"There was one plantation just opposite my father's house in the

suburbs of Huntsville, belonging to Judge Smith, formerly a Senator in

Congress from South Carolina, now of Huntsville. The name of his

overseer was Tune. 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. Allan, now

residing at Richmond, Henry county, Illinois, and clerk of the circuit

and county courts. Tune became displeased with one of the women who

was pregnant, he made her lay down over a log, with her face towards

the ground, and beat her so unmercifully, that she was soon after

delivered of a _dead child_.

"My brother also stated to me the following, which occurred near my

father's house, and within sight and hearing of the academy and public

garden. Charles, a fine active negro, who belonged to a bricklayer in

Huntsville, exchanged the burning sun of the brickyard to enjoy for a

season the pleasant shade of an adjacent mountain. 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 paddle, 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) hunting

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.[5]

[Footnote 5: This murder was committed about twelve years since. At

that time, James G. Birney, Esq., now Corresponding Secretary of the

American Anti-Slavery Society was the Solicitor (prosecuting attorney)

for that judicial district. His views and feelings upon the subject of

slavery were, even at that period, in advance of the mass of

slaveholders, 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 though the murderer had gone

no further than to an adjoining county (where perhaps he still

resides) he was never brought to trial.--ED.]

"Mrs. Barr, wife of Rev. H. Barr of Carrollton, 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 sometimes 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 public squares in

Huntsville, who were to be sold at auction, and I have often seen

their tears gush forth and their countenances distorted with anguish.

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, Virginia. He says that the slaves are neither

considered nor treated as human 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 advanced

life whose backs had never been well since they began to work.

"He stated that one of his uncles had killed a woman--broke her skull

with an ax helve: she had insulted her mistress! No notice was 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 kettle 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 fur _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 through 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 overseer seeing him coming with the knife, was somewhat alarmed,

and instantly raised his gun and shot him dead. He said afterwards,

that he believed the slave was perfectly innocent of any evil

intentions, he 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 frequently 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,

occasionally taunting the slave, giving him the privilege of

confessing such and such things, at his leisure, after a while flog

him again, thus keeping it up for hours or half the day, and sometimes

all day. This was his _habit_.

"_February 4th._--Since writing the preceding, I have been to

Carrollton, on a visit to my uncle, Rev. Hugh Barr, who was originally

from Tennessee, lived 12 or 14 years in Courtland, Lawrence 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 neighborhood of Courtland.

"William P. Barr, an intelligent young man, and member of his father's

church in Carrollton, 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 answer was not as civil

as slaveholding requires, Mosely rushed upon him and stabbed him. The

wound laid him up for a season. Mosley was called to no account for

it. When he came in with the bloody knife, he said he wished he had

killed him.

"John Brown, a slaveholder, and a member of the Presbyterian church in

Courtland, Alabama, stated the following a few weeks since, in

Carrollton. 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 difficulty

in his dealings with her as a concubine. 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 'grabbling' a potato hill. He

owned 80 or 100 negroes. His own children could not live with him.

"A man in the neighborhood of Courtland, Alabama, by the name of

Puryear, was so proverbially 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

appearance.

"Col. Robert H. Watkins had a runaway slave, who was called Jim

Dragon. Before he was caught the last time, he had been out a year,

within a few miles of his master's plantation. He never stole from any

one but his master, except when necessity compelled him. He said he

had a right to take from his master; and when taken, that he had,

whilst out, seen his master a hundred times. Having been whipped,

clogged with irons, and yoked, he was set at work in the field. Col.

Watkins worked about 300 hands--generally had one negro out hunting

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 kindness to his slaves. He said to Rev. Mr. Barr,

that he had no doubt he should be rewarded in heaven for his kindness

to his slaves; and yet his overseer, Walker, had to sleep with loaded

pistols, for fear of assassination. Three of the slaves attempted to

kill him once, because of his _treatment of their wives_.

"Old Major Billy Watkins was noted for his severity. I well remember,

when he lived in Madison county, to have often heard him yell at his

negroes with the most savage fury. He would stand at his house, and

watch the slaves picking cotton; and if any of them straitened their

backs for a moment, his savage yell would ring, 'bend your backs.'

"Mrs. Barr stated, that Mrs. H----, of Courtland, a member of the

Presbyterian church, sent a little negro girl to jail, suspecting that

she had attempted to put poison in the water pail. The fact was, that

the child had found a vial, and was playing in the water. This same

woman (in high standing too,) told the Rev. Mr. McMillan, that she

could 'cut Arthur Tappan's throat from ear to ear.'

"The clothing of slaves is in many cases comfortable, and in many it

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_ allowance of food on the plantations in North

Alabama, I cannot speak confidently, from _personal_ knowledge. There

was a slave named Hadley, who was in the habit of visiting 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

Presbyterian church in Huntsville, had two families of slaves when I

left there. One couple were married 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 Baptist deacon,

sober and correct in his deportment. They have a large family of

children--all children of concubinage--living in a minister's family.

"If these statements are deemed of any value by you, in forwarding

your glorious enterprize, you 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 treated, are generally

far from being happy. The slaves in my father's family are almost as

kindly treated as _slaves_ can be, yet they pant for liberty.

"May the Lord guide you in this great movement. In behalf of the

perishing, Your friend and brother, WILLIAM. T. ALLAN"

NARRATIVE OF MR. WILLIAM LEFTWICH, A NATIVE OF VIRGINIA.

Mr. Leftwich is a grandson of Gen. Jabez Leftwich, who was for some

years a member of Congress from Virginia. Though born in Virginia, he

has resided most of his life in Alabama. He now lives in Delhi,

Hamilton county, Ohio, near Cincinnati.

As an introduction to his letter, the reader is furnished with the

following testimonial to his character, from the Rev. Horace Bushnell,

pastor of the Presbyterian church in 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--I am not ranked among the abolitionists, yet I cannot,

as a friend of humanity, withhold from the public such facts in

relation to the condition of the slaves, as have fallen under my 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 Virginia to Madison county, Alabama,

during my infancy. My mother soon fell a victim to the climate. Being

the youngest 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 Neely, persuaded my grandfather that I

should be placed in his hands, and brought up in habits of industry. I

was accordingly placed under his tuition. I left the domestic circle,

little 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 benefited 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,

hospitable and humane, 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 truly kind and hospitable.

"In a short time after I was put upon the plantation, there was but

little difference between me and the slaves, except being _white_, I

ate at the master's table. The slaves were my companions 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, wherever 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 hickory 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

degradation, that at the end of five years, I hardly dared to say I

was _free_. 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 mountains; 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 bondage; 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

punishment with him. They must stand and hold up their clothes, while

he plied his hickory. He did not, like some of his neighbors, keep a

pack of hounds for hunting runaway negroes, but be 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,

when my uncle attempted to whip the slaves, the dog would rush upon

them and relieve them of their rags, if not of their flesh. One object

of my uncle's special hate was "Jerry," a slave 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 be 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 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 paroxysm of rage, fell upon him, wore out his

staff 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 Christmas eve. It was

missed in the morning, and he being absent, was of course suspected.

On returning 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 forward, and

presenting the gun to my uncle, exclaimed, 'Shoot him! shoot him !' He

made the attempt, but the gun missed fire, and Mince fled. He was

taken eight or ten months after while crossing the Ohio. When brought

back, the master, and an overseer on another plantation, took him to

the mountain and punished him to their satisfaction in secret; after

which he was loaded with chains and set to his task.

"I here 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 neither of comfort nor decency. They

are not allowed 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 corn, which were given to them daily, by weight

and measure. The sexes were huddled together promiscuously. Their

clothing is 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 uncomfortable. I have frequently seen

those of both sexes who have not attained the age of twelve years go

naked. Their punishments 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 were completely lacerated, a

pickle made for the purpose of salt and water, would then be applied

by a 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 with their hoe.

"Pursuing my assumed right of driving souls, I went to the Southern

part of Virginia for the purpose of trafficking in slaves. In that

part of the state, the cruelties practised upon the slaves, are far

greater than where I lived. The punishments 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, with 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. The 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 unholy 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. Among which was a

heart-rending scene that took place in my father's house, which led me

to lease a slave state, as well as all the imaginary 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 him secure. But choosing death rather than slavery, he jumped

overboard and was drowned. When I returned four weeks afterwards his

body, that had floated three miles below, was yet unburied. One fact;

it is impossible for a person to pass through a slave state, if he has

eyes open, without beholding every day cruelties repugnant to

humanity.

Respectfully Yours,

LEMUEL SAPINGTON.

TESTIMONY OF MRS. NANCY LOWRY, A NATIVE OF KENTUCKY.

Mrs. Lory, is a member of the non-conformist 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 human master. These three, namely John,

Ned, and James, had wives; John 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 so too. Ned died about the age of 25 and John 34 or

35. The cause of their flogging was commonly 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 with 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 pursued after a severe flogging; their backs would be full of

gashes, so deep the 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 exclaimed, '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 Ruffner, a slaveholder, had one slave named Pincy, whom he as

well as Mrs. Ruffner would often flog very severely. I frequently saw

Mrs. Ruffner flog her with the broom, shovel, or any thing she could

seize in her rage. She would knock her down and then kick and stamp

her most unmercifully, until she would be apparently so lifeless, that

I more than once thought she would never recover. Often Pincy would

try to shelter herself from the blows of her mistress, by creeping

under the bed, from which Mrs. Ruffner would draw her by the feet, and

then stamp and leap on her body, till her breath would be gone. Often

Pincy, would cry, 'Oh Missee, don't kill me!' 'Oh Lord, don't kill

me!' 'For God's sake don't kill me!' But Mrs. Ruffner would beat and

stamp away, with all the venom of a demon. The cause of Pincy's

flogging was, not working enough, or making some mistake in baking,

&c. &c. Many a night Pincy had to lie on the bare floor, by the side

of the cradle, rocking the baby of her mistress, 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 Wilkesbarre, 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 his 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 him, some distance

ahead. The wagon, meantime, was in charge of a lad, who accompanied

the teamster as an assistant. The little 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 himself, in the most suplicating manner, 'pray massa give

me 100 lashes and let me go.' He was then tied by the hands, to a limb

of a large mulberry tree, which grew in the yard, so that his feet

were raised a few inches from the ground, while a _sharpened stick_

was driven underneath that he might rest his 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 destroys feeling for the slave."

TESTIMONY OF MR. HIRAM WHITE--A NATIVE OF NORTH CAROLINA

Mr. WHITE resided thirty-two years in Chatham county, North Carolina,

and is now a member 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 commotion 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 military duty to patrol as their

captains should direct. I went two nights in succession, and after

that refused to patrol at all. The reason why I refused was this,

orders were given to search every negro house for books or prints of

any kind, and _Bibles_ and _Hymn books_ were particularly mentioned.

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 nothing that would bear that name. It is true, the

slaves in general, of a good crop year, were tolerably well fed, but

of a bad crop year, they were, as a general thing, cut short of their

allowance. 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. Hedding 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 up the roots of shrubs and sapplings to prepare 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 punished in divers ways;

some were whipped, some had their _thumbs screwed in a vice_ to make

them confess, but no proof satisfactory was ever obtained that the

negroes had ever thought of an insurrection, nor did any so far as I

could learn, acknowledge that an insurrection had ever been projected.

From this time forth, the slaves were prohibited from assembling

together for the worship of God, and many of those who had previously

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. Nelson 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 Presbyterian Church, and was "owner" of about twenty

slaves; he was what was generally termed a "good master." His slaves

were generally tolerably 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 obtain their liberty, or for

what was called, "running 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 I was 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 in

their behalf, and mingle my cries with theirs, and feel almost willing

to take part of the punishment; I have been severely rebuked by my

father for this kind of sympathy. Yet, such is the hardening nature of

such scenes, that from this kind of commiseration for the suffering

slave, I became so blunted 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 fellow 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 covered with _welts_. I know 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 remember 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 last

forty years, been an exemplary Christian. When 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 remember 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 _many_ 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 _warm friend of the Colonization

Society_.

About the year 1809 or 10, I became a student of Rev. George Bourne;

he was the first abolitionist I had ever seen, 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,[6] and

determined in my own mind that when I settled in life, it should be in

a free state; this determination I carried into effect in 1813, when I

removed to this place, which I supposed at that time, to be all the

opposition to slavery that was necessary, but the moment I became

convinced that all slaveholding was in itself _sinful_, I became an

abolitionist, which was about four years ago.

[Footnote 6: Mr. Bourne resided seven years in Virginia, "in perils

among false brethren; fiercely persecuted for his faithful testimony

against slavery. More than twenty years since he published a work

entitled 'The Book and Slavery irreconcileable.'"]

TESTIMONY OF ANGELINA GRIMKÉ WELD.

Mrs. Weld is the youngest daughter of the late Judge Grimké, of the

Supreme Court of South Carolina, and a sister of the late Hon. Thomas

S. Grimké, of Charleston.

Fort Lee, Bergen Co., New Jersey, Fourth month 6th, 1839.

I sit down to comply with thy request, preferred in the name of the

Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The

responsibility 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, because they are not; and the proud waves do continually 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 numerous

other slaveholding kindred in South Carolina, 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 fashionable world. And here let me say, that the treatment

of _plantation_ slaves cannot be fully known, except by the poor

sufferers themselves, and their drivers and overseers. In a multitude

of instances, even the master can know very little of the actual

condition of his own field-slaves, and his wife and daughters far

less. A few facts concerning my own family will show this. Our

permanent residence was in Charleston; our country-seat (Bellemont,)

was 200 miles distant, in the north-western part of the state; where,

for some years, our family spent a few months annually. Our

_plantation_ was three miles from this family mansion. There, all the

field-slaves lived and worked. Occasionally, once a month, perhaps,

some of the family would ride over to the plantation, but I never

visited the _fields where the slaves were at work_, and knew almost

nothing of their condition; but this I do know, that the overseers who

had charge of them, were generally 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 portions of the state, the

planters very rarely 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,

company, literary pursuits, &c., absorb so much of their time, that

they must, to a considerable extent, take the condition of their

slaves _on trust_, from the reports of their overseers. I make this

statement, because these slaveholders (the wealthier 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

testimony.

But not to dwell on preliminaries, I wish to record my testimony to

the faithfulness and accuracy with which my beloved sister, Sarah M.

Grimké, has, in her 'narrative and testimony,' on a preceding page,

described the condition of the slaves, and the effect upon the hearts

of slaveholders, (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

childhood, 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 testimony 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 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 any general assertions I can

make.

I will first introduce the reader to a woman of the highest

respectability--one who was foremost in every benevolent enterprise,

and stood for many years, I may say, at the _head_ of the fashionable

Elite 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 apartments 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 instrument 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 with the 'pancake stick; for

every trifling offence--and often for no fault at all. But the

floggings were not all; the scolding, 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 with 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 whipped

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

previous, 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

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 ordering the cook into

her presence, and storming at him, when the dinner or breakfast was

not prepared to her taste, and in the presence of all her children,

commanding the waiter to slap his face. _Fault-finding_, was with her

the constant accompaniment 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

sisters their own brothers, and yet no woman visited among the poor

more than she did, or gave more liberally to relieve their wants.

This may seem perfectly unaccountable to a northerner, but these

seeming contradictions vanish when we consider that over _them_ she

possessed no arbitrary power, they were always presented to her mind

as unfortunate sufferers, towards whom her sympathies 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 providence 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 particular 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 attempted 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

religion_; her daughter who related the circumstance, 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 believe this to be a true picture of

_slaveholding religion_.

The following is another illustration of it:

A mistress in Charleston sent a grey headed female slave to the

workhouse, and had her severely 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 circumstance was

mentioned to one of the former owner'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 woman a _subject of prayer_, 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 through 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 helpless 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, inflicted whilst he

was whipping him.[7] I have heard the same individual speak of

"breaking down the spirit of a slave under the lash" as perfectly

right.

[Footnote 7: 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 according to Jewish law,

he was a _mulatto_, and therefore free under the Constitution of the

United States, in whose preamble our fathers declare that they

established it expressly to "secure the blessings of _liberty_ to

themselves and _their posterity_."--Ed.]

I also know that an aged slave of his, (by marriage,) was allowed to

get a scanty and precarious subsistence, by begging in the streets of

Charleston--he was too old to work, and therefore _his allowance was

stopped_, and he was turned out to make his living by begging.

When I was about thirteen years old, I attended a seminary, in

Charleston, which was superintended by a man and his wife of superior

education. 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 day there was called into

the school room to open a window, a boy whose head had been shaved in

order to disgrace him, and he had been so dreadfully whipped that he

could hardly walk. So horrible was the impression produced upon my

mind by his heart-broken countenance and crippled person that I

fainted away. The sad and ghastly countenance of one of their female

mulatto slaves who used to sit on a low stool at her sewing in the

piazza, is now fresh before me. She often told me, secretly, how

cruelly she was whipped when they sent her to the 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 could hardly sustain me. I felt as

if I was passing the precincts of hell. A friend of mine who lived in

the neighborhood, told me she often heard 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

following circumstance in my presence. He had sent a youth of about

eighteen to this horrible place to be whipped and _afterwards_ to be

worked upon the treadmill. From not keeping the step, which probably

he COULD NOT do, in consequence of the lacerated state of his body;

his arm got terribly torn, from the shoulder to the wrist. This

physician 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,

remarkable 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 the neglect of his business, it was _his duty_ to

chastise him. "His duty" to flog this boy of seventeen so severely

that he felt _the exertion_ for days after! and yet he never felt it

to be his duty to instruct him, or have him instructed, even in the

common principles of morality. 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 passion 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 compelled to flog another. Whilst 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 scolding in an under tone, her

waiting man, who was about twenty-five years old. Whether she actually

inflicted the blows I do not know, for I hastened 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 instance. I have known the master and

mistress of a family send to their friends to _borrow_ servants 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 that

they were not fit to be in the presence of company. How can

northerners know these things when they are hospitably received 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 sepulchre, 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 particulars 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 sleeping 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 masters 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, waiting maids, cooks, washers,

&c., have beds at all, they must generally get them for themselves.

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

them to eat from. They know nothing of the comfort and pleasure of

gathering round the social 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 firewood--no towels,

basins, or soap, no tables, chairs, or other furniture, are provided.

Wood for cooking and washing _for 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 snuff 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 they would be still more at

hand. I answer, because waiters are not 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 subjects.

I have also known instances where seamstresses were kept in cold

entries to work by the stair case lamps for one or two hours, every

evening in winter--they 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 must _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, are separated for

weeks or months, by the husband or brother being taken by the master

on a journey, 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 before

they are allowed to meet; and, at times, a fiendish pleasure is taken

in keeping them asunder--this furnishes an opportunity 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 following instances.

Chambermaids and seamstresses often sleep in their mistresses'

apartments, but with no bedding 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.--This is a _great_ hardship to

slaves. When we consider that house slaves are rarely allowed social

intercourse during _the day_, as their work generally _separates_

them; the barbarity of such an arrangement 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 servant, and told a friend of

mine, that she was "entirely 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 illness 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 proper

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 of _paying the

relatives of the poor whites_ for nursing _their_ husbands, 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

suppose it ever occurred to her that this poor _colored_ wife ought to

be paid for her services, and particularly 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 premises.

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 suitable 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 disposition to be made of their

children; they have as little control over them, as have domestic

animals over the disposal of their young. Every natural and social

feeling and affection are violated with indifference; slaves are

treated as though they did not possess them.

Another way in which the feelings of slaves are trifled with and often

deeply wounded, is by changing their names; if, at the time they are

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. Indeed it would be utterly impossible to recount the

multitude of ways in which the _heart_ of the slave is continually

lacerated by the total disregard of his feelings as a social being and

a human creature.

The slave suffers also greatly from being continually watched. The

system of espionage which is constantly kept up over slaves is the

most worrying and intolerable that can be imagined. Many 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 servant 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

sufferings of the slaves are not only innumerable, but they are

_indescribable_. I may paint the agony of kindred torn from each

other's arms, to meet no more in time; I may depict 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 describe the

anguish of that mind which feels itself impaled upon the iron of

arbitrary power--its living, writhing, helpless victim! every human

susceptibility 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

existence.

In the course of my testimony I have entered somewhat into the

_minutiae_ 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 human beings.

Slaveholders think nothing of them, because they regard their slaves

as _property_, the mere instruments of their convenience 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 nothing 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 details of the cruelties

inflicted upon American slaves, we will present in brief the

well-weighed declarations of slaveholders and other residents of slave

states, testifying that the slaves are treated with barbarous

inhumanity. All _details_ 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.

TESTIMONY OF REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

In a letter written by him in Georgia, and addressed to the

slaveholders of Maryland, Virginia, 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 whatever 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

_taskmasters_, 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 celebrated JOHN WOOLMAN, an eminent minister of

the Society of Friends, who traveled extensively in the slave state.

We copy it from a "Memoir of JOHN WOOLMAN, chiefly extracted from a

Journal of his Life and Travels." It was published in Philadelphia, by

the "Society of Friends."

"The following reflections, were written in 1757, while he was

traveling on a religious account among slaveholders."

"Many of the white people in 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

asunder; 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 potatoes. (The potatoes they commonly raise

by their labor on the first day of the week.) The correction ensuing

on their disobedience to overseers, or slothfulness in business, is

often _very severe_, and sometimes _desperate_. Men and women 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 endeavors 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 BALTIMORE 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 loved 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 SILENT HORROR!"

TESTIMONY OF THE HON. WILLIAM 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

oppression_;" and adds: "It will not do thus to ... act like

_unrelenting tyrants_, perpetually sermonizing it with liberty as our

text, and actual _oppression_ 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 Kentucky, 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 receive the lash--the smack of which is all day

long in the ears of those who are on the plantation 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. _Many, many are knocked down; some have

their eyes beaten out: some have an arm or a leg broken, 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 Baltimore, July 4, 1797, 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 sacrifices 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-screw, torture with pincers_,

and beat unmercifully 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 cowhide!_"

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 freedom, and hunger and nakedness prevail

amidst plenty. * * * Cruel, and even unusual punishments are daily

inflicted on these wretched creatures, enfeebled with hunger, labor

and the lash. The scenes of misery and distress constantly witnessed

along the coast of the Delta, [of the Mississippi,] the wounds and

lacerations occasioned by demoralized masters and overseers, 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 resolutions, both because they are explanatory of the third,

and also serve to reveal the public sentiment 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 Indiana 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 advantageous to the

territory, and meet the approbation of at least nine-tenths of the

good citizens 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 suspension of the said article

would be equally advantageous to the territory, to the states from

whence the negroes would be brought, and _to the negroes themselves._

The states which are overburthened with negroes which they cannot

comfortably support; * * and THE NEGRO HIMSELF WOULD EXCHANGE A SCANTY

PITTANCE OF THE COARSEST FOOD, for a plentiful and nourishing diet;

and a situation which admits not the most distant prospect of

emancipation, for one which presents no considerable 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 tem. of the Legislative Council.

Vincennes, Dec._ 20, 1806.

"Forwarded to the Speaker the United States' Senate, by WILLIAM HENRY

HARRISON, Governor"--_American State Papers_ vol 1. p. 467.

MONSIEUR C.C. ROBIN, who resided in Louisiana 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 negroes

who are judged guilty of serious faults, are punished twenty,

twenty-five, forty, fifty, or one hundred lashes. The manner of this

cruel execution is as follows: four stakes are driven down, making a

long square; the culprit is extended naked between these stakes, face

downwards; his 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 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 recount how many times the piercing cry of pain has

interrupted my silent occupations; how many times I have shuddered at

the faces of those barbarous masters, where I saw inscribed the number

of victims sacrificed to their ferocity.

"The women are subjected to these punishments as rigorously as the

men--not even pregnancy exempts them; in that case, before binding

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 women are ordinarily more

inexorable than the men. Their slow and languid gait, and the trifling

services which they impose, betoken only apathetic indolence; 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 themselves 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 little respected by the generality 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 barbarous 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 melancholy of these wretches, depicted upon their

countenances, 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

my walks, I was every where witness to their wretchedness. 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 accompanies 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, stretched and tied across

barrels, or large bags, _and tortured with the lash during hours, and

even whole days, until their flesh is mangled to the very bones_.

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 sufferings, their wounds are

washed with _liquid salt_! And some of the miserable creatures are

permitted to hang in that position until they actually _expire_; some

die under 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 _constantly exhibiting in every slave holding

country--thousands of whips are every day stained in African blood_!

Even the poor _females_ are not permitted to escape these shocking

cruelties."--_Rankin's Letters._

These letters were published fifteen years ago.--They were addressed

to a brother in Virginia, who was a slaveholder.

TESTIMONY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

"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 Colonization Society,_ 1824.

TESTIMONY OF THE GRADUAL EMANCIPATION SOCIETY 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 wretched beyond

description. 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 sufficient 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

Convention, convened in Baltimore, Oct._ 25, 1826.

FROM NILES' BALTIMORE REGISTER FOR 1829, VOL 35, p. 4.

"Dealing in slaves has become a _large business_. 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 thumb-screws and gags_, and ornamented with

_catskins 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 VENGEANCE on the turbulent

traitor, a vengeance _generally_ practiced with impunity, by reason of

its PRIVACY."--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 individuals, who, owing either to the natural ferocity of their

dispositions, or to the effects of intemperance, will be guilty of

cruelty and barbarity towards their slaves, which is _almost

intolerable_, and at which humanity revolts."

TESTIMONY OF B. SWAIN, ESQ., OF NORTH CAROLINA.

"Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a moment cast his thoughts

over this land of slavery--think of the _nakedness_ of some, the

_hungry yearnings_ 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 Colonization Society,

and brother of R.S. Finley, agent of the American Colonization

Society._ Dr. J.C. Finley was formerly one of the editors of the

Western Medical Journal, at Cincinnati, and is well known in the west

as utterly hostile to immediate abolition.

"In almost the last conversation I had with 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 atrocious_ that you will with difficulty believe them, but I

also fear that they will have the effect of driving you into that

_abolitionism_, upon the borders of which you have been so long

hesitating. The people of the north _are ignorant of the horrors of

slavery_--of the _atrocities_ which it commits upon the unprotected

slave. * * *

"I do not know that any thing could be gained by particularizing the

scenes of _horrible barbarity_, which fell under my observation during

my _short_ residence in one of the wealthiest, most intelligent, and

most moral parts of Georgia. Their _number_ and _atrocity_ are such,

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 southern states. This statement,

incredible as it may seem, falls short, very far short of the truth."

The foregoing is extracted from a letter written by Dr. Finley to Rev.

Asa Mahan, his former pastor, then of Cincinnati, now President of

Oberlin Seminary.

TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN, OF ILLINOIS, _Son of a

Slaveholder, Rev. Dr. Allan of Huntsville, 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

understood:--_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 colors as 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

Thome 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!

_Sufferings inconceivable and innumerable--unmingled wretchedness_

from the ties of nature rudely broken and destroyed, the _acutest

bodily tortures, groans, tears and blood_--lying forever in weariness

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 efforts of their cruel authors to hush them

down, and confine them within the precincts of their own plantations,

they will ever and anon, struggle up and reach the ear of

humanity."--_Mr. Thome's Speech at New York, May,_ 1834.

TESTIMONY OF THE MARYVILLE (TENNESSEE) INTELLIGENCER, OF 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 moment, 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 millions 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 overwhelm 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 naturally 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, selfishness,

and cold hearted tyranny, and the fruitful parent of unnumbered evils,

both to the oppressor and the oppressed, THE ONE THOUSANDTH PART OF

WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN BROUGHT TO LIGHT."

MR. ASA A. STONE, a theological student, who 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 deficiencies in work, are

_frightfully common_, and _most terribly severe._

"_Rubbing with salt and red pepper is very common after a severe

whipping._"

TESTIMONY OF REV. PHINEAS SMITH, Centreville, Allegany Co., N.Y. who

lived four years at the South.

"They are badly clothed, badly fed, wretchedly 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 Missouri, says,

"It is true that barbarous cruelties are inflicted upon them, such as

terrible lacerations with the whip, and excruciating tortures are

sometimes experienced from the thumb screw."

Extract of a letter from SARAH M. GRIMKÉ, 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 subject, we

found on coming South the _half_, the _worst_ half too, had not been

told 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

willingly forget what I have seen and heard in my own family, with

regard to the slaves. _I 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 turpentine

are poured into their gashes; and innumerable 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 their flesh in the most shocking manner, leaving permanent

scars and ridges; after establishing this, we will present a mass of

testimony, concerning a great variety of other tortures. The

testimony, for the most part, will be that of the slaveholders

themselves, and in their own chosen words. A large portion of it will

be taken from the advertisements, which they have published in their

own newspapers, describing by the scars on their bodies made by the

whip, their own runaway slaves. To copy these advertisements _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 will intelligibly set forth

the precise point under consideration. In the column under the word

"witnesses," will be found the name of the individual, who signs the

advertisement, or for whom it is signed, with his or her place of

residence, and the name and date of the paper, in which it appeared,

and generally the name of the place where it is published. Opposite

the name of each witness, will be an extract, from the advertisement,

containing his or her testimony.

Mr. D. Judd, jailor, Davidson Co., Tennessee, in the "Nashville

Banner," Dec. 10th, 1838.

"Committed to jail as a runaway, a negro woman named Martha, 17 or 18

years of age, has _numerous scars of the whip on her back_."

Mr. Robert Nicoll, Dauphin st. between Emmanuel and Conception st's,

Mobile, Alabama, in the "Mobile Commercial Advertiser."

"Ten dollars reward for my woman Siby, _very much scarred about the

neck and ears by whipping_."

Mr. Bryant Johnson, Fort Valley Houston Co., Georgia, in the "Standard

of Union," Milledgeville Ga. Oct. 2, 1838. "Ranaway, a negro woman,

named Maria, _some scars on her back occasioned by the whip_."

Mr. James T. De Jarnett, Vernon, Autauga Co., Alabama, in the

"Pensacola Gazette," July 14, 1838.

"Stolen a negro woman, named Celia. On examining her back you will

find marks _caused by the whip_."

Maurice Y. Garcia, Sheriff of the County of Jefferson, La., in the

"New Orleans Bee," August, 14, 1838.

"Lodged in jail, a mulatto boy, _having large marks of the whip,_ on

his shoulders and other parts of his body."

R.J. Bland, Sheriff of Claiborne Co, Miss., in the "Charleston (S.C.)

Courier." August, 28, 1838.

"Was committed a negro boy, named Tom, is _much marked with the

whip_."

Mr. James Noe, Red River Landing, La., in the "Sentinel," Vicksburg,

Miss., August 22, 1837.

"Ranaway, a negro fellow named Dick--has _many scars on his back from

being whipped."_

William Craze, jailor, Alexandria, La. in the "Planter's

Intelligencer." Sept. 26, 1838.

"Committed to jail, a negro slave--his back is _very badly scarred."_

John A. Rowland, jailor, Lumberton, North Carolina, in the

"Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer," June 20, 1838.

"Committed, a mulatto fellow--his back shows _lasting impressions of

the whip,_ and leaves no doubt of his being A SLAVE"

J.K. Roberts, sheriff, Blount county, Ala., in the "Huntsville

Democrat," Dec. 9, 1839.

"Committed to jail, a negro man--his back _much marked_ by the whip."

Mr. H. Varillat, No. 23 Girod street, New Orleans--in the "Commercial

Bulletin," August 27, 1838.

"Ranaway, the negro slave named Jupiter--has a _fresh mark_ of a

cowskin on one of his cheeks."

Mr. Cornelius D. Tolin, Augusta, Ga., in the "Chronicle and Sentinel,"

Oct. 18, 1838.

"Ranaway, a negro man named Johnson--he has a _great many marks of the

whip_ on his back."

W.H. Brasseale, sheriff; Blount county, Ala., in the "Huntsville

Democrat," June 9, 1838.

"Committed to jail, a negro slave named James--_much scarred_ with a

whip on his back."

Mr. Robert Beasley, Macon, Ga., in the "Georgia Messenger," July 27,

1837.

"Ranaway, my man Fountain--he is marked _on the back with the whip."_

Mr. John Wotton, Rockville, Montgomery county, Maryland, in the

"Baltimore Republican," Jan. 13, 1838.

"Ranaway, Bill--has _several_ LARGE SCARS on his back from a _severe_

whipping in _early life."_

D.S. Bennett, sheriff, Natchitoches, La., in the "Herald," July 21,

1838.

"Committed to jail, a negro boy who calls himself Joe--said negro

bears _marks of the whip."_

Messrs. C.C. Whitehead, and R.A. Evans, Marion, Georgia, in the

Milledgeville (Ga.) "Standard of Union," June 26, 1838.

"Ranaway, negro fellow John--from being whipped, has _scars on his

back, arms, and thighs."_

Mr. Samuel Stewart, Greensboro', Ala., in the "Southern Advocate,"

Huntsville, Jan. 6, 1838.

"Ranaway, a boy named Jim--with the marks of the _whip_ on the small

of the back, reaching round to the flank."

Mr. John Walker, No. 6, Banks' Arcade New Orleans, in the "Bulletin,"

August 11, 1838.

"Ranaway, the mulatto boy Quash--_considerably marked_ on the back and

other places with the lash."

Mr. Jesse Beene, Cahawba, Ala., in the "State Intelligencer,"

Tuskaloosa, Dec. 25, 1837.

"Ranaway, my negro man Billy--he has the _marks of the_ whip."

Mr. John Turner, Thomaston, Upson county, Georgia--in the "Standard of

Union," Milledgeville, June 26, 1838.

"Left, my negro man named George--has _marks of the whip very plain on

his thighs."_

James Derrah, deputy sheriff; Claiborne county, Mi., in the "Port

Gibson Correspondent," April 15, 1837.

"Committed to jail, negro man Toy--he has been _badly whipped."_

S.B. Murphy, sheriff, Wilkinson county, Georgia--in the Milledgeville

"Journal," May 15, 1838.

"Brought to jail, a negro man named George--he has a _great many scars

from the lash."_

Mr. L.E. Cooner, Branchville Orangeburgh District, South Carolina--in

the Macon "Messenger," May 25, 1837.

"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."_

John H. Hand, jailor, parish of West Feliciana, La., in the St.

"Francisville Journal," July 6, 1837

"Committed to jail, a negro boy named John, about 17 years old--his

back _badly marked_ with the _whip_, his upper lip and chin _severely

bruised."_

The preceding are extracts from advertisements published in southern

papers, mostly in the year 1838. They are the mere _samples_ of

hundreds of similar ones published during the same period, with which,

as the preceding are quite sufficient to show the _commonness_ of

inhuman floggings in the slave states, we need not burden the reader.

The foregoing testimony is, as the reader perceives, that of the

slaveholders themselves, voluntarily certifying to the outrages which

their own hands have committed upon defenceless and innocent men and

women, over whom they have assumed authority. We have given to _their_

testimony precedence over that of all other witnesses, for the reason

that when men testify against _themselves_ they are under no

temptation to exaggerate.

We will now present the testimony of a large number of individuals,

with their names and residences,--persons who witnessed the

inflictions to which they testify. Many of them have been

slaveholders, and _all_ residents for longer or shorter periods in

slave states.

Rev. JOHN H. CURTISS, a native of Deep 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 stealing four or five dollars: he denied it. A

constable by the name of Hull was called; he took the Negro, very

deliberately tied his hands, and whipped him 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 going to kill him; when he ceased, the negro was in a complete

gore of blood from head to foot."

Mr. DAVID HAWLEY, a class-leader in the Methodist 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, Virginia, now of Marlborough, Stark county, Ohio,

gives the following testimony:--

"While a resident of Southampton county, Virginia, I knew two men,

after having been severely 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 instrument."

Major HORACE NYE, 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._ I 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 Alabama, speaking of the condition of the slaves,

says:--

"I have seen them cruelly whipped. I will relate one instance. One

Sabbath morning, before 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 off 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 without a pass, to whip them until

they were out of reach, or to confine them until morning."

Mr. J.G. BALDWIN, of Middletown, Connecticut, 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 conduct

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. SADD, 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 beaten--bathed in the _usual_ liquid--laid in the

sun, and a physician employed to heal his wounds:--then the same

process of punishment and healing was _repeated_, _and repeated

again_, and then the poor creature was sold for the New Orleans

market. This account we had from the _physician himself_."

MR. ABRAHAM BELL, of Poughkeepsie, New York, a member of the Scotch

Presbyterian Church, was employed, in 1837 and 38, in levelling 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

following testimony:--

"_All_ 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 _woman_ very

severely whipped for accidentally cutting up a stalk of cotton.[8]

When they were whipped they were commonly _held down 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."

[Footnote 8: Mr. Cornelius Johnson, of Farmington, Ohio, was also a

witness to this inhuman outrage upon an unprotected woman, for the

unintentional destruction of a stalk of cotton! In his testimony he is

more particular, and says, that the number of lashes inflicted upon

her by the overseer was "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY."]

Rev. H. LYMAN, late pastor of the Free Presbyterian 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 establishment.

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 wielded with cruel dexterity. He used

it in single blows, just as the men were lifting to _tighten_ the bale

cords. It seemed to me that he was desirous to edify me with a

specimen of his authority; at any rate the cruelty was horrible."

Mr. JOHN VANCE, 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 Shenandoah county, when I

heard the cry of murder, 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 Siglar, had heard the cry and came running to the

place. I saw Painter beating a negro with a tremendous club, or small

handspike, swearing he would kill him: but he was rescued by Morgan

and Siglar. I learned that Painter had commenced flogging the slave

for not getting to work soon enough. He had escaped, and taken refuge

under a pile of rails that were on some timbers up a little 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 _would_ kill him. The

apprehension of P. was TALKED ABOUT, but, as a compromise, the negro

was sold to another man."

EXTRACT FROM THE PUBLISHED JOURNAL OF THE LATE WM. SAVER, of

Philadelphia, an eminent minister of the Religious Society of

Friends:--

"6th mo. 22d, 1791. We passed on to Augusta, 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 milk the cow: and falling asleep, through weariness, the master

called out and ordered him a flogging. I asked him what he meant by a

flogging. 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 replied it was, with many curses upon the blacks. At

supper this unfeeling wretch _craved a blessing_!

"Next morning I heard some one begging for mercy, and also the lash as

of a whip. Not knowing 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 whipper. He had already cut him in an unmerciful

manner, and the blood ran to his heels. I stepped in between them, and

ordered him untied immediately, which, with some reluctance and

astonishment, 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 expectation 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 county, 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 whipping commenced--six or eight men took

turns--the poor fellow begged for mercy, but without 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 the spot; and

such shrieks and crying for mercy! Again he acknowledged, and again

they were defeated 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 furnished by Major HORACE NYE, of Putnam,

Muskingum county, Ohio.