en, with iron collars and prongs about their necks; with
logs riveted to their legs, with their Ears torn off, their Nostrils
slit, their Cheeks branded, and otherwise most frightfully Mutilated.
Item, I have known at the dinner-table of a Planter of wealth and
repute, the Jumper, or Public Flogger, to come in and ask if Master and
Missee had any commands for him; and, by the order of the Lady of the
House, take out two Decent Women that had been waiting at the table,
and give them fifty lashes apiece on the public parade, every stroke
drawing Blood and bringing Flesh with it, and they, when all was over,
embracing and thanking him for their Punishment, as was the custom of
the Colony.[B] Item, within my own knowledge have I been made familiar
with many acts of the Deepest Barbarity. Mistresses, for Jealousy or
Caprice, pouring boiling-water or hot melted Sealing-Wax on their slave
girls' flesh after they had suffered the worst Tortures of the whip; and
white Ladies of Education rubbing Cayenne-pepper into the eyes of
Negroes who had offended them, or singeing the tenderest parts of their
limbs with sticks of fire. And of one horrid instance have I heard of
Malignant and Hellish revenge in Two Ladies who were Sisters (and bred
at a Fine Boarding-School in England), who, having a spite against a
yellow woman that attended on them, did tie her hands and feet, and so
beat her nearly to death with the heels of their slippers; and not
satisfied with that, or with laving her gashed body with Vinegar and
Chillies, did send for a Negro man, and bid him, under threats of
punishment, strike out two of the Victim's teeth with a punch, which, to
the shame of Human Womanhood, was done.

But enough of these Horrors:--not the worst that I have seen, though, in
the course of my Adventures; only I will not further sicken you with the
Recital of the Sufferings inflicted on the Wretched Creatures by Ladies
and Gentlemen, who had had the first breeding, and went to Church every
Sunday. I have merely set down these dreadful things to work out the
theory of my Belief, that the World is growing Milder and more Merciful
every day; and that the Barbarities which were once openly practised in
the broad sunshine, and without e'er a one lifting finger or wagging
tongue against them, are becoming rarer and rarer, and will soon be
Impossible of Commission. The unspeakable Miseries of the Middle Passage
(of which I have been an eye-witness) exist no m