American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1369), Rev. Theo. Weld, et al, Editors

This site reprints pages 1-27 of American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839). To go to the "Table of Contents" immediately, click here.
During the pre-Civil War slavery era, slavers themselves recorded their brutalities against slaves. This site reprints from the pre-Civil War slavery era, writings by slaveholders in the slave states, descriptions of how they treated slaves. Abuses, torture, and brutality abounded. Slavers printed these atrocity stories in their own Southern newspapers.
Escaped slaves would also report the atrocities, see, e.g., Solomon Northup, Twelve Years A Slave (1853), and movie versions, e.g., Solomon Northup's Odyssey (PBS, 1984), and 12 Years a Slave (2013) (on his being kidnapped in 1841 and not freed until 1853, and the atrocities documented in that 12 year period).
Rev. Theodore Weld, and sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké (from South Carolina) were reading Southern newspapers of the 1837-1839 period, discovered the slavers' own news reports, and assembled these slaver-written materials. Thereafter, slavers began to conceal the abuses, as they had not expected that anyone would reprint and widely circulate their own words admitting to each other their brutalities
Preparatory to reading this site, familiarity with the data showing slavery to have been illegal and unconstitutional is advised.
A modern parallel occurred in Nazi Germany where people were brutalized regardless of the economic and other adverse impacts on the people and on society as a whole. Slavery was like that, the primacy of brutality, rape, and abuses, with 'work' being a secondary, or non-, consideration.
Slavery, 200-years of hunting safaris, intending to kill the hunted, that's the reality, debunking the myth of 'kind treatment as the slaves were valuable.' People pay large sums for hunting, intending that deaths result among the hunted!
Most slaves were killed; just as now, with deer-hunting, duck-hunting, etc., the killings are not considered wrongful. Only among abolitionists was there significant opposition.
Rev. Weld earlier (1837) had written The Bible Against Slavery.

AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS:
TESTIMONY OF
A THOUSAND WITNESSES
written by Slaveholders (1837-1839)
Assembled by Rev. Theodore Dwight Weld
and Angelina and Sarah Grimké (1839)
————————
" Behold the wicked abominations that they do '"—EZEKIEL, viii. 9.
"The righteous CONSIDERETH the cause of the poor
but the wicked regardeth not to know it."—PROV, 29.7.
"True humanity consists not In a SQUEAMISH EAR, but in listening to the story of human suffering
and endeavoring to relieve it."—CHARLES JAMES FOX.
————————
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
OFFICE, No. 143 NASSAU STREET.
—————
1839.
ADVERTISEMENT [PREFACE] TO THE READER.
A MAJORITY of the facts and testimony contained in this work rests upon the authority of SLAVEHOLDERS, whose names and residences are given to the public, as vouchers for the truth of their statements. That they should utter falsehoods, for the sake of proclaiming their own infamy, is not probable.
Their testimony is taken mainly, from recent newspapers, published in the slave states. Most of those papers will be deposited at the office of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 143 Nassau Street, New York City. Those who think the atrocities, which they describe, incredible are invited to call and read for themselves. We regret that all of the original papers are not in our possession. The idea of preserving them on file for the inspection of the incredulous, and the curious, did not occur to us until after the preparation of the work was in a state of forwardness, in consequence of this, some of the papers cannot be recovered. Nearly all of them, however have been preserved. In all cases the name of the paper is given, and, with very few exceptions, the place and time, (year, month, and day) of publication. Some of the extracts, however not being made with reference to this work, and before its publication was contemplated, are without date but this class of extracts is exceedingly small, probably not a thirtieth of the whole.
The statements, not derived from the papers and other periodicals, letters, books, &c., published by slaveholders, have been furnished by individuals who have resided in slave states, many of whom are natives of those states, and have been slaveholders. The names, residences, &c. of the witnesses generally are given. A number of them, however, still reside in slave states—to publish their names would be, in most cases, to make them the victims of popular fury.
New York, May 4, 1839.
-iv-

C O N T E N T S.

INTRODUCTION. 7
Twenty-seven hundred thousand free born citizens of the U. S. in slavery 7
Tender mercies of slaveholders 7
Abominations of slavery 9
Character of the testimony 9
PERSONAL NARRATIVES—PART I. 10
NARRATIVE OF NEHEMIAH CAULKINS 10
North Carolina slavery 11
Methodist preaching slavedriver, Galloway 12
Women at child-birth 12
Slaves at labor 12
Clothing of slaves 13
Allowance of provisions 13
Slave-fetters 13
Cruelties to slaves 13
Burying a slave alive 15
Licentiousness of Slave-holders 15
Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, "with his hands tied" 16
Preachers cringe to slavery 16
Nakedness of slaves 16
Slave-huts 16
Means of subsistence for slaves 16
Slaves' prayer 17
NARRRATIVE OF REV. HORACE MOWLTON 17
Labor of the slaves 18
Tasks 18
Whipping posts 18
Food 18
Houses 19
Clothing 19
Punishments 19
Scenes of horror 20
Constables, savage and brutal 20
Patrols 20
Cruelties at night 20
Paddle-torturing 20
Cat-hauling 21
Branding with hot iron 21
Murder with impunity 21
Iron collars, yokes, clogs, and bells 21
NARRATIVE OF SARAH M. GRIMKÉ 22
Barbarous Treatment of slaves 22
Converted slave 23
Professor of religion, near death, tortured his slave for visiting his companion 23
Counterpart of James Williams' description of Larrimore's wife 23
Head of runaway slave on a pole 23
Governor of North Carolina left his sick slave to perish 23
Cruelty to Women slaves 24
Christian slave a martyr for Jesus 24
TESTIMONY OF REV. JOHN GRAHAM 25
Twenty-seven slaves whipped 26
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM POE 26
Harris whipped a girl to death 26
Captain of the U. S. Navy murdered his boy, was tried and acquitted 26
Overseer burnt a slave 26
Cruelties to slaves 26

PRIVATIONS OF THE SLAVES 27
FOOD 28
Suffering from hunger 28
Rations in the U. S. Army, &c 32
Prison rations 33
Testimony 34
LABOR 35
Slaves are overworked 35
Witnesses 35
Henry Clay 37
Child-bearing prevented 37
Dr. Channing 38
Sacrifice of a set of hands every seven years 36
Testimony 39
Laws of Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia 39
CLOTHING 40
Witnesses 40
Advertisements 41
Testimony 41
Field-hands 41
Nudity of slaves 42
John Randolph's legacy to Essex and Hetty 43
DWELLINGS 42
Witnesses 43
Slaves are wretchedly sheltered and lodged 43
TREATMENT OF THE SICK 44
PERSONAL NARRATIVES, PART II. 45
TESTIMONY OF THE REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN 45
Woman delivered of a dead child, being whipped 46
Slaves shot by Hilton 46
Cruelties to slaves 46
Whipping post 46
Assaults, and maimings 46
Murders 47
Puryear, "the Devil" 47
Overseers always armed 44
Licentiousnes of Overseers 47
"Bend your backs" 47
Mrs. H., a Presbyterian, desirous to cut Arthur Tappan's throat 47
Clothing, Huts, and Herding of slaves 47
Iron yokes with prongs 47
Marriage unknown among slaves 46
Presbyterian minister at Huntsville 47
Concubinage in Preacher's house 47
Slavery, the great wrong 47
NARRATIVE OF WILLIAM LEFTWICH 48
Slave's life 48
TESTIMONY OF LEMUEL SAPINGTON 49
Nakedness of slaves 49
Traffic in slaves 49
TESTIMONY OF MRS. LOWRY 50
Long, a professor of religion killed three men 50
Salt water applied to wounds to keep them from putrefaction 50
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM C. GILDERSLEEVE 50
Acts of cruelty 50
TESTIMONY OF HIRAM WHITE 51
Woman with a child chained to her neck 51
Amalgamation and mulatto children 51
TESTIMONY OF JOHN M. NELSON 51
Rev. Conrad Speece influenced Alexander Nelson when dying not to emancipate his slaves 52
George Bourne opposed slavery in 1810 52
TESTIMONY Of ANGELINA GRIMKÉ WELD 52
Houseservants 52
Slave-driving female professors of religion at Charleston, S. C. 53
Whipping women and prayer in the same room 53
Tread-mills 53
Slaveholding religion 54
Slave-driving mistress prayed for the divine blessing upon her whipping of an aged woman 54
Girl killed with impunity 54
Jewish law 54
Barbarities 54
Medical attendance upon slaves 55
Young man beaten to epilepsy and insanity 55
Mistresses flog their slaves 55
Blood-bought luxuries 55
Borrowing of slaves 55
Meals of slaves 55
All comfort of slaves disregarded 56
Severance of companion lovers 56
Separation of parents and children 56
Slave espionage 57
Sufferings of slaves 57
Horror of slavery indescribable 57
TESTIMONY OF CRUELTY INFLICTED UPON SLAVES 57
Colonization Society 60
Emancipation Society of North Carolina 60
Kentucky 61
PUNISHMENTS 62
Floggings 62
Witnesses and testimony 62
SLAVE DRIVING 69
Droves of slaves 70
CRUELTY TO SLAVES 70
Slaves like Stock without shelter 71
"Six pound paddle" 71
TORTURES OF SLAVES 72
Iron collars, chains, fetters, and hand-cuffs 72
Advertisements for fugitive slaves 73
Testimony 74
Iron head-frame 76
Chain coffles 76
Droves of human cattle 76
Washington, the National slave market 76
Testimony of James K. Paulding, Secretary of the Navy
Literary fraud and pretended prophecy by Mr. Paulding 77
Branding, Maimings, and Gun-shot wounds 77
Witnesses and Testimony 77
Mr. Sevier, senator of the U. S. 79
Judge Hitchcock, at Mobile 79
Commendable fidelity to truth in the advertisenents of slaveholders 82
Thomas Aylethorpe cut off a slave's ear, and sent it to Lewis Tappan 83
Advertisements for runaway slaves with their teeth mutilated 83
Excessive cruelty to slaves 85
Slaves burned alive 86
Mr. Turner, a slave-butcher 87
Slaves roasted and flogged 87
Cruelties common 88
Fugitive slaves 88
Slaves forced to eat tobacco worms 88
Baptist Christians escaping from slavery 88
Christian whipped for praying 88
James K. Paulding's testimony 89
Slave driven to death 89
Coroner's inquest on Harney's murdered female slave 83
Man-stealing encouraged by law 90
Trial for a murdered slave 90
Female slave whipped to death, and during the torture delivered of a dead infant 90
Slaves murdered 90
Slave driven to death 92
Slaves killed with Impunity 93
George, a slave, chopped piece-meal, and burnt by Lilburn Lewis 93
Retributive justice in the awful death of Lilburn Lewis 94
Trial of Isham Lewis, a slave murderer 94

-v-

PERSONAL NARRATIVES—-PART III. 94
NARRATIVE OF REV. FRANCIS HAWLEY 94
Plantations 94
Overseers 95
No appeal from Overseers to Masters 95
CLOTHING 95
Nudity of slaves 95
WORK 95
Cotton-picking 96
Mothers of slaves 96
Presbyterian minister killed his slave 96
Methodist colored preacher hung 96
Licentiousness 97
Slave-traffic 97
Night in a Slaveholder's house 97
Twelve slaves murdered 97
Slave driving Baptist preachers 97
Hunting of runaway slaves 97
Amalgamation 97
TESTIMONY OF REUBEN C. MACY, AND RICHARD MACY 98
Whipping of slaves 98
Testimony of Eleazer Powel 99
Overseer of Hinds Stuart, shot a slave for opposing the torture of his female companion 100
TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM SCALES 100
Three slaves murdered with impunity 100
Separation of lovers, parents, and children 101
TESTIMONY OF JOS. IDE 101
Mrs. T. a Presbyterian kind woman-killer 101
Female slave whipped to death 101
Food 101
Nakedness of slaves 101
Old man flogged after praying for his tyrant 101
Slave-huts not as comfortable as pig-sties 101
TESTIMONY OF REV. PHINEAS SMITH 101
Texas 102
Suit for the value of slave 'property' 102
Anson Jones, Ambassador from Texas 102
No trial or punishment for the murder of slaves 102
Slave-hunting in Texas 102
Suffering drives the slaves to despair and suicide 102
TESTIMONY OF PHIL'N BLISS 102
Ignorance of northern citizens respecting slavery 102
Betting upon crops 103
Extent and cruelty of the punishment of slaves 103
Slaveholders excuse their cruelties by the example of Preachers, and professors of religion, and Northern citizens 104
Novel torture, eulogized by a professor of religion 104
Whips as common as the plough 104
Ladies use cowhides, with shovel and tongs 104
TESTIMONY OF REV. WM. A. CHAPIN 105
Slave-labor 105
Starvation of slaves 105
Slaves lacerated, without clothing, and without food 105
TESTIMONY OF T. M. MACY 105
Cotton plantations on St. Simon's Island 105
Cultivation of rice 106
No time for relaxation 106
Sabbath a nominal rest 106
Clothing 106
Flogging 106
TESTIMONY OF F. C. MACY 106
Slave cabins 106
Food 106
Whipping every day 106
Treatment of slaves as brutes 106
Slave-boys fight for slaveholder's amusement 107
Amalgamation common 107
TESTIMONY OF A CLERGYMAN 107
Natchez 107
"Lie down," for whipping 107
Slave-hunting 108
"Ball and chain" men 108
Whipping at the same time, on three plantations 108
Hours of Labor 108
Christians slave-hunting 108
Many runaway slaves annually shot 108
Slaves in the stocks 108
Slave-branding 108
CONDITION OF SLAVES 108
Slavery is unmixed cruelty 108
Fear the only motive of slaves 109
Pain is the means, not the end of slave-driving 109
Characters of Slave drivers and Overseers, brutal, sensual, and violent 109
Ownership of human beings utterly destroys their comfort 109
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED: 110
I. Such cruelties are incredible 110
Slaves deemed to be working animals, or merchandize and called 'Stock,' 'Increase,' 'Breeders,' 'Drivers,' 'Property,' 'Human cattle' 110
Testimony of Thomas Jefferson 110
Slaves worse treated than quadrupeds 111
Contrast between the usage of slaves and animals 112
Testimony 112
Northern incredulity discreditable to consistency 112
Religious persecutions 113
Recent 'Lynchings' and Riots, in the United Stated 113
Many outrageous Felonies perpetrated with impunity 113
Large faith of the objectors who 'can't believe' 114
'Doe faces,' and 'Dough faces' 114
Slave-drivers acknowledge their own enormities 114
Slave plantations in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 'second only to hell' 114
Legislature of North Carolina 115
Incredulity discreditable to intelligence 115
Abuse of power in the state, and churches 115
Legal restraints 116
American slaveholders possess absolute power 116
Slaves deprived of the safeguards of law 116
Mutual aversion between the oppressor and the slave 116
Cruelty the product of arbitrary power 117
Testimony of Thomas Jefferson 117
Judge Tucker 117
Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina, and Georgia 117
General William H. Harrison 117
President Edwards 118
Montesquieu 118
Wilberforce 118
Whitbread 118
Characters 118
OBJECTION II.—"Slaveholders protest that they treat their slaves well" 121
Not testimony but opinion 122
'Good treatment' of slaves' 123
Novel form of cruelty 125
OBJECTION III—"Slaveholders are proverbial for their kindness, and generosity" 125
Hospitality and benevolence contrasted 125
Slaveholders in Congress, respecting Texas and Hayti 126
'Fictitious kindness and hospitality' 138
OBJECTION IV.—"Northern visitors at the south testify that the slaves are not cruelly treated" 128
Testimony 128
'Gubner poisoned' 129
Field-hands 130
Parlor slaves 130
Chief Justice Durell 131
OBJECTION V.—"It is for the interest of the masters to treat their slaves well" 132
Testimony 133
Rev. J. N Maffitt 134
Masters interest to treat cruelly the great body of the slaves 134
Various classes of slaves 135
Hired slaves 136
Advertisements 136
OBJECTION VI—"Slaves multiply; a proof that they are not inhumanly treated, and are in a comfortable condition 139
Testimony 139
Martin Van Buren 139
Foreign slave trade 139
'Beware of Kidnappers' 140
'Citizens sold as slaves' 141
Kidnapping at New Orleans 141
Slave breeders 142
OBJECTION VII.—"Public opinion is a protection to the slave 143
Decision of the Supreme Court of North and South Carolina 143
'Protection of slaves' 143
Mischievous effects of 'public opinion' concerning slavery 144
Laws of different states 144
Heart of slaveholders 145
Reasons for enacting the laws concerning cruelties to slaves 147
'Moderate correction' 148
Hypocrisy and malignity of slave laws 148
Testimony of slaves excluded 149
Capital crimes for slaves 149
'Slaveholding brutality,' worse than that of Caligula 149
Public opinion destroys fundamental rights 150
Character of slaveholders' advertisements 152
Public opinion is diabolical 152
Brutal indecency 154
Murder of slaves by law 155
Judge Lawless 157
Slave-hunting 159
Health of slaves 161
Acclimation of slaves 162
Liberty of Slaves 162
Kidnapping of free citizens 162
Law of Louisiana 163
FRIENDS', memorial 164
Domestic slavery 164
Advertisements 164
Childhood, old age 167
Inhumanity 169
Butchering dead slaves 169
South Carolina Medical college 169
Charleston Medical Infirmary 172
Advertisements 172
Slave murders 173
John Randolph 173
Charleston slave auctions 174
'Never lose a day's work' 174
Stocks 175
Slave-breeding 175
Lynch law 175
Slaves murdered 176
Slavery among Christians 176
Licentiousneas encouraged by preachers 180
'Fine old preacher who dealt in slaves' 180
Cruelty to slaves by professors of religion 181
Slave-breeding 182
Daniel O'Connel, and Andrew Stevenson 182
Virginia a negro raising menagerie 182
Legislature of Virginia 182
Colonization Society 183
Inter-state slave traffic 184
Battles In Congress 184
Duelling 185
Cock-fighting 186
Horse-racing 186
Ignorance of slaveholders 187
'Slave-holding civilization, and morality' 188
Arkansas 188
Slave driving ruffians 189
Missouri 191
Alabama 192
Butcheries in Mississippi 194
Louisiana 198
Tennessee 200
Fatal Affray in Columbia 201
Presentment of the Grand Jury of Shelby County 208
Testimony of Bishop Smith of Kentucky 204
ATLANTIC SLAVEHOLDING REGION 206
Georgia 206
North Carolina 209
Trading with Negroes 209
Conclusion 210

-vi-

READER, you are empanelled as a juror to try a plain case and bring in an honest verdict. The question at issue is not one of law, but of fact—"What is the actual condition of the slaves in the United States?" A plainer case never went to a jury. Look at it. TWENTY-SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PERSONS in this country, men, women, and children, are in SLAVERY.
Is slavery, as a condition for human beings, good, bad, or indifferent? We submit the question without argument. You have common sense, and conscience, and a human heart;—pronounce upon it. You have a wife, or a husband, a child, a father, a mother, a brother or a sister— make the case your own, make it theirs, and bring in your verdict.
The case of Human Rights against Slavery has been adjudicated in the court of conscience times innumerable. The same verdict has always been rendered—"Guilty;" the same sentence has always been pronounced, "Let it be accursed," and human nature, with her million echoes, has rung it round the world in every language under heaven, "Let it be accursed. Let it be accursed." His heart is false to human nature, who will not say "Amen."
There is not a man on earth who does not believe that slavery is a curse. Human beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to herself. She has uttered her testimony against slavery with a shriek ever since the monster was begotten; and till it perishes amidst the execrations of the universe, she will traverse the world on its track, dealing her bolts upon its head, and dashing against it her condemning brand.
We repeat it, every man knows that slavery is a curse. "Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart. Try him; clank the chains in his ears, and tell him they are for him. Give him an hour to prepare his wife and children for a life of slavery. Bid him make haste and get ready their necks for the yoke, and their wrists for the come chains, then look at his pale lips and trembling knees, and you have nature's testimony against slavery.
Two millions seven hundred thousand persons in these States are in this condition. They were made slaves and are held such by force, and by being put in fear, and this for no crime! Reader, what have you to say of such treatment? Is it right, just, benevolent? Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the field, and make you work without pay as long as you live, would that be justice and kindness, or monstrous injustice and cruelty?
Now, everybody knows that the slaveholders do these things to the slaves every day, and yet it is stoutly affirmed that they treat them well and kindly, and that their tender regard for their slaves restrains the masters from inflicting cruelties upon them. We shall go into no metaphysics to show the absurdity of this pretence.
The man who robs you every day, is, forsooth, quite too tenderhearted ever to cuff or kick you! True, he can snatch your money, but he does it gently lest he should hurt you. He can empty your pockets without qualms, but if your stomach is empty, it cuts him to the quick. He can make you work a life time without pay, but loves you too well to let you go hungry. He fleeces you of your rights with a relish, but is shocked if you work bareheaded in summer, or in winter without warm stockings. He can make you go without your liberty, but never without a shirt. He can crush, in you, all hope of bettering your condition, by vowing that you shall die his slave, but though he can coolly torture your feelings, he is too compassionate to lacerate your back—he can break your heart, but he is very tender of your skin.
He can strip you of all protection and thus expose you to all outrages, but if you are exposed to the weather, half clad and half sheltered, how yearn his tender bowels! What! slaveholders talk of treating men well, and yet not only rob them of all they get, and as fast as they get it, but rob them of themselves, also their very hands and feet, all their muscles, and limbs, and senses, their bodies and minds, their time and liberty and earnings, their free speech and rights of con-
-7-
science, their right to acquire knowledge, and property, and reputation;—and yet they, who plunder them of all these, would fain make us believe that their soft hearts ooze out so lovingly loward their slaves that they always keep them well housed and well clad, never push them too hard in the field, never make their dear backs smart, nor let their dear stomachs get empty.
But there is no end to these absurdities. Are slaveholders dunces, or do they take all the rest of the world to be, that they think to bandage our eyes with such thin gauzes? Protesting their kind regard for those whom they hourly plunder of all they have and all they get! What! when they have seized their victims, and annihilated all their rights, still claim to be the special guardians of their happiness! Plunderers of their liberty, yet the careful suppliers of their wants? Robbers of their earnings, yet watchful sentinels round their interests, and kind providers of their comforts? Filching all their time, yet granting generous donations for rest and sleep? Stealing the use of their muscles, yet thoughtful of their ease? Putting them under drivers, yet careful that they are not hard-pushed? Too humane forsooth to stint the stomachs of their slaves, yet force their minds to starve, and brandish over them pains and penalties, if they dare to reach forth for the smallest crumb of knowledge, even a letter of the alphabet!
It is no marvel that slaveholders are always talking of their kind treatment of their slaves. The only marvel is, that men of sense can be gulled by such professions. Despots always insist that they are merciful. The greatest tyrants that ever dripped with blood have assumed the titles of "most gracious," "most clement," "most merciful," &c., and have ordered their crouching vassals to accost them thus. When did not vice lay claim to those virtues which are the opposites of its habitual crimes?
The guilty, according to their own showing, are always innocent, and cowards brave, and drunkards sober, and harlots chaste, and pickpockets honest to a fault. Everybody understands this. When a man's tongue grows thick, and he begins to hiccough and walk cross-leggcd, we expect him, as a matter of course, to protest that he is not drunk; so when a man is always singing the praises of his own honesty, we instinctively watch his movements and look out for our pocket-books. Whoever is simple enough to be hoaxed by such professions, should never be trusted in the streets without somebody to take care of him.
Human nature works out in slave-holders just as it does in other men, and in American slaveholders just as in English, French, Turkish, Algerine, Roman and Grecian. The Spartans boasted of their kindness to their slaves, while they whipped them to death by thousands at the altars of their gods. The Romans lauded their own mild treatment of their bondmen, while they branded their names on their flesh with hot irons, and when old, threw them into their fish ponds, or like Cato "the Just," starved them to death. It is the boast of the Turks that they treat their slaves as though they were their children, yet their common name for them is "dogs," and for the merest trifles, their feet are bastinadoed to a jelly, or their heads clipped off with the scimetar. The Portuguese pride themselves on their gentle bearing toward their slaves, yet the streets of Rio Janeiro are filled with naked men and women yoked in pairs to carts and wagons, and whipped by drivers like beasts of burden.
Slaveholders, the world over, have sung the praises of their tender mercies towards their slaves. Even the wretches that plied the African slave trade, tried to rebut Clarkson's proofs of their cruelties, by speeches, affidavits, and published pamphlets, setting forth the accommodations of the " middle passage," and their kind attentions to the comfort of those whom they had stolen from their homes, and kept stowed away under hatches, during a voyage of four thousand miles.
So, according to the testimony of the autocrat of the Russias, he exercises great clemency towards the Poles, though he exiles them by thousands to the snows of Siberia, and tramples them down by millions, at home. Who discredits the atrocities perpetrated by Ovando in Hispaniola, Pizarro in Peru, and Cortcz in Mexico,—because they filled the ears of the Spanish Court with protestations of their benignant rule? While they were yoking the enslaved natives like beasts to the draught, working them to death by thousands in their mines, hunting them with bloodhounds, torturing them on racks, and broiling them on beds of coals, their representations to the mother country teemed with eulogies of their parental sway! The bloody atrocities of Philip II., in the expulsion of his Moorish subjects, are matters of imperishable history. Who disbelieves or doubts them ? And yet his courtiers magnified his virtues and chanted his clemency and his mercy, while the wail of a million victims, smitten down by a tempest of fire and slaughter let loose at his bidding, rose above the Te Deums that thundered from all Spain's cathedrals. When Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantz, and proclaimed two millions of his subjects free plunder for persecution,—when from the English channel to the Pyrennees the mangled bodies of the Protestants were dragged on reeking hurdles by a shouting populace, he claimed to be "the father of his people," and wrote himself "His most Christian Majesty."
But we will not anticipate topics, the full discussion of which more naturally follows than
-8-
precedes the inquiry into the actual condition and treatment of slaves in the United States.
As slaveholders and their apologists are volunteer witnesses in their own cause, and are flooding the world with testimony that their slaves are kindly treated; that they are well fed, well clothed, well housed, well lodged, moderately worked, and bountifully provided with all things of needful for their comfort, we propose—first, to disprove their assertions by the testimony of a multitude of impartial witnesses, and then to put slaveholders themselves through a course of cross-questioning which shall draw their condemnation out of their own mouths.
We will prove that the slaves in the United States are treated with barbarous inhumanity; that they are overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged, and have insufficient sleep; that they are often made to wear round their necks iron collars armed with prongs, to drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while working in the field, and to wear yokes, and bells and iron horns; that they are often kept confined in the stocks day and night for weeks together, made to wear gags in their mouths for hours or days, have some of their front teeth torn out or broken off, that they may be easily detected when they run away; that they are frequently flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper rubbed into their lacerated flesh, and hot brine, spirits of turpentine, &c., poured over the gashes to increase the torture; that they are often stripped naked, their backs and limbs cut with knives, bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of blows witli the paddle, and terribly torn by the claws of cats, drawn over them by their tormentors; that they are often hunted with blood hounds and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs; that they are often suspended by the arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and when revived by restoratives, beaten again till they faint, and sometimes till they die; that their ears are often cut off, their eyes knocked out, their bones broken, their flesh branded with red hot irons; that they are maimed, mutilated and burned to death over slow fires. All these things and more, and worse, we shall prove.
Reader, we know whereof we affirm, we have weighed it well; more and worse WE WILL PROVE. Mark these words, and read on; we will establish all these facts by the testimony of scores and hundreds of eye witnessses, by the testimony of slaveholders in all parts of the slave states, by slaveholding members of Congress and of state legislatures, by ambassadors to foreign courts, by judges, by doctors of divinity, and clergymen of all denominations, by merchants, mechanics, lawyers and physicians, by presidents and professors in colleges and professional seminaries, by planters, overseers and drivers.
We shall show, not merely that such deeds are committed, but that they are frequent; not done in corners, but before the sun; not in one of the slave states, but in all of them; not perpetrated by brutal overseers and drivers merely, but by magistrates, by legislators, by professors of religion, by preachers of the gospel, by governors of states, by "gentlemen of property and standing," and by delicate females moving in the "highest circles of society." We know, full well, the outcry that will be made by multitudes, at these declarations; the multiform cavils, the flat denials, the charges of "exaggeration" and "falsehood" so often bandied, the sneers of affected contempt at the credulity that can believe such things, and the rage and imprecations against those who give them currency.
We know, too, the threadbare sophistries by which slaveholders and their apologists seek to evade such testimony. If they admit that such deeds are committed, they tell us that they are exceedingly rare, and therefore furnish no grounds for judging of the general treatment of slaves; that occasionally a brutal wretch in the free states barbarously butchers his wife, but that no one thinks of inferring from that, the general treatment of wives at the North and West.
They tell us, also, that the slaveholders of the South are proverbially hospitable, kind, and generous, and it is incredible that they can perpetrate such enormities upon human beings; further, that it is absurd to suppose that they would thus injure their own property, that self interest would prompt them to treat their slaves with kindness, as none but fools and madmen wantonly destroy their own property; further, that Northern visitors at the South come back testifying to the kind treatment of the slaves, and that the slaves themselves corroborate such representations.
All these pleas, and scores of others, are bruited in every corner of the free States; and who that hath eyes to see, has not sickened at the blindness that saw not, at the palsy of heart that felt not, or at the cowardice and sycophancy that dared not expose such shallow fallacies. We are not to be turned from our purpose by such vapid babblings. In their appropriate places, we propose to consider these objections and various others, and to show their emptiness and folly.
The foregoing declarations touching the inflictions upon slaves, are not haphazard assertions, nor the exaggerations of fiction conjured up to carry a point; nor are they the rhapsodies of enthusiasm, nor crude conclusions, jumped at by hasty and imperfect investigation, nor the aimless outpourings either of sympathy or poetry; but they are proclamations of deliberate, well-weighed convictions, produced by accumulations of proof, by affirmations and affidavits, by writ-
-9-
ten testimonies and statements of a cloud of witnesses who speak what they know and testify what they have seen, and all these impregnably fortified by proofs innumerable, in the relation of the slaveholder to his slave, the nature of arbitrary power, and the nature and history of man.
Of the witnesses whose testimony is embodied in the following pages, a majority are slaveholders, many of the remainder have been slaveholders, but now reside in free States.
Another class whose testimony will be given, consists of those who have furnished the results of their own observation during periods of residence and travel in the slave States.
We will first present the reader with a few PERSONAL NARRATIVES furnished by individuals, natives of slave states and others, embodying, in the main, the results of their own observation in the midst of slavery—facts and scenes of which they were eye-witnesses.
In the next place, to give the reader as clear and definite a view of the actual condition of slaves as possible, we propose to make specific points, to pass in review the various particulars in the slaves' condition, simply presenting sufficient testimony under each head to settle the question in every candid mind. The examination will be conducted by stating distinct propositions. and in the following order of topics.
1. THE FOOD OF THE SLAVES, THE KINDS, QUALITY AND QUANTITY, ALSO, THE NUMBER AND TIME OF MEALS EACH DAY, &c.
2. THEIR HOURS OF LABOR AND REST.
3. THEIR CLOTHING.
4. THEIR DWELLINGS.
5. THEIR PRIVATIONS AND INFLICTIONS.
6. In conclusion, a variety of OBJECTIONS and ARGUMENTS will be considered which are used by the advocates of slavery to set aside the force of testimony, and to show that the slaves are kindly treated.

Between the larger divisions of the work, brief personal narratives will be inserted, containing a mass of facts and testimony, both general and specific.
————————
PERSONAL NARRATIVES.

MR. NEHEMIAH CAULKINS, of Waterford, New London Co., Connecticut, has furnished the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with the following statements relative to the condition and treatment of slaves, in the south eastern part of North Carolina. Most of the facts related by Mr. Caulkins fell under his personal observation. The air of candor and honesty that pervades the narrative, the manner in which Mr. C. has drawn it up, the good sense, just views, conscience and heart which it exhibits, are sufficient of themselves to commend it to all who have ears to hear.
The Committee have no personal acquaintance with Mr. Caulkins, but they have ample testimonials from the most respectable sources; all of which represent him to be a man whose long established character for sterling integrity, sound moral principle and piety, have secured for him the uniform respect and confidence of those who know him.
Without further preface the following testimonials are submitted to the reader.
"This may certify, that we the subscribers have lived for a number of years past in the neighborhood with Mr. Nehemiah Caulking, and have no hesitation in stating that we consider him a man of high respectability and that his character for truth and veracity is unimpeachable."
PETER COMSTOCK D. G. OTIS

A. F. PERKINS, M.D. PHILIP MORGAN
ISAAC BEEBE JAMES ROGERS, M.D.
LODOWICK BEEBE
Waterford, Ct., Jan. l6th, 1839.

Mr. Comstock is a Justice of the Peace. Mr. L. Beebe is the Town Clerk of Waterford. Mr. J. Beebe is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Otis is a member of the Congrcgational Church. Mr. Morgan is a Justice of the Peace, and Messrs. Perkins and Rogers are designated by their titles. All those gentlemen are citizens of Waterford, Connecticut.
"To whom it may concern. This may certify that Mr. Nehemiah Caulhins, of Waterford, in New London County, is a near neighbor to the subscriber, and haa been for many years. I do consider him a man of unquestionable veracity and certify that he is so considered by people to whom he is personally known.EDWARD R. WARREN." Jan. 15th, 1839.

Mr. Warren is a Commissioner (Associate Judge) of the County Court, for New London County.
" This may certify that Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, of the town of Waterford, Ct., County of New London, and State of Connecticut, is a member of the first Baptist Church in said Waterford, is in good standing, and is esteemed by us a man of truth and veracity.
FRANCIS DARROW, Pastor of said Church." Waterford, Jan, 16th, 1839.
"This may certify that Nehemiah Caulkins, of Waterford, lives near me, and I always esteemed him, and believe him to be a man of truth and veracity.
ELISHA BECKWITH." Jan. 16th, 1839.

Mr. Beckwith is a Justice of the Peace, a Post Master, and a Deacon of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Dwight P. Janes, a member of the Second Congregational Church in the city of New London, in a recent letter, says:
-10-

"Mr. Caulkins is a member of the Baptist Church in Waterford, and in every respect a very worthy citizen. I have labored with him in tho Sabbath School, and know him to be a man of active piety. The most entire confidence may be placed in the truth of his statements. Where he is known, no one will call them in question."

We close these testimonials with an extract, of a letter from William Bolles, Esq., a well known and respected citizen of New London, Ct.
" Mr. Nehemiah Gaulkins resides in the town of Waterford, about six miles from this City. His opportunities to acquire exact knowledge in relation to Slavery, in that section of our country, to which his narrative is confined, have been very great. He is a carpenter, and was employed principally on the plantations, working at his trade, being thus almost constantly in the company of the slaves as well as of their masters. His full heart readily responded to the call, [for information relative to slavery,] for, as he expressed it, he had long desired that others might know what he had seen, being confident that a general knowledge of facts as they exist, would greatly promote the overthrow of the system. He is a man of undoubted character; and where known, his statements need no corroboration.
Yours, &c. WILLIAM BOLLES.

NARRATIVE OF MR. CAULKINS.
I feel it my duty to tell some things that I know about slavery, in order, if possible, to awaken more feeling at the North in behalf of the slave. The treatment of the slaves on the plantations where I had the greatest opportunity of getting knowledge, was not so bad as that on some neighboring estates, where the owners were noted for their cruelty. There were, however, other estates in the vicinity, where the treatment was better; the slaves were better clothed and fed, were not worked so hard, and more attention was paid to their quarters.
The scenes that I have witnessed are enough to harrow up the soul; but could the slave be permitted to tell the story of his sufferings, which no white man, not linked with slavery, is allowed to know, the land would vomit out the horrible system, slaveholders and all, if they would not unclinch their grasp upon their defenceless victims.
I spent eleven winters, between the years 1824 and 1835, in the state of North Carolina, mostly in the vicinity of Wilmington; and four out of the eleven on the estate of Mr. John Swan, five or six miles from that place. There were on his plantation about seventy slaves, male and female: some were married, and others lived together as man and wife, without even a mock ceremony. With their owners generally, it is a matter of indifference; the marriage of slaves not being recognized by the slave code. The slaves, however, think much of being married by a clergyman.
The cabins or huts of the slaves were small, and were built principally by the slaves themselves, as they could find time on Sundays and moonlight nights; they went into the swamps, cut the logs, backed or hauled them to the quarters, and put up their cabins.
When I first knew Mr. Swan's plantation, his overseer was a man who had been a Methodist minister. He treated the slaves with great cruelty. His reason for leaving the ministry and becoming an overseer, as I was informed, was this: his wife died, at which providence he was so enraged, that he swore be would not preach for the Lord another day. This man continued on the plantation about three years; at the close of which, on settlement of accounts, Mr. Swan owed him about $400, for which he turned him out a negro woman, and about twenty acres of land. He built a log hut, and took the woman to live with him; since which, I have been at his hut, and seen four or five mulatto children. He has been appointed a justice of the peace and his place as overseer was afterwards occupied by a Mr. Galloway.
It is customary in that part of the country, to let the hogs run in the woods. On one occasion a slave caught a pig about two months old, which he carried to his quarters. The overseer, getting information of the fact, went to the field where he was at work, and ordered him to come to him. The slave at once suspected it was something about the pig, and fearing punishment, dropped his hoe and ran for the woods. He had got but a few rods, when the overseer raised his gun, loaded with duck shot, and brought him down. It is a common practice for overseers to go into the field armed with a gun or pistols, and sometimes both. He was taken up by the slaves and carried to the plantation hospital, and the physician sent for. A physician was employed by the year to take care of the sick or wounded slaves. In about six weeks this slave got better, and was able to come out of the hospital. He came to the mill where I was at work, and asked me to examine his body, which I did, and counted twenty-six duck shot still remaining in his flesh, though the doctor had removed a number while he was laid up.
There was a slave on Mr. Swan's plantation, by the name of Harry, who, during the absence of his master, ran away and secreted himself in the woods. This the slaves sometimes do, when the master is absent for several weeks, to escape the cruel treatment of the overseer. It is common for them to make preparations, by secreting a mortar, a hatchet, some cooking utensils, and whatever things they can get that will enable them to live while they are in the woods or swamps. Harry staid about three months, and lived by robbing the rice grounds, and by such other means as came in his way. The slaves generally know where the runaway is secreted, and visit him at night and on Sundays. On the return of his master, some of the slaves were sent for Harry. When he came home he was seized and confined in the stocks. The stocks were built in the barn, and consisted of two heavy pieces of timber, ten or more feet in length, and about seven inches wide; the lower one, on
-11-
the floor, has a number of holes or places cut in it, for the ankles; the upper piece, being of the same dimensions, is fastened at one end by a hinge, and is brought down after the ancles are placed in the holes, and secured by a clasp and padlock at the other end. In this manner the person is left to sit on the floor. Harry was kept in the stocks day and night for a week, and flogged every morning. After this, he was taken out one morning, a log chain fastened around his neck, the two ends dragging on the ground, and he sent to the field, to do his task with the other slaves. At night he was again put in the stocks, in the morning he was sent to the field in the same manner, and thus dragged out another week.
The overseer [Galloway] was a very miserly fellow, and restricted his wife in what are considered the comforts of life--such as tea, sugar, &c. To make up for this, she set her wits to work, and, by the help of a slave, named Joe, used to take from the plantation whatever she could conveniently, and watch her opportunity during her husband's absence, and send Joe to sell them and buy for her such things as she directed. Once when her husband was away, she told Joe to kill and dress one of the pigs, sell it, and get her some tea, sugar, &c. Joe did as he was bid, and she gave him the offal for his services. When Galloway returned, not suspecting his wife, he asked her if she knew what had become of his pig. She told him she suspected one of the slaves, naming him, had stolen it, for she had heard a pig squeal the evening before. The overseer called the slave up and charged him with the theft. He denied it, and said he knew nothing about it. The overseer still charged him with it, and told him he would give him one week to think of it, and if he did not confess the theft, or find out who did steal the pig, he would flog every negro on the plantation; before the week was up it was ascertained that Joe had killed the pig. He was called up and questioned, and admitted that he had done so, and told the overseer that he did it by the order of Mrs. Galloway, and that she directed him to buy some sugar, &c. with the money. Mrs. Galloway gave Joe the lie; and he was terribly flogged. Joe told me he had been several times to the smoke-house with Mrs. G, and taken hams and sold them, which her husband told me he supposed were stolen by the negroes on a neighboring plantation. Mr. Swan, hearing of the circumstance, told me he believed Joe's story, but that his statement would not be taken as proof; and if every slave on the plantation told the same story it could not be received as evidence against a white person.
To show the manner in which old and worn-out slaves are sometimes treated, I will state a fact. Galloway owned a man about seventy years of age. The old man was sick and went to his hut; laid himself down on some straw with his feet to the fire, covered by a piece of an old blanket, and there lay four or five days, groaning in great distress, without any attention being paid him by his master, until death ended his miseries; he was then taken out and buried with as little ceremony and respect as would be paid to a brute.
There is a practice prevalent among the planters, of letting a negro off from severe and long-continued punishment on account of the intercession of some white person, who pleads in his behalf, that he believes the negro will behave better; that he promises well, and he believes he will keep his promise, &c. The planters sometimes get tired of punishing a negro, and, wanting his services in the field, they get some white person to come, and, in the presence of the slave, intercede for him. At one time a negro, named Charles, was confined in the stocks in the building where I was at work, and had been severely whipped several times. He begged me to intercede for him and try to get him released. I told him I would; and when his master came in to whip him again, I went up to him and told him I had been talking with Charles, and he had promised to behave better, &c., and requested him not to punish him any more, but to let him go. He then said to Charles, “As Mr. Caulkins has been pleading for you, I will let you go on his account;” and accordingly released him.
Women are generally shown some little indulgence for three or four weeks previous to child-birth; they are at such times not often punished if they do not finish the task assigned them; it is, in some cases, passed over with a severe reprimand, and sometimes without any notice being taken of it. They are generally allowed four weeks after the birth of a child, before they are compelled to go into the field, they then take the child with them, attended sometimes by a little girl or boy, from the age of four to six, to take care of it while the mother is at work. When there is no child that can be spared, or not young enough for this service, the mother, after nursing, lays it under a tree, or by the side of a fence, and goes to her task, returning at stated intervals to nurse it.
While I was on this plantation, a little negro girl, six years of age, destroyed the life of a child about two months old, which was left in her care. It seems this little nurse, so called, got tired of her charge and the labor of carrying it to the quarters at night, the mother being obliged to work as long as she could see. One evening she nursed the infant at sunset as usual, and sent it to the quarters. The little girl, on her way home, had to cross a run, or brook, which led down into the swamp; when she came to the brook she followed it into the swamp, then took the infant and plunged it head foremost into the water and mud, where it stuck fast; she there left it and went to the negro quarters. When the mother came in from the field, she asked the girl where the child was; she told her she had brought it home, but did not know where it was; the overseer was immediately informed, search was made, and it was found as above stated, and dead. The little girl was shut up in the barn, and confined there two or three weeks, when a speculator came along and bought her for two hundred dollars.
The slaves are obliged to work from daylight till dark, as long as they can see. When they have tasks assigned, which is often the case, a few of the strongest and most expert, sometimes finish them before sunset; others will be obliged to work till eight or nine o'clock in the evening. All must finish their tasks or take a flogging. The whip and gun, or pistol, are companions of the overseer; the former he uses very frequently upon the negroes, during their hours of labor,
-12-
without regard to age or sex. Scarcely a day passed while I was on the plantation, in which some of the slaves were not whipped; I do not mean that they were struck a few blows merely, but had a set flogging. The same labor is commonly assigned to men and women,--such as digging ditches in the rice marshes, clearing up land, chopping cord-wood, threshing, &c. I have known the women go into the barn as soon as they could see in the morning, and work as late as they could see at night, threshing rice with the flail, (they now have a threshing machine,) and when they could see to thresh no longer, they had to gather up the rice, carry it up stairs, and deposit it in the granary.
The allowance of clothing on this plantation to each slave, was given out at Christmas for the year, and consisted of one pair of coarse shoes, and enough coarse cloth to make a jacket and trowsers. If the man has a wife she makes it up; if not, it is made up in the house. The slaves on this plantation, being near Wilmington, procured themselves extra clothing by working Sundays and moonlight nights, cutting cord-wood in the swamps, which they had to back about a quarter of a mile to the river; they would then get a permit from their master, and taking the wood in their canoes, carry it to Wilmington, and sell it to the vessels, or dispose of it as they best could, and with the money buy an old jacket of the sailors, some coarse cloth for a shirt, &c.
They sometimes gather the moss from the trees, which they cleanse and take to market. The women receive their allowance of the same kind of cloth which the men have. This they make into a frock; if they have any under garments they must procure them for themselves. When the slaves get a permit to leave the plantation, they sometimes make all ring again by singing the following significant ditty, which shows that after all there is a flow of spirits in the human breast which for a while, at least, enables them to forget their wretchedness.
Hurra, for good ole Massa,
He giv me de pass to go to de city
Hurra, for good ole Missis,
She bile de pot, and giv me de licker,
Hurra, I'm goin to de city.
Every Saturday night the slaves receive their allowance of provisions, which must last them till the next Saturday night. “Potatoe time,” as it is called, begins about the middle of July. The slave may measure for himself, the overseer being present, half a bushel of sweet potatoes, and heap the measure as long as they will lie on; I have, however, seen the overseer, if he think the negro is getting too many, kick the measure; and if any fall off, tell him he has got his measure. No salt is furnished them to eat with their potatoes. When rice or corn is given, they give them a little salt; sometimes half a pint of molasses is given, but not often. The quantity of rice, which is of the small, broken, unsaleable kind, is one peck. When corn is given them, their allowance is the same, and if they get it ground, (Mr. Swan had a mill on his plantation,) they must give one quart for grinding, thus reducing their weekly allowance to seven quarts. When fish (mullet) were plenty, they were allowed, in addition, one fish. As to meat, they seldom had any. I do not think they had an allowance of meat oftener than once in two or three months, and then the quantity was very small.
When they went into the field to work, they took some of the meal or rice and a pot with them; the pots were given to an old woman, who placed two poles parallel, set the pots on them, and kindled a fire underneath for cooking; she took salt with her and seasoned the messes as she thought proper. When their breakfast was ready, which was generally about ten or eleven o'clock, they were called from labor, ate, and returned to work; in the afternoon, dinner was prepared in the same way. They had but two meals a day while in the field; if they wanted more, they cooked for themselves after they returned to their quarters at night. At the time of killing hogs on the plantation, the pluck, entrails, and blood were given to the slaves.
When I first went upon Mr. Swan's plantation, I saw a slave in shackles or fetters, which were fastened around each ankle and firmly riveted, connected together by a chain. To the middle of this chain he had fastened a string, so as in a manner to suspend them and keep them from galling his ankles. This slave, whose name was Frank, was an intelligent, good looking man, and a very good mechanic. There was nothing vicious in his character, but he was one of those high-spirited and daring men, that whips, chains, fetters, and all the means of cruelty in the power of slavery, could not subdue.
Mr. S. had employed a Mr. Beckwith to repair a boat, and told him Frank was a good mechanic, and he might have his services. Frank was sent for, his shackles still on. Mr. Beckwith set him to work making trunnels, &c. I was employed in putting up a building, and after Mr. Beckwith had done with Frank, he was sent for to assist me. Mr. Swan sent him to a blacksmith's shop and had his shackles cut off with a cold chisel. Frank was afterwards sold to a cotton planter.
I will relate one circumstance, which shows the little regard that is paid to the feelings of the slave. During the time that Mr. Isaiah Rogers was superintending the building of a rice machine, one of the slaves complained of a severe toothache. Swan asked Mr. Rogers to take his hammer and knock out the tooth.
There was a slave on the plantation named Ben, a waiting man. I occupied a room in the same hut, and had frequent conversations with him. Ben was a kind-hearted man, and, I believe, a Christian; he would always ask a blessing before he sat down to eat, and was in the constant practice of praying morning and night.-- One day when I was at the hut, Ben was sent for to go to the house. Ben sighed deeply and went. He soon returned with a girl about seventeen years of age, whom one of Mr. Swan's daughters had ordered him to flog. He brought her into the room where I was, and told her to stand there while he went into the next room: I
-13-
heard him groan again as he went. While there I heard his voice, and he was engaged in prayer. After a few minutes he returned with a large cow-hide, and stood before the girl, without saying a word. I concluded he wished me to leave the hut, which I did, and immediately after I heard the girl scream. At every blow she would shriek, “Do, Ben! oh do, Ben!” This is a common expression of the slaves to the person whipping them: “Do, Massa!” or, “Do, Missus!”
After she had gone, I asked Ben what she was whipped for: he told me she had done something to displease her young missus; and in boxing her ears, and otherwise beating her, she had scratched her finger by a pin in the girl's dress, for which she sent her to be flogged. I asked him if he stripped her before flogging; he said, yes; he did not like to do this, but was obliged to: he said he was once ordered to whip a woman, which he did without stripping her: on her return to the house, her mistress examined her back; and not seeing any marks, he was sent for, and asked why he had not whipped her: he replied that he had; she said she saw no marks, and asked him if he had made her pull her clothes off; he said, No. She then told him, that when he whipped any more of the women, he must make them strip off their clothes, as well as the men, and flog them on their bare backs, or he should be flogged himself.
Ben often appeared very gloomy and sad: I have frequently heard him, when in his room, mourning over his condition, and exclaim, “Poor African slave! Poor African slave!” Whipping was so common an occurrence on this plantation, that it would be too great a repetition to state the many and severc floggings I have seen inflicted on the slaves. They were flogged for not performing their tasks, for being careless, slow, or not in time, for going to the fire to warm, &c.& c.; and it often seemed as if occasions were sought as an excuse for punishing them.
On one occasion, I heard the overseer charge the hands to be at a certain place the next morning at sun-rise. I was present in the morning, in company with my brother, when the hands arrived. Joe, the slave already spoken of, came running, all out of breath, about five minutes behind the time, when, without asking any questions, the overseer told him to take off his jacket. Joe took off his jacket. He had on a piece of a shirt; he told him to take it off: Joe took it off: he then whipped him with a heavy cow-hide full six feet long. At every stroke Joe would spring from the ground, and scream, “O my God! Do, Massa Galloway!” My brother was so exasperated, that he turned to me and said, “If I were Joe, I would kill the overseer if I knew I should be shot the next minute.”
In the winter the horn blew at about four in the morning, and all the threshers were required to be at the threshing floor in fifteen minutes after. They had to go about a quarter of a mile from their quarters. Galloway would stand near the entrance, and all who did not come in time would get a blow over the back or head as heavy as he could strike. I have seen him, at such times, follow after them, striking furiously a number of blows, and every one followed by their screams. I have seen the women go to their work after such a flogging, crying and taking on most piteously.
It is almost impossible to believe that human nature can endure such hardships and sufferings as the slaves have to go through: I have seen them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate, when they had to break the ice, and there stand in the water among the ice until it was bailed out. I have often known the hands to be taken from the field, sent down the river in flats or boats to Wilmington, absent from twenty-four to thirty hours, without any thing to eat, no provision being made for these occasions.
Galloway kept medicine on hand, that in case any of the slaves were sick, he could give it to them without sending for the physician; but he always kept a good look out that they did not sham sickness. When any of them excited his suspicions, he would make them take the medicine in his presence, and would give them a rap on the top of the head, to make them swallow it. A man once came to him, of whom he said he was suspicious: he gave him two potions of salts, and fastened him in the stocks for the night. His medicine soon began to operate; and there he lay in all his filth till he was taken out the next day.
One day, Mr. Swan beat a slave severely, for alleged carelessness in letting a boat get adrift. The slave was told to secure the boat: whether he took sufficient means for this purpose I do not know; he was not allowed to make any defence. Mr. Swan called him up, and asked why he did not secure the boat: he pulled off his hat and began to tell his story. Swan told him he was a damned liar, and commenced beating him over the head with a hickory cane, and the slave retreated backwards; Swan followed him about two rods, threshing him over the head with the hickory as he went.
As I was one day standing near some slaves who were threshing, the driver, thinking one of the women did not use her flail quick enough, struck her over the head: the end of the whip hit her in the eye. I thought at the time he had put it out; but, after poulticing and doctoring for some days, she recovered. Speaking to him about it, he said that he once struck a slave so as to put one of her eyes entirely out.
A patrol is kept upon each estate, and every slave found off the plantation without a pass is whipped on the spot. I knew a slave who started without a pass, one night, for a neighboring plantation, to see his wife: he was caught, tied to a tree, and flogged. He stated his business to the patrol, who was well acquainted with him, but all to no purpose. I spoke to the patrol about it afterwards: he said he knew the negro, that he was a very clever fellow, but he had to whip him; for, if he let him pass, he must another, &c. He stated that he had sometimes caught and flogged four in a night.
In conversation with Mr. Swan about runaway slaves, he stated to me the following fact:--A slave, by the name of Luke, was owned in Wilmington; he was sold to a speculator and carried to Georgia. After an absence of about two months the slave returned; he watched an opportunity to enter his old master's house when the family were absent, no one being at home but a
-14-
young waiting man. Luke went to the room where his master kept his arms; took his gun, with some ammunition, and went into the woods. On the return of his master, the waiting man told him what had been done: this threw him into a violent passion; he swore he would kill Luke, or lose his own life. He loaded another gun, took two men, and made search, but could not find him: he then advertised him, offering a large reward if delivered to him or lodged in jail. His neighbors, however, advised him to offer a reward of two hundred dollars for him dead or alive, which he did. Nothing however was heard of him for some months.
Mr. Swan said, one of his slaves ran away, and was gone eight or ten weeks; on his return he said he had found Luke, and that he had a rifle, two pistols, and a sword. I left the plantation in the spring, and returned to the north; when I went out again, the next fall, I asked Mr. Swan if any thing had been heard of Luke; he said he was shot, and related to me the manner of his death, as follows:--
Luke went to one of the plantations, and entered a hut for something to eat. Being fatigued, he sat down and fell asleep. There was only a woman in the hut at the time: as soon as she found he was asleep, she ran and told her master, who took his rifle, and called two white men on another plantation: the three, with their rifles, then went to the hut, and posted themselves in different positions, so that they could watch the door. When Luke waked up he went to the door to look out, and saw them with their rifles, he stepped back and raised his gun to his face. They called to him to surrender; and stated that they had him in their power, and said he had better give up. He said he would not; and if they tried to take him, he would kill one of them; for, if he gave up, he knew they would kill him, and he was determined to sell his life as dear as he could. They told him, if he should shoot one of them, the other two would certainly kill him: he replied, he was determined not to give up, and kept his gun moving from one to the other; and while his rifle was turned toward one, another, standing in a different direction, shot him through the head, and he fell lifeless to the ground.
There was another slave shot while I was there; this man had run away, and had been living in the woods a long time, and it was not known where he was, till one day he was discovered by two men, who went on the large island near Belvidere to hunt turkeys; they shot him and carried his head home.
It is common to keep dogs on the plantations, to pursue and catch runaway slaves. I was once bitten by one of them. I went to the overseer's house, the dog lay in the piazza, as soon as I put my foot upon the floor, he sprang and bit me just above the knee, but not severely; he tere my pantaloons badly. The overseer apologized for his dog, saying he never knew him to bite a white man before. He said he once had a dog, when he lived on another plantation, that was very useful to him in hunting runaway negroes. He said that a slave on the plantation once ran away; as soon as he found the course he took, he put the dog on the track, and he soon came so close upon him that the man had to climb a tree, he followed with his gun, and brought the slave home.
The slaves have a great dread of being sold and carried south. It is generally said, and I have no doubt of its truth, that they are much worse treated farther south.
The following are a few among the many facts related to me while I lived among the slaveholder. The names of the planters and plantations, I shall not give, as they did not come under my own observation. I however place the fullest confidence in their truth.
A planter not far from Mr. Swan's employed an overseer to whom he paid $400 a year; he became dissatisfied with him, because he did not drive the slaves hard enough, and get more work out of them. He therefore sent to South Carolina, or Georgia, and got a man to whom he paid I believe $800 a year. He proved to be a cruel fellow, and drove the slaves almost to death. There was a slave on this plantation, who had repeatedly run away, and had been severely flogged every time.
The last time he was caught, a hole was dug in the ground, and he buried up to the chin, his arms being secured down by his sides. He was kept in this situation four or five days.
The following was told me by an intimate friend; it took place on a plantation containing about one hundred slaves. One day the owner ordered the women into the barn, he then went in among them, whip in hand, and told them he meant to flog them all to death; they began immediately to cry out “What have I done Massa?” What have I done Massa?” He replied; “D--n you, I will let you know what you have done, you don't breed, I haven't had a young one from one of you for several months.” They told him they could not breed while they had to work in the rice ditches. (The rice grounds are low and marshy, and have to be drained, and while digging or clearing the ditches, the women had to work in mud and water from one to two feet in depth; they were obliged to draw up and secure their frocks about their waist, to keep them out of the water, in this manner they frequently had to work from daylight in the morning till it was so dark they could see no longer.) After swearing and threatening for some time, he told them to tell the overseer's wife, when they got in that way, and he would put them upon the land to work.
This same planter had a female slave who was a member of the Methodist Church; for a slave she was intelligent and conscientious. He proposed a criminal intercourse with her. She would not comply. He left her and sent for the overseer, and told him to have her flogged. It was done. Not long after, he renewed his proposal. She again refused. She was again whipped. He then told her why she had been twice flogged, and told her he intended to whip her till she should yield. The girl, seeing that her case was hopeless, her back smarting with the scourging she had received, and dreading a repetition, gave herself up to be the victim of his brutal lusts.
One of the slaves on another plantation, gave birth to a child which lived but two or three weeks. After its death the planter called the woman to him, and asked her how she came to
-15-
let the child die; said it was all owing to her carelessness, and that he meant to flog her for it. She told, him with all the feeling of a mother, the circumstances of its death. But her story availed her nothing against the savage brutality of her master. She was severely whipped. A healthy child four months old was then considered worth $100 in North Carolina.
The foregoing facts were related to me by white persons of character and respectability. The following fact was related to me on a plantation where I have spent considerable time and where the punishment was inflicted. I have no doubt of its truth.
A slave ran away from his master, and got as far as Newbern. He took provisions that lasted him a week; but having eaten all, he went to a house to get something to satisfy his hunger. A white man suspecting him to be a runaway, demanded his pass: as he had none he was seized and put in Newbern jail. He was there advertised, his description given, &c. His master saw the advertisement and sent for him; when he was brought back, his wrists were tied together and drawn over his knees. A stick was then passed over his arms and under his knees, and he secured in this manner, his trowsers were then stripped down, and he turned over on his side, and severely heaten with the paddle, then turned over and severely beaten on the other side, and then turned back again, and tortured by another bruising and beating. He was afterwards kept in the stocks a week, and whipped every morning.
To show the disgusting pollutions of slavery, and how it covers with moral filth every thing it touches, I will state two or three facts, which, I have on such evidence I cannot doubt their truth. A planter offered a white man of my acqaintance twenty dollars for every one of his female slaves, whom he would get in the family way. This offer was no doubt made for the purpose of improving the stock, on the same principle that farmers endeavour to improve their cattle by crossing the breed.
Slaves belonging to merchants and others in the city, often hire their own time, for which they pay various prices per week or month, according to the capacity of the slave. The females who thus hire their time, pursue various modes to procure the money; their masters making no inquiry how they get it, provided the money comes. If it is not regularly paid they are flogged. Some take in washing, some cook on board vessels, pick oakum, sell peanuts, &c., while others, younger and more comely, often resort to the vilest pursuits. I knew a man from the north who, though married to a respectable southern woman, kept two of these mulatto girls in an upper room at his store; his wife told some of her friends that he had not lodged at home for two weeks together, I have seen these two kept misses, as they are there called, at his store; he was afterwards stabbed in an attempt to arrest a runaway slave, and died in about ten days.
The clergy at the north cringe beneath the corrupting influence of slavery, and their moral courage is borne down by it. Not the hypocritical and unprincipled alone, but even such as can hardly be supposed to be destitute of sincerity.
Going one morning to the Baptist Sunday school, in Wilmington, in which I was engaged, I fell in with the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, who was going to the Presbyterian school. I asked him how he could bear to see the little negro children beating their hoops, hallooing, and running about the streets, as we then saw them, their moral condition entirely neglected, while the whites were so carefully gathered into the schools. His reply was substantially this:--“I can't bear it, Mr. Caulkins. I feel as deeply as any one can on this subject, but what can I do? MY HANDS ARE TIED.”
Now, if Mr. Hunt was guilty of neglecting his duty, as a servant of HIM who never failed to rebuke sin in high places, what shall be said of those clergymen at the north, where the power that closed his mouth is comparatively unfelt, who refuse to tell their people how God abhors oppression, and who seldom open their mouths on this subject, but to denounce the friends of emancipation; thus giving the strongest support to the accursed system of slavery. I believe Mr. Hunt has since become an agent of the Temperance Society.
In stating the foregoing facts, my object has been to show the practical workings of the system of slavery, and if possible to correct the misapprehension on this subject, so common at the north. In doing this I am not at war with slaveholders. No, my soul is moved for them as well as for the poor slaves. May God send them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth! Principle, on a subject of this nature, is dearer to me than the applause of men, and should not be sacrificed on any subject, even though the ties of friendship may be broken.
We have too long been silent on this subject, the slave has been too much considered, by our northern states, as being kept by necessity in his present condition.--Were we to ask, in the language of Pilate, “what evil have they done”--we may search their history, we cannot find that they have taken up arms against our government, nor insulted us as a nation--that they are thus compelled to drag out a life in chains! subjected to the most terrible inflictions if in any way they manifest a wish to be released.--Let us reverse the question. What evil has been done to them by those who call themselves masters?
First let us look at their persons, “neither clothed nor naked”--I have seen instances where this phrase would not apply to boys and girls, and that too in winter. I knew one young man seventeen years of age, by the name of Dave, on Mr. J. Swan's plantation, worked day after day in the rice machine as naked as when he was born. The reason of his being so, his master said in my hearing, was, that he could not keep clothes on him--he would get into the fire and burn them off.
Follow them next to their huts; some with and some without floors:--Go at night, view their means of lodging, see them lying on benches, some on the floor or ground, some sitting on stools, dozing away the night;--others, of younger age, with a bare blanket wrapped about them; and one or two lying in the ashes. These things I have often seen with my own eyes.
Examine their means of subsistence, which consists generally of seven quarts of meal or
-16-
eight quarts of small rice for one week; then follow them to their work, with driver and overseer pushing them to the utmost of their strength, by threatening and whipping.
If they are sick from fatigue and exposure, go to their huts, as I have often been, and see them groaning under a burning fever or pleurisy, lying on some straw, their feet to the fire with barely a blanket to cover them; or on some boards nailed together in form of a bedstead.
And after seeing all this, and hearing them tell of their sufferings, need I ask, is there any evil connected with their condition? and if so; upon whom is it to be charged? I answer for myself, and the reader can do the same. Our government stands
first chargeable for allowing slavery to exist, under its own jurisdiction.
Second, the states for enacting laws to secure their victim.
Third, the slaveholder for carrying out such enactments, in horrid form enough to chill the blood.
Fourth, every person who knows what slavery is, and does not raise his voice against this crying sin, but by silence gives consent to its continuance, is chargeable with guilt in the sight of God.
“The blood of Zacharias who was slain between the temple and altar,” says Christ, “WILL I REQUIRE OF THIS GENERATION.”
Look at the slave, his condition but little, if at all, better than that of the brute; chained down by the law, and the will of his master; and every avenue closed against relief; and the names of those who plead for him, cast out as evil;--must not humanity let its voice be heard, and tell Israel their transgressions and Judah their sins?
May God look upon their afflictions, and deliver them from their cruel task-masters! I verily believe he will, if there be any efficacy in prayer.
I have been to their prayer meetings and with them offered prayer in their behalf. I have heard some of them in their huts before day-light praying in their simple broken language, telling their heavenly Father of their trials in the following and similar language.
“Fader in heaven, look upon de poor slave, dat have to work all de day long, dat cant have de time to pray only in de night, and den massa mus not know it.
"Fader, have mercy on massa and missus. Fader, when shall poor slave get through the world! when will death come, and de poor slave go to heaven;” and in their meetings they frequently add, “Fader, bless de white man dat come to hear de slave pray, bless his family,”

and so on. They uniformly begin their meetings by singing the following--
“And are we yet alive
To see each other's face,” &c.
Is the ear of the Most High deaf to the prayer of the slave? I do firmly believe that their deliverance will come, and that the prayer of this poor afflicted people will be answered.
Emancipation would be safe. I have had eleven winters to learn the disposition of the slaves, and am satisfied that they would peaceably and cheerfully work for pay. Give them education, equal and just laws, and they will become a most interesting people. Oh, let a cry be raised which shall awaken the conscience of this guilty nation, to demand for the slaves immediate and unconditional emancipation.
NEHEMIAH CAULKINS. EDITOR

NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY
OF REV. HORACE MOULTON.

MR. MOULTON is an esteemed minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Marlborough, Mass. He spent five years in Georgia, between 1817 and 1824. The following communication has been recently received from him.
MARLBOROUGH, MASS., Feb. 18, 1839.
DEAR BROTHER--
Yours of Feb. 2d, requesting me to write out a few facts on the subject of slavery, as it exists at the south, has come to hand. I hasten to comply with your request. Were it not, however, for the claims of those “who are drawn unto death,” and the responsibility resting upon me, in consequence of this request, I should forever hold my peace. For I well know that I shall bring upon myself a flood of persecution, for attempting to speak out for the dumb. But I am willing to be set at nought by men, if I can be the means of promoting the welfare of the oppressed of our land. I shall not relate many particular cases of cruelty, though I might a great number; but shall give some general information as to their mode of treatment, their food, clothing, dwellings, deprivations, &c.
Let me say, in the first place, that I spent nearly five years in Savannah, Georgia, and in its vicinity, between the years 1817 and 1824. My object in going to the south, was to engage in making and burning brick; but not immediately succeeding, I engaged in no business of much profit until late in the winter, when I took charge of a set of hands and went to work. During my leisure, however, I was an observer, at the auctions, upon the plantations, and in almost every department of business.
The next year, during the cold months, I had several two-horse teams under my care, with which we used to haul brick, boards, and other articles from the wharf into the city, and cotton, rice, corn, and wood from the country. This gave me an extensive acquaintance with merchants, mechanics and planters.
I had slaves under my control some portions of every year when at the south. All the brick-yards, except one, on which I was engaged, were connected either with a corn field, potatoe patch, rice field, cotton field, tan-works, or with a wood lot. My business, usually, was to take charge of the brick-making department. At those jobs I have sometimes taken in charge both the field and brick-yard hands. I have been on the plantations in South Carolina, but have never been an overseer of slaves in that state, as has been said in the public papers.
I think the above facts and explanations are
-17-
necessary to be connected with the account I may give of slavery, that the reader may have some knowledge of my acquaintance with practical slavery: for many mechanics and merchants who go to the South, and stay there for years, know but little of the dark side of slavery. My account of slavery will apply to field hands, who compose much the largest portion of the black population, (probably ninetenths,) and not to those who are kept for kitchen maids, nurses, waiters,& c., about the houses of the planters and public hotels, where persons from the north obtain most of their knowledge of the evils of slavery. I will now proceed to take up specific points.

THE LABOR OF THE SLAVES.

Males and females work together promiscuously on all the plantations. On many plantations tasks are given them. The best working hands can have some leisure time; but the feeble and unskilful ones, together with slender females, have indeed a hard time of it, and very often answer for non-performance of tasks at the whipping-posts. None who worked with me had tasks at any time. The rule was to work them from sun to sun. But when I was burning brick, they were obliged to take turns, and sit up all night about every other night, and work all day.
On one plantation, where I spent a few weeks, the slaves were called up to work long before daylight, when business pressed, and worked until late at night; and sometimes some of them all night. A large portion of the slaves are owned by masters who keep them on purpose to hire out--and they usually let them to those who will give the highest wages for them, irrespective of their mode of treatment; and those who hire them, will of course try to get the greatest possible amount of work performed, with the least possible expense.
Women are seen bringing their infants into the field to their work, and leading others who are not old enough to stay at the cabins with safety. When they get there, they must set them down in the dirt, and go to work. Sometimes they are left to cry until they fall alseep. Others are left at home, shut up in their huts.
Now, is it not barbarous, that the mother, with her child or children around her, half starved, must be whipped at night if she does not perform her task? But so it is. Some who have very young ones, fix a little sack, and place the infants on their backs, and work. One reason, I presume is, that they will not cry so much when they can hear their mother's voice. Another is, the mothers fear that the poisonous vipers and snakes will bite them.
Truly, I never knew any place where the land is so infested with all kinds of the most venomous snakes, as in the low lands round about Savannah. The moccasin snakes, so called, and water rattle-snakes--the bites of both of which are as poisonous as our upland rattle-snakes at the north,--are found in myriads about the stagnant waters and swamps of the South. The females, in order to secure their infants from these poisonous snakes, do, as I have said, often work with their infants on their backs. Females are sometimes called to take the hardest part of the work. On some brick yards where I have been, the women have been selected as the moulders of brick, instead of the men.

II. THE FOOD OF THE SLAVES.
It was a general custom, wherever I have been, for the masters to give each of his slaves, male and female, one peck of corn per week for their food. This at fifty cents per bushel, which was all that it was worth when I was there, would amount to twelve and a half cents per week for board per head.
It cost me upon an average, when at the south, one dollar per day for board. The price of fourteen bushels of corn per week. This would make my board equal in amount to the board of forty-six slaves! This is all that good or bad masters allow their slaves round about Savannah on the plantations. One peck of gourd-seed corn is to be measured out to each slave once every week.
One man with whom I labored, however, being desirous to get all the work out of his hands he could, before I left, (about fifty in number,) bought for them every week, or twice a week, a beef's head from market. With this, they made a soup in a large iron kettle, around which the hands came at meal-time, and dipping out the soup, would mix it with their hommony, and eat it as though it were a feast. This man permitted his slavesto eat twice a day while I was doing a job for him. He promised me a beaver hat and as good a suit of clothes as could be bought in the city, if I would accomplish so much for him before I returned to the north; giving me the entire control over his slaves. Thus you may see the temptations overseers sometimes have, to get all the work they can out of the poor slaves. The above is an exception to the general rule of feeding.
For in all other places where I worked and visited; the slaves had nothing from their masters but the corn, or its equivalent in potatoes or rice, and to this, they were not permitted to come but once a day. The custom was to blow the horn early in the morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go to work, when commenced; they continued work until about eleven o'clock, A. M., when, at the signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts, made their fires, made their corn-meal into hommony or cake, ate it, and went to work again at the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or until their tasks were done. Some cooked their breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he has done his work at night. There is generally one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of the slaves.
Some of the planters have no corn, others often get out. The substitute for it is, the equivalent of one peck of corn either in rice or sweet potatoes; neither of which is as good for the slaves as corn. They complain more of being faint, when fed on rice or potatoes, than when fed on corn. I was with one man a few weeks who gave me his hands to do a job of work, and to save time one cooked for all the rest. The following course was taken,--Two crotched sticks were driven down at one end of the yard, and a small pole being laid on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on the middle of the pole; then made up a fire under the kettle and boiled the hommony; when ready, the hands were called around this kettle
-18-
with their wooden plates and spoons. They dipped out and ate standing around the kettle, or sitting upon the ground, as best suited their convenience. When they had potatoes they took them out with their hands, and ate them. As soon as it was thought they had had sufficient time to swallow their food they were called to their work again. This was the only meal they ate through the day. Now think of the little, almost naked and half-starved children, nibbling upon a piece of cold Indian cake, or a potato! Think of the poor female, just ready to be confined, without any thing that can be called convenient or comfortable! Think of the old toil-worn father and mother, without any thing to eat but the coarsest of food, and not half enough of that! then think of home. When sick, their physicians are their masters and overseers, in most cases, whose skill consists in bleeding and in administering large potions of Epsom salts, when the whip and cursing will not start them from their cabins.
III. HOUSES.
The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poorest kind. They are not as good as those temporary shanties which are thrown up beside rail-roads. They are erected with posts and crotches, with but little or no frame-work about them. They have no stoves or chimneys; some of them have something like a fireplace at one end, and a board or two off at that side, or on the roof, to let off the smoke. Others have nothing like a fire-place in them; in these the fire is sometimes made in the middle of the hut. These buildings have but one apartment in them; the places where they pass in and out, serve both for doors and windows; the sides and roofs are covered with coarse, and in many instances with refuse boards. In warm weather, especially in the spring, the slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke, all night, to drive away the gnats and musketoes, which are very troublesome in all the low country of the south; so much so that the whites sleep under frames with nets over them, knit so fine that the musketoes cannot fly through them.
Some of the slaves have rugs to cover them in the coldest weather, but I should think more have not. During driving storms they frequently have to run from one hut to another for shelter. In the coldest weather, where they can get wood or stumps, they keep up fires all night in their huts, and lay around them, with their feet towards the blaze. Men, women and children all lie down together, in most instances. There may be exceptions to the above statements in regard to their houses, but so far as my observations have extended, I have given a fair description, and I have been on a large number of plantations in Georgia and South Carolina up and down the Savannah river.
Their huts are generally built compactly on the plantations, forming villages of huts, their size proportioned to the number of slaves on them. In these miserable huts the poor blacks are herded at night like swine, without any conveniences of bedsteads, tables or chairs. O misery to the full! to see the aged sire beating off the swarms of gnats and musketoes in the warm weather, and shivering in the straw, or bending over a few coals in the winter, clothed in rags. I should think males and females, both lie down at night with their working clothes on them. God alone knows how much the poor slaves suffer for the want of convenient houses to secure them from the piercing winds and howling storms of winter, especially the aged, sick and dying. Although it is much warmer there than here, yet I suffered for a number of weeks in the winter, almost as much in Georgia as I do in Massachusetts.
IV. CLOTHING.
The masters [in Georgia] make a practice of getting two suits of clothes for each slave per year, a thick suit for winter, and a thin one for summer. They provide also one pair of northern made sale shoes for each slave in winter. These shoes usually begin to rip in a few weeks. The negroes' mode of mending them is, to wire them together, in many instances. Do our northern shoemakers know that they are augmenting the sufferings of the poor slaves with their almost good for nothing sale shoes? Inasmuch as it is done unto one of those poor sufferers it is done unto our Saviour. The above practice of clothing the slave is customary to some extent. How many, however, fail of this, God only knows. The children and old slaves are, I should think, exceptions to the above rule.
The males and females have their suits from the same cloth for their winter dresses. These winter garments appear to be made of a mixture of cotton and wool, very coarse and sleazy. The whole suit for the men consists of a pair of pantaloons and a short sailor-jacket, without shirt, vest, hat, stockings, or any kind of loose garments! These, if worn steadily when at work, would not probably last more than one or two months; therefore, for the sake of saving them, many of them work, especially in the summer, with no clothing on them except a cloth tied round their waist, and almost all with nothing more on them than pantaloons, and these frequently so torn that they do not serve the purposes of common decency. The women have for clothing a short petticoat, and a short loose gown, something like the male's sailor-jacket, without any under garment, stockings, bonnets, hoods, caps, or any kind of over-clothes.
When at work in warm weather, they usually strip off the loose gown, and have nothing on but a short petticoat with some kind of covering over their breasts. Many children may be seen in the summer months as naked as they came into the world. I think, as a whole, they suffer more for the want of comfortable bed-clothes, than they do for wearing apparel. It is true, that some by begging or buying, have more clothes than above described, but the masters provide them with no more. They are miserable objects of pity.
It may be said of many of them, “I was naked and ye clothed me not.” It is enough to melt the hardest heart to see the ragged mothers nursing their almost naked children, with but a morsel of the coarsest food to eat. The Southern horses and dogs have enough to eat and good care taken of them, but Southern negroes, who can describe their misery?
V. PUNISHMENTS.
The ordinary mode of punishing the slaves is both cruel and barbarous. The masters seldom, if ever, try to govern their slaves by moral influence,
-19-
but by whipping, kicking, beating, starving, branding, cat-hauling, loading with irons, imprisoning, or by some other cruel mode of torturing. They often boast of having invented some new mode of torture, by which they have “tamed the rascals.” What is called a moderate flogging at the south is horribly cruel.
Should we whip our horses for any offence as they whip their slaves for small offences, we should expose ourselves to the penalty of the law.
The masters whip for the smallest offences, such as not performing their tasks, being caught by the guard or patrol by night, or for taking any thing from the master's yard without leave. For these, and the like crimes, the slaves are whipped thirty-nine lashes, and sometimes seventy or a hundred, on the bare back. One slave, who was under my care, was whipped, I think one hundred lashes, for getting a small handful of wood from his master's yard without leave. I heard an overseer boasting to this same master that he gave one of the boys seventy lashes, for not doing a job of work just as he thought it ought to be done. The owner of the slave appeared to be pleased that the overseer had been so faithful. The apology they make for whipping so cruelly is, that it is to frighten the rest of the gang. The masters say, that what we call an ordinary flogging will not subdue the slaves; hence the most cruel and barbarous scourgings ever witnessed by man are daily and hourly inflicted upon the naked bodies of these miserable bondmen; not by masters and negro-drivers only, but by the constables in the common markets and jailors in their yards.
When the slaves are whipped, either in public or private, they have their hands fastened by the wrists, with a rope or cord prepared for the purpose: this being thrown over a beam, a limb of a tree, or something else, the culprit is drawn up and stretched by the arms as high as possible, without raising his feet from the ground or floor: and sometimes they are made to stand on tip-toe; then the feet are made fast to something prepared for them. In this distorted posture the monster flies at them, sometimes in great rage, with his implements of torture, and cuts on with all his might, over the shoulders, under the arms, and sometimes over the head and ears, or on parts of the body where he can inflict the greatest torment.
Occasionally the whipper, especially if his victim does not beg enough to suit him, while under the lash, will fly into a passion, uttering the most horrid oaths; while the victim of his rage is crying, at every stroke, “Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!” The scenes exhibited at the whipping post are awfully terrific and frightful to one whose heart has not turned to stone; I never could look on but a moment. While under the lash, the bleeding victim writhes in agony, convulsed with torture. Thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, which tear the skin at almost every stroke, is what the South calls a very moderate punishment!
Many masters whip until they are tired--until the back is a gore of blood--then rest upon it: after a short cessation, get up and go at it again; and after having satiated their revenge in the blood of their victims, they sometimes leave them tied, for hours together, bleeding at every wound.-- Sometimes, after being whipped, they are bathed with a brine of salt and water. Now and then a master, but more frequently a mistress who has no husband, will send them to jail a few days, giving orders to have them whipped, so many lashes, once or twice a day. Sometimes, after being whipped, some have been shut up in a dark place and deprived of food, in order to increase their torments: and I have heard of some who have, in such circumstances, died of their wounds and starvation.
Such scenes of horror as above described are so common in Georgia that they attract no attention. To threaten them with death, with breaking in their teeth or jaws, or cracking their heads, is common talk, when scolding at the slaves.-- Those who run away from their masters and are caught again generally fare the worst. They are generally lodged in jail, with instructions from the owner to have them cruelly whipped. Some order the constables to whip them publicly in the market.
Constables at the south are generally savage, brutal men. They have become so accustomed to catching and whipping negroes, that they are as fierce as tigers. Slaves who are absent from their yards, or plantations, after eight o'clock P. M., and are taken by the guard in the cities, or by the patrols in the country, are, if not called for before nine o'clock A. M. the next day, secured in prisons; and hardly ever escape, until their backs are torn up by the cow-hide.
On plantations, the evenings usually present scenes of horror. Those slaves against whom charges are preferred for not having performed their tasks, and for various faults, must, after work-hours at night, undergo their torments. I have often heard the sound of the lash, the curses of the whipper, and the cries of the poor negro rending the air, late in the evening, and long before day-light in the morning.
It is very common for masters to say to the overseers or drivers, “put it on to them,” “don't spare that fellow,” “give that scoundrel one hundred lashes,” &c. Whipping the women when in delicate circumstances, as they sometimes do, without any regard to their entreaties or the entreaties of their nearest friends, is truly barbarous.
If negroes could testify, they would tell you of instances of women being whipped until they have miscarried at the whipping-post. I heard of such things at the south--they are undoubtedly facts.
Children are whipped unmercifully for the smallest offences, and that before their mothers. A large proportion of the blacks have their shoulders, backs, and arms all scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads laid open with clubs, stones, and brick-bats, and with the butt-end of whips and canes--some have had their jaws broken, others their teeth knocked in or out; while others have had their ears cropped and the sides of their cheeks gashed out. Some of the poor creatures have lost the sight of one of their eyes by the careless blows of the whipper, or by some other violence.
But punishing of slaves as above described, is not the only mode of torture. Some tie them up in a very uneasy posture, where they must stand all night, and they will then work them hard all day--that is, work them hard all day and torment them all night.
Others punish by fastening them down on a log, or something else, and strike them on the bare skin with a board paddle
-20-
full of holes. This breaks the skin, I should presume, at every hole where it comes in contact with it.
Others, when other modes of punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them --that is, take a cat by the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind legs, and drag the claws across the back until satisfied. This kind of punishment poisons the flesh much worse than the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave.
Some are branded by a hot iron, others have their flesh cut out in large gashes, to mark them. Some who are prone to run away, have iron fetters riveted around their ancles, sometimes they are put only on one foot, and are dragged on the ground. Others have on large iron collars or yokes upon their necks, or clogs riveted upon their wrists or ancles. Some have bells put upon them, hung upon a sort of frame to an iron collar.
Some masters fly into a rage at trifles and knock down their negroes with their fists, or with the first thing that they can get hold of. The whipash-knots, or rawhide, have sometimes by a reckless stroke reached round to the front of the body and cut through to the bowels. One slaveholder with whom I lived, whipped one of his slaves one day, as many, I should think, as one hundred lashes, and then turned the butt-end and went to beating him over the head and ears, and truly I was amazed that the slave was not killed on the spot. Not a few slaveholders whip their slaves to death, and then say that they died under a “moderate correction.” I wonder that ten are not killed where one is! Were they not much hardier than the whites many more of them must die than do.
One young mulatto man, with whom I was well acquainted, was killed by his master in his yard with impunity. I boarded at the same time near the place where this glaring murder was committed, and knew the master well. He had a plantation, on which he enacted, almost daily, cruel barbarities, some of them, I was informed, more terrific, if possible, than death itself. Little notice was taken of this murder, and it all passed off without any action being taken against the murderer.
The masters used to try to make me whip their negroes. They said I could not get along with them without flogging them--but I found I could get along better with them by coaxing and encouraging them than by beating and flogging them. I had not a heart to beat and kick about those beings; although I had not grace in my heart the three first years I was there, yet I sympathised with the slaves.
I never was guilty of having but one whipped, and he was whipped but eight or nine blows. The circumstances were as follows: Several negroes were put under my care, one spring, who were fresh from Congo and Guinea. I could not understand them, neither could they me, in one word I spoke. I therefore pointed to them to go to work; all obeyed me willingly but one--he refused. I told the driver that he must tie him up and whip him. After he had tied him, by the help of some others, we struck him eight or nine blows, and he yielded. I told the driver not to strike him another blow. We untied him, and he went to work, and continued faithful all the time he was with me. This one was not a sample, however--many of them have such exalted views of freedom that it is hard work for the masters to whip them into brutes, that is to subdue their noble spirits.
The negroes being put under my care, did not prevent the masters from whipping them when they pleased. But they never whipped much in my presence. This work was usually left until I had dismissed the hands. On the plantations, the masters chose to have the slaves whipped in the presence of all the hands, to strike them with terror.
VI. RUNAWAYS.
Numbers of poor slaves run away from their masters; some of whom doubtless perish in the swamps and other secret places, rather than return back again to their masters; others stay away until they almost famish with hunger, and then return home rather than die, while others who abscond are caught by the negro-hunters, in various ways. Sometimes the master will hire some of his most trusty negroes to secure any stray negroes, who come on to their plantations, for many come at night to beg food of their friends on the plantations.
The slaves assist one another usually when they can, and not be found out in it. The master can now and then, however, get some of his hands to betray the runaways. Some obtain their living in hunting after lost slaves. The most common way is to train up young dogs to follow them. This can easily be done by obliging a slave to go out into the woods, and climb a tree, and then put the young dog on his track, and with a little assistance he can be taught to follow him to the tree, and when found, of course the dog would bark at such game as a poor negro on a tree.
There was a man living in Savannah when I was there, who kept a large number of dogs for no other purpose than to hunt runaway negroes. And he always had enough of this work to do, for hundreds of runaways are never found, but could he get news soon after one had fled, he was almost sure to catch him. And this fear of the dogs restrains multitudes from running off.
When he went out on a hunting excursion, to be gone several days, he took several persons with him, armed generally with rifles and followed by the dogs. The dogs were as true to the track of a negro, if one had passed recently, as a hound is to the track of a fox when he has found it. When the dogs draw near to their game, the slave must turn and fight them or climb a tree. If the latter, the dogs will stay and bark until the pursuers come. The blacks frequently deceive the dogs by crossing and recrossing the creeks. Should the hunters who have no dogs, start a slave from his hiding place, and the slave not stop at the hunter's call, he will shoot at him, as soon as he would at a deer.
Some masters advertise so much for a runaway slave, dead or alive. It undoubtedly gives such more satisfaction to know that their property is dead, than to know that it is alive without being able to get it. Some slaves run away who never mean to be taken alive. I will mention one. He run off and was pursued by the dogs, but having a weapon with him he succeeded in killing two or three of the dogs; but was afterwards shot. He had declared, that he never would be taken alive. The people rejoiced at the death of the slave, but lamented
-21-
the death of the dogs, they were such ravenous hunters. Poor fellow, he fought for life and liberty like a hero; but the bullets brought him down. A negro can hardly walk unmolested at the south.--Every colored stranger that walks the streets is suspected of being a runaway slave, hence he must be interrogated by every negro hater whom he meets, and should he not have a pass, he must be arrested and hurried off to jail.
Some masters boast that their slaves would not be free if they could. How little they know of their slaves! They are all sighing and groaning for freedom. May God hasten the time!
VII. CONFINEMENT AT NIGHT.
When the slaves have done their day's work, they must be herded together like sheep in their yards, or on their plantations. They have not as much liberty as northern men have, who are sent to jail for debt, for they have liberty to walk a larger yard than the slaves have. The slaves must all be at their homes precisely at eight o'clock, P.M. At this hour the drums beat in the cities, as a signal for every slave to be in his den. In the country, the signal is given by firing guns, or some other way by which they may know the hour when to be at home.
After this hour, the guard in the cities, and patrols in the country, being well armed, are on duty until daylight in the morning. If they catch any negroes during the night without a pass, they are immediately seized and hurried away to the guard-house, or if in the country to some place of confinement, where they are kept until nine o'clock, A. M., the next day, if not called for by that time, they are hurried off to jail, and there remain until called for by their master and his jail and guard house fees paid. The guards and patrols receive one dollar extra for every one they can catch, who has not a pass from his master, or overseer, but few masters will give their slaves passes to be out at night unless on some special business: notwithstanding, many venture out, watching every step they take for the guard or patrol, the consequence is, some are caught almost every night, and some nights many are taken; some, fleeing after being hailed by the watch, are shot down in attempting their escape, others are crippled for life.
I find I shall not be able to write out more at present. My ministerial duties are pressing, and if I delay this till the next mail, I fear it will not be in season.
Your brother for those who are in bonds,
HORACE MOULTON.

NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY
OF SARAH M. GRIMKÉ.
Miss Grimké is a daughter of the late Judge Grimké, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and sister of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimké.
As I left my native state on account of slavery, and deserted the home of my fathers to escape the sound of the lash and the shrieks of tortured victims, I would gladly bury in oblivion the recollection of those scenes with which I have been familiar; but this may not, cannot be; they come over my memory like gory spectres, and implore me with resistless power, in the name of a God of mercy, in the name of a crucified Savior, in the name of humanity; for the sake of the slaveholder, as well as the slave, to bear witness to the horrors of the southern prison house.
I feel impelled by a sacred sense of duty, by my obligations to my country, by sympathy for the bleeding victims of tyranny and lust, to give my testimony respecting the system of American slavery,--to detail a few facts, most of which came under my personal observation. And here I may premise, that the actors in these tragedies were all men and women of the highest respectability, and of the first families in South Carolina, and, with one exception, citizens of Charleston; and that their cruelties did not in the slightest degree affect their standing in society.
A handsome mulatto woman, about 18 or 20 years of age, whose independent spirit could not brook the degradation of slavery, was in the habit of running away: for this offence she had been repeatedly sent by her master and mistress to be whipped by the keeper of the Charleston work-house. This had been done with such inhuman severity, as to lacerate her back in a most shocking manner; a finger could not be laid between the cuts. But the love of liberty was too strong to be annihilated by torture; and, as a last resort, she was whipped at several different times, and kept a close prisoner. A heavy iron collar, with three long prongs projecting from it, was placed round her neck, and a strong and sound front tooth was extracted, to serve as a mark to describe her, in case of escape. Her sufferings at this time were agonizing; she could lie in no position but on her back, whieh was sore from scourgings, as I can testify, from personal inspection, and her only place of rest was the floor, on a blanket.
These outrages were committed in a family where the mistress daily read the scriptures, and assembled her children for family worship. She was accounted, and was really, so far as alms-giving was concerned, a charitable woman, and tender hearted to the poor; and yet this suffering slave, who was the seamstress of the family, was continually in her presence, sitting in her chamber to sew, or engaged in her other household work, with her lacerated and bleeding back, her mutilated mouth, and heavy iron collar, without, so far as appeared, exciting any feelings of compassion.
A highly intelligent slave, who panted after freedom with ceaseless longings, made many attempts to get possession of himself. For every offence he was punished with extreme severity. At one time he was tied up by his hands to a tree, and whipped until his back was one gore of blood. To this terrible infliction he was subjected at intervals for several weeks, and kept heavily ironed while at his work. His master one day accused him of a fault, in the usual terms dictated by passion and arbitrary power;
-22-
the man protested his innocence, but was not credited. He again repelled the charge with honest indignation. His master's temper rose almost to frenzy; and seizing a fork, he made a deadly plunge at the breast of the slave. The man being far his superior in strength, caught his arm, and dashed the weapon on the floor. His master grasped at his throat, but the slave disengaged himself, and rushed from the apartment.
Having made his escape, he fled to the woods; and after wandering about for many months, living on roots and berries, and enduring every hardship, he was arrested and committed to jail. Here he lay for a considerable time, allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life, whipped in the most shocking manner, and confined in a cell so loathsome, that when his master visited him, he said the stench was enough to knock a man down. The filth had never been removed from the apartment since the poor creature had been immured in it. Although a black man, such had been the effect of starvation and suffering, that his master declared he hardly recognized him--his complexion was so yellow, and his hair, naturally thick and black, had become red and scanty; an infallible sign of long continued living on bad and insufficient food. Stripes, imprisonment, and the gnawings of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit for a season; and, to use his master's own exulting expression, he was “as humble as a dog.”
After a time he made another attempt to escape, and was absent so long, that a reward was offered for him, dead or alive. He eluded every attempt to take him, and his master, despairing of ever getting him again, offered to pardon him if he would return home. It is always understood that such intelligence will reach the runaway; and accordingly, at the entreaties of his wife and mother, the fugitive once more consented to return to his bitter bondage. I believe this was the last effort to obtain his liberty.
His heart became touched with the power of the gospel; and the spirit which no inflictions could subdue, bowed at the cross of Jesus, and with the language on his lips--“the cup that my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” submitted to the yoke of the oppressor, and wore his chains in unmurmuring patience till death released him. The master who perpetrated these wrongs upon his slave, was one of the most influential and honored citizens of South Carolina, and to his equals was bland, and courteous, and benevolent even to a proverb.
A slave who had been separated from his wife, because it best suited the convenience of his owner, ran away. He was taken up on the plantation where his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, then lived. His only object in running away was to return to her--no other fault was attributed to him. For this offence he was confined in the stocks six weeks, in a miserable hovel, not weather-tight. He received fifty lashes weekly during that time, was allowed food barely sufficient to sustain him, and when released from confinement, was not permitted to return to his wife. His master, although himself a husband and a father, was unmoved by the touching appeals of the slave, who entreated that he might only remain with his wife, promising to discharge his duties faithfully; his master continued inexorable, and he was torn from his wife and family. The owner of this slave was a professing Christian, in full membership with the church, and this circumstance occurred when he was confined to his chamber during his last illness.
A punishment dreaded more by the slaves than whipping, unless it is unusually severe, is one which was invented by a female acquaintance of mine in Charleston--I heard her say so with much satisfaction. It is standing on one foot and holding the other in the hand. Afterwards it was improved upon, and a strap was contrived to fasten around the ankle and pass around the neck; so that the least weight of the foot resting on the strap would choke the person. The pain occasioned by this unnatural position was great; and when continued, as it sometimes was, for an hour or more, produced intense agony.
I heard this same woman say, that she had the ears of her waiting maid slit for some petty theft. This she told me in the presence of the girl, who was standing in the room. She often had the helpless victims of her cruelty severely whipped, not scrupling herself to wield the instrument of torture, and with her own hands inflict severe chastisement.
Her husband was less inhuman than his wife, but he was often goaded on by her to acts of great severity. In his last illness I was sent for, and watched beside his death couch. The girl on whom he had so often inflicted punishment, haunted his dying hours; and when at length the king of terrors approached, he shrieked in utter agony of spirit, “Oh, the blackness of darkness, the black imps, I can see them all around me--take them away!” and amid such exclamations he expired. These persons were of one of the first families in Charleston.
A friend of mine, in whose veracity I have entire confidence, told me that about two years ago, a woman in Charleston with whom I was well acquainted, had starved a female slave to death. She was confined in a solitary apartment, kept constantly tied, and condemned to the slow and horrible death of starvation. This woman was notoriously cruel. To those who have read the narrative of James Williams I need only say, that the character of young Larrimore's wife is an exact description of this female tyrant, whose countenance was ever dressed in smiles when in the presence of strangers, but whose heart was as the nether millstone toward her slaves.
As I was traveling in the lower country in South Carolina, a number of years since, my attention was suddenly arrested by an exclamation of horror from the coachman, who called out, “Look there, Miss Sarah, don't you see?”--I looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a human head stuck up on a high pole. On inquiry, I found that a runaway slave, who was outlawed, had been shot there, his head severed from his body, and put upon the public highway, as a terror to deter slaves from running away.
On a plantation in North Carolina, where I was visiting, I happened one day, in my rambles, to step into a negro cabin; my compassion was instantly called forth by the object which presented itself. A slave, whose head was white with age,
-23-
was lying in one corner of the hovel; he had under his head a few filthy rags, but the boards were his only bed, it was the depth of winter, and the wind whistled through every part of the dilapidated building--he opened his languid eyes when I spoke, and in reply to my question, “What is the matter?” he said, “I am dying of a cancer in my side.”--As he removed the rags which covered the sore, I found that it extended half round the body, and was shockingly neglected. I inquired if he had any nurse. “No, missey,” was his answer, “but de people (the slaves) very kind to me, dey often steal time to run and see me and fetch me some ting to eat; if dey did not, I might starve.” The master and mistress of this man, who had been worn out in their service, were remarkable for their intelligence, and their hospitality knew no bounds towards those who were of their own grade in society: the master had for some time held the highest military office in North Carolina, and not long previous to the time of which I speak, was the Governor of the State.
On a plantation in South Carolina, I witnessed a similar case of suffering--an aged woman suffering under an incurable disease in the same miserably neglected situation. The “owner” of this slave was proverbially kind to her negroes; so much so, that the planters in the neighborhood said she spoiled them, and set a bad example, which might produce discontent among the surrounding slaves; yet I have seen this woman tremble with rage, when her slaves displeased her, and heard her use language to them which could only be expected from an inmate of Bridewell; and have known her in a gust of passion send a favorite slave to the workhouse to be severely whipped.
Another fact occurs to me. A young woman about eighteen, stated some circumstances relative to her young master, which were thought derogatory to his character; whether true or false, I am unable to say; she was threatened with punishment, but persisted in affirming that she had only spoken the truth. Finding her incorrigible, it was concluded to send her to the Charleston workhouse and have her whipt; she pleaded in vain for a commutation of her sentence, not so much because she dreaded the actual suffering, as because her delicate mind shrunk from the shocking exposure of her person to the eyes of brutal and licentious men; she declared to me that death would be preferable; but her entreaties were vain, and as there was no means of escaping but by running away, she resorted to it as a desperate remedy, for her timid nature never could have braved the perils necessarily encountered by fugitive slaves, had not her mind been thrown into a state of despair.--She was apprehended after a few weeks, by two slave-catchers, in a deserted house, and as it was late in the evening they concluded to spend the night there. What inhuman treatment she received from them has never been revealed. They tied her with cords to their bodies, and supposing they had secured their victim, soon fell into a deep sleep, probably rendered more profound by intoxication and fatigue; but the miserable captive slumbered not; by some means she disengaged herself from her bonds, and again fled through the lone wilderness. After a few days she was discovered in a wretched hut, which seemed to have been long uninhabited; she was speechless; a raging fever consumed her vitals, and when a physician saw her, he said she was dying of a disease brought on by over fatigue; her mother was permitted to visit her, but ere she reached her, the damps of death stood upon her brow, and she had only the sad consolation of looking on the death-struck form and convulsive agonies of her child.
A beloved friend in South Carolina, the wife of a slaveholder, with whom I often mingled my tears, when helpless and hopeless we deplored together the horrors of slavery, related to me some years since the following circumstance.
On the plantation adjoining her husband's, there was a slave of pre-eminent piety. His master was not a professor of religion, but the superior excellence of this disciple of Christ was not unmarked by him, and I believe he was so sensible of the good influence of his piety that he did not deprive him of the few religious privileges within his reach. A planter was one day dining with the owner of this slave, and in the course of conversation observed, that all profession of religion among slaves was mere hypocrisy. The other asserted a contrary opinion, adding, I have a slave who I believe would rather die than deny his Saviour. This was ridiculed, and the master urged to prove the assertion. He accordingly sent for this man of God, and peremptorily ordered him to deny his belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. The slave pleaded to be excused, constantly affirming that he would rather die than deny the Redeemer, whose blood was shed for him. His master, after vainly trying to induce obedience by threats, had him terribly whipped. The fortitude of the sufferer was not to be shaken; he nobly rejected the offer of exemption from father chastisement at the expense of destroying his soul, and this blessed martyr died in consequence of this severe infliction. Oh, how bright a gem will this victim of irresponsible power be, in that crown which sparkles on the Redeemer's brow; and that many such will cluster there, I have not the shadow of a doubt.
SARAH M. GRIMKÉ.
Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey,
3rd Month, 26th, 1830.

-24-
TESTIMONY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN GRAHAM,
of Townsend, Mass., who resided in S. Carolina, from 1831, to the latter part of 1833. Mr. Graham graduated at Amherst College in 1829, spent some time at the Theological Seminary, in New Haven, Ct., and went to South Carolina, for his health in 1830. He resided principally on the island of St. Helena, S. C., and most of the time in the family of James Tripp, Esq., a wealthy slave holding planter.
During his residence at St. Helena, he was engaged as an instructer, and was most of the time the stated preacher on the island. Mr. G. was extensively known in Massachusetts; and his fellow students and instructors, at Amherst College, and at Yale Theological Seminary, can bear testimony to his integrity and moral worth. The following are extracts of letters, which he wrote while in South Carolina, to an intimate friend in Concord, Massachusetts, who has kindly furnished them for publication.
EXTRACTS.
Springfield, St. Helena Isl., S. C., Oct. 22, 1832.
“Last night, about one o'clock, I was awakened by the report of a musket. I was out of bed almost instantly. On opening my window, I found the report proceeded from my host's chamber. He had let off his pistol, which he usually keeps by him night and day, at a slave, who had come into the yard, and as it appears, had been with one of his house servants. He did not hit him. The ball, taken from a pine tree the next morning, I will show you, should I be spared by Providence ever to return to you. The house servant was called to the master's chamber, where he received 75 lashes, very severe too; and I could not only hear every lash, but each groan which succeeded very distinctly as I lay in my bed. What was then done with the servant I know not. Nothing was said of this to me in the morning and I presume it will ever be kept from me with care, if I may judge of kindred acts. I shall make no comment.”
In the same letter, Mr. Graham says:--
“You ask me of my hostess”--then after giving an idea of her character says: “To day, she has I verily believe laid, in a very severe manner too, more than 300 stripes, upon the house servants,” (17 in number.)

Darlington, Court House. S. C. March, 28th, 1838.
“I walked up to the Court House to day, where I heard one of the most interesting cases I ever heard. I say interesting, on account of its novelty to me, though it had no novelty for the people, as such cases are of frequent occurrence. The case was this: To know whether two ladies, present in court, were white or black. The ladies were dressed well, seemed modest, and were retiring and neat in their look, having blue eyes, black hair, and appeared to understand much of the etiquette of southern behaviour.
“A man, more avaricious than humane, as is the case with most of the rich planters, laid a remote claim to those two modest, unassuming, innocent and free young ladies as his property, with the design of putting them into the field, and thus increasing his STOCK! As well as the people of Concord are known to be of a peaceful disposition, and for their love of good order, I verily believe if a similar trial should be brought forward there and conducted as this was, the good people would drive the lawyers out of the house. Such would be their indignation at their language, and at the mean under-standed manner of trying to ruin those young ladies, as to their standing in society in this district, if they could not succeed in dooming them for life to the degraded condition of slavery, and all its intolerable cruelties. Oh slavery! if statues of marble could curse you, they would speak. If bricks could speak, they would all surely thunder out their anathemas against you, accursed thing! How many white sons and daughters, have bled and groaned under the lash in this sultry climate,” &c.
Under date of March, 1832, Mr. G. writes, “I have been doing what I hope never to be called to do again, and what I fear I have badly done, though performed to the best of my ability, namely, sewing up a very bad wound made by a wild hog. The slave was hunting wild hogs, when one, being closely pursued, turned upon his pursuer, who turning to run, was caught by the animal, thrown down, and badly wounded in the thigh. The wound is about five inches long and very deep. It was made by the tusk of the animal. The slaves brought him to one of the huts on Mr. Tripp's plantation and made every exertion to stop the blood by filling the wound with ashes, (their remedy for stopping blood) but finding this to fail they came to me (there being no other white person on the plantation, as it is now holidays) to know if I could stop the blood. I went and found that the poor creature must bleed to death unless it could be stopped soon. I called for a needle and succeeded in sewing it up as well as I could, and in stopping the blood. In a short time his master, who had been sent for came; and oh, you would have shuddered if you had heard the awful oaths that fell from his lips, threatening in the same breath “to pay him for that!” I left him as soon as decency would permit, with his hearty thanks that I had saved him $500! Oh, may heaven protect the poor, suffering, fainting slave, and show his master his wanton cruelty--oh slavery! slavery!”
Under date of July, 1832, Mr. G. writes, “I wish you could have been at the breakfast table with me this morning to have seen and heard what I saw and heard, not that I wish your ear and heart and soul pained as mine is, 'with every day's' observation 'of wrong and outrage' with which this place is filled, but that you might have auricular and ocular evidence of the cruelty of slavery, of cruelties that mortal language can never describe--that you might see the tender mercies of a hardened slaveholder, one who bears the name of being one of the mildest
-25-
and most merciful masters of which this island can boast. Oh, my friend, another is screaming under the lash, in the shed-room, but for what I know not.
The scene this morning was truly distressing to me. It was this:--After the blessing was asked at the breakfast table, one of the servants, a woman grown, in giving one of the children some molasses, happened to pour out a little more than usual, though not more than the child usually eats. Her master was angry at the petty and indifferent mistake, or slip of the hand. He rose from the table, took both of her hands in one of his, and with the other began to beat her, first on one side of her head and then on the other, and repeating this, till, as he said on sitting down at table, it hurt his hand too much to continue it longer. He then took off his shoe, and with the heel began in the same manner as with his hand, till the poor creature could no longer endure it without screeches and raising her elbow as it is natural to ward off the blows. He then called a great overgrown negro to hold her hands behind her while he should wreak his vengeance upon the poor servant. In this position he began again to beat the poor suffering wretch. It now became intolerable to bear; she fell, screaming to me for help. After she fell, he beat her until I thought she would have died in his hands. She got up, however, went out and washed off the blood and came in before we rose from table, one of the most pitiable objects I ever saw till I came to the South. Her ears were almost as thick as my hand, her eyes awfully blood-shotten, her lips, nose, cheeks, chin, and whole head swollen so that no one would have known it was Etta--and for all this, she had to turn round as she was going out and thank her master!
Now, all this was done while I was sitting at breakfast with the rest of the family. Think you not I wished myself sitting with the peaceful and happy circle around your table? Think of my feelings, but pity the poor negro slave, who not only fans his cruel master when he eats and sleeps, but bears the stripes his caprice may inflict. Think of this, and let heaven hear your prayers.”
In a letter dated St. Helena Island, S. C., Dec. 3, 1832, Mr. G. writes, “If a slave here complains to his master, that his task is too great, his master at once calls him a scoundrel and tells him it is only because he has not enough to do, and orders the driver to increase his task, however unable he may be for the performance of it. I saw TWENTY-SEVEN whipped at one time just because they did not do more, when the poor creatures were so tired that they could scarcely drag one foot after the other.”

TESTIMONY OF MR. WILLIAM POE.
Mr. Poe is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and was formerly a slaveholder. He was for several years a merchant in Richmond, and subsequently in Lynchburg, Virginia. A few years since, he emancipated his slaves, and removed to Hamilton County, Ohio, near Cincinnati; where he is a highly respected ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. He says,--
I am pained exceedingly, and nothing but my duty to God, to the oppressors, and to the poor down-trodden slaves, who go mourning all their days, could move me to say a word. I will state to you a few cases of the abuse of the slaves, but time would fail, if I had language to tell how many and great are the inflictions of slavery even in its mildest form.
[Killings by Tobacconist Benjamin J. Harris]
Benjamin James Harris, a wealthy tobacconist of Richmond, Virginia, whipped a slave girl fifteen years old to death. While he was whipping her, his wife heated a smoothing iron, put it on her body in various places, and burned her severely. The verdict of the coroner's inquest was, “Died of excessive whipping.” He was tried in Richmond, and acquitted. I attended the trial.
Some years after, this same Harris whipped another slave to death. The man had not done so much work as was required of him. After a number of protracted and violent scourgings, with short intervals between, the slave died under the lash. Harris was tried, and again acquitted, because none but blacks saw it done.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Key relates a comparable situation.

The same man afterwards whipped another slave severely, for not doing work to please him. After repeated and severe floggings in quick succession, for the same cause, the slave, in despair of pleasing him, cut off his own hand.
Harris soon after became a bankrupt, went to New Orleans to recruit his finances, failed, removed to Kentucky, became a maniac, and died.
A captain in the United States' Navy, who married a daughter of the collector of the port of Richmond, and resided there, became offended with his negro boy, took him into the meat house, put him upon a stool, crossed his hands before him, tied a rope to them, threw it over a joist in the building, drew the boy up so that he could just stand on the stool with his toes, and kept him in that position, flogging him severely at intervals, until the boy became so exhausted that he reeled off the stool, and swung by his hands until he died. The master was tried and acquitted.
In Goochland County, Virginia, an overseer tied a slave to a tree, flogged him again and again with great severity, then piled brush around him, set it on fire, and burned him to death. The overseer was tried and imprisoned. The whole transaction may be found on the records of the court.
In traveling, one day, from Petersburg to Richmond, Virginia, I heard cries of distress at a distance, on the road. I rode up, and found two white men, beating a slave. One of them had hold of a rope, which was passed under the bottom of a fence; the other end was fastened around the neck of the slave, who was thrown flat on the ground, on his face, with his back bared. The other was beating him furiously with a large hickory.
A slaveholder in Henrico County, Virginia,
-26-
had a slave who used frequently to work for my father. One morning he came into the field with his back completely cut up, and mangled from his head to his heels. The man was so stiff and sore he could scarcely walk. This same person got offended with another of his slaves, knocked him down, and struck out one of his eyes with a maul. The eyes of several of his slaves were injured by similar violence.
In Richmond, Virginia, a company occupied as a dwelling a large warehouse. They got angry with a negro lad, one of their slaves, took him into the cellar, tied his hands with a rope, bored a hole through the floor, and passed the rope up through it. Some of the family drew up the boy, while others whipped. This they continued until the boy died. The warehouse was owned by a Mr. Whitlock, on the scite of one formerly owned by a Mr. Philpot.
Joseph Chilton, a resident of Campbell County, Virginia, purchased a quart of tanners' oil, for the purpose, as he said, of putting it on one of his negro's heads, that he had sometime previous pitched or tarred over, for running away.
In the town of Lynchburg, Virginia, there was a negro man put in prison, charged with having pillaged some packages of goods, which he, as head man of a boat, received at Richmond, to be delivered at Lynchburg. The goods belonged to A. B. Nichols, of Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia. He came to Lynchburg, and desired the jailor to permit him to whip the negro, to make him confess, as there was no proof against him. Mr. Williams, (I think that is his name,) a pious Methodist man, a great stickler for law and good order, professedly a great friend to the black man, delivered the negro into the hands of Nichols. Nichols told me that he took the slave, tied his wrists together, then drew his arms down so far below his knees as to permit a staff to pass above the arms under the knees, thereby placing the slave in a situation that he could not move hand or foot. He then commenced his bloody work, and continued, at intervals, until 500 blows were inflicted. I received this statement from Nichols himself, who was, by the way, a son of the land of “steady habits,” where there are many like him, if we may judge from their writings, sayings, and doings.
-27-

(pp 28 - end)
[In interim, pending completion of this site,
you can obtain this book via your local library,
or Full Text at docsouth.uns.edu; or
Excerpted at the University of
Virginia Historical Reprint Site]
Background Reading on A Parallel Situation
See Prof. Daniel J. Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and The Holocaust ( New York: Knopf , 1996). The thesis of the book includes data that Jews were being brutalized and killed, regardless of the adverse economic impact on Germany. The brutality and killing were themselves the goal. 'Work' was not a significant consideration.
Likewise, in slavery, the brutality and the raping of female slaves were paramount. While the 1839 material was shocking to people of that era, we (after the experiences of the twentieth century) can have a better grasp of the situation. There were no 'laws requiring' brutality. The perpetrators 'wanted' to do the abuses, wanted to do them pursuant to their systemic belief-patterns.
"The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more, and tolerated by all."—[Cornelius] Tacitus [55-c. 117] , a Roman historian.
See U.S. slavery 'death-by-alleged-work-project' examples—cited by Rev. John Rankin, Letters (1823), pp 45-46, 52, 56-58; and role of citizenry vis-a-vis government, p 104.
Southern slavery abuses were tolerated until abolitionists exposed them to Northerners, 1820's-1860. That year brought the beginning of the end of the system wherein abuses were rampant, indeed, the norm. Click here for more examples.
For additional background, see Daniel P. Mannix, The History of Torture (1967).

The East Germany Parallel
Widespread atrocities led slaves to attempt to flee the South, e.g., by the "Underground Railroad." We have seen a modern parallel, people attempting to flee the rampant abuses of East Germany. The South built the 'Fugitive Slave Act' as a wall to keep slaves in. East Germany likewise built a wall to keep its people in.
Compared to the South, East Germany was less brutal, and shorter duration. East Germany at least did not treat its subjects as human cattle, nor go on Safari, i.e., people-hunting. Hunters (aka slavers) do not deem killing targets as loss of their investment; killings are the whole idea!
This was the pre-tv news era. Southern claims of well-treating slaves had long gone unrefuted. Once exposés such as the one here reprinted came out, Northerners, familiar with cattle-raising, and hunting, and understanding the purpose (to kill), came to realize the sin, the wrongfulness—the attitude that led to the election in 1860 of Abraham Lincoln.
In the modern era, we have seen TV scenes of Southerners blowing up churches with little girls in them, and attacking via dogs and fire-hoses. These scenes give us a view that our ancestors had lacked, until books such as the one here reprinted came out, refuting the Southerner 'all's well' claims.

Background Seeing Slave Huts
A recommended site to see original slave huts is the Boone Hall Plantation. It dates from 1681. It is a 738 acre estate. It has nine original slave huts. It is on Long Point Road, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Open daily, except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ph. 843 884-4371.
Recommendations/Context: Read Prof. Goldhagen's book. See Auschwitz or Dachau. Note the similarities with slave conditions.

Overview
S. Sewall's 1700
Selling of Joseph
R. Sandiford's 1729
Brief Examination of the Practice
B. Lay's 1737
Slaveholders Apostates
Rev. J. Rankin's 1823
Letters on American Slavery
G. W. F. Mellen's 1841
Unconstitutionality of Slavery
L. Spooner's 1845
Unconstitutionality of Slavery
A. Stewart's 1845
Legal Speech For Freeing Slaves
(P 31-34 cites the Exodus
and Ten Commandments)
Rev. Wm. Patton's 1846
Pro-slavery Interpretations of the
Bible: Productive of Infidelity
B. Shaw's 1846
Unconstitutionality of Slavery
J. Tiffany's 1849
Unconstitutionality of Slavery
Rev. J. Fee's 1849
Non-Fellowship With Slaveholders
The Duty of Christians
Rev. J. Fee's 1851
Anti-Slavery Manual
Rev. Wm. Goodells' 1852
Slavery and Anti-Slavery
H. Stowe's 1853
History of Slavery aka Key
A. Lincoln's 1854 Peoria Speech
Rev. G. Cheever's 1857
God Against Slavery
Sen. C. Sumner's 1860
The Barbarism of Slavery
Rev. P. Pillsbury's 1883
Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles
W.P.A. Slave Narratives
(1936-1938)
Black History
Interactive Exhibits
Background on the
Half-Brother of the Grimké Sisters
Connecticut Slavery
Homepage

INTRODUCTION.	7
Twenty-seven hundred thousand free born citizens of the U. S. in slavery	7
Tender mercies of slaveholders	7
Abominations of slavery	9
Character of the testimony	9
PERSONAL NARRATIVES—PART I.	10
NARRATIVE OF NEHEMIAH CAULKINS	10
North Carolina slavery	11
Methodist preaching slavedriver, Galloway	12
Women at child-birth	12
Slaves at labor	12
Clothing of slaves	13
Allowance of provisions	13
Slave-fetters	13
Cruelties to slaves	13
Burying a slave alive	15
Licentiousness of Slave-holders	15
Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, "with his hands tied"	16
Preachers cringe to slavery	16
Nakedness of slaves	16
Slave-huts	16
Means of subsistence for slaves	16
Slaves' prayer	17
NARRRATIVE OF REV. HORACE MOWLTON	17
Labor of the slaves	18
Tasks	18
Whipping posts	18
Food	18
Houses	19
Clothing	19
Punishments	19
Scenes of horror	20
Constables, savage and brutal	20
Patrols	20
Cruelties at night	20
*Paddle-torturing*	20
*Cat-hauling*	21
Branding with hot iron	21
Murder with impunity	21
Iron collars, yokes, clogs, and bells	21
NARRATIVE OF SARAH M. GRIMKÉ	22
Barbarous Treatment of slaves	22
Converted slave	23
Professor of religion, near death, tortured his slave for visiting his companion	23
Counterpart of James Williams' description of Larrimore's wife	23
Head of runaway slave on a pole	23
Governor of North Carolina left his sick slave to perish	23
Cruelty to Women slaves	24
Christian slave a martyr for Jesus	24
TESTIMONY OF REV. JOHN GRAHAM	25
Twenty-seven slaves whipped	26
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM POE	26
Harris whipped a girl to death	26
Captain of the U. S. Navy murdered his boy, was tried and acquitted	26
Overseer burnt a slave	26
Cruelties to slaves	26

PRIVATIONS OF THE SLAVES	27
FOOD	28
Suffering from hunger	28
Rations in the U. S. Army, &c	32
Prison rations	33
Testimony	34
LABOR	35
Slaves are overworked	35
Witnesses	35
Henry Clay	37
Child-bearing prevented	37
Dr. Channing	38
Sacrifice of a set of hands every seven years	36
Testimony	39
Laws of Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia	39
CLOTHING	40
Witnesses	40
Advertisements	41
Testimony	41
Field-hands	41
Nudity of slaves	42
John Randolph's legacy to Essex and Hetty	43
DWELLINGS	42
Witnesses	43
Slaves are wretchedly sheltered and lodged	43
TREATMENT OF THE SICK	44
PERSONAL NARRATIVES, PART II.	45
TESTIMONY OF THE REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN	45
Woman delivered of a dead child, being whipped	46
Slaves shot by Hilton	46
Cruelties to slaves	46
Whipping post	46
Assaults, and maimings	46
Murders	47
Puryear, "the Devil"	47
Overseers always armed	44
Licentiousnes of Overseers	47
"Bend your backs"	47
Mrs. H., a Presbyterian, desirous to cut Arthur Tappan's throat	47
Clothing, Huts, and Herding of slaves	47
Iron yokes with prongs	47
Marriage unknown among slaves	46
Presbyterian minister at Huntsville	47
Concubinage in Preacher's house	47
Slavery, the great wrong	47
NARRATIVE OF WILLIAM LEFTWICH	48
Slave's life	48
TESTIMONY OF LEMUEL SAPINGTON	49
Nakedness of slaves	49
Traffic in slaves	49
TESTIMONY OF MRS. LOWRY	50
Long, a professor of religion killed three men	50
Salt water applied to wounds to keep them from putrefaction	50
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM C. GILDERSLEEVE	50
Acts of cruelty	50
TESTIMONY OF HIRAM WHITE	51
Woman with a child chained to her neck	51
Amalgamation and mulatto children	51
TESTIMONY OF JOHN M. NELSON	51
Rev. Conrad Speece influenced Alexander Nelson when dying not to emancipate his slaves	52
George Bourne opposed slavery in 1810	52
TESTIMONY Of ANGELINA GRIMKÉ WELD	52
Houseservants	52
Slave-driving female professors of religion at Charleston, S. C.	53
Whipping women and prayer in the same room	53
Tread-mills	53
*Slaveholding religion*	54
Slave-driving mistress prayed for the divine blessing upon her whipping of an aged woman	54
Girl killed with impunity	54
Jewish law	54
Barbarities	54
Medical attendance upon slaves	55
Young man beaten to epilepsy and insanity	55
Mistresses flog their slaves	55
Blood-bought luxuries	55
Borrowing of slaves	55
Meals of slaves	55
All comfort of slaves disregarded	56
Severance of companion lovers	56
Separation of parents and children	56
Slave espionage	57
Sufferings of slaves	57
Horror of slavery indescribable	57
TESTIMONY OF CRUELTY INFLICTED UPON SLAVES	57
Colonization Society	60
Emancipation Society of North Carolina	60
Kentucky	61
PUNISHMENTS	62
Floggings	62
Witnesses and testimony	62
SLAVE DRIVING	69
Droves of slaves	70
CRUELTY TO SLAVES	70
Slaves like Stock without shelter	71
"Six pound paddle"	71
TORTURES OF SLAVES	72
Iron collars, chains, fetters, and hand-cuffs	72
Advertisements for fugitive slaves	73
Testimony	74
Iron head-frame	76
Chain coffles	76
Droves of human cattle	76
Washington, the National slave market	76
Testimony of James K. Paulding, Secretary of the Navy
Literary fraud and pretended prophecy by Mr. Paulding	77
Branding, Maimings, and Gun-shot wounds	77
Witnesses and Testimony	77
Mr. Sevier, senator of the U. S.	79
Judge Hitchcock, at Mobile	79
Commendable fidelity to truth in the advertisenents of slaveholders	82
Thomas Aylethorpe cut off a slave's ear, and sent it to Lewis Tappan	83
Advertisements for runaway slaves with their teeth mutilated	83
Excessive cruelty to slaves	85
Slaves burned alive	86
Mr. Turner, a slave-butcher	87
Slaves roasted and flogged	87
Cruelties common	88
Fugitive slaves	88
Slaves forced to eat tobacco worms	88
Baptist Christians escaping from slavery	88
Christian whipped for praying	88
James K. Paulding's testimony	89
Slave driven to death	89
Coroner's inquest on Harney's murdered female slave	83
Man-stealing encouraged by law	90
Trial for a murdered slave	90
Female slave whipped to death, and during the torture delivered of a dead infant	90
Slaves murdered	90
Slave driven to death	92
Slaves killed with Impunity	93
George, a slave, chopped piece-meal, and burnt by Lilburn Lewis	93
Retributive justice in the awful death of Lilburn Lewis	94
Trial of Isham Lewis, a slave murderer	94

PERSONAL NARRATIVES—-PART III.	94
NARRATIVE OF REV. FRANCIS HAWLEY	94
Plantations	94
Overseers	95
No appeal from Overseers to Masters	95
CLOTHING	95
Nudity of slaves	95
WORK	95
Cotton-picking	96
Mothers of slaves	96
Presbyterian minister killed his slave	96
Methodist colored preacher hung	96
Licentiousness	97
Slave-traffic	97
Night in a Slaveholder's house	97
Twelve slaves murdered	97
Slave driving Baptist preachers	97
Hunting of runaway slaves	97
Amalgamation	97
TESTIMONY OF REUBEN C. MACY, AND RICHARD MACY	98
Whipping of slaves	98
Testimony of Eleazer Powel	99
Overseer of Hinds Stuart, shot a slave for opposing the torture of his female companion	100
TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM SCALES	100
Three slaves murdered with impunity	100
Separation of lovers, parents, and children	101
TESTIMONY OF JOS. IDE	101
Mrs. T. a Presbyterian kind woman-killer	101
Female slave whipped to death	101
Food	101
Nakedness of slaves	101
Old man flogged after praying for his tyrant	101
Slave-huts not as comfortable as pig-sties	101
TESTIMONY OF REV. PHINEAS SMITH	101
Texas	102
Suit for the value of slave 'property'	102
Anson Jones, Ambassador from Texas	102
No trial or punishment for the murder of slaves	102
Slave-hunting in Texas	102
Suffering drives the slaves to despair and suicide	102
TESTIMONY OF PHIL'N BLISS	102
Ignorance of northern citizens respecting slavery	102
Betting upon crops	103
Extent and cruelty of the punishment of slaves	103
Slaveholders excuse their cruelties by the example of Preachers, and professors of religion, and Northern citizens	104
Novel torture, eulogized by a professor of religion	104
Whips as common as the plough	104
Ladies use cowhides, with shovel and tongs	104
TESTIMONY OF REV. WM. A. CHAPIN	105
Slave-labor	105
Starvation of slaves	105
Slaves lacerated, without clothing, and without food	105
TESTIMONY OF T. M. MACY	105
Cotton plantations on St. Simon's Island	105
Cultivation of rice	106
No time for relaxation	106
Sabbath a nominal rest	106
Clothing	106
Flogging	106
TESTIMONY OF F. C. MACY	106
Slave cabins	106
Food	106
Whipping every day	106
Treatment of slaves as brutes	106
Slave-boys fight for slaveholder's amusement	107
Amalgamation common	107
TESTIMONY OF A CLERGYMAN	107
Natchez	107
"Lie down," for whipping	107
Slave-hunting	108
"Ball and chain" men	108
Whipping at the same time, on three plantations	108
Hours of Labor	108
Christians slave-hunting	108
Many runaway slaves annually shot	108
Slaves in the stocks	108
Slave-branding	108
CONDITION OF SLAVES	108
Slavery is unmixed cruelty	108
Fear the only motive of slaves	109
Pain is the means, not the end of slave-driving	109
Characters of Slave drivers and Overseers, brutal, sensual, and violent	109
Ownership of human beings utterly destroys their comfort	109
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED:	110
I. Such cruelties are incredible	110
Slaves deemed to be working animals, or merchandize and called 'Stock,' 'Increase,' 'Breeders,' 'Drivers,' 'Property,' 'Human cattle'	110
Testimony of Thomas Jefferson	110
Slaves worse treated than quadrupeds	111
Contrast between the usage of slaves and animals	112
Testimony	112
Northern incredulity discreditable to consistency	112
Religious persecutions	113
Recent 'Lynchings' and Riots, in the United Stated	113
Many outrageous Felonies perpetrated with impunity	113
Large faith of the objectors who 'can't believe'	114
'Doe faces,' and 'Dough faces'	114
Slave-drivers acknowledge their own enormities	114
Slave plantations in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 'second only to hell'	114
Legislature of North Carolina	115
Incredulity discreditable to intelligence	115
Abuse of power in the state, and churches	115
Legal restraints	116
American slaveholders possess absolute power	116
Slaves deprived of the safeguards of law	116
Mutual aversion between the oppressor and the slave	116
Cruelty the product of arbitrary power	117
Testimony of Thomas Jefferson	117
Judge Tucker	117
Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina, and Georgia	117
General William H. Harrison	117
President Edwards	118
Montesquieu	118
Wilberforce	118
Whitbread	118
Characters	118
OBJECTION II.—"Slaveholders protest that they treat their slaves well"	121
Not testimony but opinion	122
'Good treatment' of slaves'	123
Novel form of cruelty	125
OBJECTION III—"Slaveholders are proverbial for their kindness, and generosity"	125
Hospitality and benevolence contrasted	125
Slaveholders in Congress, respecting Texas and Hayti	126
'Fictitious kindness and hospitality'	138
OBJECTION IV.—"Northern visitors at the south testify that the slaves are not cruelly treated"	128
Testimony	128
'Gubner poisoned'	129
Field-hands	130
Parlor slaves	130
Chief Justice Durell	131
OBJECTION V.—"It is for the interest of the masters to treat their slaves well"	132
Testimony	133
Rev. J. N Maffitt	134
Masters interest to treat cruelly the great body of the slaves	134
Various classes of slaves	135
Hired slaves	136
Advertisements	136
OBJECTION VI—"Slaves multiply; a proof that they are not inhumanly treated, and are in a comfortable condition	139
Testimony	139
Martin Van Buren	139
Foreign slave trade	139
'Beware of Kidnappers'	140
'Citizens sold as slaves'	141
Kidnapping at New Orleans	141
Slave breeders	142
OBJECTION VII.—"Public opinion is a protection to the slave	143
Decision of the Supreme Court of North and South Carolina	143
'Protection of slaves'	143
Mischievous effects of 'public opinion' concerning slavery	144
Laws of different states	144
Heart of slaveholders	145
Reasons for enacting the laws concerning cruelties to slaves	147
'Moderate correction'	148
Hypocrisy and malignity of slave laws	148
Testimony of slaves excluded	149
Capital crimes for slaves	149
'Slaveholding brutality,' worse than that of Caligula	149
Public opinion destroys fundamental rights	150
Character of slaveholders' advertisements	152
Public opinion is diabolical	152
Brutal indecency	154
Murder of slaves by law	155
Judge Lawless	157
Slave-hunting	159
Health of slaves	161
Acclimation of slaves	162
Liberty of Slaves	162
Kidnapping of free citizens	162
Law of Louisiana	163
FRIENDS', memorial	164
Domestic slavery	164
Advertisements	164
Childhood, old age	167
Inhumanity	169
Butchering dead slaves	169
South Carolina Medical college	169
Charleston Medical Infirmary	172
Advertisements	172
Slave murders	173
John Randolph	173
Charleston slave auctions	174
'Never lose a day's work'	174
Stocks	175
Slave-breeding	175
Lynch law	175
Slaves murdered	176
Slavery among Christians	176
Licentiousneas encouraged by preachers	180
'Fine old preacher who dealt in slaves'	180
Cruelty to slaves by professors of religion	181
Slave-breeding	182
Daniel O'Connel, and Andrew Stevenson	182
Virginia a negro raising menagerie	182
Legislature of Virginia	182
Colonization Society	183
Inter-state slave traffic	184
Battles In Congress	184
Duelling	185
Cock-fighting	186
Horse-racing	186
Ignorance of slaveholders	187
'Slave-holding civilization, and morality'	188
Arkansas	188
Slave driving ruffians	189
Missouri	191
Alabama	192
Butcheries in Mississippi	194
Louisiana	198
Tennessee	200
Fatal Affray in Columbia	201
Presentment of the Grand Jury of Shelby County	208
Testimony of Bishop Smith of Kentucky	204
ATLANTIC SLAVEHOLDING REGION	206
Georgia	206
North Carolina	209
Trading with Negroes	209
Conclusion	210

PETER COMSTOCK	D. G. OTIS
A. F. PERKINS, M.D.	PHILIP MORGAN
ISAAC BEEBE	JAMES ROGERS, M.D.
LODOWICK BEEBE
Waterford, Ct., Jan. l6th, 1839.