is frequently done.  On all plantations, the male and female slaves fare pretty much alike; those who are with child are driven to their task till within a few days of the time of their delivery; and when the child is a few weeks old, the mother must again go to the field.  If it is far from her hut, she must take her babe with her, and leave it in the care of some of the children—­perhaps of one not more than four or five years old.  If the child cries, she cannot go to its relief; the eye of the overseer is upon her; and if, when she goes to nurse it, she stays a little longer than the overseer thinks necessary, he commands her back to her task, and perhaps a husband and father must hear and witness it all.  Brother, you cannot begin to know what the poor slave mothers suffer, on thousands of plantations at the south.

“I will now give a few facts, showing the workings of the system.  Some years since, a Presbyterian minister moved from North Carolina to Georgia.  He had a negro man of an uncommon mind.  For some cause, I know not what, this minister whipped him most unmercifully.  He next nearly drowned him; he then put him in the fence; this is done by lifting up the corner of a ‘worm’ fence, and then putting the feet through; the rails serve as stocks.  He kept him there some time, how long I was not informed, but the poor slave died in a few days; and, if I was rightly informed, nothing was done about it, either in church or state.  After some tame, he moved back to North Carolina, and is now a member of ——­ Presbytery.  I have heard him preach, and have been in the pulpit with him.  May God forgive me!

“At Laurel Hill, Richmond county, North Carolina, it was reported that a runaway slave was in the neighborhood.  A number of young men took their guns, and went in pursuit.  Some of them took their station near the stage road, and kept on the look-out.  It was early in the evening—­the poor slave came along, when the ambush rushed upon him, and ordered him to surrender.  He refused, and kept them off with his club.  They still pressed upon him with their guns presented to his breast.  Without seeming to be daunted, he caught hold of the muzzle of one of the guns, and came near getting possession of it.  At length, retreating to a fence on one side of the road, he sprang over into a corn-field, and started to run in one of the rows.  One of the young men stepped to the fence, fired, and lodged the whole charge between his shoulders; he fell, and died in a short time.  He died without telling who his master was, or whether he had any, or what his own name was, or where he was from.  A hole was dug by the side of the road his body tumbled into it, and thus ended the whole matter.