Volume III Part 37 (1/2)
”A Presbyterian preacher, now resident in a slave state, and therefore it is not expedient to give his name, stated, that he saw on board of a steamboat at Louisville, Kentucky, a woman who had been forced on board, to be carried off from all she counted dear on earth. She ran across the boat and threw herself into the river, in order to end a life of intolerable sorrows. She was drawn back to the boat and taken up. The brutal driver beat her severely, and she immediately threw herself again into the river. She was hooked up again, chained, and carried off.”
Testimony of M. WILLIAM HANSBOROUGH, of Culpepper county, Virginia, the ”owner” of sixty slaves.
”I saw a slave taken out of prison by his master, on a hot summer's day, and driven, by said master, on the road before him, till he dropped down dead.”
The above statement was made by Mr. Hansborough to Lindley Coates, of Lancaster county, Pa. a distinguished member of the Society of Friends, and a member of the late Convention in Pa. for altering the State Const.i.tution. The letter from Mr. C. containing this testimony of Mr. H. is now before us.
Mr. TOBIAS BOUDINOT, a member of the Methodist Church in St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio, says:
”In Nicholasville, Ky. in the year 1823, he saw a slave fleeing before the patrol, but he was overtaken near where he stood, and a man with a knotted cane, as large as his wrist, struck the slave a number of times on his head, until the club was broken and he made tame; the blood was thrown in every direction by the violence of the blows.”
The Rev. WILLIAM d.i.c.kEY, of Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, wrote a letter to the Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio thirteen years since, containing a description of the cutting up of a slave with a broad axe; beginning at the feet and gradually cutting the legs, arms, and body into pieces! This diabolical atrocity was committed in the state of Kentucky, in the year 1807. The perpetrators of the deed were two brothers, Lilburn and Isham Lewis, NEPHEWS OF PRESIDENT JEFFERSON.
The writer of this having been informed by Mr. d.i.c.key, that some of the facts connected with this murder were not contained in his letter published by Mr. Rankin, requested him to write the account _anew_, and furnish the additional facts. This he did, and the letter containing it was published in the ”Human Rights” for August, 1837. We insert it here, slightly abridged, with the introductory remarks which appeared in that paper.
”Mr. d.i.c.key's first letter has been scattered all over the country, south and north; and though mult.i.tudes have affected to disbelieve its statements, _Kentuckians_ know the truth of them quite too well to call them in question. The story is fiction or fact--if _fiction_, why has it not been nailed to the wall? Hundreds of people around the mouth of c.u.mberland River are personally knowing to these facts.
_There_ are the records of the court that tried the wretches.--_There_ their acquaintances and kindred still live. All over that region of country, the brutal butchery of George is a matter of public notoriety. It is quite needless, perhaps, to add, that the Rev. Wm.
d.i.c.key is a Presbyterian clergyman, one of the oldest members of the Chilicothe Presbytery, and greatly respected and beloved by the churches in Southern Ohio. He was born in South Carolina, and was for many years pastor of a church in Kentucky.”
REV. WM. d.i.c.kEY'S LETTER.
”In the county of Livingston, KY. near the mouth of c.u.mberland River, lived Lilburn Lewis, a sister's son of the celebrated Jefferson. He was the wealthy owner of a considerable gang of negroes, whom he drove constantly, fed sparingly, and lashed severely. The consequence was, that they would run away. Among the rest was an ill-thrived boy of about seventeen, who, having just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to the spring for water, and in returning let fall an elegant pitcher: it was dashed to s.h.i.+vers upon the rocks. This was made the occasion for reckoning with him. It was night, and the slaves were all at home. The master had them all collected in the most roomy negro house, and a rousing fire put on. When the door was secured, that none might escape, either through _fear of him_ or _sympathy with George_, he opened to them the design of the interview, namely, that they might be effectually advised to _stay at home and obey his orders_. All things now in train, he called up George, who approached his master with unreserved submission. He bound him with cords; and by the a.s.sistance of Isham Lewis, his youngest brother, laid him on a broad bench, the _meat-block_. He then proceeded to _hack off George at the ankles_! It was with the _broad axe_! In vain did the unhappy victim _scream and roar_! for he was completely in his master's power; not a hand among so many durst interfere; casting the feet into the fire, he lectured them at some length.--He next _chopped him off below the knees_! George _roaring out_ and praying his master to begin at the _other end_! He admonished them again, throwing the legs into the fire--then, above the knees, tossing the joints into the fire--the next stroke severed the thighs from the body; these were also committed to the flames--and so it may be said of the arms, head, and trunk, until all was in the fire! He threatened any of them with similar punishment who should in future disobey, run away, or disclose the proceedings of that evening. Nothing now remained but to consume the flesh and bones; and for this purpose the fire was brightly stirred until two hours after midnight; when a coa.r.s.e and heavy back-wall, composed of rock and clay, covered the fire and the remains of George. It was the Sabbath--this put an end to the _amus.e.m.e.nts_ of the evening. The negroes were now permitted to disperse, with charges to keep this matter among themselves, and never to whisper it in the neighbourhood, under the penalty of a like punishment.
”When he returned home and retired, his wife exclaimed, 'Why, Mr.
Lewis, where have you been, and what were you doing?' She had heard a strange _pounding_ and dreadful _screams_, and had smelled something like fresh meat _burning_. The answer he returned was, that he had never enjoyed himself at a ball so well as he had enjoyed himself that night.
”Next morning he ordered the hands to rebuild the back-wall, and he himself superintended the work, throwing the pieces of flesh that still remained, with the bones, behind, as it went up--thus hoping to conceal the matter. But it _could not be hid_--much as the negroes seemed to hazard, they did _whisper the horrid deed_. The neighbors came, and in his presence tore down the wall; and finding the _remains_ of the boy, they apprehended Lewis and his brother, and testified against them. They were committed to jail, that they might answer at the coming court for this shocking outrage; but finding security for their appearance at court, THEY WERE ADMITTED TO BAIL!
”In the interim, other articles of evidence leaked out. That of Mrs.
Lewis hearing a pounding, and screaming and her smelling fresh meat burning, for not till now had this come out. He was offended with her for disclosing these things, alleging that they might have some weight against him at the pending trial.
”In connection with this is another item, full of horror. Mr.s. Lewis, or her girl, in making her bed one morning after this, found, under her bolster, a keen BUTCHER KNIFE! The appalling discovery forced from her the confession that she considered her life in jeopardy. Messrs.
Rice and Philips, whose wives were her sisters, went to see her and to bring her away if she wished it. Mr. Lewis received them with all the expressions of _Virginia hospitality_. As soon as they were seated they said, 'Well, Let.i.tia, we supposed that you might be unhappy here, and afraid for your life; and we have come to-day to take you to your father's, if you desire it.' She said, 'Thank you, kind brothers, I am indeed afraid for my life.'--We need not interrupt the story to tell how much surprised he affected to be with this strange procedure of his brothers-in-law, and with this declaration of his wife. But all his professions of fondness for her, to the contrary notwithstanding, they rode off with her before his eyes.--He followed and overtook, and went with them to her father's; but she was locked up from him, with her own consent, and he returned home.
”Now he saw that his character was gone, his respectable friends believed that he had ma.s.sacred George; but, worst of all, he saw that they considered the life of the harmless Let.i.tia was in danger from his perfidious hands. It was too much for his chivalry to sustain. The proud Virginian sunk under the acc.u.mulated load of public odium. He proposed to his brother Isham, who had been his accomplice in the George affair, that they should finish the play of life with a still deeper tragedy. The plan was, that they should shoot one another.
Having made the hot-brained bargain, they repaired with their guns to the grave-yard, which was on an eminence in the midst of his plantation. It was inclosed with a railing, say thirty feet square.
One was to stand at one railing, and the other over against him at the other. They were to make ready, take aim, and count deliberately 1, 2, 3, and then fire. Lilburn's will was written, and thrown down open beside him. They c.o.c.ked their guns and raised them to their faces; but the peradventure occurring that one of the guns might miss fire, Isham was sent for a rod, and when it was brought, Lilburn cut it off at about the length of two feet, and was showing his brother how the survivor might do, provided one of the guns should fail; (for they were determined upon going together;) but forgetting, perhaps, in the perturbation of the moment that the gun was c.o.c.ked, when he touched trigger with the rod the gun fired, and he fell, and died in a few minutes--and was with George in the eternal world, where _the slave is free from his master_. But poor Isham was so terrified with this unexpected occurrence and so confounded by the awful contortions of his brother's face, that he had not nerve enough to follow up the play, and finish the plan as was intended, but suffered Lilburn to go alone. The negroes came running to see what it meant that a gun should be fired in the grave-yard. There lay their master, dead! They ran for the neighbors. Isham still remained on the spot. The neighbors at the first charged him with the murder of his brother. But he, though as if he had lost more than half his mind, told the whole story; and the course of range of the ball in the dead man's body agreeing with his statement, Isham was not farther charged with Lilburn's death.
”The Court sat--Isham was judged to be guilty of a capital crime in the affair of George. He was to be hanged at Salem. The day was set.
My good old father visited him in the prison--two or three times talked and prayed with him; I visited him once myself. We fondly hoped that he was a sincere penitent. Before the day of execution came, by some means, I never knew what, Isham was _missing_. About two years after, we learned that he had gone down to Natchez, and had married a lady of some refinement and piety. I saw her letters to his sisters, who were worthy members of the church of which I was pastor. The last letter told of his death. He was in Jackson's army, and fell in the famous battle of New Orleans.”