“Many poor slaves are stripped naked, stretched and tied across barrels, or large bags, and tortured with the lash during hours, and even whole days, until their flesh is mangled to the very bones.  Others are stripped and hung up by the arms, their feet are tied together, and the end of a heavy piece of timber is put between their legs in order to stretch their bodies, and so prepare them for the torturing lash—­and in this situation they are often whipped until their bodies are covered with blood and mangled flesh—­and in order to add the greatest keenness to their sufferings, their wounds are washed with liquid salt!  And some of the miserable creatures are permitted to hang in that position until they actually expire; some die under the lash, others linger about for a time, and at length die of their wounds, and many survive, and endure again similar torture.  These bloody 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 EMANCIPATION 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 bloody.”