without daubing, and mostly had split clapboards nailed on the cracks on the outside, though some were without even that:  in some there was a kind of rough bedstead, made from rails, polished with the axe, and put together in a very rough manner, the bottom covered with clapboards, and over that a bundle of worn out clothes.  In some huts there was no bedstead at all.  The above description applies to the places generally with which I was acquainted, and they were mostly old settlements.

“In the east part of Jefferson county I built a chimney for a man named ——­ M’Coy; he had forty-seven laboring hands.  Near where I was at work, M’Coy had ordered one of his slaves to set a post for a gate.  When he came to look at it, he said the slave had not set it in the right place; and ordered him to strip, and lie down on his face; telling him that if he struggled, or attempted to get up, two men, who had been called to the spot, should seize and hold him fast.  The slave agreed to be quiet, and M’Coy commenced flogging him on the bare back, with the wagon whip.  After some time the sufferer attempted to get up; one of the slaves standing by, seized him by the feet and held him fast; upon which he yielded, and M’Coy continued to flog him ten or fifteen minutes.  When he was up, and had put on his trowsers, the blood came through them.

“About half a mile from M’Coy’s was a plantation owned by his step-daughter.  The overseer’s name was James Farr, of whom it appears Mrs. M’Coy’s waiting woman was enamoured.  One night, while I lived there, M’Coy came from Natchez, about 10 o’clock at night.  He said that Dinah was gone, and wished his overseer to go with him to Farr’s lodgings.  They went accordingly, one to each door, and caught Dinah as she ran out, she was partly dressed in her mistress’s clothes; M’Coy whipped her unmercifully, and she afterwards made her escape.  On the next day, (Sabbath), M’Coy came to the overseer’s, where I lodged, and requested him and me to look for her, as he was afraid that she had hanged herself.  He then gave me the particulars of the flogging.  He stated that near Farr’s he had made her strip and lie down, and had flogged her until he was tired; that before he reached home he had a second time made her strip, and again flogged her until he was tired; that when he reached home he had tied her to a peach-tree, and after getting a drink had flogged her until he was thirsty again; and while he went to get a drink the woman made her escape.  He stated that he knew, from the whipping he had given her, there must be in her back cuts an inch deep.  He showed the place where she had been tied to the tree; there appeared to be as much blood as if a hog had been stuck there.  The woman was found on Sabbath evening, near the sprang, and had to be carried into the house.

“While I lived there I heard M’Coy say, if the slaves did not raise him three hundred bales of cotton the ensuing season, he would kill every negro he had.