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tion. And that also he had so severely punished another of his slaves that he was but just alive.

But, sir, you must not suppose that there are no laws for the protection of the slave. There are such laws; but of what avail they are, I have not yet been able to understand. It has always appeared to me that the masters are as independent as though there were no other beings in the creation but their slaves and themselves. And you know, sir, how dangerous it would be to entrust unlimited power to any set of men-however upright they might be at the time-for they would be sure to abuse it, especially if it had reference entirely to their own interest.

Yet these men say they treat their slaves well! It is folly to use words without meaning; but I fear, that, in this polite age, we use too many words in a sense altogether different from their right meaning. I have seen hundreds of slaves treated as my cattle and horses shall never be treated with my consent. I do not pretend to say, that every one is branded with red hot irons, that every one is shot, or that half of them are whipped to death. But I know that some of them are, and I doubt not but thousands of such cases have occured, and will occur again if this system of oppression is not broken up.

And what is the exact number of such deeds that it is necessary to present in order to persuade the people of New England that slavery in this country is opposed to humanity and the spirit of the gospel? I am told that they are in the habit of considering these enormities as exceptions to the general treatment. Let them be called exceptions, or by any other name in the English language, enough of them have already defiled the land to condemn slavery for ever. How many murders is it necessary should occur on the high seas to make the term piracy apply with priety to such deeds? If the crew of any vessel plunders another crew of all their effects, murders the captain and some of the men, and treat the remainder well, by putting them to sea in an open boat, after having given them each a hundred lashes, shall not these plunderers be called pirates-because they will not kill the whole, but treated a part well?

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By this example you may understand what is meant by good treatment to slaves. It is not treating them so badly as they might be treated, but only giving them a hundred lashes each to show them the value of discipline-plundering them of all the avails of their labor, because they might in their ignorance inake a bad use of their money-depriving them of intellectual and moral instruction, out of a tender regard to their happiness and depriving them of their liberty, because they are ignorant and totally unfit to have justice done them?

The truth is, there is no possible way of treating slaves well. The root of the tree is most unholy, and all the branches will ever be unalloyed iniquity. Then pluck it up by the roots; better that a little soil should be somewhat moved for a time, than that pestilence and death should devour millions of human beings. And the longer it is delayed the firmer will it be fixed in the earth, and the further the branches extend, the more effectually will they shut out the light of Heaven. Cannot justice be done in Christian America, as well as in barbarous Africa? For fifteen years Africa has been looked to by many great and good men as the only hope of the oppressed. But fifteen years has relieved but three thousand, while more than half a million have been born to servitude.-Letter to Mr. Tappan from Natchez, 1833.

CASES OF CRUELTY.

A clergyman of Kentucky declared that he had seen a master whip repeatedly a female slave who was upwards of eighty years old, and who had been this master's 'mammy,' that is, had nursed him at her breast in his infancy.

A gentleman who has been in North Carolina, has seen a female slave, who complained of illness, and refused to work, struck with the blade of a paddle, twelve or fifteen blows. Two hours after this treatment she was confined. The same gentleman saw a free negro tied to a tree, and a negress slave, who was attached to him, ordered to whip him. She refused, saying she loved him too well. The white men then tied her up and gave her 'five.' This overcame her resolution, and she consented to whip the man.-Francis Standin.

In derision, this tree was called "the Lafayette tree." The secret of this affair was, that the negress had been the mistress of one of these whites. Yet we are told by Murat, that whites are elevated too much above negroes to feel resentment or revenge towards them.

The Duke of Saxe Weimar states that a female slave was whipped at New Orleans by her mistress, that her lover was compelled to stand by and count off the lashes, and that she was afterwards publicly whipped by the magistrate. Her offence was, that, being engaged in some other duty, she had not started quite as quick to bring water to a lodger as he thought she should do. He struck her a blow in the face which made the blood run, and she, in sudden heat and resentment, seized him by the throat.

Mr. William Ladd, known as a friend of colonization, and an opponent of AntiSlavery Societies, and not likely, therefore, to exaggerate, but rather to soften the harsh features of the system, alludes publicly to the following, among other horrors which he has witnessed: A gentleman of his acquaintance, was offended with a female slave. He seized her by the arm, and thrust her hand into the fire, and there he held it until it was burnt off. 'I saw,' said Mr. Ladd, the withered stump." -Address at Colonization Society of Massachusetts, 1833.

"Mr Sutcliff, an English Quaker, who travelled in this country, relates a case very like that of the Kentucky girl, only that the catastrophe was more shocking. A slave owner, near Lewistown, in the state of Delaware, lost a piece of leather. He charged a little slave boy with stealing it. The boy denied. The master tied the boy's feet, and suspended him from the limb of a tree, attaching a heavy weight to his ancles, as is usual in such cases, to prevent such kicking and writhing as would break the blows. He then whipped; the boy confessed; and then he commenced whipping anew for the offence itself. He was a kind master, and never whipped the lad again, for he died under the lash! Then the slaveholder's own son, smitten with remorse, acknowledged that he took the leather.

"An honorable friend, who stands high in the state and in the nation, was present at the burial of a female slave in Mississippi, who had been whipped to death at the post by her master, because she was gone longer of an errand to the neighboring town, than her master thought necessary. Under the lash she protested that she was ill, and was obliged to rest in the fields. To complete the climax of horror, she was delivered of a dead infant before her master had completed his work!"

Child's Despotism of Freedom.

From Florida. In speaking of slavery as it is, I hardly know where to begin. I consider the physical sufferings of the slaves as by no means the greatest evil of slavery. The contemplation of the laws of most of the southern states, which consign the mind of the colored man to endless night, and which leave no measures untried to sink him to a level with the brute, awakens in me stronger indignation than his groans under the lash. But the physical condition of the slave is far from being accurately known at the North. Gentlemen travelling in the South can know nothing of it. They must make the South their residence; they must live on plantations before they can have any opportunity of judging of the condition of the slave. I resided in Augustine five months, and had I not made particular inquiries, which most northern visiters very seldom or never do, I should have left there with the impression that the slaves were generally very well treated, and were a happy people. Such is the report of many northern travellers who have no more opportunity of knowing their real condition than if they had remained at home. What confidence could we place in the report of the traveller, relative to the condition of the Irish peasantry, who formed his opinion from the appearance of the waiters at a Dublin hotel, or the household servants of a country gentleman? And it is not often on plantations even, that strangers can witness the punishment of the slave. I was conversing the other day with a neighboring planter, upon the brutal treatment of the slaves which I had witnessed: he remarked, that had I been with him I should not have seen this. "When I whip niggers, I take them out of sight and hearing of the house, and no one in my family knows it. I would not on any consideration harden and brutalize the minds of my children by suffering them to witness a negro whipping." Such being the difficulties in the way of a stranger's ascertaining the treatment of the slaves, it is not to be wondered at, that gentlemen of undoupted veracity, should give directly false statements relative to it. But facts cannot lie, and in giving these I confine myself to what has come under my own personal observation. Yet I hoped to have found the facts exaggerated. I had heard of females stripped and exposed to the insulting gaze and cruel lash of the driver. I have seen a woman, a mother, compelled in the presence of her master and mistress, to hold up her clothes, and endure the whip of the driver on the naked body for more than twenty minutes, and while her cries would have rent the heart of any one, who had not hardened himself to human suffering. Her master and mistress were conversing with apparent indifference. What was her crime? She had a task given her of sewing which she must finish that day. Late at night she finished it; but the stitches were too long, and she must be whipped. The same was repeated three or four nights for the same offence. I had heard of the whippingpost, and the extent of its use. I have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive three hundred and five blows with the paddle, [a piece of oak timber three and a half feet long, flat and wide at one end,] on the fleshy parts of the body. Two others received the same kind of punishment at the time, though I did not count the blows. One received two hundred and thirty lashes. Their crime was stealing. One of them had asked for meat, saying that he could not work without it. He was refused the meat, and with a few others killed and secreted a hog of his master's. They had nearly finished the pork, when it was found, and being charged with stealing it, they did not deny it, but one of them remarked with unusual firmness, that he must have meat, he could not work on [corn] bread. (His master owns from eighty to one hundred hogs.) I have frequently heard the shrieks of the slaves, male and female, accompanied by the strokes of the paddle or whip, when I have not gone near the scene of horror. I knew not their crimes, excepting of one woman, which was stealing four potatoes to eat with her bread! So much have I seen on one plantation. Of the general treatment of the slaves, I can judge only from a few facts which I accidentally learn. Masters are not forward to publish their "domestic regulations," and as neighbors are usually several miles apart, one's observation must be limited. Hence the few instances of cruelty which break out can be but a fraction of what is practised. A planter, a professor of religion, in conversation upon the universality of whipping, remarked that "a planter in G, who had whipped a great deal, at length got tired of it, and invented the following excellent method of punishment, which I saw practised while I was paying him a visit. The negro was placed in i a sitting position, with his hands made fast above his head, and feet in the stocks, so that he could not move any part of the body. The master retired, intending to leave him till morning, but we were awakened in the night by the groans of the negro, which were so doleful that we feared he was dying. We went to him, and found him covered with a cold sweat, and almost gone. He could not have lived an hour longer. Mr. found the 'stocks' such an effective punishment, that it almost superseded the whip."

I do not believe there have been five slaves freed in Florida since its cession to the United States. The Spanish laws favored emancipation, but as one old negro expressed it, "Nobody gets free since Spanish times." The laws of Florida, sanctioned by the United States general government, forbid emancipation. I mentioned to one negro that I had heard of a man in East Florida who allowed his slaves wages, and when they amounted to his price and interest, the slaves were free; says he, "that man was no American, Ireckon. He must have been a Yankee or a Spaniard,"

Another instrument of torture is sometimes used, how extensively I know not. The negro, or, in the case which came to my knowledge, the negress was compelled to stand barefoot upon a block filled with sharp pegs and nails for two or three hours. In case of sickness, if the master or overseer thinks them seriously ill, they are taken care of, but their complaints are usually not much heeded. A physician told me that he was employed by a planter last winter to go to a plantation of his in the country, as many of the negroes were sick. Says he "I found them in a most miserable condition. The weather was cold, and the negroes were barefoot with hardly enough of cotton clothing to cover their nakedness. Those who had huts to shelter them were obliged to build them nights and Sundays. Many were sick and some had died. I had the sick taken to an older plantation of their master's, where they could be made comfortable, and they recovered. I directed that they should not go to work till after sunrise, and should not work in the rain till their health became established. But the overseer refusing to permit it, I declined attending on

them further." "I was called," continued he, "by the overseer of another plantation, to see one of the men. I found him lying by the side of a log in great pain. I asked him how he did, 'O,' says he, 'I'm most dead, can live but little longer.' How long have you been sick? 'I've felt for more than six weeks as though I could hardly stir.' Why didn't you tell your master you was sick? 'I couldn't see my master, and the overseer always whips us when we complain. I could not stand a whipping. I did all I could for the poor fellow, but his lungs were rotten. He died in three days from the time he left off work." The cruelty of that overseer is such that the negroes almost tremble at his name. Yet he gets a high salary, for he makes the largest crop of any other man in the neighborhood, though none but the hardiest negroes can stand it under him. "That man," says the doctor, "would be hung in my country" [Germany].-Letters to the Editor of the Ohio Atlas, from Tallahassee, Florida, May, 1835

ASA A. STONE.

NATCHEZ, May 24, 1835.

No one here thinks that the slaves are seldom over-driven and under-fed. Every body knows it to be one of the most common occurrences. The planters do not deny it, except perhaps to Northerners, whom they take to be uninformed on the subject-or when on some particular occasion they wish to carry a point. True, they try to make the thing appear as fair as possible, and are in the habit of holding it up to themselves and others in its most favorable light. But then, no planter of intelligence and candor denies that slaves are very generally badly treated in this country. I wish to be understood now at the commencement, that intending as I do that my statements shall be relied on, and knowing that, should you think fit to publish this communication, they will come to this country, where their correctness may be tested by comparison with real life, I make them with the utmost care and precaution. But those which I do make are made without the least apprehension of their being controverted. It occurs to me that perhaps one reason why the public mind at the North is no more satisfied on this subject is, that the facts and statements respecting slavery at the South have not been of a sufficiently general application. Particular instances of hard-driving, ill-feeding, severe-flogging, and other cruelties have been given without making any statements from which a definite conception of the extent and frequency of such treatment could be formed. I hope to avoid this, and to give such facts as will enable you to form a correct, and as far as may be, an accurate idea of slavery as it really exists in the Southwest.

It is seen here undoubtedly in its worst form in the United States, and I shall not vouch for the correctness of my statements when applied to any other section than this-say the four states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Portions of the northern parts of the two former states might also be excepted.

A few days ago I was talking with an overseer of a plantation, the owner of which has universally the reputation of being a good master, and treating his slaves unusually well in every respect. The slaves themselves testify to this, and they say that the overseer is not as hard as most of them are. This overseer, speaking of the work on the place, said, it was a little behind, but he was pushing the hands up to it. Says he "I crowded them up to-day till some of the women fairly cried." And then added, "it is pretty severe." Meaning, not that it was severe compared with the general usage, but in itself considered-for he always represents himself as not being as severe as most overseers. This same man, and many other overseers and owners, have told me that throughout the country, on plantations having fifty hands, the number of floggings during the press of hoeing and cotton picking, average one or two a day, and frequently fifteen or twenty are flogged at once, particularly in the time of cotton picking. My observations and inquiries on this subject have been such, that I feel no hesitation in saying that as a general thing there is at least the above number of floggings daily on plantations of that size, and this barely on the score of work. I ask, then, does this look like not being "over-driven?" But to go more into particulars: Mr. -, a planter who resides about fourteen miles above Natchez, says, "They generally treat their slaves very well in his neighborhood." Hear how. "On a plantation of fifty hands it is common in cotton picking time to have a negro whipped every night, and frequently two or three, for not t doing doing the required amount of work. I have myself whipped fourteen or fifteen of a night, or, rather, had my driver do it. They always lie down and receive it on their bare back and buttock. If they are uneasy they are sometimes tied; the hands and feet being stretched out to a stake driven for the purpose. But they are usually held by other negroes. In a bad case, one takes hold of each hand and each foot, and another holds or sits on his head. If they don't hold him well, give them a cut or two with the whip, and I warrant you they will hold him still enough if they have to take their teeth." So much for the testimony of a planter with respect to the driving of slaves in a neighborhood where they are "very well treated." With regard to the process of getting slaves up to their ne-plus in cotton picking, the same man says: "There is no specified quantity which is required of each hand; but measures are taken to find out how much each can do when put to his possibilities. Sometimes $1 or some other prize is set up to the one who will pick most cotton in a day. A smaller prize is proposed to second rate hands, and so on. If this does not succeed with all, they are whipped up all day to make them do their best. When they think they have got a fellow up to high water mark, as it is called, they weigh the cotton he has picked during the day; then they weigh it every night afterwards, and if he falls short any considerable amount, he is flogged. The number of lashes given is from thirty to two hundred." This is done with a whip from seven to nine feet in length, made by plaiting leather over a short sock above two feet long, and then continued out into a long heavy lash. It is an instrument of terrible severity. Its crack can be heard distinctly from half a mile to a mile. The preceding facts and statements respect the general practice with regard to driving. There are many exceptions to the general rule on both sides; some are much more mild and some as much more severe. As evidence of the latter, I will state one fact out of many within my knowledge, which, however, I did not receive from an overseer or owner. It came, however, from such a source that I have no doubt of its correctness. The overseer on Mr.'s plantation near Natchez, two or three years ago, found some difficulty in getting his hands to pick as much cotton in a day as he wished. Accordingly he took to the whip. He commenced on Wednesday and whipped all his hands, (about fifty,) twice round; Thursday he whipped them all three times; and Friday he whipped them all once. Saturday he was absent. Monday he returned and whipped ten of the hands once, and so tapered down to the common whipping level. Some few probably escaped some of the floggings each day; but not enough to be noticed by my informant in his statement, though he resided on the place at the time, and was intimately acquainted with the particulars. The floggings were regular, and of course ranged from thirty lashes upwards.

And now, Mr. Editor, I leave you and your readers to judge whether the slaves at the South are over-driven, and whether this is the kind of usage that free laborers at the North would like to submit to. I now proceed to show that they are underfed. But, in the first place, I will say that the stories that have been sometimes circulated at the North, about the planters at the South feeding their slaves on cotton seed, are all a humbug. There may have been some instances of the experiment's being tried; but that it is commonly, or even occasionally brought into regular practice, is false. The general rule of feeding is to give just what will supply the demands of nature, and no more. Slaves are almost universally allowanced. Their rations are usually a peck of meal, and three or three and a half pounds of meat a week. This is dealt out on some plantations weekly, and on others daily: which is the more common practice, I am not able to say. Some add a half pint or a pint of molasses a week. As a general thing, the bread stuff is given them ground, and not whole, as has been sometimes represented. On most plantations there is a cook, who prepares their breakfast and dinner, which are always eaten in the field. Their suppers they prepare for themselves after they return from work. Some allowance them only in meat, giving what meal they want; the general rule, however, is a peck of meal and three pounds of meat a week. This allowance is frequently very much shortened when corn or meat is scarce or high. So that on almost every plantation, the hands suffer more or less from hunger at some season of almost every year. I have conversed with some very candid slaves on this subject; and they say that they can do very well on a peck

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