“Eight or ten years ago I was in Putnam county, in the state of Georgia, at a Mr. Slaughter’s, the father of my brother’s wife.  A negro, that belonged to Mr. Walker, (I believe,) was accused of stealing a pedlar’s trunk.  The negro denied, but, without ceremony, was lashed to a tree—­the whipping commenced—­six or eight men took turns—­the poor fellow begged for mercy, but without effect, until he was literally cut to pieces, from his shoulders to his hips, and covered with a gore of blood.  When he said the trunk was in a stack of fodder, he was unlashed.  They proceeded to the stack, but found no trunk.  They asked the poor fellow, what he lied about it for; he said, “Lord, Massa, to keep from being whipped to death; I know nothing about the trunk.”  They commenced the whipping with redoubled vigor, until I really supposed he would be whipped to death on the spot; and such shrieks and crying for mercy!  Again he acknowledged, and again they were defeated in finding, and the same reason given as before.  Some were for whipping again, others thought he would not survive another, and they ceased.  About two months after, the trunk was found, and it was then ascertained who the thief was:  and the poor fellow, after being nearly beat to death, and twice made to lie about it, was as innocent as I was.”

The following statements are furnished by Major HORACE NYE, of Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio.

“In the summer of 1837, Mr. JOHN H. MOOREHEAD, a partner of mine, descended the Mississippi with several boat loads of flour.  He told me that floating in a place in the Mississippi, where he could see for miles a head, he perceived a concourse of people on the bank, that for at least a mile and a half above he saw them, and heard the screams of some person, and from a great distance, the crack of a whip, he run near the shore, and saw them whipping a black man, who was on the ground, and at that time nearly unable to scream, but the whip continued to be applied without intermission, as long as he was in sight, say from one mile and a half, to two miles below—­he probably saw and heard them for one hour in all.  He expressed the opinion that the man could not survive.

“About four weeks since I had a conversation with Mr. Porter, a respectable citizen of Morgan county of this state, of about fifty years of age.  He told me that he formerly traveled about five years in the southern states, and that on one occasion he stopped at a private house, to stay all night; (I think it was in Virginia,) while he was conversing with the man, his wife came in, and complained that the wench had broken some article in the kitchen, and that she must be whipped.  He took the woman into the door yard, stripped her clothes down to her hips—­tied her hands together, and drawing them up to a limb, so that she could just touch the ground, took a very large cowskin whip, and commenced flogging; he said that every stroke at first raised the skin, and immediately the blood came through; this he continued, until the blood stood in a puddle down at her feet.  He then turned to my informant and said, ’Well, Yankee, what do you think of that?’”