah, she is about 60 or 65 years
old."
In the " Winchester Virginian," August 8,
1837, Mr. R. H. Menifee, offers ten dollars re-
ward to any one who will catch and lodge in jail,
Abram and Nelly, about 60 years old, so that he
can get them again.
J, Snowden, Jailor, Columbia, S. C. gives
notice in the " Telescope," Nov, 18, 1837, that he
has committed to jail as a runaway slave, " Caro-
line fifty years of age."
Y. S. PicKARD, Jailor, Savannah, Georgia
gives notice in the " Georgian," June 22, 1837,
that he has taken up for a runaway and lodged
in jail Charles, 60 years of age.
In the Savannah " Georgian," April 12, 1837)
Mr. J. Cuyler, says he will give five dollars, to
any one who will catch and bring back to him
Saman, an old negro man, and grey, and has only
one eye."
In the " Macon (Ga.) Telegraph," Jan. 15,
1839, Messrs. T. and L. Napier, advertise for
sale Nancy, a woman 65 years of age, and Peggy,
a v/oman 65 years of age.
The following is from the " Columbian (Ga.)
Enquirer," March 8, 1838.
" ^25 Reward. — Ranaway, a Negro Woman
named MATILDA, aged about 30 or 35 years.
Also, on the same night, a Negro Fellow of small
size, VERY aged, sioop.shouldered, who walks vert
DECREriDLY, is supposed to have gone off. His
name is DAVE, and he has claimed Matilda for
wife. It may be they have gone off together.
'' I will give twenty.five dollars for the woman,
delivered to me in Muscogee county, or confined
in any jail so that I can get her.
MosEs Butt."
J. B. Randall, Jailor, Cobb (Co.) Georgia, ad-
vertises an old negro man, in the " Milledgeville
Recorder," Nov. 6, 1838.
" A NEGRO MAN, has been lodged in the
common jail of this county, who says his name is
Jupiter. He has lost all his front teeih above
and below — speaks very indistinctly, is very lame,
so thai he can hardly walk."
Rev. Charles Stewart Renshaw, of Quincy,
Illinois, who spent some time in slave states,
speaking of his residence in Kentucky, says : —
" One Sabbath morning, whilst riding to meet,
ing near Burlington, Boone Co. Kentucky, in
company with Mr. Willis, a teacher of sacred
music and a member of the Presbyterian Church,
I was startled at mingled shouts and screams,
proceeding from an old log house, some distance
from the road side. As we passed it, some five
or six boys from 12 to 15 years of age, came out,
some of them cracking whips, followed by two
colored boys crying. I asked Mr. W. what the
scene meant. ' Oh,' he replied, '■ those boys have
been whipping the niggers ; that is the way we
bring slaves into subjection in Kentucky — we
let the children beat them.' The boys returned
again into the house, and again their shouting
and stamping was heard, but ever and anon a
scream of agony that would not be drowned, rose
above the uproar ; thus they continued till the
sounds were lost in the distance."
Well did Jefferson say, that the children of
slaveholders are 'nursed, educated, and daily
exercised in tyranny.'
The ' protection' thrown around a mother's
yearnings, and the helplessness of childhood by
the ' public opinion' of slaveholders, is shown by
thousands of advertisements of which the follow-
ing are samples.
From the " New Orleans Bulletin," June 2.
" NEGROES FOR SALE.— A negro woman
24 years of age, and has two children, one eight
and the other three years. Said negroes will be
sold separately or together as desired. The
woman is a good seamstress. She will be sold
low for cash, or exchanged for groceries. For
terms apply to Mayhew Bliss, & Co.
1 Front Levee."
From the '' Georgia Journal," Nov. 7.
" TO BE SOLD— One negro girl about 18
months old, belonging to the estate of William
Chambers, dec'd. Sold for the purpose of distri-
bution.'.' Jethro Dean, ^
Samuel Beall, \ ^^ o's.
From the " Natchez Courier," April 2, 1838.
" NOTICE — Is hereby given that the under-
signed pursuant to a certain Deed of Trust will
on Thursday the 12th day of April next, expose
to sale at the Court House, to the highest bidder
for cash, the following Negro slaves, to wit ;
Fanny, aged about 28 years ; Mary, aged about 7
years ; Amanda, aged about 3 months ; Wilson,
aged about 9 months.
" Said slaves, to be sold for the satisfaction of
the debt secured in said Deed of Trust.
W. J. Minor."
From the " Milledgeville Jom-nal," Dec. 26,
1837.
"EXECUTOR'S SALE.
" Agreeable to an order of the court of Wil-
kinson county, will be sold on the first Tuesday
in April next, before the Court-house door in the
town of Irwington, ONE NEGRO GIRL aboui
two years old, named Rachel, belonging to the
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
169
estate of William Cliambcrs dcc'd. Sold for the
benefit of the heirs and creditors of said estate.
Samuel Bell, \ ry ,
Jesse Peacock, \J^^ors.
From the " Alexandria (D. C.) Gazette" Dec.
19.
" I will fvive the highest cash price for likely ne-
groes, fruiH lU to 25 years of age.
Geo. Kepiiart."
From the " Southern Whig," March 2, 1838. —
*' WILL be sold in La Grange, Troup county, one
negro girl, by the name of Charit)-, aged about
10 or 12 j-cars ; as the property of Littleton L.
Burk, to satisfy a mortgage fi. fa. from Troup In-
ferior Court, in favor of Daniel S. Robertson
V?. said Burk."
From the " Petcrsburgh (Va.) Constellation,"
March IS, 1837.
" 50 Negroes wanted immediately. — The sub-
scriber will give a good market price for fifty like-
ly negroes, from 10 to 30 years of age.
Henry Davis."
The following is an extract of a letter from a
gentleman, a native and still a resident of one of
the slave states, and still a slaveholder. He is
an elder in the Presbyterian Church, his letter is
now before us, and his name is with the Execu-
tive Committee of the Am. Anti-slavery Society.
" Permit me to say, that around this very
place where I reside, slaves arc brought almost
constantly, and sold to Miss, and Orleans ; that
it is usual to part famihes forever by such sales
— the parents from the children and the children
from the parents, of every size and age. A
mother was taken not long since^ in this town,
from a sucking child, and sold to the lower
country. Three young men I saw some time ago
taken from this place in chains — while the mother
of one of them, old and decrepid, followed with
tears and prayers her son, 18 or 20 miles, and
bid him a final fareioell .' O, thou Great Eter-
nal, is this justice ! is this equity I ! — Equal
Rights ! !"
We subjoin a few miscellaneous facts illus-
trating the iNHUxMANiTY of slavcholding 'public
opinion.'
The shocking indifference manifested at the
death of slaves as human beings, contrasted with
the grief at their loss as property, is a true index
to the public opinion of slaveholders.
Colonel Oliver of Louisville, lost a valuable
race-horse by the explosion of the steamer Oro-
noko, a few months since in the Mississippi river.
Eight human beings whom he held as slaves
were also killed by the explosion. They were
the-riders and grooms of his race-horses. A
Louisville paper thus speaks of the occurrence :
" Colonel Oliver suffered severely by the ex.
plosion of the Oronoko. He lost eight of his rub-
bers and riders, and his horse, Joe Kearney,
which he had sold the night before for $3,000."
Mr. King, of the New York American, makes
22
the following just comment on the barbarity of
the above paragraph :
" Would any one, in rc^ading this paragraph from
an evening paper, conjecture that these ^ eight
rubbers and riders,' that togetiicr witli a horse,
are merely mentioned as a ' loss' to their owner,
were human beings — immortal as the writer who
thus brutalizes them, and perhaps cherishing life
as much ? In this view, perhaps, the ' eight'
lost as much as Colonel Oliver."
The following is from the " Charleston (S. C.)
Patriot," Oct. 18.
" Loss of Property .' — Since I have been here,
(Rice Hope, N. Santec,) I have seen much mi-
scry, and much of human suffering. The loss of
PROPERTY has been immense, not only on South
Santec, but also on this river. Mr. Shoolbred
has lost, (according to the statement of the phy-
sician,) forty-six negroes — the majority lost being
the primest hands he had — bricklayers, carpen-
ters, blacksmiths and Coopers. Mr. Wm. Ma-
zyck has lost 35 negroes. Col. Thomas Pinkney,
in the neighborhood of 40, and many other plant-
ers, 10 to 20 on each plantation. Mrs. Elias Harry,
adjoining the plantation of Mr. Lucas, has lost
up to date, 32 negroes — the best part of her prim-
est negroes on her plantation."
From the " Natchez (Miss.) Daily Free Trader,"
Feb. 12, 1838.
" Found. — A negro's head was picked up on
THE rail-road YESTERDAY, WHICH THE OWNER
CAN HAVE BY CALLING AT THIS OFFICE AND PAYING
FOR THE ADVERTISEMENT."
The way in which slavcholding ' public opi-
nion' protects a poor female lunatic is illustrated
in the following advertisement in the " Fayette-
ville (N. C.) Observer," June 27, 1838 :
"Taken and committed to jail, a negro girl
named Nancy, who is supposed to belong to
Spencer P. Wright, of the State of Georgia.
She is about 30 years of age, and is a luna-
tic. The owner is requested to come forward,
prove property, pay charges, and take her away,
or SHE will be sold to PAY HER JAIL FEES.
FRED'K HOME, Jailor."
A late Prospectus of the South Carolina Me.
dical College, located in Charleston, contains the
following passage : —
" Some advantages of a peculiar character are
connected with this Institution, which it may be
proper to point out. No place in the United
States offers as great opportunities for the acqui-
sition of anatomical knowledge, subjects being
OBTAINED FROM AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION IN
SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR EVERY PURPOSE, AND PRO-
PER DISSECTIONS CARRIED ON WITHOUT OFFENDING
ANY INDIVIDUALS IN THE COMMUNITY ! !"
Without offending any individuals in the com.
munity ! More than half the population of
Charleston, we believe, is ' colored ;' their graves
may be ravaged, their dead may be dug up, drag-
ged into the dissecting room, exposed to the gaze,,
heartless gibes, and experimenting knives, of a
crowd of inexperienced operators, who are given to>
170
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
understand in the prospectus, that, if they do not
acquire manual dexterity in dissection, it will be
wholly their own fault, in neglecting to improve
the unrivalled advantages aiFoided by the institu-
tion— since each can have as many human bodies
as he pleases to experiment upon — and as to the
fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers,
and sisters, of those whom they cut to pieces
from day to day, why, they are not ' individuals
in the community,' but ' property,' and however
their feelings may be tortured, the ' public opi-
nion' of slaveholders is entirely too ' chivalrous'
to degrade itself by caring for them !
The following which has been for some time a
standing advertisement of the South Carolina
Medical College, in the Charleston papers, is ano-
ther index of the same ' public opinion' toward
slaves. We give an extract : —
" Surgery of the Medical College of South Car-
olina^ Queen st. — The Faculty inform their pro-
fessional brethren, and the public, that they have
established a Surgery, at the Old College, ^ueen
street, for the treatment of negroes, which
will continue in operation, during the session of
the College, say from first November, to the fif-
teenth of March ensuing.
" The object of the Faculty, in opening this Sur-
gery, is to collect as many interesting cases, as
possible, for the benefit and instruction of their
pupils — at the same time, they indulge the hope,
that it may not only prove an accommodation, but
also a matter of economy to the public. They
would respectfully call the attention of planters,
living in the vicinity of the city, to this subject ;
particularly such as may have servants laboring
under Surgical diseases. Such persons of color
as may not be able to pay for Medical advice, will
be attended to gratis, at stated hours, as often as
may be necessary.
"The Faculty take this opportunity of soliciting
the co-operation of such of their professional
brethren, as arc favorable to their objects. "
" The first thing that strikes the reader of the
advertisement is, that this Surgery is established
exclusively ' for the treatment of negroes,'' and if
he knows little of the hearts of slaveholders to-
wards their slaves, he charitably supposes, that
they ' feel the dint of pity,' for the poor sufferers
and have founded this institution as a special
charity for their relief. But the delusion va-
nishes as he reads on ; the professors take special
care that no such derogatory inference shall be
drawn from their advertisement. They give us
the three reasons which have induced them to
open this ' Surgery for the treatment of negroes.'
The first and main one is, 'to collect as many
interesting cases as possible for the benefit and
instruction of their pupils' — another is, ' the hope
that it may prove an accommodation,'' — and the
third, that it may be ' a matter of economy to
the public.'' Another reason, doubtless, and a con-
trolling one, though the professors are silent about
it, is that a large collection of ' interesting eurgi- !
cal cases,' always on hand, would prove a power-
ful attraction to students, and greatly increase
the popularity of the institution. In brief, then,
the motives of its founders, the professors, were
these, the accommodation of their students — the
accommodation of the public (which means, the
t«//i<es)— and the accommodation of slaveholders
who have on their hands disabled slaves, that
would make ' interesting cases,' for surgical ope-
ration in the presence of the pupils — to these
reasons we may add the accommodation of the
Medical Institution and the accommodation of
themselves ! Not a syllable about the acco?«/«oJa.
Hon of the hopeless sufferers, writhing with the
agony of those gun shot wounds, fractured sculls,
broken limbs and ulcerated backs which constitute
the ' interesting cases' for the professors to ' show
ofP before their pupils, and, as practice makes
perfect, for the students themselves to try their
hands at by way of experiment.
Why, we ask, was this surgery established ' for
the treatment of negroes' alone ? Wliy were these
' interesting cases' selected from that class exclu-
sively? No man who knows the feeling of slave-
holders towards slaves will be at a loss for the
reason. 'Public opinion' would tolerate surgical ex-
periments, operations, processes, performed upon
them, which it would execrate if performed upon
their master or other whites. As the great object in
collecting the disabled negroes is to have ' inter-
esting cases' for the students, the professors who
perform the operations will of course endeavor to
make them as ' interesting' as possible. The in-
struction of tile student is the immediate object,
and if the professors can accomplish it best by
protracting the operation, pausing to explain the
different processes, &c. the subject is only a negro,
and what is his protracted agony, that it should
restrain the professor from making the case as
' interesting' as possible to the students by so using
his knife as will give them the best knowledge of
the parts, and the process, however it may pro-
tract or augment the pain of the subject. The
end to be accomplished is the instruction of the
student, operations upon the negroes are the means
to the end ; that tells the whole stoi-y — and he who
knows the hearts of slaveholders and has com-
mon sense, however short the allowance, can find
the way to his conclusions without a lantern.
By an advertisement of the same Medical In-
stitution, dated November 12, 1838, and puMish-
ed in the Charleston papers, it appears that an ' in-
firmary has been opened in connection with the
college.' The professors manifest a great desire
that the masters of servants should send in their dis-
abled slaves, and as an inducement to the furnish-
ing of such interesting cases say, all medical and
surgical aid will be offered without making them
liable to any professional charges. Disinterested
Ohjeciions Considered — Public Opinion.
171
bounty, pity, sympathy, philanthropy ! However
difficult or numerous the surgical cases of slaves
thus put into their hands b}' the masters, they
charge not a cent for their professional services.
Their yearnings over human distress arc so in-
tense, that they bc£^ the privilege of performing all
operations, and furnishing all the medical atten-
tion needed, gratis, feeling that the relief of
misery is its own reward ! 1 ! But we have put
down our exclamation points too soon — upon read-
ing the whole of the advertisement we find the
professors conclude it with the following para-
graph :—
" The SOLE OBJECT of the faculty in the estab-
lishment of such an institution being to promote
tlie interest of Medical Education within their
native State and City."
In the '• Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury"
of October 12, 1838, we find an advertisement of
half a column, by a Dr. T. Stillman, setting forth
the merits of another ' Medical Infirmary,' under
his own special supervision, at No. 110 Church
street, Charleston. The doctor, after inveighing
loudly against ' men totally ignorant of medical
science,' who flood the country with quack nos-
trums backed up by ' fabricated proofs of mira-
culous cures,' proceeds to enumerate the diseases
to which his ' Infirmary' is open, and to which
his practice will be mainly confined. Appreciat-
ing the importance of ' interesting cases,' as a
stock in trade, on which to commence his experi-
ments, he copies the example of the medical pro-
fessors, and advertises for them. But, either
from a keener sense of justice, or more generosi-
ty, or greater confidence in his skill, or for some
other reason, he proposes to buy up an assort-
ment of damaged negroes, given over, as incura-
ble, by others, and to make such his ' interesting
cases,' instead of experimenting on those who are
tlie ' property' of others.
Dr. Stillman closes his advertisement with the
following notice : —
"To Planters and others. — Wanted ^/<y nc.
gross. Any person having sick negroes, consid-
ered incurable by their respective physicians, and
wishing to dispose of them. Dr. S. will pay cash
for negroes affected with scrofula or king's evil,
confirmed hypocondriasm, apoplexy, diseases of
the liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach and intestines,
bladder and its appendages, diarrhea, dysentery,
&c. The highest cash price will be paid on appli-
cation as above."
The absolute barbarism of a ' public opinion'
which not only tolerates, but produces such
advertisements as this, was outdone by nothing
in the dark ages. If the reader has a heart
of flesh, he can feel it without help, and if he
has not, comment will not create it. The total
indifference of slaveholders to such a cold blood-
ed proposition, their utter unconsciousness of the
paralysis of heart, and death of sympathy, and
every feeling of common humanity for the slave,
which it reveals, is enough, of itself, to show that
the tendency of the spirit of slaveholding is, to
kill in the soul whatever it touches. It has no
eyes to see, nor ears to hear, nor mind to under-
stand, nor heart to feel for its victims as human
beings. To show that the above indication of
the savage state is not an index of individual
feeling, but of ' public opinion,' it is sufllcient to
say, that it appears to be a standing advertise-
ment in the Charleston Mercury, the leading po-
litical paper of South Carolina, the organ of the
Honorables John C. Calhoun, Robert Barnwell
Rhett, Hugh S. Legare, and others regarded as
the elite of her statesmen and literati. Besides,
candidates for popular favor, like the doctor who
advertises for the fifty ' incurables,' take special
care to conciliate, rather than outrage, ' public
opinion.' Is the doctor so ignorant of ' public
opinion' in his own city, that he has unwittingly
committed violence upon it in his advertisement ?
We trow not. The same ' public opinion' which
gave birth to the advertisement of doctor Still,
man, and to those of the professors in both the
medical institutions, founded the Charleston
' Work House' — a soft name for a Moloch temple
dedicated to torture, and reeking with blood, in
the midst of the city; to which masters and
mistresses send their slaves of both sexes to be
stripped, tied up, and cut with the lash till the
blood and mangled flesh flow to their feet, or to
be beaten and bruised with the terrible paddle, or
forced to climb the tread-mill till nature sinks, or
to experience other nameless torments.
The "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register," Dec. 27,
1838, contains the following item of information :
" Ardor in Betting. — Two gentlemen, at a
tavern, having summoned the waiter, the poor
fellow had scarcely entered, when he fell down
in a fit of apoplexy. ' He's dead !' exclaimed
one. ' He'll come to !' replied the other. ' Dead,
for five hundred !' ' Done !' retorted the second.
The noise of the fall, and the confusion which
followed, brought up the landlord, wlio called out
to fetch a doctor. ' No ! no ! we must have no
interference — there's a bet depending!' 'But,
sir, I shall lose a valuable servant!' 'Never
mind ! you can put him down in the bill !' "
About the time the Vicksburg paper containing
the above came to hand, we received a letter
from N. P. Rogers, Esq. of Concord, N. H. the
editor of the ' Herald of Freedom,' from which
the following is an extract :
'' Some thirty years ago, I think it was, Col.
Thatcher, of Maine, a lawyer, v^as in Virginia,
on business, and was there invited to dine at a
public house, with a company oi" the gentry of
the south. The place I forget — the fact was told
me by George Kimball, Esq. now of Alton, Illi.
nois, who had the story from Col. Thatcher him-
172
Oijections Considered — Public Opinion.
self. Among' the servants waiting was a young
negro man, whose beautiful person, obliging and
assiduous temper, and his activity and grace in
serving, made him a favorite with the company.
The dinner lasted into the evening, and the wine
passed freely about the table. At length, one of
the gentlemen, who was pretty highly excited
with wine, became unfortunately incensed, either
at some trip of the young slave, in waiting, or at
some other cause happening when the slave was
within his reach. He seized the long-necked
■wine bottle, and struck the young man suddenly
in the temple, and felled him dead upon the floor.
The fell arrested, for a moment, the festivities of
the table. ' DevUish unlucky,' exclaimed one.
* The gentleman is very unfortunate,' cried an-
other. ' Really a loss,' said a third, &c. &.c.
The body was dragged from the dining hall, and
the feast went on ; and at the close, one of the
gentlemen, and the very one, I believe, whose
hand had done the homicide, shouted, in
bacchanalian bravery, and southern generosity,
amid the broken glasses and fragments of chairs,
' Landlord ! put the nigger into the bill !'
This was that murdered young man's requiem
and funeral service."
Mr. George A. Avery, a merchant in Roches-
ter, New York, and an elder in the Fourth Pres-
byterian Church in that city, who resided foiu:
years in Virginia, gives the following testimony :
" I knew a young man who had been out hunt-
ing, and returning with some of his friends, see-
ing a negro man in the road, at a little distance,
deliberately drew up his rifle, and shot him dead.
This was done without the slightest provocation,
or a word passing. This young man passed
through the form of a trial, and, although it was
not even pretended by his counsel that he was
not guilty of the act, deliberately and wantonly
perpetrated, he was acquitted. It was urged by
his counsel, that he was a young man, (about 20
years of age,) had no malicious intention, his
mother was a widow, &c. &c."
Mr. Benjamin Clendenon, of Colerain, Lan-
caster county, Pennsylvania, a member of the
Society of Friends, gives the following testimony :
'' Three years ago the coming month, I took
a journey of about seventy-five miles from home,
through the eastern shore of Maryland, and a
small part of Delaware. Calling one day, near
noon, at Georgetown Cross-Roads, I found my-
self surrounded in the tavern by slaveholders.
Among other subjects of conversation, their hu-
man cattle came in for a share. One of the com-
pany, a middle-aged man, then living with a
second wife, acknowledged, that after the death
of his first wife, he lived in a state of concubinage
with a female slave ; but when the time drew
near for the taking of a second wife, he found it
expedient to remove the slave from the premises.
The same person gave an account of a female
slave he formerly held, who had a propensity for
some one pursuit, I think the attendance of re-
ligious meetings. On a certain occasion, she
presented her petition to him, asking for this in-
dulgence; he refused — she importuned — and he,
with sovereign indignation, seized a chair, and
■with a blow upon the head, knocked her sense-
less upon the floor. The same person, for some
act of disobedience, on the part, I think, of the
same slave, when employed in stacking strav/,
felled her to the earth with the handle of a pitch
fork. All these transactions were related with
the utmost composure, in a bar-room within thirty
miles of the Pennaylvania line."
The two following advertisements are illustra-
tions of the regard paid to the marriage relations
by slaveholding judges, governors, senators in
Congress, and mayors of cities.
From the " Montgomery, (Ala.) Advertiser,"
Sept. 29, 1837.
" ^20 Reward. — Ranaway from the subscriber,
a negro man named Moses. He is of common
size, about 28 j'ears old. He formerly belonged
to Judge Benson, of Montgomery, and it is said,
has a wife in that county. John Gayle."
The John Gayle who signs this advertisement,
is an Ex-Governor of Alabama.
From the " Charleston Courier," Nov. 28.
" Ranaway from the subscriber, about twelve
months since, his negro man Paulladore. His
complexion is dark — about 50 years old. I un-
derstand Gen. R. Y. Hayne has purchased his
wife and children from H. L. Pinckney, Esq.
and has them now on his plantation, at Goose
Creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently
lurking. Thomas Davis."
It is hardly necessary to say, that the General
R. Y. Hayne, and H. L. Pinckney, Esq. named
in the advertisement, are Ex-Governor Hayne,
formerly U. S. Senator from South Carolina, and
Hon. Henry L. Pinckney, late member of Con-
gress from Charleston District, and now Intendant
(Mayor) of that city.
It is no difficult matter to get at the ' public
opinion' of a community, when ladies ' of prop-
erty and standing' publish, under their own
names, such advertisements as the following.
Mrs. Elizabeth L. Carter, of Groveton, Prince
William county, Virginia, thus advertises her ne-
gro man Moses :
" Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man
named Moses, aged about 40 years, about six feet
high, well made, and possessing a good address,
and HiVS lost a part of one of his ears."
Mrs. B. Newman, of the same place, and in
the same paper, advertises —
" Penny, the wife of Moses, aged about 30
years, brown complexion, tall and likely, no par-
ticular marks of person recollected."
Both of the above advertisements appear in the
National Intelligencer, (Washington city,) June
10, 1837.
In the Mobile Mercantile Advertiser, of Feb.
13, 1838, is an advertisement signed Sarah
Walsh, of which the following is an extract :
"Twenty-five dollars reward will be paid to any
one who may apprehend and deliver to me, or
confine in any jail, so that I can get him, my
man Isaac, who ranaway sometime in September
Oljections Considered — Public Opinion.
173
Jast. He is 2G years of age, 5 feet 10 inches
high, has a scar on his forehead, caused by a blow,
and one on liis back, made by a shot fiiom a pis-
tol."
In the " New Orleans Bee," Dec. 21, 1838, Mrs.
BuRVANT, whose residence is at the corner of
Chartres and Toulouse streets, advertises a wo-
man as follows :
" Ranaway, a negro woman named Rachel —
has lost all her toes except the large one."
From the " Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat," June
16, 1838 :
" Ten Dollars Reward. — Ranaway from the
subscriber, a negro woman named Sally, about
21 years of age, taking along her two children —
one three years, and the other seven months old.
These negroes were purchased by me at the sale
of George Mason's negroes, on the first Monday
in May, and left a few days thereafter. Any
person delivering them to the jailor in Hunts-
ville, or to me, at my plantation, five miles above
Triana, on the Tennessee river, shall receive the
above reward. Charity Cooper."
From the " Mississippian," May 13, 1838 :
" Ten Dollars Reward. — Ranaway from the
subscriber, a man named Aaron, yellow com-
plexion, blue eyes, &c. I have no doubt he is
lurking about Jackson and its vicinity, probably
harbored by some of the negroes sold as the property
of 7ny late husband, Harry Long, deceased. Some
of them are about Richland, in Madison co. I
will give the above reward when brought to me,
about six miles north-west of Jackson, or put in
JAIL, 50 that I can get him. Lucy Long."
If the reader, after perusing the preceding
facts, testimony, and arguments, still insists that
the ' public opinion' of the slave states protects
the slave from outrages, and alleges, as proof of
it, that cruel masters are frowned upon and shun-
ned by the community generally, and regarded
as monsters, we reply b)' presenting the following
facts and testimony,
" Col. Means, of Manchester, Ohio, says, that
when he resided in South Carolina, his neighbor,
a physician, became enraged with his slave, and
sentenced him to receive two hundred lashes.
After having received one hundred and forty, he
fainted. After inflicting the full number of
lashes, the cords vifith which he was bound were
loosed. When he revived, he staggered to the
house, and sat down in the sun. Being faint
and thirsty, he begged for some water to drink.
The master went to the well, and procured some
water — but instead of giving him to drink, he
threw the whole bucket-full in his face. Nature
could not stand the shock — he sunk to rise no
more. For this crime, the physician was bound
over to Court, and tried, and acquitted — and
THE NEXT YEAR HE WAS ELECTED
TO THE LEGISLATURE 1"
Testimony of Hon. John Randolph, of Vir-
ginia :
" In one of his Congressional speeches, Mr. R,
says : Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive,
this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of
it, like so many post-horses, whipped to death in
a mail coach. Ambilion has its cover-sluts in
the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious
war ; but where are the trophies of avarice ?
The hand-caff, the manacle, the blood-stained
cowhide ! What man is worse received in so-
ciety FOR BEING a HARD MASTER ? WnO DENIES
THF HAND OF A SISTER OR DAUGHTER TO SUCH
MONSTERS ?"
Mr. George A. Avery, of Rochester, New
York, who resided four years in Virginia, testi-
fies as follows :
" I know a local Methodist minister, a man of
talents, and popular as a preacher, who took his
negro girl into his barn, in order to whip her —
and she was brought out a corpse 1 His friends
seemed to think this of -w little irnportance to his
7uinisterial standing, that although I lived near
him about three years, I do not recollect to have
heard them apologize for the deed, though I re-
collect having heard one of his neighbors allege
this fact as a reason why he did not wish to heaj
him preach."
Notwithstanding the mass of testimony which
has been presented establishing the fact that fn
the ' public opinion' of the South the slaves
find no protection, some may still claim that the
' public opinion' exhibited by the preceding facts
is not that of the highest class of society at
the South, and in proof of this assertion, refer to
the fact, that 'Negro Brokers,' Negro Specu-
lators, Negro Auctioneers, and Negro Breeders,
&c., are by that class universally despised and
avoided, as are all who treat their slaves with
cruelty.
To this we reply, that, if all claimed by the
objector were true, it could avail him nothing
for ^public opinion' is neither made nor unmade
by ' the first class of society.' That class pro-
duces in it, at most, but slight modifications ;
those who belong to it have generally a ' public
opinion,' within their own circle which has rare-
ly more, either of morality or mercy than the
public opinion of the mass, and is, at least, equal,
ly heartless and more intolerant. As to the esti-
mation in which ' speculators, ' ' soul drivers,'
&c. are held, we remark, that, they are not de-
spised because they trade in slaves but because
they are working men, all such are despised by
slaveholders. White drovers who go with droves of
swine and cattle from the free states to the slave
states, and Yankee pedlars, who traverse the south,
and white day-laborers are, in the main, equally
despised, or, if negro-traders excite more contempt
than drovers, pedlars, and day-laborers, it is be-
cause, they are, as a class more ignorant and
vulgar, men from low families and and boors in
their manners. Ridiculous I to suppose, that a
people, who have, by law, made men articles of
trade equally with swine, should despise men-
drovers and traders, more than hog-drovers and
174
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
traders. That they are not despised because it is
their business to trade in human beings and bring
them to market, is plain from the fact that when
some ' gentleman of property and standing' and
of a ' good family' embarks in a negro speculation,
and employs a dozen ' soul drivers' to traverse the
upper country, and drive to the south coffles of
slaves, expending hundreds of thousands in his
wholesale puichases, he does not lose caste. It is
known in Alabama, that Mr. Erwin, son-in-law of
the Hon. Henry Clay, and brother of J. P. Erwin,
formerly postmaster, and late mayor of the city of
Nashville, laid the foundation of a princely fortune
in the slave-trade, carried on from the Northern
Slave States to the Planting South ; that the Hon.
H. Hitchcock, brother-in-law of Mr. E., and since
one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Alaba-
ma, was interested with him in the traffic ; and that
a late member of the Kentucky Senate (Col. Wall)
not only carried on the same business, a few years
ago, but accompanied his droves in person down
the Mississippi. Not as the driver, for that would
be vulgar drudgery, beneath a gentleman, but as
a nabob in state, ordering his understrappers.
It is also well known that President Jackson
was a 'soul driver,' and that even so late as the
year before the commencement of the last war. he
bought up a coffle of slaves and drove them down
to Louisiana for sale.
Thomas N. Gadsden, Esq. the principal slave
auctioneer in Charleston, S. C. is of one of the
first families in the state, and moves in the- very
highest class of society there. He is a descendant
of the distinguished General Gadsden of revolution-
ary memory, the most prominent southern mem-
ber in the Continental Congress of 1765, and after-
wards elected lieutenant governor and then govern-
or of the state. The Rev. Dr. Gadsden, rector of
St. Philip's Church, Charleston, and the Rev.
PhilUp Gadsden, both prominent Episcopal cler-
gymen in South Carolina, and Colonel James
Gadsden of the United States army, after whom a
county in Florida was recently named, are
all brothers of this Thomas N. Gadsden, Esq. the
largest slave auctioneer in the state, under whose
hammer, men, women and children go off by thou-
sands ; its stroke probably sunders daily, husbands
and wives, parents and children, brothers and sis-
ters, perhaps to see each other's faces no more.
Now who supply the auction table of this Thomas
N. Gadsderi, Esq. with its loads of human mer-
chandize ? These same detested ' soul drivers'
forsooth ! They prowl through the country, buy,
catch, and fetter them, and drive their chained
coffles up to his stand, where Thomas N. Gads-
den, Esq. knocks them off to the highest bidder, to
Ex-Governor Butler perhaps, or to Ex-Governor
Hayne, or to Hon. Robert Barnwell Rhett, or to
his ovm reverend brother, Dr. Gadsden. Now
this high born, wholesale soul.seller doubtless de-
spises the retail ' soul-drivers' who give him their
custom , and so does the wholesale grocer, the driz-
zling tapster who sneaks up to his counter for a
keg of whiskey to dole out under a shanty in two
cent glasses ; and both for the same reason.
The plea that the ' public opinion' among the
highest classes of society at the south is mild and
considerate towards the slaves, that they do not
overwork, underfeed, neglect when old and sick,
scantily clothe, badly lodge, and half shelter their
slaves ; that they do not barbarously flog, load with
irons, imprison in the stocks, brand and maim
them ; hunt them when runaways with dogs and
guns, and sunder by force and forever the nearest
kindred — is shown, by almost every page of this
work, to be an assumption, not only utterly ground-
less, but directly opposed to masses of irrefragable
evidence. If the reader will be at the pains to
review the testimony recorded on the foregoing
pages he will find that a very large proportion
of the atrocities detailed were committed, not by
the most ignorant and lowest classes of society,
but by persons 'of property and standing,' by
masters and mistresses belonging to the ' upper
classes,' by persons in the learned professions, by
civil, judicial, and military officers, by the literati,
by the fashionable elite and persons of more than
ordinary ' respectability' and external morality —
large numbers of whom are professors of religion.
It wUl be recollected that the testimony of Sa-
rah M. Grimkc, and Angelina G.Weld, was con-
fined exclusively to the details of slavery as ex-
hibited in the highest classes of society, mainly in
Charleston, S. C. See their testimony pp. 22 — 24
and 52 — 57. The former has furnished us with
the following testimony in addition to that already
given.
"Nathaniel Hey ward of Combahee, S.C., oneof
the wealthiest planters in the state, stated, in con-
versation with some other planters who were com-
plaining of the idle and lazyhabits of their slaves,
and the difficulty of ascertaining whether their
sickness was real or pretended, and the loss they
suffered from their frequent absence on this ac.
count from their work, said, ' I never lose a
day's work : it is an established rule on my plan-
tations that the tasks of all the sick negroes shall
be done by those who are well in addition to their
own. By this means a vigilant supervision is kept
up by the slaves over each other, and they take
care that nothing but real sickness keeps any one
out of the field.' I spent several winters in the
neighborhood of Nathaniel Hey ward's plantations,
and well remember his character as a severe task
master. / was present when the above statement
was made.'"
The cool barbarity of such a regulation is hard-
ly surpassed by the worst edicts of the Roman
Caligula — especially when we consider that the
plantations of this man were in the neighborhood
of the Combahee river, one of the most unhealth
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
175
. ".i the low country of South CaroHna ;
furtlier, that large numbers of liis slaves worked in
the rice vuirshes, or 'swamps' as they are called
in that state — and tliat during six months of the
year, so fatal to health is the malaria of the
swamps in that region that the planters and their
families invariably abandon tlieir plantations, re-
garding it as downright presumption to spend a
single day upon them ' between the frosts' of
the early spring and the last of November.
The reader may infer the high standing of Mr.
Heyward in South Carolina, from the fact that
he was selected with four other freeholders to
constitute a Court for the trial of the conspirators
in the insurrection plot at Charleston, in 1822.
Another of the individuals chosen to constitute
tliat court was Colonel Henry Deas, now presi-
dent of the Board of Trustees of Charleston Col-
lege, and a few years since a member of the Se-
nate of South Carolina, From a late corresp n-
dence in the " Greenvile (S. C.) Mountaineer,"
between Rev. William IM. Wightmaii, a professor
in Randolph, Macon, College, and a number of the
citizens of Lodi, South Carolina, it appears that
tlie cruelty of this Colonel Deas to his slaves, is
proverbial in South Carolina, so much that Pro-
fessor Wightman, in the sermon which occasion-
ed the correspondence, spoke of the Colonel's in-
humanity to his slaves as a matter of perfect no-
toriety.
Another South Carolina slaveholder, Hon.
Whitmarsh B. Seabrook, recently, we believe,
Lieut. Governor of the state, gives the following
testimony to his own inhumanity, and his certifi-
cate of the ' public opinion ' among South Caro-
lina slaveholders ' of high degree.'
In an essay on the management of slaves, read
before the Agricultural Society of St. Johns, S. C.
and published by the Society, Charleston, 1834,
Mr. S. remarks :
" I consider imprisonment in the stocks at night,
with or without hard labor in the day, as a pow-
erful auxiliary in the cause of good government.
To the correctness of this opinion many can bear
testimony. Experience has convinced me that
there is no punishment to which the slave looks
with more horror.^'
The advertisements of the Professors in the
Medical Colleges of South Carolina, published
with comments — on pp. 169, 170, are additional il-
lustrations of the ' public opinion ' of the literati.
That the 'public opinion ' o?the highest class
of society in South Carolina, regards slaves as
mere cattle, is shown by the following advertise-
ment, which we copy from the "Charleston (S.C.)
Mercury" of May 16 :
" Negroes for Sale. — A Girl about twenty
years of age, (raised in Virginia,) and her two fe-
male children, one four and the other two years
old — is remarkably strong and healthy — never
having had a day's sickness, with the exception
of the small pox, in her life. The children are
lino and healthy. She is very i'kolu--ic in her
GENERATING QUALITIES, and affords a rare ojtportu.
niUj to any person ivho ivishcs to raise a family
of strong and healthy servants for their own use.
" Any person wishing to purchase, will please
leave their address at the Mercury ofllcc,"
The Charleston Mercury, in which this adver-
tisement appears, is the leading political paper in
South Carolina, and is well known to be the po-
litical organ of Messrs. Calhoun, Rhett, Pickens,
and others of the most prominent politicians in
the state. Its editor, John Stewart, Esq., is a law-
yer of Charleston, and of a highly respectable fa-
mily. He is a brother-in-law of Hon. Robert
Barnwell Rhett, the late Attorney-General, now
a Member of Congress, and Hon. James Rhett, a
leading member of the Senate of South Carolina ;
his wife is a niece of the late Governor Smith, of
North Carolina, and of the late Hon. Peter
Smith, Intendant (Mayor) of the city of Charles-
ton ; and a cousin of the late Hon. Thomas S.
Grimke.
The circulation of the ' Mercurj'' among the
wealthy, the literary, and ths fashionable, is pro-
bably much larger than that of any other paper
in the state.
These facts in connection with the preceding
advertisement, are a sufficient exposition of the
' public opinion ' towards slaves, prevalent in these
classes of society.
The following scrap of ' public opinion' in Flo-
rida, is instructive. We take it from the Frorida
Herald, June 23, 1838 :
Ranaway from my plantation, on Monday
night, the 13th instant, a negro fellow named
Ben ; eighteen years of age, polite when spoken
to, and speaks very good English for a negro.
As I have traced him out in several places in
town, I am certain he is harbored. This notice
is given that I am determined, that whenever he
is taken, to punish him till he informs me who has
given him food and protection, and / shall apply
the law of Judge Lynch to my own satisfaction, ou
those concerned in his concealment.
A. Watson.
June 16, 1838."
Now, who is this A. Watson, who proclaims
through a newspaper, his determination to put to
the torture this youth of eighteen, and to Lynch
to his ' satisfaction ' whoever has given a cup o.f
cold water to the panting fugitive. Is he some
low miscreant beneath public contempt ? Nav,
verily, he is a ' gentleman of property and stand,
ing,' one of the wealthiest planters and largest
slaveholders in Florida. He resides in the vicini-
ty of St. Augustine, and married the daughter of
the late Thomas C. Morton, Esq. one of the first
merchants in New York.
We may mention in this connection the well
176
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
known fact, that many wealthy planters make it
a rule never to employ a physician among their
slaves. Hon. William Smith, Senator in Con-
gress, from South Carolina, from 1816 to 1823,
and afterwards from 1826 to 1831, is one of this
number. He owns a number of large plantations
in the south western states. One of these, bor-
ders upon the village of Huntsville, Alabama.
The people of that village can testify that it is a
part of Judge Smith's system never to employ a
physician even in the most extreme cases. If the
medical skill of the overseer, or of the slaves
themselves, can contend successfully with the
disease , they live, if not, they die. At all events,
a physician is not to be called. Judge Smith was
appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the
United States three years since.
The reader will recall a similar fact in the testi-
mony of Rev. W. T. Allan, son of Rev. Dr. Al-
lan, of Huntsville, (see p. 47,) who says that Co-
lonel Robert H. Watkins, a wealthy planter, in
Alabama, and a presidential elector in 1836,
who works on his plantations three hundred
slaves, ' After employing a physician for some
time among his negroes, he ceased to do so, al.
lodging as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose
a few negroes every year than to pay a physician?
It is a fact perfectly notorious, that the late Ge.
neral Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, who was
the largest slaveholder in the United States, and
probably the wealthiest man south of the Poto-
mac, was excessively cruel in the treatment of his
slaves. The anecdote of him related by a cler-
gyman, on page 29, is perfectly characteristic.
For instances of barbarous inhumanity of va-
rious kinds, and manifested by persons belonging
TO THE MOST RESPECTABLE CIRCLES OF SOCIETY, the
reader can consult the following references: —
Testimony of Rev. John Graham, p. 25, near the
bottom ; of Mr. Foe, p. 26, middle ; of Rev. J. O.
Choules, p. 39, middle ; of Rev. Dr. Channing,
p. 44, top ; of Mr. George A. Avery, p. 44, bot-
tom ; of Rev. W. T. Allan, p. 47 ; of Mr. John
M. Nelson, p. 51, bottom ; of Dr. J. C. Finley, p.
61, top ; of Mr. Dustin, p. 66, bottom ; of Mr.
John Clarke, p. 87 ; of Mr. Nathan Cole, p. 89,
middle ; Rev. William Dickey, p. 93 ; Rev. Fran-
cis Hawley, p. 97 ; of Mr. Powell, p. 100 middle ;
of Rev. P. Smith p. 102.
The preceding are but a few of a large num-
ber of similar cases contained in the foregoing tes-
timonies. The slaveholder mentioned by Mr.
Ladd, p. 86, who knocked down a slave and af-
terwards piled brush upon his body, and consum-
ed it, held the hand of a female slave in tlie fire
till it was burned so as to be useless for life, and
whipped a female slave to death in St. Louis,
in 1837, as stated by Mr. Cole, p. 89, was a
Major in, the United States Army. One of the
physicians who was an abettor of the tragedy on
the Brasses, in which a slave was tortured to
death, and another so that he barely lived, (see
Rev. Mr. Smith's testimony, p. 102.) was Dr. An-
son Jones, a native of Connecticut, who was
soon after appointed minister plenipotentiary from
Texas to this government, and now resides at
Washington city. The slave mistress at Lexing-
ton, Ky., who, as her husband testifies, has killed
six of his slaves, (see testimony of Mr. Clarke,
p. 87,) is the wife of Hon. Fielding S. Turner,
late judge of the criminal court of New Orleans,
and one of the wealthiest slaveholders in Ken-
tucky. Lilbum Lewis, who deliberately chopped
in pieces his slave George, with a broad-axe, (see
testimony of Rev. Mr. Dickey, p. 93) was a wealthy
slaveholder, and a nephew of President Jefferson.
Rev. Francis Hawley, who was a general agent
of the Baptist State Convention of North Caroli-
na, confesses (see p. 47,) that while residing in
that state he once went out with his hounds and
rifle, to hunt fugitive slaves. But instead of
making further reference to testimony already be-
fore the reader, we will furnish additional instan-
ces of the barbarous cruelty which is tolerated
and sanctioned by the ' upper classes ' of society
at the south; we begin with clergymen, and
other officers and members of churches.
That the reader may judge of the degree of
' protection' which slaves receive from ' public
opinion,' and among the members and ministers
of professed christian churches, we insert the
following illustrations.
Extract from an editorial article in the " Lowell
(Mass.) Observer" a religious paper edited at the
time (1833) by the Rev. Daniel S. Southjiayd,
who recently died in Texas.
" We have been among the slaves at the south.
We took pains to make discoveries in respect to
the evils of slavery. We formed our sentiments
on the subject of the cruelties exercised towards
the slave from having witnessed them. We now
affirm, that we never saw a man, who had never
been at the south, who thought as much of the
cruelties practiced on the slaves, as we know to
be a fact.
" A slave whom I loved for his kindness and the
an^iableness of his disposition, and who belonged
to the family where I resided, happened to stay
o\xt fifteen minutes longer than he had permission
to stay. It was a mistake — it was unintentional.
But what was the penalty ? He was sent to the
house of correction with the order that he should
have thirty lashes upon his naked body loith a
knotted rope ! ! ! He was brought home and
laid down in the stoop, in the back of the house,
.in the sun, upon the floor. And there he lay, with
confessed to Mr. Ladd, that he had killed four ^^^^ the appearance of a rotten carcass than a
slaves, had been a member of the Senate of Geor. | living man, for four days before he could do more
gia and a clergyman. The slaveholder who i than move. And wJio was this inhuman bcin;j
Ohjcctions Considered — Public Opinion.
177
calling God'b property his own, and using^ it as he
would not have dared to use a beast ? You may
say he was a tiger — one of the more wicked sort,
and that we must not judge others by him. He
was a professor of that religion lohich will pour
itpon the loilling slaveholder the retribution due to
his sin.
" We wish to mention another fact, which our
own eyes saw and our own cars heard. We
were called to evening prayers. The family as.
sembled around the altar of their accustomed
devotions. There was one female slave present,
who belonged to another master, but who had
been hired for the day and tarried to attend fami-
ly worship. The precious Bible was opened, and
nearly half a chapter had been read, when the
eye of the master, who was reading, oliserved
that the new female servant, instead of bemg
seated like his own slaves, flat upon the floor, was
standing in a stooping posture upon her feet. He
told her to sit down on the floor. She said it was
not her custom at home. He ordered her again
to do it. She replied that her master did not re-
quire it. Irritated by this answer, he repeatedly
struck her upon the head with the very Bible he
held in his hand. And not content with this, he
seized his cane and caned her down stairs most
unmercifully . He then returned to resume his
profane work, but we need not say that all the
family were not there. Do you ask again, who
was this wicked man ? He was a professor of
religion .' .'"
Rev. Huntington Lyman, late pastor of the
Free Church in Buffalo, New York, says : —
" Walking one day in New Orleans with a
professional gentleman, who was educated in
Connecticut, we were met by a black man ; the
gentleman was greatly incensed with the black
man for passing so near him, and turning upon
him he pushed him with violence off the walk
into the street. This man was a professor of re-
ligion."
[And we add, a member, and if we mistake not
an officer of the Presbyterian Church which was
established there by Rev. Joel Parker, and which
was then under his teachings. — Ed.]
Mr. EzEKiEL BiRDSEYE, a gentleman of known
probity, in Cornwall, Litchfield county, Conn,
gives the testimony which follows : —
" A Baptist clergyman in Laurens District,
S. C. WHIPPED HIS SLAVE TO DEATH, whom he SUS.
pected of having stolen about sixty dollars. The
slave was in the prime of life and was purchased
a few weeks before for ^800 of a slave trader from
Virginia or Maryland. The coroner, Wm. Irby,
at whose house I was then boarding, told me, that on
reviewing the dead body, he found it beat to a jelly
from head to foot. The master's wife discovered
the money a day or two after the death of the
slave. She had herself removed it from where
it was placed, not knowing what it was, as it was
tied up in a thick envelope. I happened to be
present when the trial of this man took place, at
Laurens Court House. His daughter testified
that her father untied the slave, when he appear-
ed to be failing, and gave him cold water to drink,
of which he took freely. His counsel pleaded that
23
his death might have been caused by drinking
cold water in a state of excitement. The Judge
cliarged the jury, that it would bo their duty to
find tlic defendant guilty, if they believed the
death was caused by tlic whipping ; but if they
were of opinion that drinking cold water caused
the death, tlicy would find him not guilty ! The
jury found him — not guilty !"
Dr. Jeremiah S. Waugii, a physician in Somer-
ville, Butler county, Ohio, testifies as follows : —
" In the year 1825, I boarded with the Rev.
John Mushat, a Seceder minister, and principal
of an academy in Iredel county, N. C. He had
slaves, and was in the habit of restricting them
on the Sabbath. One of his slaves, however, ven-
tured to disobey his injunctions. The offence was,
he went away on Sabbath evening, and did not
return till Monday morning. About the time we
were called to breakfast, the Rev. gentleman was
engaged in chastising him for breaking the Sab-
bath. He determined not to submit — attempted
to escape by flight. Tlio master immediately took
down his gun and pursued irim — levelled his in-
strument of death, and told him, if he did not stop
instantly he would blow him through. The poor
slave returned to the house and submitted himself
to the lash ; and the good master, while yet pale
WITH RAGE, sat down to the table, and with a trem-
bling voice ASKED God's blessing !"
The following letter was sent by Capt. Jacob
Dunham, of New York city, to a slaveholder in
Georgetown, D. C. more than twenty years since:
" Georgetown, June 13, 1815.
" Dear sir — Passing your house yesterday, I
beheld a scene of cruelty seldom witnessed ; that
was the brutal chastisement of yom- negro girl,
lashed to a ladder and beaten in an inhuman man-
ner, too bad to describe. My blood chills while I
contemplate the subject. This has led me to in-
vestigate your character from your neighbors ;
who inform me that you have caused the death of
one negro man, whom you struck with a sledge
for some trivial fault — that you have beaten ano-
ther black girl with such severity that the splint-
ers remained in her back for some weeks after
you sold her — and many other acts of barbarity,
too lengthy to enumerate. And to my great sur-
prise, I find you are a professor of the Christian
religion !
" You will naturally inquire, why I meddle with
your family affairs. My answer is, the cause of
humanity and a sense of my duty requires it. —
With these hasty remarks I leave you to reflect
on the subject ; but wish you to remember, that
there is an all-seeing eye who knows all our faults
and will reward us according to our deeds.
I remain, sir, yours, &c.
Jacob Dunham,
Master of the brig Cyrus, of N. Y."
Rev. Sylvester Cowles, pastor of the Presby-
terian church in Fredonia, N. Y. says : —
" A young man, a member of the church in
Conewango, went to Alabama last year, to reside
as a clerk in an uncle's store. When he had been
there about nine months, he wrote his father that
he must return home. To sec members of the
same church sit at the communion table of our
178
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
Lord one dav, and the next to see one seize any
weapon and knock the other down, as he had seen,
he could not hve there. His good father forthwith
gave him permission to return home."
The following is a specimen of the shameless
hardihood with which a professed minister of the
Gospel, and editor of a rehgious paper, assumes
the right to hold God's image as a chattel. It is
from the Southern Christian Herald : —
" It is stated in the Georgetown Union, that a
negro, supposed to have died ofcholera, when that
disease prevailed in Charleston, was carried to the
public burying ground to be interred ; but before
interment signs of life appeared, and, by the use
of proper means, he was restored to health. And
now the man who first perceived the signs of life
in the slave, and that led to his preservation,
claims the property as his own, and is about bring-
ing suit for its recovery. As well might a man
who rescued his neighbor's slave, or his horse,
from drowning, or who extinguished the flames
that would otherwise soon have burnt down his
neighbor's house, claim the property as his own."
Rev. George Bourne, of New- York city, late
Editor of the " Protestant Vindicator," who was
a preacher seven years in Virginia, gives the fol-
lowing testimony.*
" Benjamin Lewis, who was an elder in the Pres-
byterian church, engaged a carpenter to repair
and enlarge his house. After some time had
elapsed, Kyle, the builder, was awakened very
early in the morning by a most piteous moaning
and shrieking. He arose, and following the
sound, discovered a colored woman nearly naked,
tied to a fence, while Lewis was lacerating her.
Kyle instantly commanded the slave driver to de-
sist. Lewis maintained his jurisdiction over his
slaves, and threatened Kyle that he would punish
him for his interference. Finally Kyle obtained
the release of the victim.
" A second and a third scene of the same kind
occurred, and on the third occasion the alterca-
* A few years since Blr. Bounie published a work en-
titled, " Picture of slavery in the United States." In which
he describes a variety of horrid atrocities perpetrated upon
slaves ; such as brutal scourging and lacerations with the
application of pepper, mustard, salt, vinegar, &;c., to the
bleeding gashes; also maimings, cat-haulings, burnings,
and other tortures similar to hundreds described on the pre-
ceding pages. These descriptions of Mr. Bourne were, at that
time, thought by multitudes incredible, and probably, even
by some abolitionists, who had never given much reflection
to the subject. We are happy to furnish the reader with the
following testimony of a Virginia slaveholder to the accu-
racy of Mi. Bonme'sAe\iaealions. Especially as this slave-
holder is a native of one of the counties (Culpepper) near to
which the atrocities described by Mr. B. were committed.
Testimony of Mr. William Hansborough, of Culpepper,
County, Virginia, the " owner" of sixty slaves, to Mr.
Bourne's " Picture of Slavery" as a tiiie delineation.
Lindley Coates, of Lancaster Co., Pa., a well Icnown
member of the Society of Friends, and a member of the
late Pennsylvania Convention for revising the Constitution
of the State, in a letter now before us, describing a recent
interview between him and Mr. Hansborough, of several
days continuance, says, — " I handed liim Bourne's Pic-
ture of slavery to read : after reading it, he said, that
all of the sufferings of slaves therein related, were true
delineations, and that he had seen all those modes of tor-
ture himself."
tion almost produced a battle between the elder
and the carpenter.
" Kyle immediately arranged his affairs, packed
up his tools and prepared to depart. ' Where are
you going V demanded Lewis. ' I am going
home ;' said Kyle. ' Then I will pay you nothing
for what you have done,' retorted the slave driver,
'unless you complete your contract.' The car-
penter went away with tliis edifying declaration,
' I will not stay here a day longer ; for I expect
the fire of God will come down and bum you
up altogether, and I do not choose to go to hell
with you.' Through hush-money and promises
not to whip the women any more, I believe Kyle
returned and completed his engagement.
"James Kyle of Harrisonburg, Virginia, fre.
quently narrated that circumstance, and his son,
the carpenter, confirmed it with all the minute
particulars combined with his temporary resi-
dence on the Shenandoah river.
"John M'Cue of Augusta county, Virginia, a
Presbyterian preacher, frequently on the Lord's
day morning, tied up his slaves and whipped them ;
and left them bound, while he went to the meet-
ing house and preached — and after his return
home repeated his scourging. That fact, with
others more heinous, was known to all persons in
his congregation and around the vicinity; and so
far from being censured for it, he and his brethren
justified it as essential to preserve their ' domes-
tic institutions.'
-' Mrs. Pence, of Rockmgham county, Virginia,
used to boast, — ' I am the best hand to whip a
wench in the whole county.' She used to pinion
the girls to a post in the yard on the Lord's day
morning, scourge them, put on the » negro plas.
ter,'' salt, pepper, and vinegar, leave them tied,
and walk away to church as demure as a nun,
and after service repeat her flaying, if she felt the
whim. I once expostulated with her upon her
cruelty. ' Mrs. Pence, how can you whip your
girls so pubhcly and disturb your neighbors so on
the Lord's day morning.' Her answer was memo-
rable. ' If I were to v/hip them on any other day
I should lose a day's work ; but by whipping them
on Sunday, their backs get well enough by Mon-
day morning.' That woman, if alive, is doubtless
a member of the chiurch now, as then.
" Rev. Dr. Staughton, formerly of Philadelphia,
often stated, that when he lived at Georgetown,
S. C. he could tell the doings of one of the slave-
holders of the Baptist church there by his prayers
at the prayer meeting. ' If,' said he, ' that man
was upon good terms with his slaves, his words
were cold and heartless as frost ; if he had been
whipping a man, he would pray with life ; but if
he had left a woman whom he had been flogging,
tied to a post in his cellar, with a determination to
go back and torture her again, O ! how he would
pray !' The Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor of Massa-
chusetts can confinn the above statement by Dr.
Staughton.
" William Wilson, a Presbyterian preacher of
Augusta county, Virginia, had a young colored
girl who was constitutionally unhealthy. As no
means to amend her were availing, he sold her to
a member of his congregation, and in the usual
style of human flesh dealers, warranted her
' sound,' &c. The fraud was instantly discover-
ed ; but he would not refund the amount. A suit
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
179
was commenced, and was long continued, and fi-
nally the plaintift' recovered the money out of
which ho had been swindled by slave-trading with
his own preacher, No Presbyter}' censured him,
although Judge Brown, the chancellor, severely
condenmed the imposition.
" In the year 1811, Jehab Graham, a preacher,
lived with Alexander Nelson a Presbyterian elder,
near Stanton, Virginia, and he informed me that
a man liad appeared before Nelson, who was a
magistrate, and swore falsely against his slave, —
that tiie elder ordered him tliirt3'-nine lashes. All
that wickedness was done as an excuse for his dis-
sipated owner to obtain money. A negro trader
had oflered him a considerable sum for the ' boy,'
and under the pretence of saving him from tlie
punishment of the law, he was trafficked away
from his woman and children to another state.
The magistrate was aware of the perjury, and the
whole abomination, but all the truth uttered by
every colored person in the southern states would
not be of any avail against the notorious false
swearing of the greatest white villain who ever
cursed the world. ' How,' said Jehab Graham,
'can I preach to-morrow?' I replied, 'Very
well ; go and thunder the doctrine of retribution
in their ears, Obadiah 15, till by the divine bless-
ing you kill or cure them.' My friends, John
M. Nelson of Hillsborough, Ohio, Samuel Linn,
and Robert Herron, and others of the same vicin-
ity, could ' make both the ears of every one who
heareth them tingle' with the accounts which they
can give of slave-driving by professors of religion
in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.
" In 1815, near Frederick, in Maryland, a most
barbarous planter was killed in a fit of despera-
tion, by four of his slaves in self-defence. It was
declared by those slaves while m prison that, be-
sides his atrocities among their female associates,
he had dehberately butchered a number of his
slaves. The four men were murdered by law, to
appease the popular clamor. I saw them execut-
ed on the twenty-eighth day of Jan'y, 1816. The
facts I received from the Rev. Patrick Davidson of
Frederick, who constantly visited them during
their imprisonment — and who became an aboli-
tionist in consequence of the disclosures which he
heard from those men in the jail. The name of
the planter is not distinctly recollected, but it can
be known by an inspection of the record of the
trial in the clerk's ofiice, Frederick.
"A minister of Virginia, still living, and whose
name must not be mentioned for fear of Nero
Preston and his confederate-hanging myrmidons,
informed me of this fact in 1815, in his own house.
«A member of my church, said he, lately whip-
ped a colored youth to death. What shall I do ?'
I answered, ' I hope you do not mean to continue
him in your church.' That minister replied,
* How can we help it !' We dare not call him to
an account. We have no legal testimony.' Their
communion season was then approaching. I ad-
dressed his wife, — ' Mrs. do you mean to sit
at the Lord's table with that murderer ?' — ' Not I,'
she answered : ' I would as soon commune with
the devil himself.' The slave killer was equally
unnoticed by the civil and ecclesiastical au-
thority.
" John Baxter, a Presbyterian elder, the brother
of that elaveholding doctor in divinity, George A,
Baxter, held as a slave the wife of a Baptist color-
ed preacher, familiarly called ' Uncle Jack.' In
a late period of pregnancy he scourged her so that
tlic lives of herself and lu;r unborn child were con-
sidered in jeopardy. Uncle Jack was advised to
obtain the liberation of his wife. Baxter finally
agreed, I think, to sell the woman and her chil-
dren, three of them, I believe for six hundred
dollars, and an additional hundred if the unborn
child survived a certain period after its birth. Uncle
Jack was to pay one hundred dollars per annum
for his wife and children for seven years, and Bax-
ter held a sort of mortgage upon them for the pay-
ment. Uncle Jack showed me his back in fur.
rows like a ploughed field. His master used to
whip up the flesh, then beat it downwards, and
then apply the ' negro plaster,^ salt, pepper, mus-
tard, and vinegar, until all Jack's back was almost
as hard and unimpressible as the bones. There is
slaveholding religion ! A Presbyterian elder re-
ceiving from a Baptist preacher seven hundred
dollars for his wife and children. James Kyle
and uncle Jack used to tell that story with great
Christian sensibility ; and uncle Jack would weep
tears of anguish over his wife's piteous tale, and
tears of ectasy at the same moment that he was
free, and that soon, by the grace of God, his wife
and children, as he said, ' would be all free to-
gether.' "
Rev. Jajies Nourse, a Presbyterian clergyman
of MifHiii CO. Penn., whose father is, we believe,
a slaveholder in Washington City, says, —
" The Rev. Mr. M , now of the Hunting-
don Presbytery, after an absence of many months,
was about visiting his old friends on what is com-
monly called the ' Eastern Shore.' Late in the
afternoon, on his journey, he called at the house
of Rev. A. C. of P town, Md. With this bro-
ther he had been long acquainted. Just at that
juncture Mr. C. was about proceeding to whip a
colored female, who was his slave. She was
firmly tied to a post in FRONT of his dwelling,
house. The arrival of a clerical visitor at such a
time, occasioned a temporary delay in the execu-
tion of Mr. C.'s purpose. But the delay was only
temporary ; for not even the presence of such a
guest could destroy the bloody design. The guest
interceded with all the mildness yet earnestness
of a brother and new visitor. But all in vain,
' the woman had been saucy and must be punish-
ed.' The cowhide was accordingly produced, and
the Rev. Mr. C, a large and very stout man, ap-
plied it ' manfully' on ' woman's' bare and ' shrink-
ing flesh.' I saj bare, because you know that the
slave women generally have but three or four
inches of the arm near the .shoulder covered, and
the neck is left entirely exposed. As the cow-
hide moved back and forward, striking right and
left, on the head, neck and arms, at every few
strokes the sympathizing guest would exclaim,
' O, brother C. desist.' But brother C. pursued
his brutal work, till, after inflicting about sixty
lashes, the woman was found to be suffased with
blood on the hinder part of her neck, and under
her frock between the shoulders. Yet this Rev.
gentleman is well esteemed in the church — was,
three or four years since, moderator of the synod
of Philadelphia, and yet walks abroad, feeling
himself unrebuked by law or gospel. Ah, sir
180
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
does not this narration give fearful force to the
query — ' What has the church to do with slavery V
Comment on the facts is unnecessary, yet allow
ine to conclude by saying, that it is my opinion
such occurrences are not rare in the south.
J. N."
Rev. Charles Stewart Renshaw, of Quincy,
Illinois, in a recent letter, speaking of his resi-
dence, for a period, in Kentucky, says —
" In a conversation with Mr. Robert "Willis, he
told me that his negro girl had run away from him
some time previous. He was convinced that she
was lurking round, and he watched for her. He
soon found the place of her concealment, drew
her from it, got a rope, and tied her hands across
each other, then tlirew the rope over a beam in
the kitchen, and hoisted her up by the wrists ;
' and,' said he, ' I whipped her there till I made
the lint fly, I tell you.' I asked him the mean-
ing of making ' the lint fly,' and he replied, ' till
the blood few.' I spoke of the iniquity and cru-
elty of slavery, and of its immediate abandon-
ment. He confessed it an evil, but said, ' I am
a colonizationist — I believe in that scheme.' Mr.
Willis is a teacher of sacred music, and a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church in Lexington,
Kentucky."
Mr. R. speaking of the Presbyterian Minis-
ter and church where he resided, says :
" The minister and all the church members held
slaves. Some were treated kindly, others harsh-
ly. There was not a shade of difference between
their slaves and those of their infidel neighbors,
either in their physical, intellectual, or moral
state : in some cases the}'' would suffer in the com-
parison.
" In the kitchen of the minister of the church,
a slave man was living in open adultery with a
slave woman, who was a member of the church,
with an ' assured hope' of heaven — whilst the
man's wife was on the minister's farm in Fayette
county. The minister had to bring a cook down
from his farm to the place in which he was
preaching. The choice was between the wife of
the man and this church member. He left the
wife, and brought the church member to the
adulterer's bed.
" A Methodist Preacher last fall took a load
of produce down the river. Amongst other
things he took down five slaves. He sold them
at New Orleans — he came up to Natchez — bought
seven there — and took them down and sold them
also. Last March he came up to preach the
Gospel again. A number of persons on board
the steamboat (the Tuscarora,) who had seen
liim in the slave-shambles in Natchez and New
Orleans, and now, for the first lime, fouad him
to be a preacher, had much sport at the exptnse
of ' the fine old preacher who dealt in slaves.'
" A non-professor of religion, in Campbell
county, Ky. sold a female and two children to a
Methodist professor, with the proviso that they
should not leave that region of country. The
slave-drivers came, and offered ^50 more for the
woman than he had given, and he sold her. She
is now in the lower country, and her orphan babes
are in Kentucky.
" I was much shocked once, to see a Presbyte-
rian elder's wife call a little slave to her to kiss
her feet. At first the boy hesitated — but the
command being repeated in tones not to be mis-
understood, he approached timidly, knelt, and
kissed her foot.
Rev. W. T. Allan, of Chatham, Illinois, gives
the following in a letter dated Feb. 4, 1839 :
" Mr. Peter Vanarsdale, an elder of the Presby-
terian church in Carrollton, formerly from Ken-
tucky, told me, the other day, that a Mrs. Bur-
ford, in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg, Ken-
tucky, had separated a ivoman and her children
from their husband and father, taking them into
another state. Mrs. B. was a member of the
Presbyterian Church. The bereaved husband
and father was also a professor of religion.
" Mr. V. told me of a slave woman who had
lost her son, separated from her by public sale.
In the anguish other soul, she gave vent to her
indignation freely, and perhaps harshly. Some-
time after, she wished to become a member of
the church. Before they received her, she had
to make humble confession for speaking as she
had done. Some of the elders that received her,
and required the confession, were engag d in sell-
ing the son from his mother."
The following communication from the Rev.
William Bardwell, of Sandwich, Massachusetts,
has just been published in Zion's Watchman,
New York city :
" Mr. Editor : — The following fact was given
me last evening, from the pen of a shipmaster,
who has traded in several of the principal ports
in the south. He is a man of unblemished cha-
racter, a member of the M. E. Church in this
place, and familiarly known in this town. The
facts were communicated to me last fall in a
letter to his wife, with a request that she would
cause them to be published. I give them verba,
tim, as they were written from the letter by
brother Perry's own hand while I was in his
house.
" A Methodist preacher, Wm. Whitby by name,
who married in Bucksville, S. C, and by mar.
riage came into possession of some slaves, in July,
1838, was about moving to another station to
preach, and wished, also, to move his family and
slaves to Tennessee, much against the will of the
slaves, one of which, to get clear from him, ran
into the woods after swimming a brook. The
parson took after him with his gun, which, how-
ever, got wet and missed fire, when he ran to a
neighbor for another gun, with the intention, as
he said, of killing him : he did not, however,
catch or kill him ; he chained another for fear of
his running away also. The above particulars
were related to me by William Whitby himself.
Thomas C. Perry.
March 3, 1839."
" I find by examining the minutes of the S. C.
Conference, that there is such a preacher in the
Conference, and brother Perry further stated to
me tha'i he was well acquainted with him, and if
this statement was published, and if it could be
known wi^ere he was since the last Confer,
ence, he wished a paper to be sent him contain,
ing the whole affair. He also stated to me, ver
Ohjeciions Considerd — Public Opinion.
181
bally, that the youngs man he attempted to shoot
was about nineteen years of age, and had been
shut up in a corn-house, and in tlie attempt of
Mr. Wliitby to cliain liim, he broke down the
door and made his escape as above-mentioned,
and tliat Mr. W. was under the necessity of
hiring him out for one year, with the risk of his
employer's getting him. Brother Perry conversed
with one of the slaves, who was so old that he
thought it not profitable to remove so far, and
had been sold; he informed him of all tlie above
circumstances, and said, with tears, that he
thought he had been so faithful as to be entitled
to liberty, but instead of making him free, he had
sold him to another master, besides parting one
husband and wife from those ties rendered a
thousand times dearer by an infant child which
was torn for ever from the husband.
William Bardwell."
Sandwich, Mass., March 4, 1839."
Mr. William Poe, till recently a slaveholder
in Virginia, now an elder in the Presbyterian
Church at Delhi, Ohio, gives the following tes-
timony : —
" An elder in the Presbyterian Church in
Lynchburg had a most faithful servant, whom he
flogged severely and sent him to prison, and had
him confined as a felon a number of da3'S, for be.
ing saucy. Another elder of the same church, an
auctioneer, habitually sold slaves at his stand —
very frequently parted fainilies — would often go
into the country to sell slaves on execution and
otherwise ; when remonstrated with, he justified
himself, saying, ' it was his business ;' the church
also justified him on tiie same ground.
'' A Doctor Duval, of Lynchburg, Va. got of-
fended with a very faithful, worthy servant, and
immediately sold him to a negro trader, to be
taken to New Orleans ; Duval still keeping the
wife of the man as his slave. This Duval was a
professor of religion."
Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col-
lege, Ohio, says, in a recent letter : —
''A student in Marietta College, from Missis-
sippi, a professor of religion, and in every way
worthy of entire confidence, made to me the fol-
lowing statement. [If his name were published
it would probably cost him his hfe.]
" When I was in the family of the Rev. James
Martin, of Louisville, Winston county, Mississip-
pi, in the spring of 1838, Mrs. Martin became of-
fended at a female slave, because she did not move
faster. She commanded her to do so ; the girl
quickened her pace ; again she was ordered to
move faster, or, Mrs. M. declared, she would
break the broomstick over her head. Again the
slave quickened her pace ; but not coming up to
the maximum desired by Mrs. M. the latter de.
clared she would see whether she (the slave) could
move or not ; and, going into another apartment,
she brought in a raw hide, awaiting the return of
lier husband for its application. In this instance
I know not what was the final result, but I have
heard the sound of the raw-hide in at least two
other instances, applied by this same reverend
gentleman to the back of his /e?7iaZe servant."
Mr. Hall adds — " The name of my informant
must be suppressed, as" he says, " there are those
who would cut my throat in a moment, if the in-
formation I give were to be coupled with my
name." Suffice it to say that he is a professor of
religion, a native of Virginia, and a student of
Marietta College, whose character will bear the
strictest scrutiny. He says : —
" In 1838, at Charlestown, Va. I conversed with
several members of the church under the care of
the Rev. Mr. Brown, of the same place. Taking
occasion to speak of slaveiy, and of the sin of
slaveholding, to one of them who was a lady, she
replied, ' I am a slaveholder, and I glory in it.' I
had a conversation, a few days after, with the
pastor himself, concerning the state of religion in
his church, and who were the most exemplary
members in it- The pastor mentioned several of
those who were of that description ; the first of
whom, however, was the identical lady who glo-
ried in being a slaveholder ! That churcli num-
bers nearly two hundred members.
" Another lady, who was considered as devoted
a Christian as any in the same church, but who
was in poor health, was accustomed to flog some
of her female domestics with a raw-hide till she
was exhausted, and then go and lie down till her
strength was recruited, rising again and resuming
the flagellation. This she considered as not at all
derogatory to her Christian character."
Mr. Joel S. Bingham, of Cornwall, Vermont,
lately a student in Middlebury College, and a
member of the Congregational Church, spent a
few weeks in Kentucky, in the summer of 1838.
He relates the following occurrence which took
place in the neighborhood where he resided, and
was a matter of perfect notoriety in the vicinity.
" Rev. Mr. Lewis, a Baptist minister in the vi-
cinity of Frankfort, Ky. had a slave that ran
away, but was retaken and brought back to his
master, who threatened him with punishment
for making an attempt to escape. Though terri-
fied the slave immediately attempted to run away
again. Mr. L. commanded him to stop, but he
did not obey. Mr. L. then took a gun, loaded
with small shot and fired at the slave, who fell;
but was not killed, and afterward recovered. Mr.
L. did not probably intend to kill the slave, as it
was his legs which were aimed at and received
the contents of the gun. The master asserted
that he was driven to this necessity to maintain
his authority. This took place about the first of
July, 1838."
The following is given upon the authority of
Rev. Orange Scott, o-f Lowell, Mass. for many
years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episco-
pal Church.
" Rev. Joseph Hough, a Baptist minister, for-
merly of Springfield, Mass. now of Plainfield, N.
H. while traveling in the south, a few years ago,
put up one night with a Methodist family, and
spent the Sabbath with them. While there, one
of the female slaves did something which dis-
pleased her mistress. She took a chisel and mal-
let, and very deliberately cut off one of her
toes !"
182
ObjecUons Considered — Public Opinion.
SLAVE BREEDING an index of ' public opi-
nion' AMONG THE ' HIGHEST CLASS OF SOCIETY '
IN Virginia and other northern slave states.
But we shall be told, that ' slave-breeders' are
regarded with contempt, and the business of slave
breeding is looked upon as despicable ; and the
hot disclaimer of Mr. Stevenson, our Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of St. James, in reply
to Mr. O'Connell, who had intimated that he might
be a ' slave breeder,' will doubtless be quoted.* In
reply, we need not say what every body knows,
that if Mr. Stevenson is not a ' slave breeder,' he
is a solitary exception among the large slave-
holders of Virginia. What! Virginia slavehold-
ers not ' slave-breeders ?' the pretence is ridicu-
lous and contemptible ; it is meanness, hypocrisy,
and falsehood, as is abundantly proved by the tes-
timony which follows : —
Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speecn in the
Legislature of that state, Jan. 18, 1831, (see Rich-
mond Whig,) says : —
" It has always (perhaps erroneously) been con-
sidered by steady and old-fashioned people, that
the owner of land had a reasonable right to its an-
nual profits ; the owner of orchards, to their an-
nual fruits ; the owner of brood mares, to their
product ; and the owner of /emaZe slaves, to their
increase. We have not the fine-spun intelligence,
nor legal acumen, to discover the technical dis-
tinctions drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim
of Partus sequiiur ventrem' is coeval with the
existence of the rights of property itself, and is
founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the jus-
tice and inviolability of this maxim that the mas-
ter foregoes the service of the female slave ; has
her nursed and attended during the period of her
gestation, and raises the helpless and infant off-
spring. The value of the property justifies the
expense ; and I do not hesitate to say, that in its
increase consists much of our wealth.'"
Hon. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia,
formerly Governor of that state, in his speech be-
fore the legislature in 1832, while speaking of the
* The following is Mr. Stevenson's disclaimer : it was
published in the ' London Mail,' Oct. 30, 1838.
To the Editor of the Evening Mail:
Sir— I did not see until ray return from Scotland the note
addressed by Mr. O'Connell, to the editor of the Chronicle,
purporting to give an explanation of the correspondence
which has passed between us, and which I deemed it proper
to make public. I do not intend to be drawn into any dis-
cussion of the subject of domestic slavery as it exists ui the
United States, nor to give any explanation of the motives or
circumstances under which I have acted.
Disposed to regard Mr. O'Connell as a man of honor, I
was induced to take the course I did ; whether justifiable
or not, the world will now decide. The tone and report of
his last note (in which he disavows responsibility for any
thing he may say) precludes any further notice "from me,
than to say that the charge wliich he has thought proper
again to repeat, of my being a breeder of slaves for sale and
traffick, is wholly destitute of truth ; and that I am warrant-
ed in believing it has been made by him without the shglit-
est authority. Such, too, I venture to say, is the cAse
IN RELATION TO HIS CHARGE OF SLAVE-BREEDING IN VIRGI-
NIA.
I make this declaration, not because I admit Jtr. O'Con-
nell's right to call for it, but to prevent my silence from
being misinterpreted.
A. Stevenson.
23 Portland Place, Oct. 29.
number of slaves annually sold from Virginia to
the more southern slave states, said : —
" The exportation has averaged eight thou-
sand FrvE HUNDRED for the last twenty years.
Forty years ago, the whites exceeded the color-
ed 2.5,000, the colored now exceed the whites
81,000 ; and these results too during an exporta.
tion of near 260,000 slaves since the year 1790,
now perhaps the fruitful progenitors of half a
million in other states. It is a practice and an in-
creasing practice, in parts of Virginia, to rear
slaves for market. How can an honorable mind,
a patriot and a lover of his country, bear to see
this ancient dominion converted into one grand
menagerie, where men are to be reared for market,
like oxen for the shambles."
Professor Dew, now President of the Universi-
tj of William and Mary, Virginia, in his Review
of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1831-2,
says, p 49.
" From all the information we can ob-
tain, we have no hesitation in saying that up-
wards of six thousand [slaves] are yearly ex-
ported [from Virginia] to other states.' Again,
p. 61 : ' The 6000 slaves which Virginia annual-
ly sends off to the south, are a source of wealth
to Virginia.' — Again, p. 120 : ' A full equivalent
being thus left in the place of the slave, this emi-
gration becomes an advantage to the state, and
does not check the black population as much as,
at first view, we might imagine — because it fur-
nishes every inducement to the master to attend
to the negroes, to encourage breeding, and to
cause the greatest number possible to be raised.
&c."
'' Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for
other states."
Extract from the speech of Mr. Faulkner, iu
theVa. House of Delegates, 1832. [See Rich-
mond Whig.]
" But he [Mr. Gholson,] has labored to show-
that the Abolition of Slavery, were it practicable,
would be impolitic, because as the drift of this
portion of his argument runs, J^our slaves con-
stitute the entire wealth of the state, all the
productive capacity Virginia possesses. And, sir,
as things are, / believe he is correct. He says,
and in this he is sustained by the gentleman from
Halifax, Mr. Bruce, that the slaves constitute the
entire available wealth at present, of Eastern Virgi-
nia. Is it true that for 200 years the only in.
crease in the wealth and resources of Virginia,
has been a remnant of the natural increase of
this miserable race ? — Can it be, that on this in-
crease, she places her sole dependence ? I had
always understood that indolence and extrava-
gance were the necessary concomitants of slave-
ry ; but, until I heard these declarations, I had
not fully conceived the horrible extent of this evil.
These gentlemen state the fact, which the histo-
ry and present aspect of the Comvionvjealth but
too well sustain. The gentlemen's facts and ar.
gument in support of his plea of impolicy, to me,
seem rather unhappy. To me, such a state of
things would itself be conclusive at least, that
something, even as a measure of policy, should
be done. What, sir, have you lived for two
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
183
hundred years, without personal effort or produc.
live industry, in extravagance and indolence,
sustained alone by the reiurn from sales of the
increase of slaves, and retaining merely such a
number as your now impoverished lands can sus-
tain, AS STOCK, depending, too, upon a most un-
certain market? When "that market is closed, as
in the nature of things it must be, what then
will become of this gentleman's hundred millions
worth of slaves, and tue annual troduct ?"
In the debates in the Virginia Convention,
in 1829, Judge Upsher said — " The value of slaves
as an article" of property [and it is in that view
only that they are legitimate subjects of taxation]
depends much on the state of the market abroad.
In this view, it is the value of land abroad, and
not of land here, which furnishes the ratio. It is
well known to us all, that nothing is more fluc-
tuatuig than the value of slaves. A late law of
Louisiana reduced their value 25 per cent, in two
hours after its passage was known. If it should
BE our lot, as I TRUST IT WILL BE, TO ACQUIRE
THE COUNTRY OF TeXAS, THEIR PRICE WILL RISE
AGAIN." p. 77.
Mr. Goode, of Virginia, in his speech before
the Virginia Legislature, in Jan. 1832, [See
Richmond Whig, of that date,] said : —
" The superior usefulness of the slaves in the
south, will constitute an effectual demand, which
will remove them from our limits. We shall
send them from our state, because it will be our
interest to do so. Our planters are already be-
coming farmers. Many who grew tobacco as
their only staple, have already introduced, and
commingled the wheat crop. They are al-
ready semi-farmers ; and in the natural com-se
of events, they must become more and more
so. — As the greater quantity of rich western
lands are appropriated to the production of the
staple of our planters, that staple will become
less profitable. — We shall gradually divert our
lands from its production, until we shall become
actual farmers. — Then will the necessity for
slave labor diminish ; then will the effectual
demand diminish, and then will the quantity of
slaves diminish, until they shall be adapted to the
effectual demand.
" But gentlemen are alarmed lest the markets
of other states be closed against the introduction
of our slaves. Sir, the demand for slave labor
MUST INCREASE through the South and West. It
has been heretofore limited by the want of cap-
ital ; but when emigrants shall be relieved from
their embarrassments, contracted by the purchase
of their lands, the annual profits of their estates,
will constitute an accumulating capita], which
they will seek to invest in labor. That the de-
mand for labor must increase in proportion to
the increase of capital, is one of the demonstra-
tions of political economists ; and I confess, that
for the removal of slavery from Virginia, I look
to the efficacy of that principle ; together with
the circumstance that our southern brethren are
constrained to continue planters, by their position,
soil and climate."
The following is from Niles' Weekly Register,
published at Baltimore, Md. vol. 35. p. 4.
" Dealing in slaves has become a large busi-
ness; establishments are made in several places
in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold
like cattle ; these places of deposit are strongly
built, and well supplied with tliumb-screws and
gags, and ornamented with cow-skins and other
whips oftentimes bloody."
R. S. FiNLY, Esq. late General Agent of the
American Colonization Societj^, at a meeting in
New York, 27th Feb. 1833, said :
" In Virginia and other grain-growing slave
states, the blacks do not support themselves, and
the only profit their masters derive from them is,
repulsive as the idea may justly seem, in breeding
them, like other live stock for the more southern
states."
Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, N. C. at a
Colonization Meeting, held in that place in the
fall of 1837 said :
" He had resided for 15 years in one of the larg-
est slaveholding countiesin the state, had long and
anxiously considered the subject, and still it was
dark. There were nearly 7000 slaves offered in
New Orleans market last winter. From Virginia
alone 6000 were annually sent to the south ; and
from Virginia and N. C. there had gone, in the
same direction, in the last twenty years, 300,000
slaves. While not 4000 had gone to Africa.
What it portended, he could not predict, but ho
felt deeply, that loe must awake in these states
and consider the subject."
Hon. Philip Doddridge, of Virginia, in his
speech in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, [De-
bates p. 89.] said : —
" The acquisition of Texas will greatly en-
hance the value of the property, in question, [Vir-
ginia slaves.]"
Hon. C. F. Mercer, in a speech before the same
Convention, in 1829, says :
" The tables of the natural growth of the slave
population demonstrate, when compared with the
increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for
twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not
less than a million and a half of dollars is derived
from the exportation of a part of this population."
(Debates, p. 199.)
Hon. Henry Clay, of Ky., in his speech before
the Colonization Society, in 1829, says :
" It is believed that nowhere in the farming
portion of the United States, would slave labor be
generally employed, if the proprietor were not
tempted to raise slaves by the high price of
THE SOUTHERN MARKET WHICH KEEPS IT UP IN HIS
OWN."
The New Orleans Courier, Feb. 15, 1839,
speaking of the prohibition of the African slave,
trade, while the internal slave-trade is plied, says :
" The United States law may, and probably
does, put millions into the pockets of the people
living between the Roanoke, and Mason and
Dixon's line; still we think it would require some
casuistry to show that the present slave-trade
from that quarter is a whit better than the one
from Africa. One thing is certain — that its re
1S4
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
suits are more menacing to the tranquillity of the
people in this quarter, as there can be no compa-
rison between the ability and inclination to do mis-
chief, possessed by the Virginia negro, and that
of the rude and ignorant African."
That the New Orleans Editor does not exagge-
rate in saying that the internal slave-trade puts
* millions ' into the pockets of the slaveholders in
Maryland and Virginia, is very clear from the
following statement, made by the editor of the
Virginia Times, an influential political paper, pub.
lished at Wheeling, Virginia. Of the exact date
of the paper we are not quite certain, it was, how-
ever, sometime in 1836, probably near the middle
of tiie year — the file will show. The editor
says : —
" We have heard intelligent men estimate the
number of slaves exported from Virginia within
the last twelve months, at 120,000 — each slave
averaging at least ^600, making an aggregate at
$72,000,000. Of the number of slaves exported,
not more than one-third have been sold, (the
others having been carried by their owners, who
have removed,) wldch would leave in the state the
SUM OF J$24,000,000 ARISING FROM THE SALE OF
SLAVES."
According to this estimate about FORTY
THOUSAND SLAVES were sold out of the
State of Virginia in a single tear, and the
♦slave-breeders' who hold them, put into their
pockets twenty-four million of dollars, the
price of the ' souls of men.'
The New York Journal of Commerce of Oct.
12, 1835, contained a letter from a Virginian,
whom the editor calls ' a very good and sensible
man,' asserting that twenty thou»and slaves had
been driven to the south from Virginia during
that year, nearly one-fourth of which was then
remaining.
The Mary^'ille (Tenn.) Intelligencer, some
time in the early part of 1836, (we have not the
date,) says, in an article reviewing a communi.
cation of Rev. J. W. Douglass, of Fayetteville,
North Carolina :" Sixty thousand slaves passed
through a little western town for the southern mar-
ket, during the year 1835."
The Natchez (Miss.) Courier, says " that the
states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Arkansas, imported TWO HUNDRED AND
FIFTY THOUSAND SLAVES from the more
northern slave states in the year 1836."
The Baltimore American gives the following
from a Mississippi paper, of 1837 :
" The report made by the committee of the
citizens of Mobile, appointed at their meeting
held on the 1st instant, on the subject of the
existing pecuniary pressure, states, among other
things : that so large has been the return of slave
labor, that purchases by Alabama of that species
of property from other states since 1833, have
amounted to about ten million dollars annu-
ally."
Further the inhumanity of a slaveholding
' public opinion' toward slaves, follows legitimately
from the downright ruffianism of the slavehold-
ing spirit in the ' highest class of society.'
When roused, it tramples upon all the pi-oprie-
ties and courtesies, and even common decencies
of life, and is held in check by none of those con-
siderations of time, and place, and relations of
station, character, law, and national honor, which
are usually sufficient, even in the absence of con-
scientious principles, to restrain other men from
outrages. Our National Legislature is a fit illus-
tration of this. Slaveholders have converted the
Congress of the United States into a very bear gar.
den. Within the last three years some of the most
prominent slaveholding members of the House,
and among them the late speaker, have struck
and kicked, and throttled, and seized each other
by the hair, and with their fists pummelled each
other's faces, on the floor of Congress. We need
not publish an account of what every body knows,
that during the session of the last Congress, Mr.
Wise of Virginia and Mr. Bynum of North Ca-
rolina, after having called each other " liars, vil-
lains" and '• damned rascals" sprung from theii
seats " both sufficiently armed for any desperate
purpose," cursing each other as they rushed to-
gether, and would doubtless have butchered
each other on tlie floor of Congress, if both had
not been seized and held by their friends.
The New York Gazette relates the following
which occurred at the close of the session of 1838.
" The House could not adjourn vrithout ano-
ther brutal and bloody row. It occurred on Sun-
day morning immediately at the moment of ad-
journment, between Messrs. Campbell and Mau-
rj, both of Tennessee. He took offence at some
remarks made to him by his colleague, Mr. Camp-
bell, and the fight followed."
The Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat of June 16,
1838, gives the particulars which follow :
" Mr. Maury is said to be badly hurt. He was
near losing his life by being knocked through the
window; but his adversary, it is said, saved him
by clutching the hair of his head with his left
hand, while he struck him with his right."
The same number of the Huntsville Democrat,
contains the particulars of a fist-fight on the floof
of the House of Representatives, between Mr.
Bell, the late Speaker, and his colleague Mr.
Turney of Tennessee. The following is an ex-
tract :
" Mr. Turney concluded his remarks in reply to
Mr. Bell, in the course of which he commented
upon that gentleman's course at difiercnt periods
of his political career with great severity.
" He did not think his colleague [Mr. Turney,]
was actuated by private malice, but was the wil-
ling voluntary instrument of others, the fool of
fools.
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
185
Mr. Turney. It is false ! it is false !
Mr. Stanley called Mr. Tuknev to order.
At tlio same moment both gentlemen were
perceived in personal conflict, and blows with the
fist V ere aimed by each at the other. Several
members interfered, and suppressed the per-
sonal violence ; others called order, order, and
some called for tlie interference of tiie Speaker.
The Speaker hastily took the chair, and in-
sisted upon order ; but botii gentlemen continued
struggling, and endeavoring, notwithstanding
the constraint of their friends, to strike each other."
The correspondent of the New York Gazette
gives the following, which took place about the
time of the preceding aflrays :
The House was much agitated last night, by
the passage between Mr. Biddle, of Pittsburgh,
and Mr. Downing, of Florida. Mr. D. ex-
claimed " do you impute falsehood to me I" at
tlie same time catching up "-ome missile and
making a demonstration to advance upon Mr.
Biddle. Mr. Biddle repeated his accusation,
and meanwhile, Mr. Downing was arrested by
many members."
" The last three fights all occurred, if we mistake
not, in the short space of one month. The fisti-
cuffs between Messrs. Bynum and Wise occurred
at the previous session of Congress. At the same
session Messrs. Peyton of Tenn. and Wise of Vir-
ginia, went armed with pistols and dirks to the
meeting of a committee of Congress, and threat-
ened to shoot a witness while giving his testimony.
We begin with the first on the list. Who are
Messrs. Wise and Bjmum ? Both slaveholders.
Who are Messrs. Campbell and Maury? Both
slaveholders. Who are Messrs. Bell and Tur-
ney ? Both slaveholders. Who is Mr. Downing,
who seized a weapon and rushed upon Mr. Bid-
dle ? A slaveholder. Who is Mr. Peyton who
drew his pistol on a witness before a committee of
Congress ? A slaveholder of course. All these
bullies were slaveholders, and they magnified
their office, and slaveholding was justified of her
children. We might fill a volume with similar
chronicles of slaveholding brutality. But time
would fail us. Suffice it to say, that since the or-
ganization of the government, a majority of the
most distinguished men in the slaveholding states
have gloried in strutting over the stage in the
character of murderers. Look at the men whom
the people delight to honor. President Jackson,
Senator Benton, the late Gen. Coffee, — it is but a
few years since these slaveholders shot at, and
stabbed, and stamped upon each other in a tavern
broil. General Jackson had previously killed Mr.
Dickenson. Senator Clay of Kentucky has im-
mortalized himself by shooting at a near relative
of Chief Justice Marshall, and being wounded by
him ; and not long after by shooting at John Ran-
dolph of Virginia. Governor M'Duffie of South
Carolina has signalized himself also, both by shoot-
ing and being shot, — so has Governor Poindexter,
24
and Governor Rowan, and Judge M'Kinley of the
U. S. Supreme Court, late senator in Congress
from Alabama, — but wc desist ; a full catalogue
would fill pages. We will only add, that a few
months since, in the city of London, Governor
Hamilton, of South Carolina, went armed with pis-
tols, to the lodgings of Daniel O'Conncll, ' to stop
his wind' in the bullying slang of his own publish-
ed boast. During the last session of Congress
Messrs. Dromgoole and Wise* of Virginia, W.
Cost Johnson and Jenifer of Maryland, Pickens
and Campbell of South Carolina, and we Icnow not
how manymore slaveholding membersof Congress?
have been engaged, either as principals or seconds,
in that species of murder dignified with the name
of duelling. But enough ; we are heart-sick. What
meaneth all this ? Are slaveholders worse than
other men ? No ! but arbitrary power has
wrought in them its mystery of iniquity, and poi-
soned their better nature with its infuriating
sorcery.
Their savage ferocity toward each other when
their passions are up, is the natural result of their
habit of daily plundering and oppressing the slave.
The North Carolina Standard of August 30,
l887, contains the following illustration of this
ferocity exhibited by two southern lawyers in set-
tling the preliminaries of a duel.
" The following conditions were proposed by
Alexander K. McClung, of Raymond, in the
State of Mississippi, to H. C. Stewart, as the
laws to govern a duel they were to fight near
Vicksburg :
Article 1st. The parties shall meet opposite
Vicksburg, in the State of Louisiana, on Thurs-
day the 29th inst. precisely at 4 o'clock, P. M.
Agreed to.
2d. The weapons to be used by each shall
weigh one pound two and a half ounces, measur-
ing sixteen inches and a half in length, including
the handle, and one inch and three-eighths in
breadth. Agreed to.
3d. Both knives shall be sharp on one edge,
and on the back shall be sharjj only one inch at
the point. Agreed to.
4th. Each party shall stand at the distance
of eight feet from the other, until the word is
given. Agreed to.
5th. The second of each party shall throw
up, with a silver dollar, on the ground, for the
word, and two best out of three shall win the
word. Agreed to.
6th. After the wora is given, either party
may take what advantage he can with his knife,
but on throwing his knife at the other, shall be
shot down by the second of his opponent.
Agreed to.
7th. Each party shall be stripped entirely
naked, except one pair of linen pantaloons ;
one pair of socks, and boots or pumps as the
party please. Acceded to.
8th. The wrist of the left arm of each party
* Mr. Wise said in one of his speerfies during the last
session of (Jongress, tliat lie was obliged to go armed for
the protection of his life in Washington. It could no!
have been for fear of J^orthem men.
186
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
cord shall be fastened around his left arm at th e
elbow, and then around his body. Rejected.
9tli. After the word is given, each party
shall be allowed to advance or recede as he
pleases, over the space of twenty acres of ground,
until death ensues to one of the parties. Agreed
to — the parties to be placed in the centre of the
space.
10th. The word shall be given by the win-
ner of the same, in the following manner, viz :
" Gentlemen are you ready ?" Each party
shall then answer, " I am !" The second giv-
ing the word shall then distinctly command —
strike. Agreed to.
If either party shall violate these rules, upon
being notified by the second of either party, he
may be liable to be shot down instantly. As
established usage points out the duty of both
parties, therefore notification is considered unne-
cessary."
The FAVORITE AMUSEMENTS of slaveholders, like
the gladiatorial shows of Rome and the Bull
Fights of Spain, reveal a public feehng insensible
to suffering, and a degree of brutality in the high-
est degree revolting to every truly noble mind.
One of their most common amusements is cock
fighting. Mains of cocks, with twenty, thirty,
and fifty cocks on eachside,are fought for himdreds
of dollars aside. The fowls are armed with steel
spurs or ' gafts,' about two inches long. These
♦ gafts' are fastened upon the legs by sawing off
the natural ' spur,' leaving enough only of it to
ansv/er the purpose of a stock for the tube of the
"gafts," which are so sharp that at a stroke the
fowls thrust them through each other's necks and
heads, and tear each other's bodies till one or both
diesj then two others are brought forward for
the amusement of the multitude assembled, and
this barbarous pastime is often kept up for days
in succession, hundreds and thousands gathering
from a distance to witness it. The following ad-
vertisements from the Raleigh Register, June 18,
1838, edited by Messrs. Gales and Son, the father
and brother of Mr. Gales, editor of the National
Intelligencer, and late Mayor of Washington
City, reveal the public sentiment of North Caro-
Ima.
"CHATHAM AGAINST NASH, or any
other county in the State. I am authorized to
take a bet of any amount that may be offered, to
FIGHT A MAIN OF COCKS, at any place
that may be agreed upon by the parties — to be
fought the ensuing spring. Gideon Alston.
Chatham county, June 7, 1838."
Two weeks after, this challenge was answered
as follows :
'^ TO MR. GIDEON ALSTON, of Chatham
county, N. C.
" Sir : In looking over the North Carolina
Standard of the 20th inst. I discover a challenge
over your signature, headed ' Chatham against
shall he tied tight to his left thigh, and a strong 1 ized to take a bet of any amount that may be of-
„„_j _u_ii u„ ^„„i J J i.:_ ,_i-. . .V fered, to fight a main of cocks, at any place that
may be agreed upon by the parties, to be fought
the ensuing spring,' which challenge I accept :
and do propose to meet you at Ilclcsville, in
Wake county, N. C. on the last Wednesday in
May next, the parties to show thirty-one cocks
each— fight four days, and be governed by the
rules as laid down in Turner's Cock Laws —
which, if you think proper to accede to, you will
signify through this or any other medium you may
select, and then I will name the sum for which
we shall fight, as that privilege was surrendered
by you in your challenge.
I am, sir, very respectfully, &i,c.
Nicholas W. Arrington,,
near Hilliardston, Nash co.
North Carolina.
June 22nd, 1838."
The following advertisement in the Richmond
Whig, of July 12, 1837, exhibits the pubhc senti-
ment of Virginia.
" MAIN OF COCKS.— A large ' MAIN OF
COCKS,' 21 a side, for $25 ' the fight,' and
-^500 ' the odd,' will be fought between the
County of Dinwiddle on one part, and the Coun-
ties of Hanover and Henrico on the other.
" The ' regular' fighting will be continued
three days, and from the large number of ' game
uns' on both sides and in the adjacent country,
will be prolonged no doubt a. fourth. To prevent
confusion and promote ' sport,' the Pit will be en-
closed and furnished with seats ; so that those
having a curiosity to witness a species of diver-
sion originating in a better day (for they had no
rag money then,) can have that very natural feel-
ing gratified.
" [ET The Petersburg Constellation is requested
to copy."
Horse-racing too, as every body knows, is a fa-
vorite amusement of slaveholders. Every slave
state has its race course, and in the older states
almost every county has one on a small scale.
There is hardly a day in the year, the weather
permitting, in which crowds do not assemble at
the south to witness this barbarous sport. Hor-
rible cruelty is absolutely inseparable from it.
Hardly a race occurs of any celebrity in which
some one of the coursers are. not lamed, ' broken
down,' or in some way seriously injured, often for
life, and not unfrequently they are killed by the
rupture of some vital part in the struggle. When
the heats are closely contested, the blood of the
tortured animal drips from the lash and flies at
every leap from the stroke of the rowel. From
the breaking of girths and other accidents, their
riders (mostly slaves) are often thrown and maimed
or killed. Yet these amusements are attended by
thousands in every part of the slave states. The
wealth and fashion, the gentlemen and ladies of
the ' highest circles' at the south, throng the race
course.
That those who can fasten steel spurs upon the
Nash,' in which you state that you are ' author, legs of dunghill fowls, and goad the poor birds to
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
187
worry and tear each other to death — and
those who can crowd by thousands to
witness such barbarity — that those who can
throng the race-course and with keen rehsh wit-
ness the hot pantings of the hfc-struggle, the
lacerations and fitful spasms of the muscles, swel-
ling tlirougli the crimsoned loam, as the tortured
steeds rush in blood-welterings to the goal — that
such should look upon the sutTerings of their
slaves with indifference is certainly small wonder.
Perhaps we shall be told that there are throng.
ed race-courses at the North. True, there are a
few, and they are thronged chiefly by Southerners,
and ' Northern men with Southern principles,' and
supported mainly by the patronage of slave-
holders who summer at the North. Cock-fight-
ing and horse-racing are " Southern institutions."
The idleness, contempt of labor, dissipation, sen-
suality, brutality, cruelty, and meanness, engen-
dered by the habit of making men and women
work without pay, and flogging them if they de-
mur at it, constitutes a congenial soil out of
which cock-fighting and horse-racing are the
spontaneous growth.
Again, — The kind treatment of the slaves is
often argued from the liberal education and en-
larged views of slaveholders. The facts and rea-
sonings of the preceding pages have shov/n, that
' liberal education,' despotic habits and ungovern-
ed passions work together with slight friction.
And every day's observation shows that the form-
er is often a stimulant to the latter.
But the notion so common at the north that
the majority of the slaveholders are persons of
education, is entirely erroneous. A very feiv
slaveholders in each of the slave states have been
men oiripe education, to whom our national lite-
rature is much indebted. A larger number may
be called well educated — these reside mostly in
the cities and large villages, but a majority of the
slaveholders are ignorant men, thousands of them
notoriously so, mere boors unable to write their
names or to read the alphabet.
No one of the slave states has probably so much
general education as Virginia. It is the oldest of
them — has fui-nished one half of the presidents of
the United States — has expended more upon her
university than any state in the Union has done
during the same time upon its colleges — sent to
Europe nearly twenty years since for her most
learned professors, and in fine, has far surpassed
every other slave state in her efforts to disseminate
education among her citizens, and yet, the Gov-
ernor of Virginia in his message to the legislature
(Jan. 7, 1839) says, that of four thousand six hun.
dred and fourteen adult males in that state, who
applied to the county clerks for marriage licenses
in the year 1837, ' one thousand and forty-
seven loere unable to write their names? The
governor adds, ' These statements, it will be re.
mcmbercd, arc confined to one sex: the education
of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of
much greater neglect.'
The Editor of the Virginia Times, published at
Wheeling, in his paper of Jan. 23, 1830, says, —
" We have every reason to suppose that one-
fourth of the people of the state cannot write
their names, and they have not, of course, any
other species of education."
Kentucky is the child of Virginia ; her first set.
tiers were some of the most distinguished citizens
of the mother state ; in the general diffusion of in.
telligcnce amongst her citizens Kentucky is pro-
babl}^ in advance of all the slave states except
Virginia and South Carolina ; and yet Governor
Clark, in his last message to the Kentucky Legis-
lature, (Dec 5, 1838) makes the following declara.
tion : ' From the computation of those most fa-
miliar with the subject, it appears that at least
ONE third of the ADDLT POPULATION OF THE STATE
ARE UNABLE TO WRITE THEIR NAMES.'
The following advertisement in the " Milledge-
ville (Geo.) Journal," Dec. 26, 1837, is another
specimen from one of the ' old thirteen.'
" Notice. — I, Pleasant Webb, of the State of
Georgia, Oglethorpe county, being an illiterate
man, and not able to write my own name, and
whereas it hath been represented to me that there
is a certain promissory note or notes out against
me that I know nothing of, and further that some
man in this State holds a bil' of sale for a certain
negro woman named Ailsey and her increase, a
part of lohich is now in my possession, which I
also know nothing of. Now I do hereby certify
and declare, that I have no knowledge whatsoev-
er of any such papers existing in my name as
above stated, and I hereby require all or any per.
son or persons v>'hatsoever holding or pretending
to hold any such papers, to produce them to me
within thirty days from the date hereof, shewing
their authority for holding the same, or they will
be considered fictitious and fraudulently obtained
or raised, by some person or persons for base pur-
poses after my death.
" Given under my hand this 2nd day of Decem-
ber, 1837. his
"PLEASANT X WEBB.
mark
Finally, that slaves must habitually suffek
great cruelties, follows inevitably from THE
brutal outrages WHICH THEIE MASTERS INFLICT
ON EACH OTHER.
Slaveholders, exercising from childhood irrespon-
sible power over human beings, and in the language
of President Jefferson, " giving loose to the worst of
passions" in the treatment of their slaves, become
in a great measure unfitted for self control in their in.
tercourse with each other. Tempers accustomed to
riot with loose reins, spurn restraints, and passions
inflamed by indulgence, take fire on the least friction.
We repeat it, the state of society in the slave states,,
the duels, and daily deadly affrays of slaveholders
188
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
with each other — the fact that the most dehberate and
cold-blooded murders are committed at noon day,
in the presence of thousands, and the perpetrators
eulogized by the community as " honorable men,"
reveals such a prostration of law, as gives impunity
to crime — a state of society, an omnipresent public
sentiment reckless of human life, taking bloody
vengeance on the spot for every imaginary affront,
glorying in such assassinations as the only true honor
and chivalry, successfully defying the civil arm, and
laughing its impotency to scorn.
When such things are done in the green tree,
what will be done in the dry ? When slaveholders
are in the habit of caning, stabbing, and shooting
each other at every supposed insult, the unspeaka-
ble enormities perpetrated by such men, with such
passions, upon their defenceless slaves, must be
beyond computation. To furnish the reader with
an illustration of slaveholding civihzation and mo-
rality, as exhibited in the unbridled fury, rage, ma-
lignant hate, jealousy, diabohcal revenge, and all
those infernal passions that shoot up rank in the
hot-bed of arbitrary power, we will insert here a
mass of testimony, detailing a large number of af-
frays, lynchings, assassinations, &c., &c., which
have taken place in various parts of the slave states
within a brief period — and to leave no room for
cavil on the subject, these extracts will be made
exclusively from nev/spapers pubhshed in the slave
states, and generally in the immediate vicinity of
the tragedies described. They will not be made
second hand from northern papers, but from the ori-
ginal southern papers, which now lie on our table.
Before proceeding to furnish details of certain
classes of crimes in the slave states, we advertise
the reader — 1st. That we shall not include in the
list those crimes which are ordinarily committed in
the free, as well as in the slave states. 2d. We
shall not include anv of the crimes perpetrated by
whites upon slaves and free colored persons, who
constitute a majority of the population in Missis-
sippi and Louisiana, a large majority in South Caro-
hna, and, on an average, two-fifths in the other
slave states. 3d. Fist fights, canings, beatings,
biting off noses and ears, gougings, knockings
down, &c., unless they result in death, will not be
included in the hst, nor will ordinary murders, un-
less connected with circumstances that serve as a
special index of public sentiment. 4th Neither
will ordinary, formal duels be included, except in
such cases as just specified. 5th. The only crimes
which, as the general rule, will be specified, will be
deadly affrays with bowie knives, dirks, pistols,
rifles, guns, or other death weapons, and lynch-
ings. 6th. The crimes enumerated will, for the
most part, be only those perpetrated openly, without
attempt at concealment. 7th. We shall not at-
tempt to give afull hst of the affrays, &c., that took
place in the respective states during the period se.
lected, as the only files of southern papers to which
we have access are very imperfect.
The reader will perceive, from these prehmina-
ries, that only a small proportion of the crimes ac-
tually perpetrated in the respective slave states
during the period selected, will be entered upon
this list. He will also perceive, that the crimes
which will be presented are of a class rarely perpe-
trated in the free states ; and if perpetrated there
at all, they are, with scarcely an exception, com-
mitted either by slaveholders, temporarily resident
in them, or by persons whose passions have been
inflamed by the poison of a southern contact — whose
habits and characters have become perverted by
hving among slaveholders, and adopting the code
of slaveholding morahty.
We now proceed to the details, commencing
with the new state of Arkansas.
ARKANSAS.
At the last session of the legislature of that state.
Col. John Wilson, President of the Bank at Little
Rock, the capital of the state, was elected Speaker
of the House of Representatives. He had been
elected to that oflfice for a number of years succes-
sively, and was one of the most influential citizens
of the state. While presiding over the delibera-
tions of the House, he took umbrage at words spo-
ken in debate by Major Anthony, a conspicuous
member, came down from the Speaker's chair,
drew a large bowie knife from his bosom, and at.
tacked Major A., who defended himself for some
time, but was at last stabbed through the heart,
and fell dead on the floor. Wilson deliberately
wiped the blood from his knife, and returned to his
eeat. The foUovidng statement of the circumstances
of the murder, and the trial of the murderer, is
abridged from the account published in the Arkan-
sas Gazette, a few months since — it is here taken
from the Knoxville (Tennessee) Register, July_4,
1838.
" On the 14th of December last, Maj. Joseph J.
Anthony, a member of the Legislature of Arkan-
sas, was murdered, while performing his duty as a
member of the House of Representatives, by John
Wilson, Speaker of that House.
The facts were these : A bill came from the Se-
nate, commonly called the Wolf Bill. Among the
amendments proposed, was one by Maj. Anthony,
that the signature of the President of the Real Es-
tate Bank should be attached to the certificate of
the wolf scalp. Col. Wilson, the Speaker, asked
Maj. Anthony whether he intended the remark as
personal. Maj. Anthony promptly said, " No, 1
do not." And at that instant of time, a message
was delivered from the Senate, which suspended
the proceedings of the House for a few minutes.
Immediately after the messenger from the Senate
Objections Considered — Public Opinion,
189
had retired, Maj. Anthony rose from his seat, and
said he wished to explain, that he did not intend to
insuh the Speai^er or the House ; when Wilson, in-
terniptinsr, peremptorily ordered him to take his
seat. Maj. Anthony said, as a member, he had a
right to the floor, to explain himselt". Wilson said,
in an angry tone, ' Sit down, or you had better ;'
and thrust his hand into his bosom, and drew out a
large bowie knite, 10 or 11 inches in length, and
descended from the Speaker's chair to the floor,
with the knife drawn in a menacing manner. Maj.
Anthony, seeing the danger he was placed in, by
Wilson's advance on him with a drawn knife, rose
from his chair, set it out of his way, stepped back
a pace or two, and drew his knife. Wilson caught
up a chair, and struck Anthony with it. Anthony,
recovering from the blow, caught the chair in his
left hand, and a fight ensued over the chair. Wil-
son received two wounds, one on each arm, and
Anthony lost his knife, either by throwing it at
Wilson, or it escaped by accident. After Anthony
had lost his knife, Wilson advanced on Anthony,
who was then retreadng, looking over his shoulder.
Seeing Wilson pursuing him, he threw a chair.
Wilson still pursued, and Anthony raised another
chair as high as his breast, with a view, it is sup-
posed, of keeping Wilson off. Wilson then caught
hold of the chair with his left hand, raised it up,
and with his right hand deliberately thrust the knife,
up to the hilt, into Anthony's heart, and as deliber-
ately dre%v it out, and wiping off the blood with his
thumb and finger, retired near to the Speaker's
chair.
" As the knife was withdrawn from Anthony's
heart, he fell a lifeless corpse on the floor, w-ithout
uttering a word, or scarcely making a struggle ; so
trae did the knife, as dehberately directed, pierce
his heart.
" Three days elapsed before the constituted au-
thorities took any notice of this horrible deed ; and
not then, until a relation of the murdered Anthony
had demanded a warrant for the apprehension of
Wilson. Several days then elapsed before he was
brought before an examining court. He then, in a
carriage and four, came to the place appointed for
his trial. Four or five days were employed in the
examination of witnesses, and never was a clearer
case of murder proved than on that occasion. Not-
withstanding, the court (Justice Brown dissenting)
admitted Wilson to bail, and positively refused
that the prosecuting attorney for the state should
introduce the law, to show that it was not a bail-
able case, or even to hear an argument from him.
" At the time appointed for the session of the Cir-
cuit Court, Wilson appeared agreeably to his re-
cognizance. A motion was made by Wilson's
counsel for change of venue, founded on the affi.
davits of Wilson, and two other men. The court
thereupon removed the case to Sahne county, and
ordered the Sheriff to take Wilson into custody, and
deliver him over to the Sheriff of Saline county.
" The Sheriff of Pulaski never confined Wilson
one minute, but permitted him to go where he pleas-
ed, without a guard, or any restraint imposed on
him whatever. On his way to Saline, he entertain-
ed him freely at his own house, and the next day
delivered him over to the Sheriff of that county,
who conducted the prisoner to the debtor's room in
the jail, and gave him the key, so that he and every
body else had free egress and ingress at all times.
Wilson invited every body to call on him, as he
wished to see his friends, and his room was crowd-
ed with visitors, who called to drink grog, and laugh
and talk with him. But this theatre was not suffi-
ciently large for his purpose. He afterwards visit-
ed the dram-shops, where he freely treated all that
would partake with him, and went fishing and
hunting with others at pleasure, and entirely with
out restraint. He also ate at the same table with
the Judge, while on trial.
" When the court met at Saline, Wilson was put
on his ti-ial. Several days were occupied in exam-
ining the witnesses in the case. After the exam-
ination was closed, while Col. Taylor was engaged
in a very able, lucid, and argumentative speech, on
the part of the prosecution, some man collected a
parcel of the rabble, and came within a few yards
of the court-house door, and bawled in a loud voice,
' part them — part them !' Every body supposed
there was an affray, and ran to the doors and win.
dows to see ; behold, there was nothing more than
the man, and the rabble he had collected around
him, for the purpose of annoying Col. Taylor while
speaking. A few minutes afterwards, this same
person brought a horse near the court-house door,
and commenced crying the horse, as though he was
for sale, and continued for ten or fifteen minutes to
ride before the court-house door, crying the horse,
in a loud and boisterous tone of voice. The Judge
sat as a silent listener to the indignity thus offered
the court and counsel by this man, without inter-
posing his authority.
" To show the depravity of the times, and the peo-
ple, after the verdict had been delivered by the jury,
and the court informed Wilson that he was dis-
charged, there was a rush toward him : some seized
him by the hand, some by the arm, and there was
great and loud rejoicing and exultation, direcdy in
the presence of the court : and Wilson told the
Sheriff to take the jury to a grocery, that he might
treat them, and invited every body that chose to go.
The house was soon filled to overflowing. The
rejoicing was kept up till near supper time : but to
cap the climax, soon after supper was over, a ma-
jority of the jury, together with many others, went
to the rooms that had been occupied several days
by the friend and relation of the murdered Antho-
ny, and commenced a scene of the most ridiculous
dancing, (as it is beheved,) in triumph for Wilson,
and as a triumph over the feelings of the relations
of the departed Anthony. The scene did not close
here. The party retired to a dram-shop, and con-
tinued their rejoicing until about half after 10
o'clock. They then collected a parcel of horns,
trumpets, &c., and marched through the streets,
blowing them, till near day, when one of the com-
pany rode his horse in the porch adjoining the
room which was occupied by the relations of the de-
ceased."
This case is given to the reader at length, in or-
der fully to show, that in a community where the
law sanctions the commission of every species of
outrage upon one class of citizens, it fosters pas-
sions which will paralyze its power to protect the
other classes. Look at the facts developed in this
case, as exhibiting the state of society among slave-
holders. 1st. That the members of the legislature
190
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
are in the habit of wearing bovvie knives. Wil-
son's knife was 10 or 11 inches long.* 2d. The
murderer, Wilson, was a man of wealth, president
of the bank at the capital of the state, a high mili-
tary officer, and had, for many years, been Speaker
of the House of Representatives, as appears from
a previous statement in the Arkansas Gazette. 3d.
The murder was committed in open day, before all
the members of the House, and many spectators,
not one of whom seems to have made the least
attempt to intercept Wilson, as he advanced upon
Anthony with his knife drawn, but " made way for
him," as is stated in another account. 4th. Though
the murder was committed in the state-house, at
the capital of the state, days passed before the civil
authorities moved in the matter ; and they did not
finally do it, until the relations of the murdered
man demanded a warrant for the apprehension of
the murderer. Even then, several days elapsed
before he was brought before an examining court.
When his trial came on, he drove to it in state, drew
up before the door with "his coach and four,"
alighted, and strided into court like a lord among
his vassals ; and there, though a clearer case of de-
liberate murder never reeked in the face of the sun,
yet he was admitted to bail, the court absolutely
refusing to hear an argument from the prosecuting
attorney, showing that it was not a bailable case.
5th. The sheriff of Pulaski county, who had Wil-
son in custody, " never confined him a moment,
but permitted him to go at large wholly unrestrain.
ed." When transferred to Saline co. for trial, the
sheriff of that county gave Wilson the same hberty,
and he spent his time in parties of pleasure, fish-
ing, hunting, and at houses of entertainment. 6th.
Finally, to demonstrate to the world, that justice
among slaveholders is consistent with itself; that
authorizing man-stealing and patronising robbery,
It will, of course, be the patron and associate of
murder also, the judge who sat upon the case, and
the murderer who was on trial for his Hfe before
him, were boon-companions together, eating and
drinking at the same table throughout the trial.
Then came the conclusion of the farce — the up-
roar round the court-house during the trial, drown-
ing the voice of the prosecutor while pleading,
without the least attempt by the court to put it
down — then the charge of the judge to the jury,
and their unanimous verdict of acquittal — then the
rush from all quarters around the murderer with
congratulations — the whole crowd in the court
room shouting and cheering — then Wilson leading
the way to a tavern, in\iting the sheriff, and jury,
and all present to " a treat" — then the bacchanahan
revelry kept up all night, a majority of the jurors
* A correspondent of the " Frederick Herald," writing
from Liule Rock, says, "Anthony's knife was about
twenty-eight inches in length. They all carry knives
here, or pistols. There are several kinds of knives in
use — a narrow blade, and about twelve inches long, is
called an " Arkansas tooth-pick."
participating — the dancing, the triumphal proces
sion through the streets with the blowing of horns
and trumpets, and the prancing of horses through
the porch of the house occupied by the relations"
of the murdered Anthony, adding insult and mock-
ery to their agony.
A few months before this murder on the floor of
the legislature, George Scott, Esq., formerly mar-
shal of the state was shot in an affray at Van Bu-
ren, Crawford co., Arkansas, by a man named
Walker ; and Robert Carothers, in an affray in St.
Francis co., shot WiOiam Rachel, just as Rachel
was shooting at Carothers' father. {National Intel.
Ugencer, May 8, 1837, and Little Sock Gazette,
August 30, 1837.)
While Wilson's trial was in progress, Mr. Ga.
briel Sibley was stabbed to the heart at a public
dinner, in St. Francis co., Arkansas, by .Tames W.
Grant. (Arkansas Gazette, May 30, 1838.)
Hardly a week before this, the following oc-
curred :
"On the 16th ult., an encounter took place at
Little Rock, Ark., between David F. Douglass, a
young man of 18 or 19, and Dr. Wm. C. Howell.
A shot was exchanged between them at the dis-
tance of 8 or 10 feet with double-barrelled guns.
The load of Douglass entered the left hip of Dr.
Howell, and a buckshot from the gun of the latter
struck a negro girl, 13 or 14 years of age, just be-
low the pit of the stomach. Douglass then fired
a second time and hit Howell in the left groin,
penetrating the abdomen and bladder, and causing
his death in four hours. The negro girl, at the
last dates, was not dead, but no hopes were enter-
tained of her recovery. Douglass was committed
to await his trial at the April term of the Circuit
Court." — Louisville Journal.
" The Little Rock Gazette of Oct. 24, says,
" We are again called upon to record the cold
blooded murder of a valuable citizen. On the
10th instant, Col. John Lasater, of Franklin co.,
was murdered by John W. Whitson, who dehbe-
rately shot him with a shot gun, loaded with a
handful of rifle balls, six of which entered his
body. He lived twelve hours after he was shot.
"Whitson is the son of William Whitson, who
was unfortunately killed, about a year since, in a
rencontre with Col. Lasater, (who was fully exone-
rated from all blame by a jury,) and, in revenge of
his father's death, committed this bloody deed."
These atrocities were all perpetrated within a
few months of the time of the deliberate assassi-
nation, on the floor of the legislature by the
speaker, already described, and are probably but a
small portion of the outrages committed in that
state during the same period. The state of Ar-
kansas contains about fortj'-five thousand white
inhabitants, which is, if we mistake not, the pre-
sent population of Litchfield county, Connecticut.
And we venture the assertion, that a pubhc affray,
with deadly weapons, has not taken place in that
county for fifty years, if indeed ever since its settle-
ment, a century and a half ago.
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
191
MISSOURI.
Missouri became one of the United States in 1821.
Its present white population is about two hundred
and fifty tliousand. The following are a few of
the affrays that have occurred there during the
yeare 1837 and '38.
The " Salt River Journal," March 8, 1838, has
the following.
" Fatal Affray. — An affray took place during
last week, in the town of New London, between
Dr. Peake and Dr. Bosley, both of that village,
growing out of some trivial matter at a card party.
After some words, Bosley threw a glass at Peake,
which was followed up by other acts of violence,
and in the quarrel Peake stabbed Bosley, several
times with a dirk, in consequence of which, Bos-
ley died the following morning. The court of
inquiry considered Peake justifiable, and dis-
charged him from arrest."
From the " St. Louis Republican," of September
29, 1837.
"We learn that a fight occurred at Bowling.
Green, in this state, a few days since, between Dr.
Michael Reynolds and Henry Lalor. Lalor pro-
cured a gun, and Mr. Dickerson wrested the gun
from him ; this produced a fight between Lalor
and Dickerson, in which the former stabbed the
latter in the abdomen. Mr. Dickerson died of the
wound."
The following was in the same paper about a
month previous, August 21, 1837.
" A Horse Thief Shot. — A thief was caught in
the act of stealing a horse on Friday last, on the
opposite side of the river, by a company of persons
out sporting. Mr. Kremer, who was in the com-
pany, levelled his rifle and ordered him to stop ;
which he refused ; he then fired and lodged the
contents in the thief's body, of which he died soon
afterwards. Mr. K. went before a magistrate, who
after hearing the case, kefused to hold him fok
FirF.THER TRIAL !"
On the 5th of July, 1838, Alpha P. Buckley mur-
dered William Yaochum in an affray in Jackson
county, Missouri. (Missouri Repubhcan, July 24,
1838.)
General Atkinson of the United States Army
was M-aylaid on the 4th of September, 1838, by a
number of persons, and attacked in his carriage
near St. Louis, on the road to Jefferson Barracks,
but escaped after shooting one of the assailants.
The New Orleans True American of October 29,
'38, speaking of this says : " It will be recollected
that a few weeks ago. Judge Dougherty, one of the
most respectable citizens of St. Louis, was mur-
dered upon the same road."
The same paper contains the following letter
from the murderer of Judge Dougherty.
" Murder of Judge Dougherty. — The St. Louis
Repubhcan received the following mysterious
ktter, unsealed, regarding this brutal murder :" —
25
" Natchez, Miss., Sept. 24.
" Messrs. Editors : — Revenge is sweet. On the
night of the lllh, 12th, and 13th, I made prepara-
tions, and did, on the 14th July kill a rascal, and
only regret that I have not the privilege of telling
the circumstance. I have so placed it that I can
never be identified ; and further, I have no com-
punctions of conscience for the death of Thomas
M. Dougherty."
But instead of presenting individual affrays and
single atrocities, however numerous, (and the Mis.
souri papers abound with them,) in order to exhibit
the true state of society there, we refer to the fact
now universally notorious, that for months during
the last fall and winter, some hundreds of inoffen-
sive Mormons, occupying a considerable tract of
land, and a flourishing village in the interior of the
state, have suffered every species of inhuman
outrage from the inhabitants of the surrounding
counties — that for weeks together, mobs consisting
of hundreds and thousands, kept them in a state of
constant siege, laying waste their lands, destroying
their cattle and provisions, tearing down their
houses, ravishing the females, seizing and dragging
off and killing the men. Not one of the thousands
engaged in these horrible outrages and butcherings
has, so far as we can learn, been indicted. The
following extract of a letter from a mihtary officer
of one of the brigades ordered out by the Governor
of Missouri, to terminate the matter, is taken from
the North Alabamian of December 22, 1838.
Correspondence of the Nashville Whig.
THE MORMON WAR.
" MiLLERSBURG, Mo. November 8.
" Dear Sir — A lawless mob had organized
themselves for the express purpose of driving
the Rlormons from the country, or extermina.
ting them, for no other reason, that I can
perceive, than that these poor deluded creatures
owned a large and fertile body of land in
their neighborhood, and would not let them (the
Mobocrats) have it for their own price. I have
just returned from the seat of difliculty, and am
perfectly conversant with all the facts in relation to
it. The mob meeting with resistance altogether
unanticipated, called loudly upon the kindred spirits
of adjacent counties for help. The Mormons de-
termined to die in defence of their rights, set about
fortifying their town "Far West," with a resolution
and energy that kept the mob (who al! the time
were extending their cries of help to all parts of
Missouri) at bay. The Governoi-, from exagge-
rated aecounts of the Mormon depredations, issued
orders for the raising of several thousand mounted
riflemen, of which this division raised five hundred,
and the writer of this was honored v/ith the ap-
pointment of to the Brigade.
" On the first day of tiris month, we marched for
the " seat of war," but General Clark, Commander,
in-chief, having reached Far West on the day pre-
vious with a large force, the difficulty was settled
192
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
when we arrived, so we escaped the infamy and
disgrace of a bloody victory. Before General
Clarli's arrival, the mob had increased to about four
thousand, and determined to attack the town. The
Mormons upon the approach of the mob, sent out
a white flag, which being fired on by the mob, Jo
Smith and Rigdon, and a few other Mormons of
less influence, gave themselves up to the mob, with
a view of so far appeasing their wrath as to save
their women and children from violence. Vain
hope ! The prisoners being secured, the mob
entered the town and perpetrated every conceivable
act of brutality and outrage — forcing fifteen or
twenty Mormon girls to yield to their brutal pas-
sions!!! Of these things I was assured by many
persons while I was at Far West, in whose veracity
I have the utmost confidence. I conversed with
many of the prisoners, who numbered about eight
hundred, among whom there were many young
and interesting girls, and I assure you, a more
distracted set of creatures I never saw. I as.
sure you, my dear sir, it was peculiarly heart-
rending to see old gray headed fathers and mothers,
young ladies and innocent babes, forced at this
inclement season, with the thermometer at 8 de-
grees below zero, to abandon their warm houses,
and many of them the luxuries and elegances of
a high degree of civilization and intelligence, and
take up their march for the uncultivated wilds of
the Missouri frontier.
" The better informed here have but one opinion
of the result of this Mormon persecution, and that
is, it is a most fearful extension of Judge Lynch's
jurisdiction."
The present white population of Missouri is
but thirty thousand less than that of New Hamp-
shire, and yet the insecurity of human life in the
former state to that in the latter, is probably at least
twenty to one.
ALABAMA.
This state was admitted to the Union in 1819.
Its present white population is not far from three
hundred thousand. The security of human fife in
Alabama, may be inferred from the facts and tes-
timony which follow :
The Mobile Register of Nov. 15, 1837, contains
the annual message of Mr. McVay, the acting
Governor of the state, at the opening of the Legis-
lature. The message has the following on
the frequency of homicides :
" We hear of homicides in different parts of the
slate continually, and j'et how few convictions for
murder, and still fewer executions ? How is this
to be accounted for ? In regard to ' assault and
battery with intent to commit murder,' why is it
that this offence continues so common — why do
we hear of stabbings and shootings almost daily
in some part or other of our state ?"
The " Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser" of
April 22, 1837, has the following from the Mobile
Register :
" Within a few days a man was shot in an
aflfray in the upper part of the town, and has since
died. The perpetrator of the violence is at large.
We need hardly speak of another scene which
occurred in Royal street, when a fray occurred be-
tween two individuals, a third standing by with a
cocked pistol to prevent interference. On Satur-
day night a still more exciting scene of outrage
took place in the theatre.
" An altercation commenced at the porquett en-
trance between the check-taker and a young man,
which ended in the first being desperately wound-
ed by a stab with a knife. The other also drew a
pistol. If some strange manifestations of public
opinion, do not coerce a spirit of deference to law,
and the abandonment of the habit of carr}'ing
secret arms, we shall deserve every reproach we
may receive, and have our punishment in the un-
checked growth of a spirit of lawlessness, reckless
deeds, and exasperated feeling, which will des.
troy our social comfort at home, and respecta-
bility abroad."
From the " Huntsville Democrat," of Nov. 7, 1837.
" A trifling dispute arose between Silas Randal
and Pharaoh Massingale, both of Marshall county.
They exchanged but a few words, when the former
drew a Bowie knife and stabbed the latter in the
abdomen fronting the left hip to the depth of
several inches ; also inflicted several other dan-
gerous wounds, of which Massengale died imme-
diately. — Kandal is yet at large, not having been
apprehended."
From the "Free Press" of August 16, 1838.
" The streets of Gainesville, Alabama, have re-
cently been the scene of a most tragic afi^air.
Some five weeks since, at a meeting of the citi.
zens. Col. Christopher Scott, a lawyer of good
standing, and one of the most influential citizens
of the place, made a violent attack on the Tom-
beckbee Rail Road Company. A Mr. Smith,
agent for the T. R. R. Company, took Col. C's re-
marks as a personal insult, and demanded an ex-
planation. A day or two after, as Mr. Smith was
passing Colonel Scott's door, he was shot down by
him, and after lingering a few hours expired.
" It appears also from an Alabama paper, that
Col. Scott's brother, L. S. Scott Esq., and L. J.
Smith Esq., were accomphces of the Colonel in
the murder."
The following is from the " Natchez Free Tra-
der," June 14, 1838.
" An affray, attended with fatal consequences, oc-
curred in the town of Moulton, Alabama, on the
12th May. It appears that three young men from
the country, of the name of J. Walton, Geo.
Bowling, and Alexander Bowling, rode into Moul-
ton on that day for the purpose of chastising the
bar-keeper at McCord's tavern, whose name is
Cowan, for an alleged insult offered by him to
the father of young Walton. They made a furi-
ous attack on Cowan, and drove him into the bar
room of the tavern. Some time after, a second
attack was made upon Cowan in the street by one
of the Bowlings and Walton, when pistols were
resorted to by both parties. Three rounds were
fired, and the third shot, which was said to have
Ohjeciions Considered — Public Opinion.
193
been discharged by Walton, struck a young man
by the name of Neil, who happened to be passing
in the street at the time, and killed him instantly.
The combatants were taken into custody, and
after an examination before two magistrates, were
bailed."
The following exploits of the " Alabama Volun-
teers," are recorded in the Florida Herald, Jan. 1,
1838.
" Save us from ouk Friends. — On Monday
last, a large body of men, caUing themselves
Alabama Volunteers, arrived in the vicinity of this
city. It is reported that their conduct during their
march from Tallahassee to this city has been a
series of excesses of every description. They
have committed almost every crime except murder,
and have even threatened life.
" Large numbers of them paraded our streets,
grossly insulted our females, and were otherwise
extremely riotous in their conduct. One of the
squads, forty or fifty in number, on reaching the
bridge, where there was a small guard of three or
four men stationed, assaulted the guard, overturn-
ed the sentry-box into the river, and bodily seized
two of the guard, and threw them into the river,
where the water was deep, and they were forced
to swim for their lives. At one of the men while
in the water, thej^ pointed a musket, threatening
to kill him ; and pelted with every missile wliich
came to hand."
The following Alabama tragedy is published by
the " Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," Sept. 16, 1837,
from the Wetumpka Sentinel.
" Our highly respectable townsman, Mr. Hugh
Ware, a merchant of Wetumpka, was standing in
the door of his counting-room, between the hours
of 8 and 9 o'clock at night, in company with a
friend, when an assassin lurked within a few pa-
ces of his position, and discharged his musket,
loaded with ten or fifteen buckshot. Mr. Ware
instantly fell, and expired without a struggle or a
groan. A coroner's inquest decided that the de-
ceased came to his death by violence, and that
Abner J. Cody, and his servant John, were the
perpetrators. John frankly confessed, that his
master, Cody, compelled him to assist, threatening
his life if he dared to disobey ; that he carried the
musket to the place at which it was discharged ;
that his master then received it from him, rested it
on the fence, fired and killed Mr. Ware."
From the " Southern (Miss.) Mechanic," April
17, 1838.
" Horrid Butchery. — A desperate fight oc-
curred in Montgomery, Alabama, on the 28th
ult. We learn from the Advocate of that city,
that the persons engaged were Wm. S. Mooney
and Kenyon Mooney, his son, Edward Bell, and
Bushrod Bell, Jr. The first received a wound in
the abdomen, made by that fatal instrument, the
Bowie knife, which caused his death in about
fifteen hours. The second was shot in the side,
and would doubtless have been killed, had not the
ball partly lost its force by first striking his arm.
The third received a shot in the neck, and now
lies without hope of recovery. The fourth escaped
unhurt, and, we understand has fled. This is a
brief statement of one of the bloodiest fights that
we ever heard of."
From the " Virginia Statesman," May 6, 1837.
" Several aflrays, wherein pistols, dirks and
knives were used, lately occurred at Mobile. One
took place on the 8th inst., at the theatre, in which
a Mr. Bellum was so badly stabbed that his life ia
despaired of. On the Wednesday preceding, a
man named Johnson shot another named Snow
dead. No notice was taken of the afliair."
From the " Huntsville Advocate," June 20, 1837.
"Desperate Affray. — On Sunday the 11th
inst., an affray of desperate and fatal character
occurred near Chater's Landing, Marshall county,
Alabama. The dispute which led to it arose out
of a contested right to possession of a piece of
land. A Mr. Steele was the occupant, and Mr.
James McFarlane and some others, claimants.
Mr. F. and his friends went to Mr. Steele's house
with a view to take possession, whether peaceably
or by violence, we do not certainly know. As
they entered the house a quarrel ensued between
two of the opposite parties, and some blows per-
haps followed ; in a short time, several guns were
discharged from the house at Mr. McFarlane and
friends. Mr. M. was killed, a Mr. Freamster
dangerously wounded, and it is thought will not
recover ; two others were also wounded, though
not so as to endanger life. Mr. Steele's brother
was wounded by the discharge of a pistol from
one of Mr. M's. friends. We have heard some
other particulars about the affray, but we abstain
from giving them, as incidental versions are often
erroneous, and as the whole matter will be sub-
mitted to legal investigation. Four of Steele's
party, his brother, and three whose names are
Lemen, Collins and Wills, have been arrested,
and are now confined in the goal in this place."
From the " Norfolk Beacon," July 14, 1838.
" A few days since at Claysville, Marshal co.,
Alabama, Messrs. Nathaniel and Graves W.
Steele, while riding in a carriage, were shot dead,
and Alex. Steele and Wm. Collins, also in the
carriage, were severely wounded, (the former sup-
posed mortally,) by Messrs. Jesse Allen, Alexan-
der and Arthur McFarlane, and Daniel Dicker-
son. The Steeles, it appears, last year killed
James McFarlane and another person in a simi-
lar manner, which led to this dreadful retaliation." ■
From the " Montgomery (Ala.) Advocate —
Washington, Autauga Co., Dec. 28, 1838.
" Fatal Rencontre. — On Friday last, the 28th
ult., a fatal rencontre took place in the town of
Washington, Autauga county, between John
Tittle and Thomas J. Tarleton, which resulted in
the death of the former. After a patient investi-
gation of the matter, Mr. Tarleton was released
by the investigating tribunal, on the ground that the
homicide was clearly justifiable."
The "Columbus (Ga.)*Sentinel," July 6, 1837,
quotes the following from the Mobile (Ala.) Ex-
aminer.
" A man by the name of Peter Church was
killed on one of the wharves night before last.
The person by whom it was done delivered him.
self to the proper authorities yesterday morning
194
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
The deceased and his destroyer were friends, and '
the act occurred in consequence of an immaterial
quarrel."
The " Milledgeville Federal Union" of July 11,
1837, has the following:
"In Selma, Alabama, resided lately messrs.
Philips and Dickerson, physicians. Mr. P. is
brother to the wife of W. Bleevin Esq., a rich
cotton planter in that neighborhood ; the latter has
a very lovely daughter, to whom Dr. D. paid his
addresses. A short time since a gentleman
from Mobile married her. Soon after this, a
schoolmaster in Selma set a story afloat to the
effect, that he had heard Dr. D. say things about
the lady's conduct before marriage which ought
not to be said about any lady. Dr. D. denied
having said such things, and the other denied
having spread the story ; but neither denials suffi-
ced to pacify the enraged parent. He met Dr. D.
fired at him two pistols, and wounded him. Dr.
D. was unarmed, and advanced to Mr. Bleevin,
holding up his hands imploringly, when Mr. B.
drew a Bowie knife, and stabbed him to the heart.
The doctor dropped dead on the spot : and Mr.
Bleevin has been held to bail."
The following is taken from the " Alabama In-
telligencer," Sept. 17, 1838.
" On the 5th instant, a deadly rencounter took
place in the streets of Russelville, (our county
town,) between John A. Chambers, Esq., of the
city of mobile, and Thomas L. Jones, of this
county. In the rencounter, Jones was wounded
by several balls which took effect in his chin,
ijnouth, neck, arm, and shoulder, believed to be
mortal ; he did not fire his gun.
" Mr. Chambers forthwith surrendered himself to
the Sheriff of the county, and was on the 6th,
tried and fully acquitted, by a court of inquiry."
The " Maysville (Ky.) Advocate" of August
14, 1838, gives the following affray, which took
place in Girard, Alabama, July 10th.
" Two brothers named Thomas and Hal Lucas,
who had been much in the habit of quarrelling,
came together under strong excitement, and Tom,
as was his frequent custom, being about to flog
Hal with a stick of some sort, the latter drew a
,>istol and shot the former, his own brother,
through the heart, who almost instantly expired !"
The " New Orleans Bee" of Oct, 5, 1838, re-
lates an affray in Mobile, Alabama, between Ben-
jamin Alexander, an aged man of ninety, with
Thomas Hamilton, his grandson, on the 24th of
September, in which the former killed the latter
with a dirk.
The " Red River Whig" of July 7, 1838, gives the
particulars of a tragedy in Western Alabama, in
which a planter near Lakeville, left home for some
days, but suspecting his wife's fidelity, returned
home late at night, and finding his suspicions veri-
fied, set fire to his house and waited with his rifle
before the door, till his wife and her paramour at-
tempted to rush out, when he shot them both dead.
From the " Morgan (Ala.) Observer," Dec. 1838.
" We are informed from private sources, that
on last Saturday, a poor man who was moving
westward with his wife and three little children,
and driving a small drove of sheep, and perhaps a
cow or two, which was driven by his family, on
arriving in Florence, and while passing through,
met with a citizen of that place, who rode into his
flock and caused him some trouble to keep it to-
gether, when the mover informed the individual
that he must not do so again or he would throw a
rock at him, upon which some words ensued, and
the individual again disturbed the flock, when tha
mover, as near as we can learn, threw at him ,
upon this the troublesome man got off his horse,
went into a grocery, got a gun, and came out and
deliberately shot the poor stranger in the presence
of bis wife and little children. The wounded man
then made an effort to get into some house, when
his murderous assailant overtook and stabbed him
to the heart with a Bowie knife. This revolting
scene, we are informed, occurred in the presence
of many citizens, who, report says, never even
lifted their voices in defence of the murdered
man."
A late number of the "Flag of the Union," pub-
hshed at Tuscaloosa, the seat of the government
of Alabama, states, that since the commencement
of the late session of the legislature of that state,
" no less than thirteen fights had been had
within sight of the capilol." Pistols and Bowie
knives were used in every case.
The present white population of Alabama is
about the same with that of New Jersey, yet for
the last twenty years there have not been so many
public deadly affrays, and of such a horrible
character, in New Jersey, as have taken place in
Alabama within the last eight months.
MISSISSIPPI.
Mississippi became one of the United States in
1817. Its present white population is about one
hundred and sixty thousand.
The following extracts will serve to show that
those who combine together to beat, rob, and mana-
cle innocent men, women and children, will stick
at nothing when their passions are up.
The following murderous affray at Canton, Mis-
sissippi, is from the " Alabama Beacon," Sept, 13,
1838.
" A terrible tragedy recently occurred at Canton,
Miss., growing out of the late duel between Messrs.
Dickins and Drane of that place. A Kentuckian
happening to be in Canton, spoke of the duel, and
charged Mr. Mitchell Calhoun, the second of Drane,
with cowardice and unfairness. Mr. Calhoun call-
ed on the Kentuckian for an explanation, and the
offensive charge was repeated. A challenge and
fight with Bowie knives, toe to toe, were the con-
sequences. Both parties were dreadfully and dan-
gerously wounded, though neither was dead at the
last advices. Mr. Calhoun is a brother to the Hon
John Calhoun, member of Congress.",
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
195
Here follows the account of the duel referred to
above, between Messrs. Dickins and Drane.
" Intelligence has been received in this town of
a fatal duel that took place in Canton, Miss., on the
28th ult., between Rufus K. Dickins, and a Mr.
Westley Drane. They fought with double barrel-
led guns, loaded with buckshot — both were mor-
tally wounded."
The "Louisville Journal" publishes the follow-
ing, Nov. 23.
" On the 7th instant, a fatal affray took place at
Gallatin, Mississippi. The principal parties con-
cerned were, Messrs. John W. Scott, James G.
Scott, and Edmund B. Hatch. The latter was shot
down and then stabbed twice through the body, by
J. G. Scott."
The " Alabama Beacon" of Sept. 13, 1838, says :
" An attempt was made in Vicksburg lately, by
a gang of Lynchers, to inflict summary punishment
on three men of the name of Fleckenstein. The
assault was made upon the house, about 11 o'clock
at night. Meeting with some resistance from the
three Fleckensteins, a leader of the gang, by the
name of Helt, discharged his pistol, and wounded
one of the brothers severely in the neck and jaws.
A volley of four or five shots was almost instantly
returned, when Helt fell dead, a piece of the top
of the skull being torn off, and almost the whole of
his brains dashed out. His comrades seeing him
fall, suddenly took to their heels. There were, it
is supposed, some ten or fifteen concerned in the
transaction."
The " Manchester (Miss.) Gazette," August 11,
1838, says :
" It appears that Mr. Asa Hazeltine, who kept a
pubHc or boarding house in Jackson, during the
past winter, and Mr. Benjamin Tanner, came here
about five or six weeks since, with the intention of
opening a public house. Foiled in the design, in
the settlement of their affairs some difficulty arose
as to a question of veracity between the parties.
Mr. Tanner deeply excited, procured a pistol and
loaded it with the charge of death, sought and found
tbe object of his hatred in the afternoon, in the
yard of Messrs. Kezer & Maynard, and in the
presence of several persons, after repeated and in.
effectual attempts on the part of Capt. Jackson to
baffle his fell spirit, shot the unfortunate victim, of
which wound Mr. Hazeltine died in a short time.
lEF " We understand that Mr. Hazeltine was a
native of Boston."
The " Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," Sept. 16,
1837, gives the details below :
" By a letter from Mississippi, we have an ac-
count of a rencontre which took place in Rodney,
on the 27th July, between Messrs. Thos. J. John-
ston and G. H. Wilcox, both formerly of this city.
In consequence of certain publications made by
these gentlemen against each other, Johnston chal-
lenged Wilcox. The latter declining to accept the
challenge, Johnston informed his friends at Rod-
ney, that he would be there at the term of the court
then not distant, when he would make an attack
upon him. He repaired thither on the 26th, and
on the next morning the following communication
was read aloud in the presence of Wilcox and a
large crowd :
" liodneij, July 27, 1837.
" Mr. Johnston informs Mr. Wilcox, that at or
about 1 o'clock of this day, he will be on the
common, opposite the Presbyterian Church of this
town, waiting and expecting Mr. Wilcox to meet
him there.
" I pledge my honor that Mr. Johnston will not
fire at Mr. Wilcox, until he arrives at a distance of
one hundred yards from him, and I desire Mr. Wil-
cox or any of his friends, to see that distance ac-
curately measured.
" Mr. Johnston will wait there thirty minutes.
"J. M. DUFFIELD.
" Mr. Wilcox declined being a party to any such
arrangement, and Mr. D. told him to be prepared
for an attack. Accordingly, about an hour after
this, Johnston proceeded towards Wilcox's office,
armed with a double-barrelled gun, (one of the bar-
rels rifled,) and three pistols in his belt. He halted
about fifty yards from W's door and leveled his
gun. W. withdrew before Johnston could fire, and
seized a musket, returned to the door and flashed.
.Johnston fired both barrels without effect. Wilcox
then seized a double barrel gun, and Johnston a
musket, and both again fired. Wilcox sent twen-
ty-three buck shot over Johnston's head, one of
them passing through his hat, and Wilcox was
slightly wounded on both hands, his thigh and leg.'»
From the "Alabama Beacon," May 27, 1838.
" An affray of the most barbarous nature was
expected to take place in Arkansas opposite Prince-
ton, on Thursday last. The two original parties
have been endeavoring for several weeks, to settle
their differences at Natchez. One of the individu-
als concerned stood pledged, our informant states,
to fight three different antagonists in one day. The
fights, we understand, were to be with pistols ; but
a variety of other weapons were taken along —
among others, the deadly Bowie knife. These lat-
ter instruments, we are told, were whetted and
dressed up at Grand Gulf, as the parties passed up,
avowedly with the intention of being used in the
field."
From the " Southern (Miss) Argus," Nov. 21, 1837.
" We learn that, at a wood yard above Natchez,
on Sunday evening last, a difficulty arose between
Captain Crosly, of the steamboat Galenian, and
one of his deck passengers. Capt. C. drew a
Bowie knife, and made a pass at the throat of the
passenger, which failed to do any harm, and the
captain then ordered him to leave his boat. The
man went on board to get his baggage, and the
captain immediately sought the cabin for a pistol.
As the passenger was about leaving the boat, the
captain presented a pistol to his breast, which
snapped. Instantly the enraged and wronged in.
dividual seized Capt. Crosly by the throat, and
brought him to the ground, when he drew a dirk
and stabbed him eight or nine times in the breast,
each blow driving the weapon into his body up to
the hilt. The passenger was arrested, carried to
Natchez, tried and acquitted."
The "Planter's Intelligencer" publishes the follow-
ing from the Vicksburg Sentmel of June 19, 1838.
" About 1 o'clock, we observed two men ' pum-
meling" one another in the street, to the infinite
196
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
amusement of a crowd. Presently a third hero
made his appearance in the arena, with Bowie
knife in hand, and he cried out, ' Let me come at
him !' Upon hearing this threat, one of the pugi-
lists ' took himself off,' our hero following at full
speed. Finding his pursuit was vain, our hero re-
turned, when an attack was commenced upon an-
other individual. He was most cruelly beat, and
cut through the skull with a knife ; it is feared the
wounds will prove mortal. The sufferer, we learn,
is an inoffensive German."
From the " Mississippian," Nov. 9, 1838.
" On Tuesday evening last, 23d, an affray oc-
curred at the town of Tallahasse, in this county,
between Hugh Roark and Captain Flack, which
resulted in the death of Roark. Roark went to
bed, and Flack, who was in the bar-room below,
observed to some persons there, that he believed
they had set up Roark to whip him ; Roark, upon
hearing his name mentioned, got out of bed and
came down stairs. Flack met and stabbed him in
the lower part of his abdomen with a knife, letting
out his bowels. Roark ran to the door, and re-
ceived another stab in the back. He lived until
Thursday night, when he expired in great agony.
Flack was tried before a justice of the peace, and
we understand was only held to bail to appear at
court in the event Roark should die."
From the "Grand Gulf Advertiser," Nov. 7, 1838.
" Attempt at Riot at Natchez. — The Courier
says, that in consequence of the discharge of cer-
tain individuals who had been arraigned for the
murder of a man named Medill, a mob of about
200 persons assembled on the night of the 1st in-
stant, with the avowed purpose of lynching them.
But fortunately, the objects of their vengeance had
escaped from town. Foiled in their purpose, the
rioters repaired to the shantee where the murder
was committed, and precipitated it over the bluff.
The military of the city were ordered out to keep
order."
From the " Natchez Free Trader."
" A violent attack was lately made on Captain
Barrett, of the steamboat Southerner, by three per-
sons from Wilkinson co.. Miss., whose names are
Carey, and one of the name of ,T. S. Towles. The
only reason for the outrage was, that Captain B.
had the assurance to require of the gentlemen, who
were quarreling on board his boat, to keep order
for the peace and comfort of the other passengers.
Towles drew a Bowie knife upon the Captain,
which the latter wrested from him. A pistol, drawn
by one of the Careys was also taken, and the as-
sailant was knocked overboard. Fortunately for
him he was rescued from drowning. The brave
band then landed. On her return up the river, the
Southerner stopped at Fort Adams, and on her
leaving that place, an armed party, among whom
were the Careys and Towles, fired into the boat,
but happily the shot missed a crowd of passengers
on the hurricane deck."
From the " Mississippian," Dec. 18, 1838.
" Greer Spikes, a citizen of this county, was kill-
ed a few days ago, between this place and Ray-
mond, by a man named Pegram. It seems that
Pegi-am and Spikes had been carrying weapons for
each other for some time past. Pegram had threat-
ened to fake Spikes' life on first sight, for the base
treatment he had received at his hands.
" We have heard something of the particulars,
but not enough to give them at this time. Pegram
had not been seen since."
The " Lynchburg Virginian," July 23, 1838, says :
" A fatal affray occurred a few days ago in Clin-
ton, Mississippi. The actors in it were a Mr. Par.
ham, Mr. Shackleford, and a Mr. Henry. Shac-
kleford was killed on the spot, and Henry was
shghtly wounded by a shot gun with which Par-
ham was armed."
From the " Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel," Nov. 22,
1838.
" Butchery. — A Bowie knife slaughter took
place a few days since in Honesville, Bliss. A
Mr. Hobbs was the victim ; Strother the butcher."
The "Vicksburg Sentinel," Sept. 28, 1837, says :
"It is only a few weeks since humanity was
shocked by a most atrocious outrage, inflicted by
the Lynchers, on the person of a Mr. Saunderson
of Madison co. in this state. They dragged this
respectable planter from the bosom of his family,
and mutilated him in the most brutal manner —
maiming him most inhumanly, besides cutting Off
his nose and ears and scarifying his body to the
very ribs ! We believe the subject of this foul out-
rage still drags out a miserable existence — an ob-
ject of horror and of pity. Last week a club of
Lynchers, amounting to four or five individuals, as
we have been credibly informed, broke into the
house of Mr. Scott of Wilkinson co., a respecta-
ble member of the bar, forced him out, and hung
him dead on the next tree. We have heard of nu-
merous minor outrages committed against the peace
of society, and the welfare and happiness of the
country; but we mention these as the most enor-
mous that we have heard for some months.
"It now becomes our painful duty, to notice a
most disgraceful outrage committed by the Lynch-
ers of Vicksburg, on last Sunday. The victim was
a Mr. Grace, formerly of the neighborhood of War-
ronton, Va., but for two years a resident of this ci-
ty. He was detected in giving free passes to slaves
and brought to trial before Squire Maxcy. Unfor-
tunately for the wretch, either through the want of
law or evidence, he could not be punished, and he
was set at liberty by the magistrate. The city mar-
shal seeing that a few in the crowd were disposed
to lay violent hands on the prisoner in the event of
his escaping punishment by law, resolved to accom-
pany him to his house. The Lynch mob still fol-
lowed, and the marshal finding the prisoner could
only be protected by hurrying him to jail, endeavor-
ed to effect that object. The Lynchers, however,
pursued the officer of the law, dragged him from
his horse, bruised him, and conveyed the prisoner
to the most convenient point of the city for carry-
ing their blood-thirsty designs into execuUon. We
blush while we record the atrocious deed ; in this
city, containing nearly 5,000 souls, in the broad
hght of day, this aged wretch was stripped and
flogged, we believe within hearing of the lamenta.
tions and the shrieks of his afflicted wife and chil-
dren."
In an affray at Montgomery, Mississippi, July
1, 1838, Mr. A. L. Herbert was killed by Dr. J
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
197
B. Harrington. See Grand Gulf Adverliser, Au-
gust 1, 1838.
The " Maryland Republican" of January 30,
1838, has the following :
" A street rencounter lately took place in Jack-
son, Miss., between Mr. Robert McDonald and
Mr. W. H. Lockhart, in which McDonald was shot
with a pistol and immediately expired. Lockhart
was committed to prison."
The '• Nashville Banner," June 22, 1S38, has the
following :
" On the 8th inst. Col. James M. Hulet was shot
with a rifle without any apparent provocation in
Gallatin, Miss., by one Richard M. Jones."
From the " Huntsville Democrat," Dec. 8, 1838.
" The Aberdeen (Miss.) Advocate, of Saturday
last, states that on the morning of the day previous,
(the 9th) a dispute arose between Mr. Robert
Smith and Mr. Alexander Eanes, both of Aber-
deen, which resulted in the death of Mr. Smith,
who kept a boarding-house, and was an amiable
man and a good citizen. In the course of the con-
tradictory words of the disputants, the lie was given
by Eanes, upon which Smith gathered up a piece
of iron and threw it at Eanes, but which missed
him and lodged in the walls of the house. At this,
Eanes drew a large dirk knife, and stabbed Smith in
the abdomen, the knife penetrating the vitals, and
thus causing immediate death. Smith breathed
only a few seconds after the fatal thrust.
" Eanes immediately mounted his horse and rode
off, but was pursued by Mr. Hanes, who arrested
and took him back, when he was put under guard
to await a trial before the proper authorities."
From the " Vicksburg Register," Nov. 17, 1838.
" On the 2d inst. an affray occurred between
one Stephen Scarbrough and A. W. Higbee of
Grand Gulf, in which Scarbrough was stabbed with
a knife, which occasioned his death in a few hours.
Higbee has been arrested and committed for trial."
From the "Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat," Nov.
10, 1838.
" Life in the Southwest. — A friend in Louisiana
writes, under date of the 31st ult., that a fight took
place a few days ago in Madison parish, 60 miles
below Lake Providence, between a Mr. Nevils and
a Mr. Harper, which terminated fatally. The po-
lice jury had ordered a road on the right bank of
the Mississippi, and the neighboring planters were
out with their forces to open it. For some offence,
Nevils, the superintendent of the operations, flogged
two of Harper's negroes. The next day the par-
ties met on horseback, when Harper dismounted,
and proceeded to cowskin Nevils for the chastise-
ment inflicted on the negroes. Nevils immediate-
ly drew a pistol and shot his assailant dead on the
spot. Both were gentlemen of the highest respec-
tability.
" An affray also came off recently, as the same
correspondent writes us, in Raymond, Hinds co.,
Miss., which for a serious one, was rather amusing.
The sheriff had a process to serve on a man of the
name of Bright, and, in consequence of some dif-
ficulty and intemperate language, thought proper
to commence the service by the application of his
cowskin to the defendant. Bright thereupon
floored his adversary, and, wresting his cowhide
from him, applied it to its owner to the extent of at
least five hundred lashes, meanwhile threatening
to shoot the first bystander who attempted to inter-
fere. The sheriff was carried home in a state of
insensibility, and his life has been despaired of.
The mayor of the place, however, issued his war-
rant, and started three of the sherifl's deputies in
pursuit of the delinquent, but the latter, after keep-
ing them at bay till they found it impossible to
arrest him, surrendered himself to the magistrate,
by whom he was bound over to the next Circuit
Court. From the mayor's office, his honor and the
pardes litigant proceeded to the tavern to take a
drink by way of ending hostilities. But the civil
functionary refused to sign articles of peace by
touching glasses with Bright, whereupon the latter
made a furious assault upon him, and then turned
and flogged ' mine host' within an inch of his
hfe because he interfered. Satisfied with his
day's work. Bright retired. Can we show any
such specimens of chivalry and refinement in
Kentucky 1"
From the " Grand Gulf (Miss.) Advertiser,"
June 27, 1837.
" Death by Violence. — The moral atmosphere
in our state appears to be in a deleterious and
sanguinary condition. Almost every exchange
paper vjhich reaches us contains some inhuman
and revolting case of murder or death by vio-
lence. Not less than fifteen deaths by violence
have occurred, to our certain knowledge, within
the past three months. Such a state of things, in
a country professing to be moral and christian, is
a disgrace to human nature, and is well calculated
to induce those abroad unacquainted with our
general habits and feelings, to regard the morals
of our people in no very enviable light ; and does
more to injure and weaken our political institu-
tions than years of pecuniary distress. The fre-
quency of such events is a burning disgrace to the
morality, civilization, and refinement of feeling to
which we lay claim, and so often boast, in com-
parison with the older states. And unless we sot
about and put an immediate and effectual ter-
mination to such revolting scenes, we shall be
compelled to part with what all genuine southern-
ers have ever regarded as their richest inheritance,
the proud appellation of the ' brave, high-minded
and chivalrous sons of the south.^
" This done, we should soon discover a change for
the better — peace and good order would prevail,
and the ends of justice be effectually and speedily
attained, and then the people of this wealthy state
would be in a condidon to bid defiance to the dis-
graceful reproaches which are now daily heaped
upon them by the religious and moral of other
states."
" The present white population of Mississippi is
but httle more than half as great as that of Ver-
mont, and yet more horrible crimes are perpetra-
ted by them every month, than have ever been
perpetrated in Vermont since it has been a state,
now about half a century. Whoever doubts it, let
him get data and make his estimate, and he will
find that this is no random guess.
198
Objections Considered — Public Opioion.
LOUISIANA.
' Louisiana became one of the United States in
ISIL Its present white population is about one
hundred and fifteen thousand.
The extracts which follow furnish another illus-
tration of the horrors produced by passions blown
up to fury in the furnace of arbitrary power. We
have just been looking over a broken file of Louis-
iana papers, including the last six months of 1837,
and the whole of 1838, and find ourselves obliged
to abandon our design of publishing even an ab-
stract of the scores and hundreds of affrays, mur-
ders, assassinations, duels, lynchings, assaults, &c.
which took place in that state during that period.
Those which have taken place in New Orleans
alone, during the last eighteen months, would, in
detail, fill a volume. Instead of inserting the de-
tails of the principal atrocities in Louisiana, as in
the states already noticed, we will furnish the read-
er with the testimony of various editors of newspa-
pers, and others, residents of the state, which will
perhaps as truly set forth the actual state of society
there, as could be done by a publication of the out-
rages themselves.
From the "New Orleans Bee," of May 23,
1838.
" Contempt of human life. — In view of the
crimes which are daily committed, we are led to
inquire whether it is owing to the inefficiency of
our laws, or to the manner in which those laws are
administered, that this frightful deluge of human
blood flows through our streets and our places of
public resort.
" Whither will such contempt for the life of man
lead us ? The unhealthiness of the climate mows
down annually a part of our population ; the mur-
derous steel despatches its proportion ; and if crime
increases as it has, the latter will soon become the
most powerful agent in destroying life.
"We cannot but doubt the perfection of our
criminal code, when we see that almost every cri.
minal eludes the law, either by boldly avowing the
crime, or by the tardiness with which legal prose,
cutions are carried on, or, lastly, by the convenient
application of bail in criminal cases."
The " New Orleans Picayune" of July 30, 1837,
says :
" It is with the most painful feelings that we
daily hear of some fatal duel. Yesterday we
■were told of the unhappy end of one of our most
influential and highly respectable merchants, who
fell yesterday morning at sunrise in a duel. As
usual, the circumstances which led to the meeting
were trivial."
The New Orleans correspondent of the New
York Express, in his letter dated New Orleans,
July 30, 1837, says :
" Thirteen dxiels have been fought in and near
the city during the week ; five more were to take
place this morning."
The "New Orleans Merchant" of March 20,
1838, says :
" Murder has been rife within the two or three
weeks last past ; and what is worse, the authorities
of those i>]aces where they occur are perfectly re.
gardlcss of the fact."
The " New Orleans Bee" of September 8, 1838,
says :
" Not two months since, the miserable Barba
became a victim to one of the most cold-blooded
schemes of assassination that ever disgraced a
civilized community. Last Sunday evening an
individual, Gonzales by name, was seen in perfect
health, in conversation with his friends. On Mon.
day morning his dead body was withdrawn from
the Mississippi, near the ferry of the first munici-
pality, in a state of terrible mutilation. To cap the
climax of horror, on Friday morning, about half
past six o'clock, the coroner was called to hold an
inquest over the body of an individual, between
Magazine and Tchoupitoulas streets. The head
was entirely severed from the body ; the lower ex-
tremities had hkewise suffered amputation ; the
right foot was completely dismembered from the
leg, and the left knee nearly severed from the
thigh. Several stabs, wounds and bruises, were
discovered on various parts of the body, which of
themselves were sufficient to produce death."
The " Georgetown (South Carolina) Union" cf
May 20, 1837, has the following extract from a
New Orleans paper.
" A short time since, two men shot one another
down in one of our bar rooms, one of whom died
instantly. A day or two after, one or two infants
were found murdered, there was every reason to
believe, by their own mothers. Last week we had
to chronicle a brutal and bloody murder, committed
in the heart of our city : the very next day a mur-
der-trial was commenced in our criminal court :
the day ensuing this, we pubhshed the particulars
of Hart's murder. The day after that, Tibbetts
was hung for attempting to commit a murder ; the
next day again we had to pubhsh a murder com-
mitted by two Spaniards at the Lake — this was on
Friday last. On Sunday we pubhshed the account
of another murder committed by the Italian, Gre-
gorio. On Monday, another murder was commit,
ted, and the murderer lodged in jail. On Tuesday
morning another man was stabbed and robbed,
and is not likely to recover, but the assassin es-
caped. The same day Reynolds, who killed Bar-
re, shot himself in prison. On Wednesday, another
person, Mr. Nicolet, blew out his brains. Yester-
day, the unfortunate George Clement destroyed
himself in his cell ; and in addition to this dreadful
catalogue we have to add that of the death of tMO
brothers, who destroyed themselves through grief
at the death of their mother ; and truly may we
say that ' we know not what to-morrow will bring
forth.' "
Ohjeciions Considered — Public Opinion.
199
The " Louisiana Advertiser," as quoted by the
Salt River (Mo.) Journal of May 25, 1837, says :
" Within the last ten or twelve days, three sui-
cides, four murders, and two executions, have oc-
curred in the city ! "
The " New Orleans Bee" of October 25, 1837,
says:
"We remark with regret the frightful list of ho-
micides that are daily committed in New Orleans."
The " Planter's Banner" of September 30, 1838,
pubhshed at Franklin, Louisiana, after giving an
account of an affray between a number of planters,
in which three were killed and a fourth mortally
wounded, says that " Davis (one of tlie murderers)
was arrested by the by-standers, but a justice of
the peace came up and told them, he did not think
It right to keep a man ' tied in that manner,' and
' thought it best to turn him loose.' It was ac-
cordingly so done."
This occurred in the parish of Harrisonburg.
The Banner closes the account by saying:
" Our informant states that five white inen and
one negro have been murdered in the parish of
Madison, during the months of July and August."
This justice nf the peace, who bade the by-
standers unloose the murderer, mentioned above,
has plenty of birds of his own feather among the
law officers of Louisiana. Two of the leading
officers in the New Orleans poUce took two wit-
nesses, while undergoing legal examination at
Lexington, near New Orleans, " carried them to a
bye-place, and lynched them, during which inqui-
sitorial operations, they divulged every thing to the
officers, Messrs. Foyle and Grossman." The pre-
ceding fact is published in the Maryland Republi-
can of August 22, 1837.
Judge Lansuge of New Orleans, in his address
at the opening of the criminal court, Nov. 4, 1837,
published in the " Bee" of Nov. 8, in remarking
upon the prevalence of out-breaking crimes, says :
" Is it possible in a civihzed country such crying
abuses are constantly encountered ? How many
individuals have given themselves up to such cul-
pable habits ! Yet we find magistrates and juries
hesitating to expose crimes of the blackest dye to
eternal contempt and infamy, to the vengeance of
the law.
" As a Louisianian parent, I reflect with terror
that our beloved children, reared to become one
day honorable and useful citizens, may be the vic-
tims of these votaries of vice and licentiousness.
Without some powerful and certain remedy, our
streets will become butcheries overflowing with
the blood of our citizens."
The Editor of the " New Orleans Bee," in his pa-
per of Oct. 21, 1837, has a long editorial article, in
which he argues for the virtual legalizing of Lynch
Law, as follows :
" We think then that in the circumstances in
which we are placed, the Legislature ought to sanc-
tion such measures as the situation of the country
render necessary, by giving to justice a convenient
latitude There are occasions when the delays
inseparable from the administration of justice would
26
be inimical to the public safety, and where the
most fatal consequences would be the result.
" It appears to us, that there is an urgent neces-
sity to provide against the inconveniences which
result from popular judgment, and to check the
disposition for the speedy execution of justice, re-
sulting from the unconstitutional principle of a
pretended Lynch law, by authorizing the parish
court to take cognizance without delay, against
every free man who shall be convicted of a crime,
from the accusations arising from the mere provo-
cations to the insurrection of the working classes.
" All judicial sentences ought to be based upon
law, and the terrible privilege which the populace
now have of punishing with death certain crimes,
ought tobe consecrated by law, powerful interests
would not suffice in our view to excuse the inter-
ruption of social order, if the pubhc safety was not
with us the supreme law.
" This is the reason that whilst we deplore the
imperious necessity which exists, we entreat the
legislative power to give the sanction of principle to
what already exists in fact."
The Editor of the " New Orleans Bee," in his pa-
per, Oct. 25, 1837, says :
" We remark with regret the frightful hst oi
homicides, whether justifiable or not, that are daily
committed in New Orleans. It is not through any
inherent vice of legal provision that such outrages
are perpetrated with impunity : it is rather in the
neglect of the application of the law which exists
on this subject.
" We will confine our observation to the danger-
ous facilities afforded by this code for the escape of
the homicide. We are well aware that the laws m
question are intended for the distribution of equal
justice, yet we have too often witnessed the ac
quittal of dehnquents whom we can denominate
by no other title than that of homicides, while the
simple affirmation of others has been admitted
(in default of testimony) who are themselves the
authors of the deed, for which they stand in judg-
ment. The indiscriminate system of accepting
bail is a blot on our criminal legislation, and is one
great reason why so many violators of the law
avoid its penalties. To this doubtless must be as-
cribed the non-interference of the Attorney General.
The law of habeas corpus being subjected to the
interpretation of every magistrate, whether versed
or not in criminal cases, a degree of arbitrary and
incorrect explanation necessarily results. How
frequently does it happen that the Mayor or Re-
corder decides upon the gravest case without put.
ting himself to the smallest trouble to inform the
Attorney General, who sometimes only hears of
the affair when investigation is no longer possible,
or when the criminal has wisely commuted hjs
punishment into temporary or perpetual exile.
That morality suffers by such practices, is be-
yond a doubt ; yet moderation and mercy are so
beautiful in themselves, that we would scarcely
protest against indulgence, were it not well known
that the acceptance of bail is the safeguard of
every dehnquent who, through wealth or connec-
tions, possesses influence enough to obtain it.
Here arbitrary construction ghdes amidst the con-
fusion of testimony ; there it presumes upon the
want of evidence, and from one cause oranotheritis
extremely rare, that a refusal to bail has dehvercd
200
Ohjeclions Considered — Public Opinion.
the accused into the hands of justice. In crimi- 1
nal cases, the Court and Jury are the proper tribu- !
nals to decide upon the reahty of the crime, and ■
the palHating circumstances ; yet it is not unfre- \
qnent for the pubhc voice to condemn as an odious
assassin, the very individual v/ho by the acquittal
of the judge, walks at large and scoffs at justice.
" It is time to restrict within its proper hmits this
pretended right of personal protection ; it is time
to teach our population to abstain from mutual
murder upon slight provocation. — Duelling, Hea-
ven knows, is dreadful enough, and quite a suffi-
cient means of gratifying private aversion, and
avenging insult. Frequent and serious brawls in
our cafes, streets and houses, every where attest
the insufficiency or misapplication of our legal code,
or the want of energy in its organs. To say that
unbounded hcense is the result of liberty is folly.
Liberty is the consequence of well regulated laws —
without these. Freedom can exist only in name,
and the law which favors the escape of the opu-
lent and aristocratic from the penalties of retribu-
tion, but consigns the poor and friendless to the
chain-gang or the gallows, is in fact the very es-
sence of slavery ! !
The editor of the same paper says (Nov. 4, 1837.)
" Perhaps by an equitable, but strict application
of that law, (the law which forbids the wearing of
deadly weapons concealed,) the effusion of human
blood might be stopt which now defiles our streets
and our coffee-houses as if they were shambles !
Reckless disregard of tlie life of man is rapidly
gaining ground among us, and the habit of seeing
a man whom it is taken for granted was armed,
murdered merely for a gesture, may influence the
opinion of a jury composed of citizens, whom,
LONG IMPUNITY TO HOMICIDES OF EVERY KIND has
persuaded, that the right of self-defence extends
even to the taking of life for gestures, more or less
threatening. So many daily instances of out-
breaking passion which have thrown whole fami-
lies into the deepest affliction, teach us a terrible
lesson."
From the " Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel," July 6,
1837.
" Wholesale Murders. — No less than three
murders were committed in New Orleans on
Monday evening last. The first was that of a
man in Poydras, near the corner of Tehapitoulas.
The murdered individual had been suspected of a
liason with another man's wife in the neighbour-
hood, was caught in the act, followed to the above
corner and shot.
" The second was that of a man in Perdido street.
Circumstances not known.
" The third was that of a watchman, on the cor.
ner of Custom House and Burgundy street, who
was found dead yesterday morning, shot through
the heart. The deed was evidently committed on
the opposite side from where he was found, as the
unfortunate man was tracked by his blood across
the street. In addition to being shot through the
heart, two wounds in his breast, supposed to
have been done with a Bowie knife, were discov-
ered. No arrests have been made to our know-
ledge."
The editor of the "Charleston, (S. C.) Mercury"
of April, 1837, makes the following remarks.
" The energy of a Tacon is much needed to
vivify the police of New Orleans. In a single pa-
per we find an account of the execution of one
man for robbery and intent to kill, of the arrest oi
another for stabbing a man to death with a carving
knife ; and of a third found murdered on the
Levee on the previous Sunday morning. In the
last case, although the murderer was known, no
steps had been taken for his arrest ; and to crown
the whole, it is actually stated in so many words,
that the City guards are not permitted, according
to their instructions, to patrol the Levee after night,
for fear of attacks from persons employed in
steamboats 1"
The present white population of Louisiana is
but little more than that of Rhode Island, yet more
appalhng crime is committed in Louisiana every
day, than in Rhode Island during a year, notwith-
standing the tone of pubhc morals probably is lower
in the latter than in any other New England
state.
TENNESSEE.
Tennessee became one of the United States in
1796. Its present white population is about seven
hundred thousand.
The details which follow, go to confirm the old
truth, that the exercise of arbitrary power tends to
make men monsters. The following, from the
" Memphis (Tennessee) Enquirer," was published
in the Virginia Advocate, Jan. 26, 1S38.
" Below will be found a detailed account of one
of the most unnatural and aggravated murders ever
recorded. Col. Ward, the deceased, was a man
of high standing in the state, and very much es-
teemed by his neighbors, and by all who knew him.
The brothers concerned in this ' murder, most foul
and unnatural,' were Lafayette, Chamberlayne,
Csesar, and Achilles Jones, (the nephews of Col.
Ward.)
" The four brothers, all armed, went to the resi.
dence of Mr. A. G. Ward, in Shelby co., on the
evening of 22d instant. They were conducted into
the room in which Col. Ward was sitting, together
with some two or three ladies, his intended wife
amongst the number. Upon their entering the
room. Col. Ward rose, and extended his hand to
Lafayette. He refused, saying he would shake
hands with no such d d rascal. The rest an-
swered in the same tone. Col. Ward remarked
that they were not in a proper place for a difficulty,
if they sought one. Col. Ward went from the
room to the passage, and was followed by the broth-
ers. He said he was unarmed, but if they would
lay down their arms, he could whip the whole of
them ; or if they would place him on an equal foot-
ing, he could whip the whole of them one by one
Caesar told Chamberlayne to give the Col. one of his
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
201
pistols, Vv'hich he did, and both went out into the
yard, the other brothers following. While stand-
ing a few paces from each other, Lafayette came
up, and remarked to the Col., ' If you spill my
brotb.er's blood, I will spill yours,' about which time
Chanibcrlayne's pistol fired, and immediately La-
fayette burs.ed a cap at him. The Colonel turned
to Lai'ayene, and said, 'Lafayette, you intend to
kill,' and discharged his pistol at him. The ball
struck the pistol of Lafiiyette, and glanced into his
arm. By this time Albert Ward, being close by,
and hearing ihe fuss, came up to the assistance of
the Cclonel, when a scuffle amongst all hands en-
sued. The Colonel stumbled and fell down — he
received several wounds from a large bowie knife;
and, after being stabbed, Chamberlayne jumped
upon him, and stamped him several times. After
the scuffle, Ccesar Jones was seen to put up a large
bowie knife. Colonel Ward said he was a dead
man. By the assistance of Albert Ward, he reached
the house, distance about 15 or 20 yards, and in a
few minutes expired. On examination by the Cor-
oner, it appeared that he had received several
wounds from pistols and knives. Albert Ward
was also badly bruised, not dangerously."
The " New Orleans Bee," Sept. 22, 1838, pub-
lished the following from the " Nashville (Tennes-
see) Whig."
"The Nashville Whig, of the 11th ult., says:
Pleasant Watson, of De Kalb county, and a Mr.
Carmichael, of Alabama, were the principals in an
affray at Livingston, Overton county, last week,
which terminated in the death of the former. Wat-
son made the assault with a dirk, and Carmichael
defended himself with a pistol, shooting his antag-
onist through the body, a few inches below the
heart. Watson was living at the last account. The
dispute grew out of a horse race."
The New Orleans Courier, April 7, 1837, has
the following extract from the " McMinersville
(Tennessee) Gazette."
" On Saturday, the 8th instant. Colonel David L.
Mitchell, the worthy sheritT of White county, was
most barbarously murdered by a man named Jo-
seph Little. Colonel Mitchell had a civil process
against Little. He went to Little's house for the
purpose of arresting him. He found Little armed
with a rifle, pistols, &c. He commenced a con.
versation with Litde upon the impropriety of his
resisting, and stated his determination to take him,
at the same time slowly advancing upon Little, who
discharged his rifle at him without eflfect. Mitchell
then attempted to jump in, to take hold of him,
when Little struck him over the head with the bar-
rel of his rifle, and literally mashed his skull to
pieces ; and, as he lay prostrate on the earth, Lit-
tle deliberately pulled a large pistol from his belt,
and placing the muzzle close to Mitchell's head, he
shot the ball through it. Little has made his es-
cape. There were three men near hy when the
murder was committed, who made no attempt to
arrest the murderer."
The following affray at Athens, Tennessee, is
from the Mississippian, August 10, 1838.
" An unpleasant occurrence transpired at Athens
on Monday. Captain James Byrnes was stabbed
four times, twice in the arm, and tvsdce in the side,
by A. R. Livingston. The wounds are said to be
very severe, and fears are entertained of their prov-
ing mortal. The afliiir underwent an examination
before Sylvester Nichols, Esq., by whom Living-
ston was let to bail."
The "West Tennessean," Aug. 4, 1837, says —
" A duel was fought at Calhoun, Tenn., between
G. W. Carter and J. C. Sherley. They used yau-
gers at the distance of 20 yards. The former was
slightly wounded, and the latter quite danger-
ously."
June 23d, 1838, Benjamin Shipley, of Hamiltoni
CO., Tennessee, shot Archibald McCallie. (Nash-
ville Banner, July 16, 1838.)
June 23d, 1838, Levi Stunston, of Weakly co.,
Tennessee, killed William Price, of said county,
in an affray. (Nashville Banner, July 6, 1838.)
October 8, 1838, in an affray at WolPs Ferry,
Tennessee, Martin Farley, Senior, was killed by
John and Solomon Step. (Georgia Telegraph,
Nov. 6, 1838.)
Feb. 14, 1838, John Manie was killed by Wil-
liam Doss at Decatur, Tennessee. (Memphis Ga-
zette. May 15, 1838.)
" From the Nashville Whig."
'■^ Fatal Affray in Columbia, Tenn. — A fatal
street encounter occurred at that place, on the 3d
inst., between Richard H. Hays, attorney at law,
and Wm. Polk, brother to the Hon. Jas. K. Polk.
The parties met, armed with pistols, and exchanged
shots simultaneously. A buck-shot pierced the
brain of Hays, and he died early the next morn,
ing. The quarrel grew out of a sportive remark
of Hays', at dinner, at the Columbia Inn, for which
he offered an apology, not accepted, it seems, as
Polk went to Hays' office, the same evening, and
chastised him with a whip. This occurred on Fri-
day, the fatal result took place on Monday."
In a fight near Memphis, Tennessee, May 15,
1837, Mr. Jackson, of that place, shot through the
heart Mr. W. F. Gholson, son of the late Mr.
Gholson, of Virginia. (Raleigh Register, June
13, 1837.)
The following horrible outrage, committed ire
West Tennessee, not far from Randolph, was pub-
lished by the Georgetown (S. C.) Union, May 26,
1837, from the Louisville Journal.
" A feeble bodied man settled a few years ago
on the Mississippi, a short distance below Ran-
dolph, on the Tennessee side. He succeeded irt
amassing property to the value of about $14,000,
and, hke most of the settlers, made a business of
seUing wood to the boats. This he sold at $2 50
a cord, while his neighbors asked $3. One of them
came to remonstrate against his underselling, and
had a fight with his brother-in-law Clark, in which
he was beaten. He then went and obtained legal
process against Clark, and returned with a deputy
sheriff, attended by a posse of desperate villains.
When they arrived at Clark's house, he was seated
among his children — they put two or three balls
through his body. Clark ran, was overtaken and
knocked down ; in the midst of his cries for mer-
cy, one of the villains fired a pistol in his mouth,
202
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
•tilling him instantly. They then required the set-
tler to sell his property to them, and leave the
country. He, fearing that they would otherwise
lake his life, sold them his valuable property for
$300, and departed with his family. The sheriff
was one of the purchasers."
The Baltimore American, Feb. 8, 1838, publish-
es the following from the Nashville (Tennessee)
Banner :
" A most atrocious murder was committed a kvf
days ago at Lagrange, in this state, on the body of
Mr. John T. Foster, a respectable merchant of that
town. The perpetrators of this bloody act are E.
Moody, Thomas Moody, J. E. Douglass, W. R.
Harris, and W, C. Harris. The circumstances at-
tending this horrible affair, are the following : — On
the night previous to the murder, a gang of villains,
under pretence of wishing to purchase goods, en-
tered Mr. Foster's store, took him by force, and
rode him through the streets on a rail. The next
morning, Mr. F. met one of the party, and gave
him a caning. For this just retahation for the out-
rage which had been committed on his person, he
was pursued by the persons above named, while
taking a walk with a friend, and murdered in the
open face of day."
The following presentment of a Tennessee Grand
Jury, sufficiently explains and comments on itself:
The Grand Jurors empanelled to inquire for the
county of Shelby, would separate without having
discharged their duties, if they were to omit to no-
tice public evils which they have found their pow-
ers inadequate to put in train for punishment. The
evils referred to exist more particularly in the town
of Memphis.
The audacity and frequency with which outrages
are committed, forbid us, in justice to our con-
sciences, to omit to use the powers we possess, to
bring them to the severe action of the law ; ana
when we find our powers inadequate, to draw upon
them public attention, and the rebuke of the good.
An infamous female publicly and grossly assaults
a lady ; therefore a public meeting is called, the
mayor of the town is placed in the chair, resolutions
are adopted, providing for the summary and law-
less punishment of the wretched woman. In the
progress of the affair, hundreds of citizens assem-
ble at her house, and raze it to the ground. The
unfortunate creature, together with two or three
men of like character, are committed, in an open
canoe or boat, without oar or paddle, to the middle
of the Mississippi river.
Such is a concise outline of the leading incidents
of a recent transaction in Memphis. It might be
filled up by the detail of individual exploits, which
would give vivacity to the description ; but we for-
bear to mention them. We leave it to others to
admire the manliness of the transaction, and the
courage displayed by a mob of hundreds, in the
various outrages upon the persons and property of
three or four individuals who fell under its ven-
geance.
The present white population of Tennessee is
about the same with that of Massachusetts, and yet
more outbreaking crimes are committed in Ten-
nessee in a single month, than in Massachusetts
during a whole year ; and this, too, notwithstand-
ing the largest town in Tennessee has but six thou-
sand inhabitants ; whereas, in Massachusetts, be-
sides one of eighty thousand, and two others of
nearly twenty thousand each, there are at least a
dozen larger than the chief town in Tennessee,
which gives to the latter state an important advan-
tage on the score of morality, the country being so
much more favorable to it than large towns.
KENTUCKY.
Kentucky has been one of the United States since
1792. Its present white population is but six
hundred thousand.
The details which follow show still further that
those who unite to plunder of their rights one
class of human beings, regard as sacred the rights
of no class.
The following affair at Maysville, Kentucky, is
extracted from the Maryland Republican, January
30, 1838.
" A fight came off at Maysville, Ky. on the 29th
ultimo, in which a Mr. Coulster was stabbed in the
side and is dead ; a Mr. Gibson was well hacked
with a knife ; a Mr. Farris was dangerously
wounded in the head, and another of the same
name in the hip ; a Mr. Shoemaker was severely
beaten, and several others seriously hurt in various
ways."
The following is extracted from the N. C. Stan-
dard.
" A most bloody and shocking transaction took
place in the httle town of Clinton, Hickman co. Ken.
The circumstances are briefly as follows : A
special canvass for a representative from the
county of Hickman, had for some time been in
progress. A gentleman by the name of Binford
was a candidate. The State Senator from the
district. Judge James, took some exceptions to the
reputation of Binford, and intimated that if B.
should be elected, he (James) would resign rather
than serve with such a colleague. Hearing this,
Binford went to the house of James to demand an
explanation. Mrs. James remarked, in a jest as
Binford thought, that if she was in the place of her
husband she would resign her seat in the Senate,
and not serve with such a character. B. told her
that she was a woman, and could say what she
pleased. She replied that she was not in earnest.
James then looked B. in the face and said that, if
his wife said so, it was the fact — ' he was an in-
famous scoundrel and d — d rascal.' He asked B.
if he was armed, and on being answered in the
affirmative, he stepped into an adjoining room to
arm himself He was prevented by the family from
returning, and Binford walked out. J. then told
him from his piazza, that he would meet him next
day in Chnton.
True to their appointment, the enraged parties
met on the streets the following day. James shot
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
203
first, his ball passing through his antagonist's liver,
whose pistol fired immediately afterwards, and
missing J., the ball pierced the head of a stranger
by the name of Colhns, who instantly fell and
expired. After being shot, Binford sprang upon J.
with the fury of a wounded tiger, and would have
taken his life but ibr a second shot received through
the back from Bartin James, the brother of
Thomas. Even after he received the last fatal
wound he struggled with his antagonist until death
relaxed his grasp, and he fell with the horrid ex-
clamation, ' I am a dead man ."
" Judge James gave himself up to the authorities ;
and when the informant of the editor left Clinton,
Binford, and the unfortunate stranger lay shrouded
corpses together."
The "N. 0. Bee" thus gives the conclusion of the
matter:
"Judge James was tried and acquitted, the
death of Binford being regarded as an act of justi-
fiable homicide."
From the "Flemingsburg Kentuckian," June 2J, '33.
Affray. — Thomas Binford, of Hickman coun-
ty, Kentucky, recently attacked a Mr. Gardner of
Dresden, with a drawn knife, and cut his face
pretty badly. Gardner picked up a piece of iron
and gave him a side- wipe above the ear that brought
him to terms. The skull was fractured about two
inches. Binford's brother was killed at Chnton,
Kentucky, last fall by Judge James.
The " Red River Whig" of September 15, 1838,
says : — " A ruffian of the name of Charles Gibson,
attempted to murder a girl named Mary Green, of
Louisville, Ky. on the 23d ult. He cut her in six
different places with a Bowie knife. His object, as
stated in a subsequent investigation before the
Police Court, was to cut her throat, which she
prevented by throwing up her arms."
From the " Louisville Advertiser," Dec. 17th,
1838 1 — "A startling tragedy occurred in this city
on Saturday evening last, in which A. H. Meeks
was instantly killed, John Rothwell mortally
wounded, William Holmes severely wounded, and
Henry Oldham slightly, by the use of Bowie
knives, by Judge E. C. Wilkinson, and his brother,
B. R. Wilkinson, of Natchez, and J. Murdough,
of Holly Springs, Mississippi. It seems that Judge
Wilkinson had ordered a coat at the shop of Messrs.
Varnum & Redding. The coat was made ; the
Judge, accompanied by his brother and Mr. Mur-
dough, went to the shop of Varnum & Redding,
tried on the coat, and was irritated because, as he
beheved, it did not fit him. Mr. Redding under-
took to convince him that he was in error, and
ventured to assure the Judge that the coat was well
made. The Judge instantly seized an iron poker,
and commenced an attack on Redding. The
blow with the poker was partially warded off —
Redding grappled his assailant, when a companion
of the Judge drew a Bowie knife, and, but for the
interposition and interference of the unfortunate
Meeks, a journeyman tailor, and a gendeman pas-
sing by at the moment, Redding might have been
assassinated in his own shop. Shortly afterwards.
Redding, Meeks, Rothwell, and Holmes went to
the Gait House. They sent up stairs for Judge
Wilkinson, and he came down into the bar room,
when angry words were passed. The Judge went
up stairs again, and in ashorttime returned with his
companions, all armed with knives. Harsh lan-
guage was again used. Meeks, felt called on to
state what he had seen of the conflict, and did so,
and Murdough gave him the d — d lie, for which
Meeks struck him. On receiving the blow with the
whip, Murdough instantly plunged his Bowie knife
into the abdomen of Meeks, and killed him on the
spot.
" At the same instant B. R. Wilkinson attempted
to get at Redding, and Holmes and Rothwell inter-
fered, or joined in the affray. Holmes was
wounded, probably by B. R. Wilkinson ; and the
Judge, having left the room for an instant, returned,
and finding Rothwell contending with his brother,
or bending over him, he (the Judge) stabbed
Rothwell in the back, and inflicted a mortal
wound."
Judge Wilkinson, his brother, and J. Murdough,
have been recently tried and acquitted.
From the "New Orleans Bee," Sept. 27, 1838.
" It appears from the statement of the Lex-
ington Intelligencer, that there has been for some
time past, an enmity between the drivers of
the old and opposition lines of stages running from
that city. On the evening of the 13th an encoun-
ter took place at the Circus between two of them,
Powell and Cameron, and the latter was so much
injured that his life was in imminent danger.
About 12 o'clock the same night, several drivers of
the old line rushed into Keizer's Hotel, where
Powell and other drivers of the opposition-line
boarded, and a general melee took place, in the
course of which several pistols were discharged,
the ball of one of them passing through the head
of Crabster, an old line driver, and kiUing him on
the spot. Crabster, before he was shot, had dis-
charged his own pistol which had burst into frag,
ments. Two or three drivers of the opposition
were wounded with buck shot, but not dan-
gerously."
The " Mobile Advertiser" of September 15, 1838,
copies the following from the Louisville (Ky.)
Journal.
"A Mr. Campbell was killed in Henderson
county on the 31st ult. by a Mr. Harrison. It ap-
pears, that there was an affray between the parties
some months ago, and that Harrison subsequently
left home and returned on the 31st in a trading
boat. Campbell met him at the boat with a loaded
rifle and declared his determination to kill him, at
the same time asking him whether he had a rifle
and expressing a desire to give him a fair chance.
Harrison affected to laugh at the whole matter and
invited Campbell into his boat to take a drink with
him. Campbell accepted the invitation, but, while
he was in the act of drinking, Harrison seized his
rifle, fired it off, and laid Campbell dead by striking
him with the barrel of it."
The " Missouri Republican" of July 29, 1837,
pubhshed the details which follow from the Louis-
ville Journal.
Mount Sterling, Ky. July 20, 1837.
" Gentlemen : — A most unfortunate and fatal
occurrence transpired in our town last evening,
about 6 o'clock. Some of the most prominent
201
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
friends of Judge French had a meeting yesterday
at Col. Young's, near this place, and warm words
ensued between Mr. Albert Thomas and Belvard
Peters, Esq., and a few blows were exchanged,
and several of the friends of each collected at the
spot. Wliilst the parties were thus engaged, Mr.
Wm. White, who was a friend of Mr. Peters,
struck Mr. Thomas, whereupon B. F. Thomas
Esq. engaged in the combat on the side of his
brother and Mr. W. Roberts on the part of Peters
— Mr. G. W. Thomas taking part with his brothers.
Albert Thomas had Peters down and was taken
off by a gentleman present, and whilst held by
that gentleman, he was struck by White ; and B.
F. Thomas having made some remark White
struck him. B. F. Thomas returned the blow, and
having a large knife, stabbed White, who never-
theless continued the contest, and, it is said, broke
Thomas's arm with a rock of a chair. Thomas
then inflicted some other stabs, of which White
died in a few minutes. Roberts was knocked
down twice by Albert Thomas, and, I beheve, is
much hurt. G. W. Thomas was somewhat hurt
also. White and B. F. Thomas had alwa}'s been
on friendly terms. You are acquainted with the
Messrs. Thomas. Mr. White was a much larger
man than either of them, weighing nearly 200
pounds, and in the prime of life. As you may
very naturally suppose, great excitement prevails
here, and Mr. B. F. Thomas regrets the fatal ca-
tastrophe as much as any one else, but believes
from all the circumstances that he was justifiaWe
in what he did, although he would be as far from
doing such an act when cool and deliberate as any
man whatever.
The "New Orleans Bulletin" of Aug. 24, 1838,
extracts the following from the Louisville Journal.
"News has just reached us, that Thomas P.
Moore, attacked the Senior Editor of this paper in
the yard of the Harrodsburg Springs. Mr. Moore
advanced upon Mr. Prentice with a drawn pistol
and fired at him ; Mr. Prentice then fired, neither
shot taking effect. Mr. Prentice drew a second
pistol, when Mr. Moore quailed and said he had
no other arms ; whereupon Mr. Prentice from su.
perabundant magnanimity spared the miscreant's
life."
From " The Floridian" of June 10, 1837.
MuEDER. Mr. Gillespie, a respectable citizen
aged 50, was murdered a few days since by a Mr.
Arnett, near Mumfordsville, Ky., which latter shot
his victim twice with a rifle.
The "Augusta (Ga.) Sentinel," May 11, 1838,
has the following account of murders in Kentucky :
" At Mill's Point, Kentucky, Dr. Thomas Rivers
was shot one day last week, from out of a window,
hy Lawyer Ferguson, both citizens of that place,
and both parties are represented to have stood high
in the estimation of the community in which they
Kved. The difficulty we understand to have grown
out of a law suit at issue between them.
Just as our paper was going to press, we learn
that the brother of Dr. Rivers, who had been sent
for, had arrived, and immediately shot Lawyer
Ferguson. He at first shot him with a shot gun,
upon his retreat, which did not prove fatal ; he then
approached him immediately with a pistol, and kill,
ed him on the spot."
The Right Rev. B. B. Smith, Bishop of the Epis-
copal diocese of Kentucky, published about two
years since an article in the Lexington (Ky.) In-
telligencer, entided " Thoughts on the frequency
of homicides in the state of Kentucky." We con-
clude this head with a brief extract from the testi.
mony of the Bishop, contained in that article.
" The writer has never conversed with a traveled
and enlightened European or eastern man, who has
not expressed the most undisguised horror at the
frequency of homicide and murder within our
bounds, and at the ease with which the homicide
escapes from punishment.
" As to the frequency of these shocking occur-
rences, the writer has some opportunity of being
correctly impressed, by means of a yearly tour
through many counties of the State. He has also
been particular in making inquiries of our most dis-
tinguished legal and political characters, and from
some has derived conjectural estimates which were
truly alarming. A few have been of the opinion,
that on an average one murder a year may be
charged to the account of every county in the state,
making the frightful aggregate of 850 human lives
sacrificed to revenge, or the victims of momentary
passion, in the course of every ten years.
" Others have placed the estimate much lower,
and have thought that thirty for the whole state,
every year, would be found much nearer the truth.
An attempt has been made lately to obtain data
more satisfactory than conjecture, and circulars
have been addressed to the clerks of most of the
counties, in order to arrive at as correct an esdmate
as possible of the actual number of homicides du-
ring the three years last past. It will be seen, how-
ever, that statistics thus obtained, even from every
county in the state, would necessarily be imper-
fect, inasmuch as the records of the courts by no
means show all the cases which occur, some esca-
ping without any of the forms of a legal examina-
rion, and there being many affrays which end only
in wounds, or where the parties are separated.
" From these returns, it appears that in 27 coun-
ties there have been, within the last three years, of
homicides of every grade, 35, but only 8 convic-
tions in the same period, leaving 27 cases which
have passed wholly unpunished. During the same
period there have been from eighty-five counties,
only eleven commitments to the state prison, nine
for manslaughter, and two for shooting with intent
to kill, and not an instance of capital punishment
in the person of any white offender. Thus an
approximation is made to a general average, which
probably would not vary much from one in each
county every three years, or about 280 in ten years.
" It is believed that such a register of crime
amongst a people professing the protestant religion
and speaking the Enghsh language, is not to be
found, with regard to any three-quarters of a mil.
lion of people, since the downfall of the feudal sys-
tem. Compared with the records of crime in
Scodand, or the eastern states, the results are ab-
solutely SHOCKING ! It is believed there are more
homicides, on an average of two years, in any of
our more populous counties, than in the whole of
Ohjectims Considered — Public Opinion.
205
several of our states, of equal or nearly equal
white population icith Kentucky,
" The victims of these affrays are not always, by
any means, the most worthless of our population.
" It too often happens that the enlightened citizen,
the elevated lawyer, the affectionate husband, and
precious father, are thus instantaneously taken
from their useful stations on earth, and hurried, all
unprepared, to their final account !
" The question is again asked, what could have
brought about, and can perpetuate, this shocking
state of things ? "
As an illustration of the recklessness of life in
Kentucky, and the terrible paralysis of public sen-
timent, the bishop states the following fact.
" A case of shocking homicide is remembered,
where the guilty person was acquitted by a sort of
acclamation, and the next day was seen in public,
with two ladies hanging on his arm ! "
Notwithstanding the frightful frequency of dead-
ly affrays in Kentucky, as is certified by the above
testimony of Bishop Smith, there are fewer, in pro-
portion to the white population, than in any of the
states which have passed under review, unless
Tennessee may be an exception. The present
white population of Kentucky is perhaps seventy
thousand more than that of Maine, and yet more
public fatal affrays have taken place in the former,
within the last six months, than in the latter during
its emtire existence as a state.
The seven slave states which we have already
passed under review, are just one half of the slave
states and territories, included in the American
Union. Before proceeding to consider the condi-
tion of society in the other slave states, we pause
a moment to review the ground already traversed.
The present entire white population of the
states already considered, is about two and a
quarter millions ; just about equal to the present
•white population of the state of New York. If
the amount of crime resulting in loss of life, which
is perpetrated by the white population of those
states upon the whites alone, be contrasted with
the amount perpetrated in the state of New York,
by all classes, upon all, we believe it will be
found, that more of such crimes have been com-
mitted in these states within the last 18 months,
than have occurred in the state of New York for
half a century. But perhaps we shall be told that
in these seven states, there are scores of cities and
large towns, and that a majority of all these deadly
affrays, &c., take place in the7n ; to this we reply,
that there are three times as many cities and large
towns in the state of New York, as in all those
states together, and that nearly all the capital
crimes perpetrated in the state take place in these
cities and large villages. In the state of New
York, there are more than half amillion of persons
who live in cities and villages of more than two
thousand inhabitants, whereas in Kentucky, Ten-
nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkan-
sas and Missouri, there are on the largest compu-
tation not more than one hundred thousand per-
sons, residing in cities and villages of more than
two thousand inhabitants, and the while popula-
tion of these places (which alone is included in
the estimate of crime, and that too inflicted upon
whites only,) is probably not more than sixty-five
thousand.
But it will doubtless be pleaded in mitigation,
that the cities and large villages in those states are
new; that they have not had sufficient time tho-
roughly to organize their poHce, so as to make it
an effectual terror to evil doers ; and further, that
the rapid growth of those places has so overloaded
the authorities with all sorts of responsibilities, that
due attention to the preservation of the public
peace has been nearly impossible ; and besides,
they have had no official experience to draw upon,
as in the older cities, the offices being generally
filled by young men, as a necessary consequence
of the newness of the country, &c. To this we
reply, that New Orleans is more than a century
old, and for half that period has been the centre
of a great trade ; that St. Louis, Natchez, Mobile,
Nashville, Louisville and Lexington, are all half a
century old, and each had arrived at years of dis-
cretion, while yet the sites of Buffalo, Rochester,
Lockport, Canandaigua, Geneva, Auburn, Ithaca,
Oswego, Syracuse, and other large towns in Wes-
tern New- York, were a wilderness. Further, as
a number of these places are larger than either
of the former, their growth must have been more
rapid, and, consequently, they must have encoun-
tered still greater obstacles in the organization of
an efficient police than those south western cities,
with this exception, they weke not settled by
SLAVEHOLDERS.
The absurdity of assigning the newness of the
country, the unrestrained habits of pioneer settlers,
the recklessness of life engendered by wars with
the Indians, &c., as reasons sufficient to account
for the frightful amount of crime in the states un-
der review, is manifest from the fact, that Vermont
is of the same age with Kentucky ; Ohio, ten years
younger than Kentucky, and six years younger
than Tennessee ; Indiana, five years younger than
Louisiana ; Illinois, one year younger than Missis-
sippi ; Maine, of the same age with Missouri, and
two years younger than Alabama ; and Michigan
of the same age with Arkansas. Now, let any
one contrast the state of society in Maine, Vermont,
Ohio, Indiana, lUinois, and Michigan with that of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Louisi-
ana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and candidly pon-
der the result. It is impossible satisfactorily to ac-
count for the immense dispanty in crime, on any
other supposition than that the latter states were
settled and are inhabited almost exclusively by
206
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
those who carried with them the violence, impa-
tience of legal restraint, love of domination, fiery
passions, idleness, and contempt of laborious indus.
try, which are engendered by habits of despotic
sway, acquired by residence in communities where
such manners, habits and passions, mould society
into their own image.* The practical workings of
this cause are powerfully illustrated in those parts
of the slave states where slaves abound, when con-
trasted with those where very few are held. Who
does not know that there are fewer deadly affrays
in proportion to the white population — that law
has more sway and that human life is less insecure
in East Tennessee, where there are very few slaves,
than in West Tennessee, where there are large
numbers. This is true also of northern and wes-
tern Virginia, where few slaves are held, when con-
trasted with eastern Virginia, where they abound ;
the same remark applies to those parts of Kentucky
and Missouri, where large numbers of slaves are
held, when contrasted with others where there are
comparatively few.
We see the same cause operating to a considera-
ble extent in those parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illi-
nois, settled mainly by slaveholders and others, who
were natives of slave states, in contrast with other
parts of these states settled almost exclusively
by persons from free states ; that affrays and
breaches of the peace are far more frequent in the
former than in the latter, is well known to all.
We now proceed to the remaining slave states.
Those that have not yet been considered, are
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South
Carolina, Georgia, and the territory of Florida.
As Delaware has hardly two thousand five hun-
dred slaves, arbitrary power over human beings is
exercised by so few persons, that the turbulence
infused thereby into the public mind is but an in-
* Bishop Smith of Kentucky, in his testimony respect-
iag homicides, which is quoted on a preceding page, thus
speaks of the influence of slave-holding, as an exciting
cause.
" Are not some of the indirect influences of a system, the
existence of which amongst us can never be sufficiently
deplored, discoverable in these affrays .' Are not our
young men more heady, violent and imperious in conse-
quence of their early habits of command ? And are not
our taverns and other public places of resort, much more
crowded with an inflammable material, than if young men
■jvere brought up in the staid and frugal habits of those
who are constrained to earn their bread by the sweat of
their brow ? * * * Is not intemperance more so-
cial, more inflammatory, more pugnacious where a fan-
cied superiority of gentlemanly character is felt, in con-
sequence of exemption from severe manual labor ? Is
there ever stabbing where there is not idleness and strong
drink ?"
The Bishop also gives the following as another exciting
cause ; it is however only the product of the preceding.
" Has not a public sentiment which we hear charac-
terized as singularly high-minded and honorable, and
sensitively alive to every affront, whether real or ima-
ginary, but which strangers denominate rough and fero-
cious, much to do in provoking these assaults, and then in
applauding instead of punishing the offender."
The Bishop says of the young men of Kentucky, that
they "grow up proud, impetuous, and reckless of all
responsibility ;" and adds, that the practice of carrying
tifiadly weapons is with them " nearly cnivebsai-."
considerable element, quite insufficient to inflame
the passions, much less to cast the character of the
mass of the people ; consequently, the state of so.
ciety there, and the general security of Hfe is but
little less than in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
upon which states it borders on the north and east.
The same causes operate in a considerable mea-
sure, though to a much less extent, in Maryland
and in Northern and Western Virginia. But in
lower Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia
and Florida, the general state of society as it re.
spects the successful triumph of passion over law,
and the consequent and universal insecurity oi
life is, in the main, very similar to that of the states
already considered. In some portions of each of
these states, human hfe has probably as litde real
protection as in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisi-
ana ; but generally throughout the former states
and sections, the laws are not so absolutely power-
less as in the latter three. Deadly affrays, duels,
murders, lynchings, &c., are, in proportion to the
white population, as frequent and as rarely pun-
ished in lower Virginia as in Kentucky and Mis-
souri ; in North Carolina and South CaroHna as in
Tennessee ; and in Georgia and Florida as in
Alabama.
To insert the criminal statistics of the remaining
slave states in detail, as those of the states already
considered have been presented, would, we find,
fill more space than can well be spared. Instead
of this, we propose to exhibit the state of society in
all the slaveholding region bordering on the Atlan-
tic, by the testimony of the slaveholders themselves,
corroborated by a few plain facts. Leaving out
of view Florida, where law is ihe most, powerless,
and Maryland where probably it is the least so,
we propose to select as a fair illustration of the actual
state of society in the Atlantic slaveholding regions.
North Carohna whose border is but 250 miles from
the free states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
and Georgia which constitutes its south western
boundary.
We will begin with Georgia. This state was
settled more than a century ago by a colony under
General Oglethorpe. The colony was memorable
for its high toned morality. One of its first regu-
lations was an absolute prohibition of slavery in
every form : but another generation arose, the
prohibition was abolished, a multitude of slaves
were imported, the exercise of unlimited power
over them lashed up passion to the spurning of all
control, and now the dreadful state of society that
exists in Georgia, is revealed by the following testi-
mony out of her own mouth.
The editor of the Darien (Georgia) Telegraph,
in his paper of November 6, 1838, published the
following.
"3Iurderous Attack. — Between the hours of
three and four o'clock, on Saturday last, the editor
Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion.
207
of this paper was attacked by FOURTEEN armed
ruffians, and knocked down by repeated blows of
bludgeons. All his assailants were armed with
pistols, dirks, and large clubs. Many of them are
known to us; but there is neither law nor justice,
to be had in Dnrien ! We arc doomed to death
by the employers of the assassins who attacked us
on Saturday, and no less than our blood will satisfy
them. The cause alleged for this unmanly, base,
cowardly outrage, is some expressions which oc-
curred in an election squib, printed at this office,
and extensively circulated through the county, be-
fore the election. The names of those who sur-
rounded us, when the attack was made, are, A.
Lefils, jr. (son to the representative), Madison
Thomas, Francis Harrison, Thomas Hopkins,
Alexander Blue, George Wing, James Eilands,
W. I. Perkins, A. J. Raymur : the others we can.
not at present recollect. The two first, Lefils and
Thomas struck us at the same time. Pistols were
levelled at us in all directions. We can produce
the most respectable testimony of the truth of this
statement."
The same number of the " Darien Telegraph,"
from which the preceding is taken, contains a cor-
respondence between six individuals, settling the
preliminaries of duels. The correspondence fills,
with the exception of a dozen lines, five columns of
tiie paper. The parties were Col. W. Whig Haz-
zard, commander of one of the Georgia regiments
m the recent Seminole campaign, Dr. T. F. Haz-
zard, a physician of St. Simons, and Thomas Haz-
zard, Esq. a county magistrate, on the one side,
and Messrs. J. A. Willey, H. W. Willey, and H.
B. Gould, Esqs. of Darien, on the other. In their
published correspondence the parties call each other
"liar," "mean rascal," "puppy," "villain," &c.
The magistrate, Thomas Hazzard, who accepts
the challenge of J. A. Willey, says, in one of his
letters, "Being a magistrate, under a solemn oath
to do all in my power to keep the peace," &c., and
yet this personification of Georgia justice super-
scribes his letter as follows : " To the Liar, Puppy,
Fool, and Poltroon, Mr. John A. Willey." The
magistrate closes his letter thus :
" Here I am ; call upon me for personal satisfac-
tion (in propria forma) ; and in the Farm Field,
on St. Simon's Island, {Beo juvante,) I will give
you a full front of my body, and do all in my pow-
er to satisfy your thirst for blood ! And more, I
will wager you ^100, to be planked on the scratch !
that J. A. Willey will neither kill or defeat T. F.
Hazzard."
The following extract from the correspondence is
a sufficient index of slaveholding civihzation.
" ARTICLES OF BATTLE BETWEEN JOHN A. WILLEY
AND W. WHIG HAZZARD.
Condition 1. The parties to fight on the same
day, and at the same place, (St. Simon's beach,
near the lighthouse,) where the meeting between
T. F. Hazzard and J. A. Willey will take place.
Condition 2. The parties to fight with broad-
swords in the right hand, and a dirk in the left.
Condition 3. On the word " Charge," the parties
to advance, and attack with the broad-sword, or
close with the dirk.
Condition 4. The head of the vanquished to
BE CUT off by THE VICTOR, AND STUCK UPON A POLE
ON THE Farm Field dam, the original cause of dis-
pute.
Condition 5. Neither party to object to each
other's weapons ; and if a sword breaks, the con-
test to continue with the dirk."
This Col. W. Whig Hazzard is one of the most
prominent citizens in the southern part of Georgia,
and previously signalized himself, as we learn from
one of the letters in the correspondence, by " three
dehberate rounds in a duel."
The Macon (Georgia) Telegraph of October 9,
1838, contains the following notice of two affi-ays
in that place, in each of which an individual was
killed, one on Tuesday and the other on Saturday
of the same week. In publishing the case, the
Macon editor remarks :
" We are compelled to remark on the inefficien-
cy of our laws in bringing to the bar of public jus-
fice, persons committing capital offences. Under
the present mode, a man has nothing more to do
than to leave the state, or step over to Texas, or
some other place not farther off, and he need en-
tertain no fear of being apprehended. So long as
such a state of things is permitted to exist, just so
long will every man who has an enemy (and there
are but few who have not) be in constant danger
of being shot down in the streets."
To these remarks of the Macon editor, who is in
the centre of the state, near the capital, the editor
of the Darien Telegraph, two hundred miles distant,
responds as follows, in his paper of October 30.
1838.
" The remarks of our contemporary are not
without cause. They apply, with peculiar force,
to this community. Murderers and rioters will
never stand in need of a sanctuary as long as
Darien is what it is."
It is a coincidence which carries a comment with
it, that in less than a week after this Darien editor
made these remarks, he was attacked in the street
by '■^fourteen gentlemen," armed with bludgeons,
knives, dirks, pistols, &c., and would doubtless
have been butchered on the spot if he had not been
rescued.
We give the following statement at length as
the chief perpetrator of the outrages. Col. W. N.
Bishop, was at the time a high functionary of the
State of Georgia, and, as we learn from the Ma.
con Messenger, still holds two public offices in
the State, one of them from the direct appoint-
ment of the governor.
From the " Georgia Messenger" of August 25,
1837.
" During the administration of Wilson Lump-
kin, WILLIAM N. BISHOP received from his
Excellency the appointment of Indian Agent, in
the place of William Springer. During that year
(1834,) the said governor gave the command
208
Objections Considered — Public Opinion.
of a company af men, 40 in number, to the said
W. N. Bishop, to be selected by him, and arm-
ed with the muskets of the State. This band was
organized for the special purpose of keeping the
Cherokees in subjection, and although it is a no-
torious fact that the Cherokees in the neighbor-
hood of Spring Place were peaceable and by no
means refractory, the said band were kept there,
and seldom made any excursion whatever out of
the county of Murray. It is also a notorious fact,
that the said band, from the day of their or.
ganization, never permitted a citizen of Murray
county opposed to the dominant party of Geor-
gia, to exercise the right of suffrage at any elec-
tion whatever. From that period to the last of
January election, the said band appeared at the
polls with the arms of the State, rejecting every
vote that " was not of the true stripe," as they
called it. That they frequently seized and drag-
ged to the polls honest citizens, and compelled
them to vote contrary to their will.
"Such acts of arbitrary despotism were tolerated
by the administration. Appeals from the citizens
of Murray county brought them no relief — and
incensed at such outrages, they determined on
the first Monday in January last, to turn out and
elect such Judges of the Inferior Court and coun-
ty officers, as would be above the control of
Bishop, that he might thereby be prevented from
packing such a jury as he chose to try him for
his brutal and unconstitutional outrages on their
rights. Accordingly on Sunday evening previous
to the election, about twenty citizens who lived
a distance from the county site, came in unarm-
ed and unprepared for battle, intending to re-
main in town, vote in the morning and return
home. They were met by Bishop and his State
band, and asked by the former ' whether they
were for peace or war.' They unanimously re-
sponded " we are for peace." At that moment
Bishop ordered a fire, and instantly every musket
of his band was discharged on those citizens, 5
of whom were wounded, and others escaped with
butlet holes in their clothes. Not satisfied with
the outrage, they dragged an aged man from
his wagon and beat him nearly to death.
" In this way the voters were driven from Spring
Place, and before day light the next morning, the
polls were opened by order of Bishop, and soon
after sun rise they were closed ; Bishop having
ascertained that the band and Schley men had
all voted. A runner was then dispatched to Mil-
ledgeville, and received from Governor Schley
commissions for those self-made officers of Bish-
op's, two of whom have since runaway, and the
rest have been called on by the citizens of the
county to resign, being each members of Bishop's
band, and doubtless runaways from other States.
" After these outrages. Bishop apprehending an
appeal to the judiciary on the part of the injured
citizens of Murray county, had a jury drawn to
suit him and appointed one of his band Clerk of
the Superior Court. For these acts,the Governor
and officers of the Central Bank rewarded him
with an ofiice in the Bank of the State, since
which his own jury found eleven true bills against
him."
In the Milledgeville Federal Union of May 2,
3837, we find the following presentment of the
Grand Jury of Union County, Georgia, which aa
it shows some relics of a moral sense, still linger-
ing in the state we insert.
Presentment of the Grand Jury of Union Co.,
March term, 1837.
" We would notice, as a subject of painful in-
terest, the appointment of Wm. N. Bishop to
the high and responsible office of Teller, of the
Central Bank of the State of Georgia — an insti-
tution of such magnitude as to merit and demand
the most unslumbering vigilance of the freemen
of this State ; as a portion of whom, we feel
bound to express our indignant reprehension of
the promotion of such a character to one of its
most responsible posts — and do exceedingly re-
gret the blindness or depravity of those who can
sanction such a measure.
" We request that our presentment be published
in the " Mmers' Recorder and Federal Union.
John Martin, Foreman."
On motion of Henry L. Sims, Solicitor Gene-
neral, " Ordered by the court, that the present-
ments of the Grand Jury, be published according
to their request." Thomas Henry, Clerk.
The same paper, four weeks after publishing
the preceding facts, contained the following : we
give it in detail as the wretch who enacted the
tragedy was another public functionary of the
state of Georgia and acting in an official capa-
city.
" Murder. — One of the most brutal and inhu-
man murders it has ever fallen to our lot to no-
tice, was lately committed in Cherokee county,
by Julius Bates, the son of the principal keeper of
the Penitentiary, upon an Indian.
" The circumstances as detailed to us by the
most respectable men of both parties, are these.
At the last Superior Court of Cass county, the
unfortunate Indian was sentenced to the Peniten-
tiary. Bates, as one of the Penitentiary guard,
was sent with another to carry him and others,
from other counties to Milledgeville. He started
from Cassville with the Indian ironed and bare-
footed ; and walked him within a quarter of a
mile of Canton, the C. H. in Cherokee, a distance
of twenty-eight to thirty miles, over a very rough
road in little more than half the day. On arriv-
ing at a small creek near town, the Indian [who
had walked until the soles of his feet were off and
those of his heel turned back,] made signs to get
water. Bates refused to let him, and ordered him
to go on : the Indian stopped and finally set
down, whereupon Bates dismounted and gather-
ing a pine knot, commenced and continued beat-
ing him and jirking him by a chain around his
neck, until the citizens of the village were drawn
there by the severity of the blows. The unfortu-
nate creature was taken up to town and died in
a few hours.
"An inquest was held, and the jury found a
verdict of murder by Bates. A warrant was is-
sued, but Bates had departed that morning in
charge of other prisoners taken from Canton, and
the worthy officers of the county desisted from
his pursuit, ' because they apprehended he had
passed the limits of the county.' We understand
that the warrant was immediately sant to 1}io
Ohjectioiis Considered — Public Opinion.
209
Governor to Iiave him arrested. Will it be done ?
We shall see."
Having devoted so much space to a revelation
of the state of society among tiie slaveholders of
Georgia, we will tax the reader's patience with
only a single illustration of the public sentiment
— the degree of actual legal protection enjoyed in
the state of North Carolina.
North Carolina was settled about two centu-
ries ago ; its present white population is about five
hundred thousand.
Passing by the murders, affrays, &.c. with
which the North Carolina papers abound, we in-
sert the following as an illustration of the public
sentiment of North Carolina among ' gentlemen
of property and standing.'
The ' North Carolina Literary and Commercial
Journal,' of January 20, 1838, pubhshed at Eliza-
beth City, devotes a column and a half to a des-
cription of the lynching, tarring, feathering,
ducking, riding on a rail, pumping, &c., of a Mr.
Charles Fife, a merchant of that city, for the
crime of ' trading with negroes.' The editor in-
forms us that this exploit of vandahsm was per-
formed very deliberately, at mid-day, and Oy a
number of the citizens, the most kespectable in
THE CITY,' &c. We proceed to give the reader
an abridgement of the editor's statement in his
own words. —
'' Such being the case, a number of the citi-
zens, THE MOST RESPECTABLE IN THIS CITY, Col-
lected, about ten days since, and after putting the
fellow on a rail, carried him through town with a
duck and chicken tied to him. He was taken
down to the water and his head tarred and fea-
thered ; and when they returned he was put un.
der a pump, where for a few minutes he under-
went a little cooling. He was then told that he
must leave town by the next Saturday — if he did
not he would be visited again, and treated more
in accordance with the principles of the laws of
Judge Lynch.
" On Saturday last, he was again visited, and
as Fife had several of his friends to assist him,
some little scuffle ensued, when several were
knocked down, but nothing serious occurred.
Fife was again mounted on a rail and brought into
town, but as he promised if they would not
trouble him he would leave toum in a few days,
he was set at liberty. Several of our magistrates
took no notice of the affair, and rather seemed to
tacitly acquiesce in the proceedings. The whole
subject every one supposed was ended, as Fife
was to leave in a few days, when what was our
ASTONISHMENT to hear that Mr. Charles R. Kin-
ney had visited Fife, advised him not to leave
and actually took upon himself to examine wit-
nesses, and came before the public as the defend-
er of Fife. The consequence was, that all the
rioters were summoned by the Sheriff to appear
in the Court House and give bail for their ap-
pearance at our next court. On Monday last the
court opened at 12 o'clock, Judge Bailey presid-
ing. Such an excitement we never witnessed
before in our town. A great many witnesses
wore examined, which proved the character of
File bc)'ond a doubt. At one time ratlier serious
consequences were apprehended — high words
were spoken, and luckily a blow which was
aimed at Mr. Kinney, was parried oft', and wc
are happy to say the court adjourned after ample
securities being given. The next day Fife was
taken to jail for trading with negroes, but has
since been released on paying $100. Tlic inter-
ference of Mr. Kinney was wholly unnecessary ;
it was an assumption on his part which properly
belonged to our magistrates. Fife had agreed to
go away, and the matter would have been ami-
cably settled but for him. We have no unfriend-
ly feelings towards Mr. Kinney : no personal ani-
mosities to gratify : we have always considered
him as one of our best lawyers, But when he
comes forth as the supporter of such a fellow as
Fife, under the plea that the laws have been vio-
lated— when he arraigns the acts of thirty of the
inhabitants of this place, it is high time for him
to reflect seriously on the consequences. The
Penitentiary system is the result of the refinement
of the eighteenth century. As man advances in
the sciences, in the arts, in the intercourse of so-
cial and civilized life, in the same proportion does
crime and vice keep an equal pace, and always
makes demands on the wisdom of legislators.
Now, what is the Lynch law but the Penitentiary
Eystem carried out to its full extent, with a little
more steam power ? or more properly, it is sim-
ply thus : There are some scoundrels in society
on whom the laws take no effect ; the most expe-
ditious and short way is to let a majority decide
and give them JUSTICE."
Let the reader notice, 1st, that this outrage was
perpetrated with great deliberation, and after it
was over, the victim was commanded to leave
town by the next week : when that cooling inter-
val had passed, the outrage was again deliberate-
ly repeated. 2d. It was perpetrated by " thirty
persons,' " the most respectable in the city." 3d.
That at the second lynching of Fife, several of
his neighbors who had gathered to defend him,
(seeing that all the legal officers in the city had
refused to do it, thus violating their oaths of of-
fice,) were knocked down, to which the editor
adds, with the business air of a professional
butcher, " nothing serious occurred !" 4th. That
not a single magistrate in the city took the least
notice either of the barbarities inflicted upon Fife,
or of the assaults upon his friends, knocking them
down, &c. , but, as the editor informs us, all
" seemed to acquiesce in the proceedings." 5th.
That this conduct of the magistrates was well
pleasing to the great mass of the citizens, is plain,
from the remark of the editor that " every one
supposed that the whole subject was ended," and
from his wondering exclamation, " what was
OUR ASTONISHMENT to hear that Mr. C. R. Kin.
ney had actually took upon him to examine wit-
nesses," &e., and also from the editor's declara-
tion, '' Such an excitement we never before wit-
210
Ohkctims Considered— VnhXiC Opinion.
nesscd m our town." Excitement at what ? Not
because the laws had been most impiously tram-
pled down at noon-day by a conspiracy of thirty
persons, " the most respectable in the city ;" not
because a citizen had been twice seized and pub-
licly tortured for hours, without trial, and in utter
defiance of all authority ; nay, verily ! this was all
complacently acquiesced in ; but because in this
slaveholding Sodom there was found a solitary
Lot who dared to uplift his voice for law and the
right of trial Oy jury ; this crime stirred up such
an uproar in that city of " most respectable"
lynchers as was " never witnessed before" and
the noble lawyer who thus put every thing at
stake in invoking the majesty .of law, would, it
seems, have been knocked down, even in the pre-
sence of the Court, if the blow had not been
" parried." 6th. Mark the murderous threat of
the editor — "when he arraigns the acts,^'' (no
matter how murderous) " of thirty citizens of this
place, it is high time for him to reflect seriously
on the consequences." 7th. The open advocacy
of '' Lynch law" by a set argument, boldly set-
ting it above all codes, with which the editor
closes his article, reveals a public sentiment in
the community which shows, that in North Ca-
rolina, though society may still rally under the
flag of civilization, and insist on wrapping itself
in its folds, barbarism is none the less so in a stolen
livery, and savages are savages still, though
tricked out with the gauze and tinsel of the stars
and stripes.
It may be stated, in conclusion, that the North
Carolina "Literary and Commercial Journal,"
from which the article is taken, is a large six-
columned paper, edited by F. S. Proctor, Esq., a
graduate of a University, and of considerable
literary note in the South.
Having drawn out this topic to so great a
length, we waive all comments, and only say to
the reader, in conclusion, ponder these things,
and lay it to heart, that slaveholding " is justified
of her children." Verily, they have their re-
ward ! " With what measure ye mete withal it
shall be measured to you again." Those who
combine to trample on others, will trample on
each other. The habit of trampling upon one, be-
gets a state of mind that will trample upon all.
Accustomed to wreak their vengeance on their
slaves, indulgence of passion becomes with slave-
holders a second law of nature, and, when excited
even by their equals, their hot blood brooks nei.
ther restraint nor delay ; gratification is the first
thought — prudence generally comes too late, and
the slaves see their masters fall a prey to each
other, the victims of those very passions which
have been engendered and infuriated by the prac-
tice of arbitrary rule over them. Surely it need
not be added, that those who thus tread down
their equals, must trample as in a wine-press
their defenceless vassals. If, when in passion,
they seize those who are on their own level, and
dash them under their feet, with what a crush-
ing vengeance will they leap upon those who are
always under their feet ?
INDEX.
To facilitate the use of the Index, some of the more common topics are aiTanged under one general title. Thus all the
volumes which are cited are classed under the word, Books ; and to that head reference must be made. The same plaii
has been adopted concerning Female Slave-Drivers, Laics, jYarratives, Overseers, Rxmcways, Slaveholders, Slave-
J^urdorers Slave-Plantations, Slaves, Female and Male, Testimony and Witnesses. Therefore, with a few emphatical
exceptions only, the facts will be found, by recurrhig to the prominent person or subject wivich any circumstance in-
cludes- All other miscellaneous articles will be discovered in alphabetical order.
A.
Absolute power of slaveholders
Absurdity of slaveholding pretexts
Abuse of power
Accliraated slaves
Adrian
Adultery in a preacher's house
Advertisement for slaves
Advertisement for slaves to hire
Advertisements, 62, 63, 77-82, 83,
Affray
African slave-trade
Aged slaves uncommon
Alabama
Alexander the tyrant
Allowance of provisions
Amalgamation
American Colonization Society
60
116
" Amiable and touching charity !"
114
7
Amusements of slave-drivers
107.
186
115
Animals and slaves, usage of, contrasted
112
161
Antioch, massacre at
120
119
" Arbitrary,"
115
. 180
Arbitrary power, cruelty of
117
41
" " pernicious
115
34, 136, 137
Ardor in betting
171
, 152, 164,
Arius
120
167, 168, 172
Arkansas
188
201, 203
Atlantic Slaveholding Region
206
8, 113
Auctioneers of slaves
174,
181
38
Auctions for slaves
167,
174
39, 177, 192
Augustine
103
127, 92
Aurelius
119
13, 47, 98
Aversion between the oppressor and the slave 116
1, 51, 97, 107
Index.
211
B.
Babbling of slaveholders 9
Backs of slaves carded 46
" " putrid 54
" Ball and chain" men 108
Baptist preachers 97
Battles in Cong-ress 184
Beating a woman's face with shoes 26
Bedaubing of slaves with oil and tar 27
Begetting slaves for pay 16
" Bend your backs" 47
Benevolence of slaveholders 125
Betting on crops 38, 103
" slaves 176
Beware of Kidnappers 140
Bibles searched for 51
Blind slaves 133, 136
Blocks with sharp pegs and nails 104
Blood-bought luxuries 55
Bodley, H. S. 149
Bones dislocated 77
155
60
155
59
167
155
123
52
125
178
African Observer
American Convention, minutes of
" Museum
" State Papers
Andrews' Slavery and the Slave Trade
Bay's Reports
Benezet's Caution to Britain and her Colonies
57, 112
Blackstone's Commentaries, by Tucker
Book and Slavery irreconcilable
Bourgoing's Spain ,
Bourne's Picture of Slavery
Brevard's Digest of the Laws of South Caro-
lina 35, 40, 116, 143, 144, 145, 147
Brewster's Exposition of Slave Treatment 30
Buchanan's Oration 58, 112, 118
Carey's American Museum
CaroUna, History of
Channing on Slavery
Charity, " amiable and touching ! "
Childs' Appeal
Civil Code of Louisiana
Clay's Address to Georgia Presbytery
Colonization Society's Reports
Cornehus Elias, Life of
Davis's Travels in Louisiana
Debates in Virginia Convention
55
35
38, 127
114
124, 140
116
30
60
161
35, 36, 134
183
Devereux's North Carolina Reports 143, 149
Dew's Review of Debates in the Virginia
Legislature 182
Edwards' Sermon 28, 58, 118
Emancipation in the West Indies 129
Emigrant's Guide through the Valley of Mis-
sissippi 135
Gales' Congressional Debates 164
Harris and Johnson's Reports 133
Haywood's Manual 29, 144, 148
Hill's reports 143
Human Rights 93
James' Digest 143
Jefferson's Notes 117
Josephus' History 119
Justinian, Institutes of 117
Kennet's Roman Antiquities 119
Laponneray's Life of Robespierre 121
Law of Slavery 149
Laws of United States 32
Lcland's necessity of Divine Revelation 127
Letters from the South, by J. K. Paulding 76, 89
Life of Elias Cornelius 161
Louisiana, civil code of HG
" sketches of 42
Martineau's Harriet, Society in America 139
Martin's Digest of the laws of Louisiana 40,
143. 146. 149, 163
Maryland laws of 155
Mead's Journal 59
Mississippi Revised Code 143 144
Missouri Laws 144
Modern state of Spain by J F. Bourgoing 125
Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws 118
Necessity of Divine Revelation 127
Niles' Baltimore Register 60
North Carolina Reports by Devereaux,128,143,149
Oasis 160
Parrish's remarks on slavery 30, 155
Paulding's letters from the South 76, 89
Paxton's letters on slavery I44
Presbyterian Synod, Report of II7
Picture of slavery 178
Prince's Digest 116, 144, 150
Prison Dicipline Society, reports of 33, 35
Rankin's Letters 60
Reed and Matheson's visit to Am. churches 39
Review of Nevins' Biblical Antiquities 128
Rice, speech of in Kentucky convention 112
Robespierre, Life of l21
Robin's travels 39, 59
Roman Antiquities 119
Savery's Journal 30, 65
Slavery and the Slave Trade 167
Society in America 131
Sewall's Diary 113
South Carohna, Laws of 116, 121, 143, 144
South vindicated by Drayton 110
Spirit of Laws 118
Swain's address 60
Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws 143, 144,
148. 149. 150, 155
Taylor's Agricultural Essays 35, 138
Travels in Louisiana 35, 36, 134
Tucker's Blackstone 123
Tucker's Judge, Letter 117
Turner's Sacred History of the world 121
Virginia Legislature, Review of Debates in 182
" Revised Code 143, 144
" Negro-raising state 182
Visit to American churches, 39
Western Medical Journal 60
Western Medical Reformer 31
Western Review 35
Wheeler's Law of slavery 60,163
Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry 109
Woolman John, Life of 58, 113
Books of slaves stolen 51
Borrowing of slaves 55
Bourne, George, anecdote of 52
Boy killed 97
Boys fight to amuse their drivers 107
Bowie Knives 190
Boys' retort 57
Brandings 77, 108
Branding with hot iron 21
Brassos 102
"Breeders" llO
Breeding of slaves prevented 39
212
Index.
" Breeding wenches "
15,
175
<' " comparative value of
167
Bribes for begetting slaves
16
Brick-yards
18
" Broken-winded " slaves
38
Brutality to slaves
148,
149
Brutes and slaves treated alike
106
Burial of slaves
5
Burning of Mc Intosh
157
Burning slaves 26, 72, 86, 93,
155,
157
Burning with hot iron
26
Burning with smoothing irons
68
Butchery
C
Cabins of slaves 11, 19, 41, 43,
193,
196
101,
106
Cachexia Africana
3]
, 43
Caligula
121,
149
Can't believe
114
Capital Crimes
149
Captain in the U. S. navy, tried for murder 26
Carding of Slaves 46
Cat-hauling 21, 88
Cato the Just 8, 126
Causes of the laws punishing cruelty to slaves 147
Chained slave 13
Chains 72
Changes in the market 134
Character of Overseers 72, 95,169
" Romans 118
" Slave-dnvers 109
Charleston 22, 44
" Infirmary at 170
« Jail 23
" Slave auctions 174
" Surgery at 170
Woik-house 23, 171
Chastity punished 15
Child-bearing prevented 57
Child-birth of slaves 12
Childhood unprotected 167
Children flogged 20
" naked 19
Choking of slaves 23
Chopping of slaves piecemeal 93
Christian females tortured 119
" martyr 24
" slave-iiunting 108
" islave-murderer 50
Christian, slave whipped to death 50
Christians, persecutions of 119
" slavery among 45, 176
" treat their slaves like others 42, 177
Christian woman kidnapped 52
Chronic diseases 44
Churches, abuse of power in 115
Church members 47
'' Citizens sold as slaves" 41
Civilization and morality 188
Clarkson, Thomas 8
Claudius 121
Clemens 119
Clothing for slaves 13, 19, 40, 47, 95, 98, 105, 106
Cock-fighting 186
Code of Louisiana 116
Collars of iron 72, 74
Columbia, district of 67
" fatal af&ay at 201
Comfort of slaves disregarded 55, 56
Commodus 121
Concubinage 85
Condemned criminals 150
Condition of slaves 108
Confinement at night 22
Congress of the United'States 114
'' a bear garden 184
Connecticut, law of, against Quakers 113
Constables, character of 20
Constantine the Great 120
Contempt of human life 198
Contrasts of benevolence 126
Conversation between C, and H 104
Converted slave 23
Cooking for slaves 18
Correction moderate ] 48
Corrupting influence of slavery 16
Cotton-picking 96
Cotton-plantations 105
Cotton seed mixed with corn for food 29
Council of Nice 120
Courts, decrees of 164
Cowhides, with shovel and tongs 104
Crack of the whip heard afar off 107
Crimes of slaves, capital 149
Criminals condemned 150
Cringing of Northern Preachers 16
Cropping of ears 20, 83
Crops for exportation 135
Cruelties, common 87
" inflicted upon slaves 57, 87
" of Cortez in Mexico 8
" Ovando in Hispaniola 8
" Pizarro in Peru 8
" of slave-drivers incredible 110
Cruel treatment of slaves the masters' interest 138
Cultivation of rice 106
Cutting of A. T.'s throat by a Presbyterian
woman 47
D.
D'Almeydra, Donna Sophia 123
Damaged negroes bought 171
Darlington C. H., South Carolina 25
Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay 85
"Dead or Alive" 21, 23, 156
Dead slave claimed 178
Deaf slaves 133, 136
Death at child birth 45, 90
Death-bed, horrors of a slave driver 23
Death by violence, 197
Death of a slave murderer 94
Decrees of Courts 164
Decisions, judicial 144
Declarations of slaveholders 28
Deformed slaves 133
Delivery of a dead child from whipping 46, 90
Description of slave drivers, by John Ran-
dolph 173
Despair of slaves 102
Desperate affray 193
"Despot" 115
" Dimensum " of Roman slaves 34
Diseased slaves J33
Dislocation of bones 77
District of Columbia 67
" " prisons in, 163
Ditty of slaves 13
" Doe-faces " — " Dough-faces" 114
Dogs provided for 19
Dogs to hunt slaves 15
Inaex.
213
Domestic slavery 164
Domitian 121
Donnell, Rev. Mr. 70
" Dough-faces " 114
"Drivers" 110
Driving of slaves 89, 92
Droves of" human cattle " 76
" " slaves . 69, 70, 167
Duelling 185
Dumb slaves 133, 136
Dwellings of slaves 43
Dying slaves 45
Dying young women 44
E.
Ear-cropping 20, 77, 83
Early market 134
Ear-notching 83, 84
Ear-slitting 23
Eating tobacco w'orms 88
Effects of pubhc opinion concerning slavery 144
Emancipation society of North Carolina 60
English ladies and gentlemen 123
Enormities of slave drivers 114
Evenings in the " Negro quarter" 20
Evidence of slaves vs. white persons null 12, 71
Ewall, Merry 162
Examples pleaded in justification of cruel-
ty to slaves 104
Exchange of slaves 168
Exportation of slave from Virginia 182, 184
Eyes struck out 20, 77
F.
Faithof objectors who "can'i JeKece" 113, 114
Fatal rencontre 193
" Fault-finding " 54
Favorite amusements of slaveholders 186
Fear, the only motive of slaves 108
Feast for slaves 87
Feeding insufficient 30
Feeble infants 133
Felonies on account of slavery 113
" perpetrated with impunity 113
Female hypocrite 22, 53
Females in brick yards 18
Female slave deranged, 97, 106
FEMALE SLAVE DRIVEES.
Burford, Mrs. 180— Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth L.
79^ 172— Charleston, 22, 23— Charlestown, Va.
181— Galway, Mrs. 12— Harris, Mrs. 26— H.
Mrs. throat cutter, 47 — Laurie Madame La, 91 —
Mallix Mrs. 65— Mann Mrs. 71— Mabtin Mrs.
81 — Maxwell Mrs. 1 — McNeil Mrs. 68 — Morgan
Mrs. — Newman Mrs. B. 172— Pence Mrs, 178
— Philips Mrs. 70 — Professor of religion, 44, 53 —
Ruffner Mrs. 50— South Carolina, 24 — Starky
]\jrs. 68 — Swan Mrs. 14 — Teacher at Charleston,
54— T. Mrs. 101— Trip Mrs. 52— Truby, Mrs.
100— Turner Mrs. 87— Walsh, Sarah, 172.
Female slave starved to death 23
' " whipped to death by a
Methodist preacher 173
Female stripped by order of her mistress 14
Fetters 21, 72, 74
Field-hands 130
Fighting of boys to amuse their drivers 107
' Fine old preacher who dealt in slaves' 180
Fingers cut ofli" 77
Flogging for unfinished tasks 12
" of children 20
" '' pregnant women until they
miscarry 20
" ;< slaves 20, 25, 2G, 53, 107
" '' young man 106
Floggings 26, 62
Florida 38
Food, kinds of 2S
" of slaves 18, 27, 47, 95, 101, 105, 106
" quahtyof 30
" quantity of 29, 98
Free citizens stolen 162, 164
Free woman 56
" " kidnapped 52
Frequent murders 46 204, 208
Friends, emorialof 164
Front-teeth knocked out 83
Fundamental rights destroyed 150
G.
Gadsden Thomas N. Slave Auctioneer 174
Gagging of slaves 75
Galloway flogging Jo. 14
Gambling on crops 38
Gambling slaveholder 46
Gang of slaves 76
Generosity of slaveholders 123
Georgia 61, 206
Girls' backs burnt with smoothing irons 68
Girls' toe cut off 181
Good treatment of slaves 123
Governor of North Carolina 24
" Shiraz 122
Grand Jury presentment of, 202, 202
Guiltiness of Slavery 17
Gun shot wounds 77
H.
Habits of slave-drivers 53
Hampton Wade, murderer of slaves 29
Handcuffs 72
" Hands tied" 16
Hanging of nine slaves 158
Harris Benjamin, slave murderer 26
' Head found 169
Head of a runaway slave on a pole 33
Health of slaves 161
Heart of slaveholders 47
Herding of slaves, . 47
Hilton James, slave murderer 46
Hired slaves 133, l36
Hiring of slaves 55
" Horrible malady" 31
' Horrid butchery' 193
Horrors of a slave-driver at death 23
" " the " middle passage" ll3
Horse-racing 186
Horses more cared for than slaves 19
Hospitality of slaveholders 123
Hours of rest 36
" " work 13, 14, 36, 103, 105, 108
Hospital at New Orleans 161
House-slaves 52
Houses of slaves 19
" House-wench" 48
Hovels of slaves "■ 4«
HuguenotSj persecution of 8
214
Index.
«' Human cattle," 76, 110
Human rights against slavery 7
Hunger of slaves 28
Hunter of slaves 21
Hunting men with dogs 155, 160
Hunting of slaves 21, 97, 108, 155, 159, 160
Hunt, Rev. Thomas P. 16
Husband whipping his wife 85
Huts of slaves 11, 19, 41, 43, 101, 106
Hymn-books searched for 51
Hypocrisy of vice 8
Idiot slaves
133
Ignatius
10
Ignorance of northern citizens ofslavery
102
" " slaveholders
107
Impunity of killing slaves 2 1, 46, 47, 50, 54, 91, 92
Inadequate clothing
41
Income from hiring slaves
55
Incorrigible slaves
133
Incredibility of evidence against slavery
110
Incredulity discreditable to consistency
112
" " " intelligence
115
Indecency of slave-drivers
153
Indiana Legislature, resolutions of
59
Infant drowned
12
Infant slaves
133
Infirmary at Charleston
170
Infliction of pain
55
Inspection of naked slaves
154
Intercession for slaves
12
Interest of slaveholders
132
Introduction
7
Iron collars
21, 72, 74, 75
Iron fetters
2
, 72, 74
Iron head-front,
76
Israelites in Egypt,
142
J.
Jewish law
54
Joe flogged
14
Jones, Anson, Minister from Texas
102
Judicial decisions
144
Kentucky
66, 202
" Sunday morning
160
Kicking of slaves
97
Kidnappers
140
Kidnapping
140,
141, 164
Kindness of slaveholders
125
Kinds of food
28
Kind treatement of slaves.
8
Knives, Bowie
190
Knocking out of teeth,
L.
Labor, hours of
13
, 20, 83
36, 108
Labor of slaves
18,35
Ladies Benevolent Society
44
Ladies flog with cowhides
104
Ladies, public opinion known
by
172
Ladies use shovel and tongs
104
Law concerning slavery
143, 144
Law-making
151
Laws, Georgia
40
" Louisiana
40, 116,
143, 163
" Maryland
40, 155
" Mississippi 143
" North Carolina 31, 128, 143, 144
" South Carolina 40, 116, 143, 144, 155
" Spirit of 151
" Tennessee 148
" United States 32
" Virginia 40, 143
Law, safeguards of taken from slaves 116
Law suit for a murdered slave, 71
Legal restraints 116
Licentiousness - 16
" encouraged by preachers 180
Licentiousness of slavedrivers 70, 97
" Lie dov;n" for whipping, 107
Life in the South-west, 197
Lives of slaves unprotected 155
Lodging of slaves 43
Long, his cruelty 50
' Loss of property' 169
Louisiana 39 198
" law of, 40
" sketches of, 42
Louis XIV. of France 8
Lovers severed, 56
Lunatic slaves 133
" Lynchings" in the United States 113
Lynch Law, 199
M.
Maimed slaves 133
Maimings 77
Malady of slaves 31
Manacling of slaves 21
Maniac woman 97, 106
Man sold by a Presbyterian elder 52
Man-stealing paid for 90
Marriage unknown among slaves 47
Martyr for Christ 24
Maryland Journal 29, 58
Maryville Intelligencer 61, 114
Massacre at Antioch 120
" " Thessalonica 120
" " Vicksburg 146
Masters grant no redress to slaves 95
Mcintosh, burning of 157
Maximin ]21
Meals number of 31
" of slaves 18, 19, 55
" time of 31
" Meat once a year" 29
Mediation for slaves 12
Medical attendance 55
" college of South Carolina 169
" Infirmary at Charleston 171
Medicine administered to slaves 14
Members of churches 47
Memorial of friends 164
Menagerie of slaves 182
Men and women whipped 107
Methodist colored preacher hung, 96
Methodist girl whipped for her chastity 15
Methodist preacher, a slave dealer 180
" " " driver 11
'' woman cut off" a girl's toe 181
Method of taking meals 18, 19
" Middle passage" 8, 113
Miscarriage of women at the whipping post 20
Mississippi 39, 194
Missouri 191
Mistresses flog slaves, 55
Index.
215
68
21, 148
113
191
164, 165
9(3
51
139
2G, 90
90
29
34
39
Mobile
" Moderate correction"
Moors, repulsion ol'
Morgan, William
Mormons
Mothers and babes separated
Mothers of slaves
Mulatto children in all families
Multiplying of slaves
Murderers of slaves tried and acquitted
Murder of slaves by law
tt «» " bad feeling
ti " '' piece-meal
u <i every seven years
u .. frequent 46,97,176
«» " with impunity, 21, 46, 47,
50,54,91,92,96,97.100,102,108,176
Murders in Alabama, |^~
«' " Arkansas, ^°°
N.
Naked children 19. 41, 95
" females whipped ^*> |^^
" " inspected •'■"'4
" Men and women at work in a field lOl
Nakedness of slaves 19, 40, 41, 95, 101
Nantz, edict of Jt
• National slave-market' ,„„ in/J
Natchez 107, 196
Nat Turner _^'?
' Negro Head Point, 161
♦ Negroes for sale, *° '» f ' jr
' Negroes taken j^::
Nero 1;^
' Never lose a day's work' ^,'*
New England, witches of ^^^
New Orleans ^|
Hospital 1°1
New York, thirteen persons burnt at 11^
Nice, council of
' Nigger put in the bill' ^ '^
Night-confinement ^;f
Night at a slaveholder's house ^i
Night in slave huts I'^R
Nine slaves hanged 1^^
No marriage among slaves 4 /
North Carolina ^^' ^^
«. " Governor of '^j
t« " Legislature of 115i 1^4
" " Kidnappers 164
Northern visitors to the slave states, 128
Nothing can disgrace slave-drivers 5d
Novel torture •'.'i^
Nudity of slaves 40, 41, 47, 95
Nursing of slave-children ■'•■^
Overseers, character of 72, 95, 96, 109
" generally armed ll, 12, 72
'' no appeal from 95
Overseers of slaves —
Alabama, 95— Alexander killed, 102— Belle-
mont, 53— Bellows, 72— IMockon's, 47— Bradley,
70— Cormick's, 86— Cruel to a proverb, 10&—
Farr, James, 99— Galloway, 11— (Jibbs, 70
Goochland, 26— Methodist preacher, 11— Mil-
lio-an's Bend, 75— Nowland's, 92— Tune, 45-
Turncr's cousin, 46— Walker, 47— Overworkmg
of slaves, 35, 37— Ownership of human bemgs
destroys their comfort, 109.
71
20, 46, 103
109
53
56
130
97
14
16
134
113, 1 8
O.
Objections considered
Ocra, a slave-driver.
Oiling of a slave
Old age uncommon among slaves
" " unprotected
Old dying slaves
" Old settlement"
" slaves
Oppressor aversion of to his slave
Outlawry of slaves
HO
106
27
38
167
12
99
133
116
156
» Paddle" torture
Paddle whipping
Pain, the means of slave drivers
" Pancake sticks"
Parents and children separated
Parlor-slaves
Parricide threatened
Patrol
Pay for begetting mulatto slaves
Periodical pressure
Persecution of Huguenots
Persecution for religion
Personal Narratives,, U, 17, 22 25 26 44,
45, 48, 51,
Philanthropist 66
Philip II. and the Moors °
Physicians not employed for slaves 17b
Physicians of slaves 44, 47
Physician's statement 104
Pig-sties more comfortable than slave-huts, 101
Plantations 94
Pleas for cruelty to slaves 1"*
Ploughs and whips equally common 104
Pliny ^^l
Poles, Russian clemency to ^
Polycarp ^^^
" Poor African slave" -^^
Portuguese slaves ^
Pothinus _
Prayer of slaves ^'
Praying and slave-whippmg in the same room Sd
Praying slaves whipped °^
Preacher claims a dead slave J-7»
Preacher hung, ^^
Preachers, cringing of ^
Preacher's " hands tied" ^^
Preachers silenced ^
Pregnant slaves ^^.^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^
Presbyterian Elders at Lynchburg 181
Presbyterian minister killed his slave ^^
Presbyterian slave-trader •^'
Presbyterian woman desirious to cut A. 1 3
throat ^.r.
Presentment of the Grand Jury at Cheraw 155
Pretexts for slavery absurd 7
Prisons in the District of Columbia 1^^
Prison slave
Outrageous Felonies on account of slavery 113
" " perpetrated with impunity lid
Privations of the slaves —
Clothing, 40-Dwellings, 43-Food,27-Kinds
of food, 28-Labor, 25-Number of meals, ol-
Quality of food, 30— Quantity of food, 29— lime
of meals, 31.
216
Index.
Promiscuous concubinage §5
" Property" HO
" ' Joss of 159
Protection of slaves ' 143
Protestants in France 8
Provisions, allowance of 13
Public opinion destroys fundamental rights, 150
" " diabolical 152
" " protects the slave 143, 144
Punishment of slaves ]9, 20
Punishments 62, 'lOi^
Purchasing a wife I79
Puryer, " the devil" 47
Putrid backs of slaves 54
Quality of food
Quantity of food
Q.
R.
30
13, 29
Race of slaves murdered every seven years 39
Randolph John will of 42, 58
" " description of slavedrivers J.73
" " Doe faces"
Rations
Rearing of slaves
Relaxation, no time for
Religious persecutions
Respect for woman lost
Rest, hours of
Restraints, legal
Retort of a boy
Rhode Island, kidnappers and pirates of
Rice plantations
Richmond Whig
Rio Janeiro slavery at
Riot at Natchez
Riots in the United States
Robespierre
Romans
Roman slavery
Runaways
Runaway Slaves —
Advertisements for
Baptist man and woman
Buried alive
Chilton's
Converted
" Dead or alive"
Head on a pole
Hung
Hunting of
Intelligent man
Jim Dragon
Luke
Man buried
" dragged by a horse
" maimed
" murdered
" severe punishments of
" shot "" "' — -- -
114
33
182
106
113
153
36
116
57
113
106
110
8
196
113
121
118-126
21-133-136
62-63
88
15
27
23
21
23
46
21-97
22
47
14
15
85
85
76-100
103
15, 21, 46, 91 96, 100, 102, 107
** " by Baptist preacher 181
" taken from jail 16
" tied and driven 92
" to his wife 23
'' whipped to death 87
Many, annually shot 108
Stallard's man 89
White Peter 91
Young wom?.n 24, 88
S.
Sabbath, a nominal hohday, 106
Safeguards of the law taken from slaves, 116
Sale of a man by a Presbyterian elder, 52
Sale of slaves, I67
Savannah, Ga., 17
Savannah slave-hunter, 21
Save us from our friends, 193
Scarcity, times of 134
Scenes of horror, 20
Search for Bibles and Hymn books, 51
Secretary of the Navy, 76, 89
Separation of slaves, 56, 101, 164
Shame unknown among naked slaves, 101
Shoes for slaves, 19
Sick, treatment of 161
" Six pound paddle," 71
" Slack-jaw," 97
Slave-breeders, 143
" breeding, 182
Slave-drivers acknowledge their enormities, 114
" " character of 109
Slaveholders —
Adams,
Baptist preachers,
Barr,
Baxter, George A
Baxter, John
Bloeker, Colonel
Blount,
Britt, Benjamin W.
Burbecker,
Burvant, Mrs.
C. A., Rev.
Casey,
Chilton, Joseph
Clay,
C, Mr.
Cooper, Charity
Curtis,
Davis, Samuel
Dras, Henry
Delaware,
Female hypocrite,
Gautney, Joseph
Gayle, Governor
Governor of North Carolinaj.
Green,
Hampton, Wade
Harney, William S.
Harris, Benjamin James
Hayne, Governor
Hedding,
Henrico county, Va.,
Heyward, Nathaniel
Hughes, Philip O.
Hutchinson, '-;
Hypocrite woman.
Indecency of,
Jones,
Jones, Henry
Lewis, Benjamin,
Lewis, Isham,
Lewis, Lilburn,
Lewis, Rev. Mr.
Long, Lucy
Long, Reuben
L., of Bath, Ky.,
69, 159
97, 177
46.
179
179
47
65
91
88
173
179
69
27
71
103
173
64
90
175
172
22
99
172
24
157
29
89
26
166
51
26
174
100
86
22
153
47
89
178
93
93
181
173
50
90
Index.
217
Maclay, John "1
Martin, Rev. James 181
Matthews' Bend, <J9
M'Cov, 99
M'Cuc, John 178
JV'^thodist, / 42
Methodist Preachers, 180
M'IN'eiliy, 155
Moresville, 90
Morgan, 85
Mosely, William 46
Murderer, 21
Mushat, Rev. John 177
Nanseinond, Va., 84
Natchez planter, 87
Nelson, Alexander 51, 179
Nichols, of Connecticut, 27
North Carohna, 24, 161
Owens, Judge, 69
Painter, 65
Physician, 55
Pinckney, H. L. 172
Presbyterian, 97
Presbyterian minister, Huntsville, 47
" " North Carolina, 96
" preacher, 180
Professing Christian, 23
Puryar, "the Devil," 47
Randolph, John 42
Reiks, Micajah, 152
Rodney, 87
Ruffner, 50
Shepherd, S. G. 29
Sherrod, Ben 47
Slaughter, 65
Smith, Judge 45, 176
Sophistry of 9
South Carolina, 23, 25
Sparks, William 91
Stallard, David 89.
Starky, 68
Swan, John 11
Teacher at Charleston, 54
Thompson, 47
Thorpe, 71
Trabue, Charles 71
Tripp, James , 25
Truly, James I 100
Turner, Fielding S. • 87
Turner, uncle of 46
Virginian, 44
Wall, 91
Watkins, Billy 47
Watkins, Robert H. 45, 47, 176
Watson, A. 175
W., Colonel 103
Webb, Carroll 105
Pleasant 187
West's uncle, 68
Widow and daughter, Savannaa river, 98
Willis, Robert 180
Wilson, WiUiam 178
Woman, 23, 24
Woman, professor of religion, 22, 44, 53
Slaveholders justify theur cruelties by example, 1 04
" possess absolute power, 116
" sophistry of 9
Slaveholding amusements, 107, 186
" brutality, 149, 153
28
" indecency, 153
" murderers, 189, 190
" religion, 54
Slave-mothers, 90
" plantations second only to hell, 114
Slavery among Christians, 45
Slavery illustrated —
Slave-auctions, 167
" blocks with nails, 104
" boys fight to amuse their drivers, 107
" branding, 21, 77, 108
" breeding, 39, 85, 182
" burner, 26
" burning, 72, 155
Slave-cabins, 11, 16, 19, 41, 43, 101, 106
«' at night, 19,22,25
Slave-children nursed, 12
" choking,
23
" clothing, 13, 19, 40, 47, 95, 98,
105, 106
" collars, 21, 72, 74, 75
" cookery.
18
Slave-ditty,
13
" dogs.
15,21
" driver's death.
23,94
" " Ucentiousness of
70
" driving.
85,92
" fetters, 21, 72, 74
" food, 18,27,47,95,101
105,106
" gagging,
75
" gangs.
76
" handcuffs.
72
" herding.
19,47
Slaveholders, civihzation and morality of
188
" declarations of
28
" habits of
53
" heart of
145
" hospitality of
125
" interest of
132
" sophistry of
a
" " treat their slaves well,"
•' 121
Slaveholding professor,
50
" Slaveholding religion,"
S4
Slave-hovels,
47, 106
" hunting, 21, 97, 108,
155, 160
«' " by Christians,
108
« «« in Texas,
102
Slave imprisoned.
23
" in chains.
13
" in the stocks.
12
" kicking.
97
" killed, and put in the hill.
172
«« killing vvdth impunity, 21, 46, 47, 5C
>, 54, 91,
92, 96, 97, 100, 102 lOS
" labor, 18 35,
103, 105
" manacles,
" martyr,
" meals,
" mothers,
'* murderers, tried and acquitted,
" patrol,
" physicians,
" punishments of
Slave quarters.
Slavery, code of law respecting,
" among Christians,
" domestic,
" guilt of,
" of whites,
♦' public opinion and effects of,
21
24
1&, 19
96
26
14
44
19, 20, 62
16, 17
143
45, 176
164
17
25
143, 144
218
Index.
" unmixed cruelty, 108
Slave selling, 167
Slaves, aversion of to their oppressors, 116
" backs of , putrid 13
» blind, 133
" books of searched for, 51
" branded, 77, 108
" brutality to, 148
" burial ot, 48
" carded, 46
" cat-hauling of, 21,88
" comfort of disregarded, 55, 56
" deaf, 133
" dead or aUve, 21, 23
" deformed, 133
" deprived of every safeguard of the law, 116
" described, 110
" diseased, 133
" dread to be sold for the South, 15
" dumb, 133
" dying, 45
" evidence of againstwhite personsnuU, 12, 71
" exchanged, 168
«' reported from Virginia, 192
" fear their only motive, 108
" feasted and flogged, 87
" hired, 133
" idiots, 133
" incorrigible, 133
" infant, 133
" in the stocks, 108
" " U. S., treatment of, 9
" lunatics, 133
" maimed, 77, 133
" merchandise, 110
" multiply, 139
" murdered by cotton-seed, 29
" " overwork, 37
«« " piece-meal, 34, 93
" " starvation, 37
«* " every seven years, 39
«' » frequently, 46, 97, 100
i« «' with impunity, 21, 46, 47, 50, 54,
91, 92, 96, 97, 100, 102
" naked, 19, 40, 41, 47
" not treated as human beings, 46
« old, 133
" outlawed, , 156
" overworked, 35
" prayers of, 17
" privations of, 27
" protection of, 143
" sale of, 167
" stock, 110
" surgeons of, 44
" taking medicine, 14
" tantahzed, 56
« starvation of, 13, 14, 28, 29, 35, 105
" teeth of knocked out, 13, 20, 22, 83
" tied up all night, 20
" toe cut oflT, 101
" torments of, 145
" . travelling in droves, 69, 70. 72
" treated worse as they are farther South, 15
*' treatment of" by Christians, 42
" under overseers, 133, 137
" watching of, 57
" without redress, 95
" " shelter, 43
<' working animals, ilO
" worn out, 133
" worse treated than brutes. 111, 112
" wounded by gun-shot, 77
Slave testimony excluded, 149
" torturing hypocrite, 22
" trade with Africa, 8
" trading, 49, 97
" " honorable, 174
" traffic, 97, 167
Slave Murderers, 21, 26, 29, 46, 50, 54, 91, 92,
93, 96, 97, 100, lOl, 108, 157, 158, 159, 161, 173,
177, 179, 181.
Slave plantation, 11, 24, 25, 29, 38,41, 42, 44,
45, 46, 53, 68, 70, 7], 72, 75, 76, 84, 85, 86, 92,
98, 99, 102, 105, 106, 207, 114, 174.
Slave usage contrasted with that of animals, 112
Slave whipping, 20, 25, 26, 27, 51, 59, 98, 106
Slave yokes.
Whipped
Whipped and burnt
Whipped to death
Slaves, treatment of
Slave trade.
Sleeping in clothes.
Slitting of ears.
Smoothing iron on girl's backs,
Sophistry of slaveholders,
74
26, 47, 50, 70, 85, 98, 100
26, 86, 92
26, 50, 64, 67, 70, 72, 87, 90
9
139, 140, 182, 184
19
23
68
9
South Carolina, laws of 40, 116
" " medical college, 169
Southern dogs and horses, 19
Spartan slavery, 8
Speece, Rev. Conrad, opposed to emancipation, 52
Spirit of laws, 151
Springfield, S. C. 25
Starvation of a female slave, 23
" " slaves, 105
Statement of a physician, 104
State, abuse of power in 115
Stealing of freemen, 162
Stevenson, Andrew, letter by 182
St. Helena, S. C. 25
Stillman's, Dr. medical infirmary at Charleston, 171
Stocks for slaves, 11, 108, 175
" Stock without shelter," 71
" Subject of prayer," 54
Suffering of slaves, 57, 102, 105
" " " by hunger, 28, 105
drives to despair and suicide, 102
Sugar-planters,
Suicide of slaves.
Suit for a dead slave,
" " " murdered slave,
Sunday morning in Kentucky,
Surgeon of slaves.
Surgery at Charleston,
" Susceptibilitv of pain,"
Tanner's oil poured on a slave
Tantahsing of slaves
Tappan Arthur
Tarring of slaves
Taskwork of slaves
Teeth knocked out
Tunder regard of slaveholders for slave
Teimessee
38
102
178
71, 102
168
44
170
109
27
56
47
27
12
13, 20, 83
7,8
200
Index.
219
Testimony. —
Allen, Rev. William T.
Avery, George A.
Caulkins, Neiiemiah
Clianninu, Dr.
Chapin Rev. William A.
Chapman, Gordon
Cler/yman,
Cruelty to slaves
Dickey, Rev. William
Drayton, Colonel
Gilderslecve, William C,
Graham, Rev. John
Grimke, Sarah M.
Hawley, Rev. Francis
Ide, Joseph lOl
Jefferson, Thomas
Macy, F. C
" Reuben G,
" Richard
«« T. D. M.
Moulton,. Rev. Horace
Nelson, John M.
New Orleans
Of slaves excluded
Paulding, James K.
Foe, William
Powel, Eleazar
Sapington, Lemuel
Scales, Rev. William
Secretary of the Navy
Smith, Rev. Phineas
Summers, Mr.
Virginian
Westgate, George W.
Weld, Angelina Grimke
White, Hiram
Wist, Willam
45
44
10
38,44
105
84
107
57
93
110
50
25
22,44
94
101
110
106
98
98
105
17, 109
51
35,91
149
76,89
26
99
49
100
76,89
109
J 10
76
30
52
51
109
102
120
120
51
121
106
134
119
University of Virginia
Untimely seasons
Usage of slaves and brutes contrasted
Vapid babblings of slaveholders
Vice, liypocrisy of
Vicksburg, massacre of
Virginia, a slave menagerie
" exportation of slaves from
" University of
Visitors to slave states
Vitcllius
114
134
111, 112
Texas
Theodosius the Great
Thessalonica, massacre at
Thumb-screws
Tiberius
Time for relaxation, not allowed
Times of scarcity
Titus
Tobacco worms eaten o°
Toes cut off iq on 22
Tooth knocked out l-*. -^^u, ^^
Tortures
« eulogized by a professor of religion 104
Trading with negroes 209
Traffic in slaves _^l
Trajan ^V^
Treatment of sick slaves 44
Treatment of slaves in the United States 9, 48
by professing Christians 42, 97. 180
'' httle better than that of brutes 10b
Trial of women, " white and black," 25
Trials for murdering slaves 46, 91, 94, 108, 173
Turkish slavery ^
Turner, Nat , ^°
Twelve slaves killed by overwork 97
Twenty-seven hundred thousands of free-bom
citizens in the United States 7
Tying up of slaves at night 20
" Tyrant" 115
" Uncle Jack," Baptist preacher 179
Under garments not allowed to slaves l3
United States, Laws of 32
146
182
182
114
128
120
Washing for slaves 95
Washington slavery 67
" the national slave market 76
West Indian slaves 1^2
Whip, cracking of heard at a distance l07
" Whipped to death" 72, 96, 102, 108
Whipping —
Children 20
Everv day 1^"
Females 13, 14, 48, 53, 103, 107
On three plantations heard at one time 108
Pregnant women 20, 90, 179
Slaves 13, 20, 22, 25, 26, 50, 51, 88, 98, 102,
Slaves after a feast ^7
" for praying ^8
With paddle 20, 46
Women with prayer ia on ar
Whipping-posts -lO) •^"' ^o
Whips equally common on plantations as
ploughs 10*
" White or black," trial of 25
Whites in slavery 25
White slave 48
Wholesale murders 200
Wife, purchase of a 1'"
Will of John Randolph 42
Wilmington, N. C. 11
Witches of New-England 113
WITNESSES.
Aobot, Jordan '^^
Abdie, P. 1^3
Adams, Mr. l^"
African Observer !< 155
Alexandria Gazette 150
Allan, James M., 45
Allan, Rev, William T. 45, 61, 180
Alston, J. A., Hehs of, 85
Alton Telegraph ' 157
Alvis, J. 164
Anderson, Benjamin 42
Andrews, Professor 167
Anthony, Julius C. . 68
Antram, Joshua °0
Appleton, John James . ' "0
Arkansas Advocate • 162
Armstrong, William 64, 157
Artop, James ' ^
Ashford, J. P. .1 -. 78, 153
Augusta Chronicle 165
Avery, George A. 42, 43, 127, 172
Aylethorpe, Thomas , 83
Bahi, P. 154, 167
Baker, William 81
Baldwin, J. G. 64
Baldwin, Jonathan F. 75
Balhnger, A. S. 81
220
Index.
Baltimore Sun ;," 163
Baptist Deacon 39
Bardwell, Rev. William 180
Barker, Jacob 141
Barnard, Alonzo 63
Barnes, George W. 84
Barr, James 81
" Mrs, ' 46
" Rev. Hugh 46
Barrer, B. G. 79
Barton, David W. 137
" Richard W. I37
Bateman, William 78
Baton Rouge, Agricultural Society of 38
Bayhi, P. 74, 8I
Beall, Samuel 168
Beasley, A. G. A. 84
" JohnC. 154
" Robert 63, 79
Beene, Jesse 63
BeU, Abraham 65
" Samuel 169
Bennett, D. B. 63
Besson, Jacob 154
Bezon, Mr. 79
Bingham, Joel S. 8I
Birdseye, Ezekiel 90, 157, l79
Birney, James G. 37, 47
Bishop, J. 7g
Blackwell, Samuel 39
Bland, R. J. 63
Bliss Mayhew and Co 168
" Philemon, 31, 35, 36, 37, 41,43, 102, 138
Bolton, J. L. and W. H. 73
Boudinot, Tobias
Bouldin, T. T.
Bourgoing, J. F.
Bourne, George
Bradley, Henry
Bragg, Thomas
Brasseale, W. H.
Brewster, Jarvis
Brothers, Menard
Brove, A.
Brown, J, A.
" John
« Rev. Abel
" Thomas
" William
Bruce Mr.
Buchanan, Dr.
Buckels, William D.
Bmrant, Madame
Burwell
Bush, Moses E.
Buster, Mr.
Butt, Moses
Byrn, Samuel H,
Calvert, Robert
Carney, R. P.
Carohna, History of
Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth L.
Caulkins, Nehemiah
Channing, Dr.
Chapin, Rev. William A»
Chapman, B. F.
'' Gurdon
Charleston Courier
" Mercury
" Patriot
28,92
40
125
28,52,178
157
166
63
30
73
81
77,82
47
88
80
80
182
40, 58, 112, 118
80
77
137
81
70
168
162
84
77
35
79, 172
11, 30, 31, 36
38, 44, 127
105
168
84
153, 156, 165, 166
84, 165, 171, 175
169
herry, John W.
80
Child, David L.
90
" Mrs.
90, 124, 140
Choules, Rev. John O.
39
Citizens of Onslow
156
Clark, W. G.
166
Clarke, John
87
Clay, Henry
37, 183
" Thomas
28, 29, 30
Clenderson, Benjamin
172
Clergyman
107
Coates Lindley
170
Cobb, W. D.
156
Colborn, J. L.
84
Cole, Nathan
61,89
Coleman, H.
156
Colonization Society
60
Columbian Inquirer
168
Comegys, Governor
163
Congress, Member of
67
Connecticut, Medical Society of
135
Constant, Dr.
67
Cooke, Owen
73
Cook, Giles
137
" H.L.
165
Cooper, Thomas
117
Cornelius, Rev. Elias
161
Corner, Charles
73
" L. E.
63
Cotton planters
38
Cowles, Mrs. Mary
85
" Rev. Sylvester
177
Craige, Charles
154
Crane, William
63
Crutchfield, Thomas
81
Cuggy, T.
73, 154
Curtis, Mr.
75
" Rev. John H.
64
Cuyler, J.
168
Daniel and Goodman
82
Darien Telegraph
207
Davidson, Rev. Patrick
179
Davis, John
35, 36
Davis, Benjamin
167
» T.
166
" Thomas
172
Dean, Jethro
68
Debruhl, Jesse
83,84
Demming, Dr.
39
Densler, T. S.
155
Derbigny, Judge
163
Dew, Philip A. ||
84
" President ''
182
Dickey, Rev. James H.
128
" William 1
93
Dickinson, Mr. ^
39
Dillahunty, John H. f
80
Doddridge, Philip >,•
183
Dorrah, James
62
Downman, Mrs. Lucy M. i
164
Douglas, Rev. J. W {"■
184
Drake and Thomson , j.
164
Drayton, Colonel
110
Drown, WiUiam
75
Dudley, Rev. John
74
Duggan, John
154
Dunn, John L-
165
Dunham, Jacob
177
Durell, Judge
131
Index.
221
Durett, Francis
Dustin, W
Dyer, William
Eastman, Rev. D, B,
Eaton, General William
Edmunds, Nicholas
Edwards, F. L. C
" President
" Junior "
Ellison, Samuel
Ellis, Orren
Ellsworth, Elijah
Emancipation Society of N.
Enorlish, Walter R.
Evans, R. A.
Everett, William
Faulkner, Mr.
Fayetteville Observer
Fernandez and Whiting
Finley, James C
" R. S.
Fishers, E, H. and I.
Fitzhugh, William H
Ford, John
Foster, Francis
Fox, John B.
Foy, Enoch
Francisville Chronicle
Franklin Republican
Frederick, John
Friends, Yearly Meeting of
Fuller, Isaac C.
Fullerton, G. S.
Furman, B.
Gadsden, Thomas N.
Gaines, Rev. Ludwell, G.
Gales, Joseph
Garcia, Henrico Y.
Garland, Maurice H.
Gates, Seth M.
Gayle, John
Georgetown Union
Georgia Constitutionalist
" Journal
Georgian
Gholson, Mr.
Giddings, Mr.
Gilbert, E. W.
Gildersterre, William C.
Glidden, Mr.
Goode, Mr.
Gourden and Co.
Grace, Byrd M.
Graham, Rev. John
Rev. Dr.
Grand Gulf Advertiser
Graham, Jehab
Gray, Abraham
Greene, R. A.
Green, James R.
Gregory, Ossian
Gridley, H.
Grimke, Sarah M.
Grosvenor, Rev. Cyrus P
Guex, D. F.
Gunnell, John J. H.
Guthrie, A. A.
Guyler, J.
73, 74
(iG
73
29, 62
127
77
79
28,118
11, 31, 58
42, 64
80
65
28, 60
80
63
162
182
169
82
60
183
137
117
82
154
82
156
160
159
83,84
164
92
69
79
165
92
153
67
139
129
172
178
160
167
166
182
76
84
30, 35, 36, 37, 41, 44
50, 124
69
183
80
84
25
183
78, 136
179
80
79
73
137
73
22, 44, 62
178
74
137
45
77
Halley, Preston
Hall, Samuel
Han, E
Hand, John H.
Hansborough, William
Hanson, Peter
Harding, N. H.
Harman, Samuel
Harrison, General W. H.
Hart, F. A.
" Rev. Mr.
Harvey, J.
Hawlcy, David
" Rev. Francis
Hayne, General R. Y.
Henderson, John
" Judge
Hendren, H.
Herring, D.
Dr.
Hitchcock, Judge
Kite, S. N.
Hodges, B. W.
" Rev. Coleman S.
Holcombe, John P.
Holmes, George,
Home, Frederick
Honerton, Philip
Hopkins, Rev. Henry T.
Horsey, Outerbridge
Hough, Rev. Joseph
Houstoun, Edward
Hudnall, Thomas
Hughes, Benjamin
Hunt, John
" Rev. Thomas P.
Hussey, George P. C.
Huston, Felix
Hutchings, A. J.
Ide, Joseph
Indiana, Legislature of
Jackson, Stephen M.
" Telegraph
James, Joseph
Jarnett, James T. De
Jarvett, James T.
Jefferson, Thomas
Jenkins, John
Jett, Marshall
Johnson, Bryant
" Cornelius
" Isaac
" Josiah S.
Jolley, J. L.
Jones, Alexander
" Anson
" Hill
" James
» R. H.
" W. Jefferson
Jourdan, Green B.
Judd, D.
" Mrs. Nancy
Keeton, G. W.
Kennedy, John
Kentucky, Synod of
Kephart, George
Kernin, Charles
Keyes, Willard
80
69, 75, 76, 92, 181
81
63,73
92, 178
80
61
84
117
92
86
164
64,91
94
166
73, 153
128
137
81
84
79
81
74
87
82
159
169
79
88
37
181
165
78
162
83, 164
IG
76
162
83
101
59
79
166
78
154
62
110, 117
80
82
62, 79
36, 37, 43, 65
78
38
78
39
102
165
156
168
135
82
62
88
162
82
61, 167
169
74
70
222
Index.
129
171
79
169
82
165
36
70
178
178
16f,
30, 40, 43, 86, 138
77
73
73
81
137
69
136
157
80
78
28, 36, 41, 43, 48
73
154
164
164
166
75
73
137
Kimball and Thome
" George
Kimboroiigh, James
King, Ciiarles
" JoiinH.
" Nehemiah
Knapp, Henry E.
" Isaac
Kyle, Frederick
" James
Lacy, Theodore A.
Ladd, William 29,
Lains, O. W.
Lambeth, William L.
Lambre, Mr.
Lancette, R.
Langhorne, Scruggs and Cook
Larrimer, Thomas
Latimer, W. K.
Lawless, Judge
Lawyer, Zadok
Led with, Thomas
Leftwich, William
Lemes, Ferdinand
Leverich and Co.
Lewis, Kirkman
Lexington Intelligencer
" Observer
Little, Mrs. Sophia
Loflano, Hazlet
Long, Joseph
Loomis, Henry H.
Loring, R. l36
" Thomas 152
Louisville Reporter 67
Lovvry, Mrs. Nancy 50
Luminals, A. 78
Xiyman, Judge 75
" Rev. H. 42, 65, 127, 177
Macoin, J. 73
Macon Messenger 165
Telegrap 159
Macy, F. C. 30, 105
'' Reuben G 28, 41, 43, 98
" Richard 30, 41, 98
" T.D.M. 105
Magee, William 82, 162 167
Males, Henry 7I
Maltby, Stephen E. 41 43, 64
Manning, P. T. ' 73
Marietta College, student of 69
Marks, James 81
Marriott, Charles 98
Marshall, John T. 166
Martineau, Harriet I49
Maryland Journal 29, 58
Maryville Intelligencer 61 114
Mason, Samuel 78
Mathieson, Rev. James 39
May, Rev. Samuel J. 160
Mc Cue, Moses 165
McDonnell, James 80
McGehee, Edward J. 156
McGregor, Henry M- 82
McMurrain, John 78, 83
Mead Whitman ' 59
Medical College of, South Carolina 169
Memphis Gazette 1G8
" Inquirer ^63
Menefee, R. H.
Menzies, Judge
Mcrcej-, Mr.
Metcalf, Asa B,
Middleton, Mr.
Miles, Lemuel
Milledgevillc Journal
" Recorder
Miller, C.
Minister from Texas, A. Jones
Minor, W. I.
Missouri Republican
Mitchell, Dr. Robert
Mitchell, Isaac
M'Neilly
Mobile Advertiser
" Examiner
" Register
Mongin, R. P. T.
Montesquieu
Montgomery, W. H.
Moore, Mr. Va.
Moorhead, John H.
Morris, E. W.
Moulton, Rev. H orace 28, 30, 3
Moyne Dr. F. Julius Le
Muggridge Matthew
Muir J. G.
Murat A.
Murphy S. B.
Napier T. and L.
Natchez Courier
" Daily Free Trade
National Intelligencer
Nelson Dr. David
" John M.
Ncsbitt Wilson
Newbern Sentinel
" Spectator
New Hampshire, legislature of
Newman Mrs. B.
New Orleans Argus
Bee 36, 79, 84, 91, 150,
" Bulletin
" Courier
" Kidnapping at
" Mercantile Advertiser
" Post
New York American
" Sun
Neyle S.
Nicholas Judge
Nicoll Robert
Niles Hezekiah
Noe James
Norfolk Beacon
" Herald
N. C. Literary and Comm
" Journal
Nourse Rev. James
Nye Horace
O'Byrne
O'Connell Daniel
Oliver Colonel
O'Neill Peter
Onslow, Citizens of
Orme Moses
O'Rorke John
168
88
139, 183
77, 153
139
79
155
168
165
102
168
158
86,89
81
155
167, 172
67
162
166
118
168
60
66
82, 16
, 45 88, 109
112, 136,139
88
165
154
73
63,78
168
162, 168
169
154> 172
86, 127
51, 74, 124
137
166
156, 162
135
172
164
154, 162, 107
154, 166
91, 139, 183
141
91
157
169
91
78,83
117
62, 153
60, 183
63
139, 165, 166
160
'-^ 152
9
>b
56
78
i65
Index.
223
Overstrcct Richard
" William
Owen Captain N. F.
" John W
Owens J. G.
Parrish John
Parrott Dr.
Patterson Willie
Paulding James K.
Peacock Jesse
Perry Thomas C.
Petersburg Constellation
Philanthropist
Pickard J. S.
Pinckncy H. L.
Pinkncv" William
Planter's Intelligencer
Planters of South Carolina
Poc William
Porter Mr.
Portsmouth Times
Powell Eleazar
Presbyterian elder,
President of the United States
Pringle Thomas
Pritchard William H.
Probate sale
Purdon James
Ragland Samuel
Raleigh Register
Ralston Samuel
Randall J. B.
Randolph John
Randolph Thomas Mann
Rankin Rev. John 28,
Rascoe William D.
Rawlins Samuel
Raworth Egbert A.
Redden J. V.
Red River Whig
Reed, Rev. Andrew
" William H.
Reese Enoch
Reins Richard
Reeves W. P.
Renshaw Rev. C. S. 30, 31, 41
180
Rhodes Durant H,
Rice H. W.
" Rev. David
Richardson G. C.
Richards James K.
" Moses R.
" Stephen M.
Richmond Compiler
" Inquirer
" Whig
Ricks, Micajah
Riley, W.
Ripley, George B.
Roach, Philip
Robbius, Welcome H.
Robarts, William
Roberts, J. H.
Robin, C. C.
Robinson, N. M. C.
Robinson, WiUiam
Roebuck, George
Rogers, N. P.
8op-crs. Thomas "
79
77
123
137
165
30, 40, 155
103
81, 82
76, 89
169
180
1G5
66
168
166, 172
58
162
39
26, 181
66
165
28, 31, 36, 99
90, 169
139
123
160
38
84
81
165
163
80, 168
58
182
40, 43, 60, 67, 92
166
82
83
137
165
39
75
164
136
73
, 61, 88, 166, 168,
156
73
58, 112
81
137
137
81
165
166
165, 165, 182
77
78
84
137
80
164
63
39, 59, 118
81
154
131, 171
Ross, Abner 153
Rowland John A. 63
Ruffin, Judge 60
Russel, Benjamin 79, 83
Russcl. W. 160
Rymes, Littlejohn 81
Sadd, Rev. Joseph M. 43, 62, 64, 130
Salvo, Conrad 80
Sapington, Lemuel 41, 43, 49
Saunders, James 80
Savage, Rev. Thomas 76, 87
Savannah Georgian 156
'' Republican 165
Savory, William 30, 40, 65
Scales, Rev. William 68, 100, 105
Schmidt, Louis 80
Scott, Rev. Orange 181
Scott, William 99
Scrivener, J. 77
Seabrook, Whitmarsh B. 175
Secretary of the navy 76, 89
Selfer 84
Senator of the United Stales 79
Sevier Ambrose H. 79
Sewall Stephen 85, 115*
Shafter M. M. 91
Sheith M, J. 81
Shield and Walker 137
Shields Polly C. 166
Shropshire David 166
Simmons B. C. 78
Simpson John I6J5
Sizer R. W. 77
Skinner, W. 155, 164
Slaveholders 35
Smith, Bishop of Kentucky 204, 208
" Gerrit ' 67,86,161
" Professor 31
» Rev. Phineas 31, 40, 45, 62, 101, 109, 112,
138
Smyth Alexander 28, 35, 135
Snow Henry H. 70
Snowden J. I68
" Rev. Samuel 141
South Carolina, legislature of 35
" Medical College of 169
Slaveholder of 117
Southern Argus 162
Southern Christian Herald 178
Southerner 161
Southmayd, Rev. Daniel S. 176
Spillman, Mr. 89
Stansell, William 79
Staughton, Rev. Dr. 178
Staunton Spectator 165
Stearns and Co. "79
Stevenson, Andrew 182
Stewart, Samuel 63
Stillmam, Dr. 171
Stith, W. and A.
Stone, Asa A.
» Silas
" WiUiam L.
Strickland, William
Stroud, George M.
Stuart, Charles
Summers, Mr.
Swain, B.
Synod of South Carolina and Georgia
Tart, John
224
Index.
Taylor, James H. 81
'• John 138
" Lawton, and Co, 80
Texan minister, Auson Jones, 102
Thatcher, Colonel 171
Thome and 'Kimball, '" • 129
Thome, James A 61, 158
Thompson, Henry P. . 87
Thomson, Mr. 163
" Sandford 166
Todd, R. S. 137
Toler, William 73
Tolin, Cornelius D. 63
Townsend, Ely 78
" Samuel 84
Tucker, Judge 117,123
Turnbull, Robert 28, 36, 44
Turner, John . 63
" John D. 79
" L. 46
Turton.S. B. , 82
Tuscaloosa Flag of the Union 163
Upsher, Judge 183
Ustick, William A. 69
Vance, John 65
Van Buren, Martin I39
Varillat, H. 63
Vicksburg Register 161, l62
Virginia Minister I79
Virginian 76
Walker, John 63
Walton, George - 167
" John W. 79
Walsh, Sarah 78, 172
Washington Globe 167
Waugh, Dr. Jeremiah S. 177
Weld, Angelina Grimk6 52
Wells, Thomas J. 166
West, Eli 68
Western Luminary 76
" Medical Journal 60
" " Reformer 31, 40,43
" Review 35, 134
Westgate, George W. 30, 36, 37, 42, 43, 72
Whitbread, Samuel 118
Whitefield, George
28, 57, 112
" Needham
8.1
Whitehead, C. C.
bii
W. W.
80
White, Hiram
51
Wightman, Rev. William M.
175
Wilberforce, W,
118
Wilkins, C. W.
81
Wilkinson, Alfred
66, 75
Williams, George W.
137
Willis, Robert
180
Willis, William
91
Wilmington Advertiser
156
Wilson, Rev. Joseph G.
90
Winchester Virginian
168
Wirt, Wilham
109
Wisner, F.
83
Witherspoon, Dr.
29
Woodward, Jeremiah
82
Woolman, John
58
Wotton, John
63
Wright, Mr.
139
Yampert, T. J. De
73
Yearly meeting of Friends
164
Woman dying
44
" flogged because her child died 16
" maniac
97, 106
" no respect for
153
Women at childbirth
12
" «' the same labor with men 13
" " work
18
" miscarry under the whip
20, 90
" not breeding
15
" pregnant whipped
20, 90, 106
" severe whippers of slaves
55,59
" slaves
12
Work-house at Charleston
23, 171
Working hours 13, 85,
103, 105, 108
" of slaves
12, 85, 95
Worn-out slaves
12, 133
" Worse and worse"
120
Worship of God prohibited
51
Wounds by gunshot
77
Wright Isaac
163
Yokes for slaves
74
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