their freedom for them.  Some believe that the abolitionists have already made them free, and that it is established by law, but that their masters prevent the law from going into effect.  One woman begged me to get a newspaper and read it over.  She said her husband told her that the black people had sent word to the queen of ’Merica that they were all slaves; that she didn’t believe it, and went to Washington city to see the president about it.  They quarrelled; she drew her sword upon him, and swore that he should help her to make them all free.

That poor, ignorant woman thought that America was governed by a Queen, to whom the President was subordinate.  I wish the President was subordinate to Queen Justice.

IX.  Sketches Of Neighboring Slaveholders.

There was a planter in the country, not far from us, whom I will call Mr. Litch.  He was an ill-bred, uneducated man, but very wealthy.  He had six hundred slaves, many of whom he did not know by sight.  His extensive plantation was managed by well-paid overseers.  There was a jail and a whipping post on his grounds; and whatever cruelties were perpetrated there, they passed without comment.  He was so effectually screened by his great wealth that he was called to no account for his crimes, not even for murder.

Various were the punishments resorted to.  A favorite one was to tie a rope round a man’s body, and suspend him from the ground.  A fire was kindled over him, from which was suspended a piece of fat pork.  As this cooked, the scalding drops of fat continually fell on the bare flesh.  On his own plantation, he required very strict obedience to the eighth commandment.  But depredations on the neighbors were allowable, provided the culprit managed to evade detection or suspicion.  If a neighbor brought a charge of theft against any of his slaves, he was browbeaten by the master, who assured him that his slaves had enough of every thing at home, and had no inducement to steal.  No sooner was the neighbor’s back turned, than the accused was sought out, and whipped for his lack of discretion.  If a slave stole from him even a pound of meat or a peck of corn, if detection followed, he was put in chains and imprisoned, and so kept till his form was attentuated by hunger and suffering.

A freshnet once bore his wine cellar and meat house miles away from the plantation.  Some slaves followed, and secured bits of meat and bottles of wine.  Two were detected; a ham and some liquor being found in their huts.  They were summoned by their master.  No words were used, but a club felled them to the ground.  A rough box was their coffin, and their interment was a dog’s burial.  Nothing was said.

Murder was so common on his plantation that he feared to be alone after nightfall.  He might have believed in ghosts.

His brother, if not equal in wealth, was at least equal in cruelty.  His bloodhounds were well trained.  Their pen was spacious, and a terror to the slaves.  They were let loose on a runway, and, if they tracked him, they literally tore the flesh from his bones.  When this slaveholder died, his shrieks and groans were so frightful that they appalled his own friends.  His last words were, “I am going to hell; bury my money with me.”