d I have seen men and women
flogged--I have seen the overseers strike a man with a hay-fork--nay more,
men have been maimed by shooting! Some dispute arose one morning between
the overseer and one of the farm hands, when the former made at the slave
with a hickory club; the slave taking to his heels, started for the woods;
as he was crossing the yard, the overseer turned, snatched his gun which
was near, and fired at the flying slave, lodging several shots in the
calf of one leg. The poor fellow continued his flight, and got into the
woods; but he was in so much pain that he was compelled to come out in the
evening, and give himself up to his master, thinking he would not allow
him to be punished as he had been shot. He was locked up that night; the
next morning the overseer was allowed to tie him up and flog him; his
master then took his instruments and picked the shot out of his leg, and
told him, it served him just right.

My master had a deeply pious and exemplary slave, an elderly man, who one
day had a misunderstanding with the overseer, when the latter attempted to
flog him. He fled to the woods; it was noon; at evening he came home
orderly. The next morning, my master, taking one of his sons with him, a
rope and cowhide in his hand, led the poor old man away into the stable;
tied him up, and ordered the son to lay on thirty-nine lashes, which he
did, making the keen end of the cowhide lap around and strike him in the
tenderest part of his side, till the blood sped out, as if a lance had
been used.

While my master's son was thus engaged, the sufferer's little daughter, a
child six years of age, stood at the door, weeping in agony for the fate
of her father. I heard the old man articulating in a low tone of voice; I
listened at the intervals between the stripes, and lo! he was praying!

When the last lash was laid on, he was let down; and leaving him to put on
his clothes, they passed out of the door, and drove the man's weeping
child away! I was mending a hinge to one of the barn doors; I saw and
heard what I have stated. Six months after, this same man's eldest
daughter, a girl fifteen years old, was sold to slave-traders, where he
never saw her more.

This poor slave and his wife were both Methodists, so was the wife of the
young master who flogged him. My old master was an Episcopalian.

These are only a few of the instances which came under my own notice
during my childhood and youth on our plantations;