Part 149 (1/2)

These b.l.o.o.d.y scenes are _constantly exhibiting in every slave holding country--thousands of whips are every day stained in African blood_!

Even the poor _females_ are not permitted to escape these shocking cruelties.”--_Rankin's Letters._

These letters were published fifteen years ago.--They were addressed to a brother in Virginia, who was a slaveholder.

TESTIMONY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

”We have heard of slavery as it exists in Asia, and Africa, and Turkey--we have heard of the feudal slavery under which the peasantry of Europe have groaned from the days of Alaric until now, but excepting only the horrible system of the West India Islands, we have never heard of slavery in any country, ancient or modern, Pagan, Mohammedan, or _Christian! so terrible in its character_, as the slavery which exists in these United States.”--_Seventh Report American Colonization Society,_ 1824.

TESTIMONY OF THE GRADUAL EMANc.i.p.aTION SOCIETY OF NORTH CAROLINA.

_Signed by Moses Swain, President, and William Swain, Secretary._

”In the eastern part of the state, the slaves considerably outnumber the free population. Their situation is there wretched beyond description. Impoverished by the mismanagement which we have already attempted to describe, the master, unable to support his own grandeur and maintain his slaves, puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half naked and half starved much of the time.

Generally, throughout the state, the African is an _abused, a monstrously outraged creature.”--See Minutes of the American Convention, convened in Baltimore, Oct._ 25, 1826.

FROM NILES' BALTIMORE REGISTER FOR 1829, VOL 35, p. 4.

”Dealing in slaves has become a _large business_. Establishments are made at several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle. These places of deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with _iron thumb-screws and gags_, and ornamented with _catskins and other whips--often times b.l.o.o.d.y_.”

Judge RUFFIN, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, in one of his judicial decisions, says--”The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is NO APPEAL FROM HIS MASTER. No man can antic.i.p.ate the provocations which the slave would give, nor the consequent wrath of the master, prompting him to b.l.o.o.d.y VENGEANCE on the turbulent traitor, a vengeance _generally_ practiced with impunity, by reason of its PRIVACY.”--See _Wheeler's Law of Slavery_ p. 247.

MR. MOORE, of VIRGINIA, in his speech before the Legislature of that state, Jan. 15, 1832, says: ”It must be confessed, that although the treatment of our slaves is in the general, as mild and humane as it can be, that it must always happen, that there will be found hundreds of individuals, who, owing either to the natural ferocity of their dispositions, or to the effects of intemperance, will be guilty of cruelty and barbarity towards their slaves, which is _almost intolerable_, and at which humanity revolts.”

TESTIMONY OF B. SWAIN, ESQ., OF NORTH CAROLINA.

”Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a moment cast his thoughts over this land of slavery--think of the _nakedness_ of some, the _hungry yearnings_ of others, the _flowing tears and heaving sighs_ of parting relations, the _wailings and wo, the b.l.o.o.d.y cut of the keen lash, and the frightful scream that rends the very skies_--and all this to gratify ambition, l.u.s.t, pride, avarice, vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart.... THE WORST IS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. Were all the miseries, the horrors of slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of seven-fold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm.”--_See ”Swain's Address,”_ 1830.

TESTIMONY OF DR. JAMES C. FINLEY,

_Son of Dr. Finley, one of the founders of the Colonization Society, and brother of R.S. Finley, agent of the American Colonization Society._ Dr. J.C. Finley was formerly one of the editors of the Western Medical Journal, at Cincinnati, and is well known in the west as utterly hostile to immediate abolition.

”In almost the last conversation I had with you before I left Cincinnati, I promised to give you some account of some scenes of atrocious cruelty towards slaves, which I witnessed while I lived at the south. I almost regret having made the promise, for not only are they _so atrocious_ that you will with difficulty believe them, but I also fear that they will have the effect of driving you into that _abolitionism_, upon the borders of which you have been so long hesitating. The people of the north _are ignorant of the horrors of slavery_--of the _atrocities_ which it commits upon the unprotected slave. * * *

”I do not know that any thing could be gained by particularizing the scenes of _horrible barbarity_, which fell under my observation during my _short_ residence in one of the wealthiest, most intelligent, and most moral parts of Georgia. Their _number_ and _atrocity_ are such, that I am confident they would gain credit with none but _abolitionists_. Every thing will be conveyed in the remark, that in a state of society calculated to foster the worst pa.s.sions of our nature, the slave derives _no protection_ either from _law_ or _public opinion_, and that ALL the cruelties which the Russians are reported to have acted towards the Poles, after their late subjugation, ARE SCENES OF EVERY-DAY OCCURRENCE in the southern states. This statement, incredible as it may seem, falls short, very far short of the truth.”

The foregoing is extracted from a letter written by Dr. Finley to Rev.

Asa Mahan, his former pastor, then of Cincinnati, now President of Oberlin Seminary.

TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM T. ALLAN, OF ILLINOIS, _Son of a Slaveholder, Rev. Dr. Allan of Huntsville, Ala._

”At our house it is so common to hear their (the slaves') screams, that we think nothing of it: and lest any one should think that in _general_ the slaves are well treated, let me be distinctly understood:--_cruelty_ is the _rule_, and _kindness_ the _exception_.”