claimed, If you touch that slave again you do it at the perit of your life.' The slave-holder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend-whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary.

COLMAN S. HODGES.

I have frequently seen the mistress of a family in Virginia, with whom I was well acquainted, beat the woman who performed the kitchen work, with a stick two feet and a half long, and nearly as thick as my wrist; striking her over the head, and across the small of the back, as she was bent over at her work, with as much spite as you would a snake, and for what I should consider no offence at all. There lived in this same family a young man, a slave, who was in the habit of running away. He returned one time after a week's absence. The master took him into the barn, stripped him entirely naked, tied him up by his hands so high that he could not reach the floor, tied his feet together, and put a small rail between his legs, so that he could not avoid the blows, and commenced whipping him. He told me that he gave him five hundred lashes. At any rate, he was covered with wounds from head to foot. Not a place as big as my hand but what was cut. Such things as these are perfectly common all over Virginia; at least so far as I am acquainted. Generally, planters avoid punishing their slaves before strangers.

JOSEPH IDE.

I have never actually witnessed a whipping scene, for they are usually taken into some back place for that purpose; but I have often heard their groans and screams while writhing under the lash; and have seen the blood flow from their torn and lacerated skins after the vengeance of the inhuman master or mistress had been glutted. Mrs. T, had a female slave whom she used to whip unmercifully, and on one occasion, she whipped her as long as she had strength, and after the poor creature was suffered to go, she crawled off into a cellar. As she did not immediately return, search was made, and she was found dead in the cellar, and the horrid deed was kept a secret in the family, and it was reported that she died of sickness. This wretch at the same time was a member of a Presbyterian church. Towards her slaves she was certainly the most cruel wretch of any woman with whom I was ever acquainted-yet she was nothing more than a slaveholder. She would deplore slavery as much as I did, and often told me she was much of an abolitionist as I was. She was constant in the declaration that her kind treatment to her slaves was proverbial. Thought I, then the Lord have mercy on the rest. has often told me of the cruel treatment of the slaves on a plantation adjoining her father's in the low country of South Carolina. She says she has often seen them driven to the necessity of eating frogs and lizards to sustain life.

She

PHINEAS SMITH.

Avarice and cruelty constitute the very gist of the whole slave sys. tem. Many of the enormities committed upon the plantations will not be described till God brings to light the hidden things of darkness; then the tears and groans and blood of innocent men, women and children will be revealed, and the oppressor's spirit must confront that of his victim.

An overseer by the name of Alexander, notorious for his cruelty, was found dead in the timbered lands of the Brassos. It was supposed that he was murdered, but who perpetrated the act was unknown. Two black men were however seized, taken into the Prairie and put to the torture. A physician by the name of Parrot from Tennessee, and another from New-England by the name of Anson Jones, were present on this occasion. The latter gentleman is now the Texan minister plenipotentiary to the United States, and resides at Washington. The unfortunate slaves bei. g stripped, and all things arranged, the torture commenced by whipping upon their bare backs. Six athletic men were employed in this scene of inhumanity, the names of some of whom I well remember. There was one of the name of Brown, and one or two of the name of Patton. Those six executioners were successively employed in cutting up the bodies of these defenceless slaves, who persisted to the last in the avowal of their innocence. The bloody whip was however kept in motion till sayage barbarity itself was glutted. When this was accomplished, the bleeding victims were re-conveyed to the inclosure of the mansion house where they were deposited for a few moments. The dying groans however incommoding the ladies, they were taken to a back shed where one of them soon expired.' The life of the other slave was for a time despaired of, but after hanging over the grave for months, he at length so far recovered as to walk about and labor at light work. These facts cannot be controverted. They were disclosed under the solemnity of an oath, at Columbia, in a court of justice. I was present, and shall never forget them. The testimony of Drs. Parrott and Jones was most appalling. I seem to hear the death-groans of that murdered man. His cries for mercy and piotestations of innocence fell upon adamantine hearts. The facts above stated, and others in relation to this scene of cruelty came to light in the following manner. The master of the murdered man commenced legal process against the actors in this tragedy for the recovery of the value of the chattel, as one would institute a suit for a horse or an ox that had been unlawfully killed. It was a suit for the recovery of damages merely. No indictment was ever dreamed of. Among the witnesses brought upon the stand in the progress of this cause were the physicians, Parrott and Jones above named. The part which they were called to act in this affair was, it is said, to examine the pulse of the victims during the process of torture. But they were mistaken as to the quantum of torture which a human being can undergo and not die under it.

PHILEMON BLISS.

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 stiches were too long, and she must be whipped. The same was repeated three or four nights for the same offence. I have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive 305 blows with the paddle 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 230 lashes. Their crime was stealing mutton. 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! The more common number of lashes inflicted was fifty or eighty; and this I saw not once or twice, but so frequently that I can not tell the number of times I have seen it. So frequently, that my own heart was becoming so hardened that I could witness with comparative indifference, the female writhe under the lash, and her shrieks,and cries for mercy ceased to pierce my heart with that keenness, or give me that anguish which they first caused. It was not always that I could learn their crimes; but of those I did learn, the most common was non-performance of tasks. I have seen men strip and receive from one to three hundred strokes of the whip and paddle. My studies and meditations were almost nightly interrupted by the cries of the victims of cruelty and avarice.

JAMES A. THOME.

In December of 1833, I landed at New-Orleans, in the steamer W- It was after night, dark and rainy. The passengers were called out of the cabin, from the enjoyment of a fire, which the cold, damp atmosphere rendered very comfortable, by a sudden shout of, 'catch him-catch him-catch the negro.' The cry was answered by a hundred voices- Catch him—kill him!

After standing in the cold water for an hour, the miserable being began to fail. We observed him gradually sinking-his voice grew weak and tremulous-yet he continued to curse! In the midst of his oaths he uttered broken sentences. I did'nt steal the meat-I did'nt steal my master lives-master-master lives up the river-(his voice began to gurgle in his throat, and he was so chilled that his teeth chattered audibly)-I did'nt-steal-I did'nt steal-my-my master -my-I want to see my master-I did'nt-no-my mas-you want -you want to kill me--I did'nt steal the'-His last words could just be heard as he sunk under the water.

During this indescribable scene, not one of the hundred that stood

around made any effort to save the man until he was apparently drowned. He was then dragged out and stretched on the bow of the boat, and soon sufficient means were used for his recovery. The brutal captain ordered him to be taken off his boat-declaring, with an oath, that he would throw him into the river again, if he was not immediately removed. I withdrew, sick and horrified with this appalling exhibition of wickedness.

Upon inquiry, I learned that the colored man lived some fifty miles up the Mississippi; that he had been charged with stealing some article from the wharf; was fired upon with a pistol, and pursued by

the mob.

In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty-this insensibility to suf fering and disregard of life-I exclaimed, Is there no flesh in man's obdurate heart? One poor man, chased like a wolf by a hundred blood hounds, yelling, howling, and gnashing their teeth upon him -plunges into the cold river to seek protection! A crowd of spectators witness the scene, with all the composure with which a Roman populace would look upon a gladiatorial show. Not a voice heard in the sufferer's behalf. At length the powers of nature give way; the blood flows back to the heart-the teeth chatter-the voice trembles and dies, while the victim drops down into his grave

What an atrocious system is that which leaves two millions of souls, friendless and powerless-hunted and chased-affiicted and tortured and driven to death, without the means of redress. Yet such is the system of slavery!

.JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY.

Comforts of the negroes. Nothing can be farther from my wish, than to heap abuse on the slave-holders of the southern states. Those with whom I have become acquainted, are amiable and benevolent men, and I give them full credit for kindness and consideration in the treatment of their slaves.

I am very much mistaken, if, under the circumstances, happiness is not the exception-discomfort the general rule. Ignorance of his own nature and destiny, is the only condition, as I believe, in which a slave can be permanently comfortable. But the infractions of comfort, to which the slaves of North America are liable, are too noto. rious to be disputed. The treatment of them, as it regards food and raiment, must and will depend, not merely on the dispositions, but on the means of their masters. The want of ready money, in the slave-holder, often bears more severely on the slave than the want of kindness. Again, we well know that masters are sometimes driven for many months from their properties, by the insalubrity of the location, and that the slaves are left under the care of overseers-persons of sufficiently low grade, to be induced to risk their lives, for a pecuniary compensation. This must be a fruitful source of suffering.

In order to form a correct view, however, on the present subject, it is enough for me to recur to scenes which I have myself witnessed. Although, in travelling through some of your slave states, I have

often observed the negroes well clad, and in good bodily condition, their general aspect has not appeared to me to be that of happiness. Seldom have I seen anything among them, like the cheerful smile of the peasant of Jamaica; and sometimes, they have been half-naked, and wretched in their demeanor. When I saw large companies of black people following either the masters who owned them, or the merchants who had bought them, to some distant state, the lame ones compelled to keep up with their associates, and yet limping behind from very weakness-when, in one of the sea islands of South Carolina, I look on a gang of them, ginning cotton, working as if they were on the tread wheel, their sweat falling from them like rain, and the overseer sitting by, with his cow-hide alongside of him-when, in the negro jail at Charleston, I was surrounded by a large number of negroes, who had been sent thither, without any intervention of law or magistracy, but at the sole will of their holders, to be punished on the tread wheel, or with whipping (not exceeding fifteen lashes,) according to directions on an accompanying ticket-when, lastly, in the iron-grated depot at Baltimore, I visited the poor creatures who had been sold away from their families and friends, and were about to be transmitted, on speculation, like so many bales of cotton or worsted, to the far-distant South-when these scenes passed, one af ter another, in review before me, it was impossible for me to think highly of the comforts of your enslaved negroes.

DAVID WALKER.

The Pagan, Jews and Mahometans try to make proselytes to their religions and whatever human beings adopt their religions they extend to them their protection. But christian Americans, not only hinder their fellow creatures, the Africans, but thousands of them will absolutely beat a colored person nearly to death, if they catch him on his knees, supplicating the throne of grace. This barbarous cruelty was by all the heathen nations of antiquity, and is by the Pagans, Jews and Mahometans of the present day, left entirely to christian Americans to inflict on the Africans and their descendants, that their cup which is nearly full may be completed. I have known tyrants or usurpers of human liberty in different parts of this country to take their fellow creatures, the colored people, and beat them until they would scarcely leave life in them; what for? Why they say "The black devils had the audacity to be found making prayers and supplications to the God who made them!!!" Yes, I have known small collections of colored people to have convened together, for no other purpose than to worship God Almighty, in spirit and in truth, to the best of their knowledge; when tyrants, calling themselves patrols, would also convene and wait almost in breathless silence for the poor colored people to commence singing and praying to the Lord our God; as soon as they had commenced, the wretches would burst in upon them and drag them out and commence beating them as they would rattle-snakes-many of whom, they would beat so unmercifully, that they would hardly be able to crawl for weeks and sometimes for months.-Appeal.