FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153  
154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  
of her affection, _cruelly bound up_ without delicacy or mercy, and without daring to interpose in each other's behalf, and punished with all the _extremity of incensed rage, and all the rigor of unrelenting severity_. Let us reverse the case, and suppose it ours: ALL IS SILENT HORROR!" TESTIMONY OF THE HON. WILLIAM PINCKNEY, OF MARYLAND. In a speech before the Maryland House of Delegates, in 1789, Mr. P. calls slavery in that state, "a speaking picture of _abominable oppression_;" and adds: "It will not do thus to ... act like _unrelenting tyrants_, perpetually sermonizing it with liberty as our text, and actual _oppression_ for our commentary. Is she [Maryland] not ... the foster mother of _petty despots_,--the patron of _wanton oppression?_" Extract from a speech of Mr. RICE, in the Convention for forming the Constitution of Kentucky, in 1790: "The master may, and _often does, inflict upon him all the severity of punishment the human body is capable of bearing."_ President Edwards, the Younger, in a sermon before the Connecticut Abolition Society, 1791, says: "From these drivers, for every imagined, as well as real neglect or want of exertion, they receive the lash--the smack of which is all day long in the ears of those who are on the plantation or in the vicinity; and it is used with such dexterity and severity, as not only to lacerate the skin, but to tear out small portions of the flesh at almost every stroke. "This is the general treatment of the slaves. But many individuals suffer still more severely. _Many, many are knocked down; some have their eyes beaten out: some have an arm or a leg broken, or chopped off_; and many, for a very small, or for no crime at all, have been beaten to death, merely to gratify the fury of an enraged master or overseer." Extract from an oration, delivered at Baltimore, July 4, 1797, by GEORGE BUCHANAN, M.D., member of the American Philosophical Society. Their situation (the slaves') is _insupportable_; misery inhabits their cabins, and pursues them in the field. Inhumanly beaten, they _often_ fall sacrifices to the turbulent tempers of their masters! Who is there, unless inured to savage cruelties, that can hear of the inhuman punishments _daily inflicted_ upon the unfortunate blacks, without feeling for them? Can a man who calls himself a Christian, coolly and deliberately tie up, _thumb-screw, torture with pincers_, and beat unmercifully a poor slave, f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153  
154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

severity

 

beaten

 

oppression

 

speech

 

Extract

 

Maryland

 

Society

 

master

 
unrelenting
 

slaves


lacerate

 

overseer

 

chopped

 

gratify

 

enraged

 

individuals

 

dexterity

 
broken
 

stroke

 

general


knocked
 

treatment

 

severely

 

suffer

 

portions

 

member

 

inflicted

 

unfortunate

 

blacks

 

feeling


punishments

 

inhuman

 

savage

 
inured
 

cruelties

 
pincers
 

unmercifully

 

torture

 

coolly

 

Christian


deliberately

 
BUCHANAN
 
Philosophical
 
American
 

GEORGE

 

Baltimore

 
delivered
 

situation

 

sacrifices

 

turbulent