witnessed:  he remarked, that had I been with him I should not have seen this.  “When I whip niggers, I take them out of sight and hearing.”  Such being the difficulties in the way of a stranger’s ascertaining the treatment of the slaves, it is not to be wondered at that gentlemen, of undoubted veracity, should give directly false statements relative to it.  But facts cannot lie, and in giving these I confine myself to what has come under my own personal observation.

“The negroes commence labor by daylight in the morning, and, excepting the plowboys, who must feed and rest their horses, do not leave the field till dark in the evening.  There is a good deal of contention among planters, who shall make the most cotton to the hand, or, who shall drive their negroes the hardest; and I have heard bets made and staked upon the issue of the crops.  Col.  W. was boasting of his large crops, and swore that ’he made for his force, the largest crops in the country.’  He was disputed of course.  On riding home in company with Mr. C. the conversation turned upon Col.  W. My companion remarked, that though Col.  W. had the reputation of making a large crop, yet he could beat him himself, and did do it the last year.  I remarked that I considered it no honor to Col.  W. to drive his slaves to death to make a large crop.  I have heard no more about large crops from him since.  Drivers or overseers usually drive the slaves worse than masters.—­Their reputation for good overseers depends in a great measure upon the crops they make, and the death of a slave is no loss to them.

“Of the extent and cruelty of the punishment of the slave, the northern public know nothing.  From the nature of the case they can know little, as I have before mentioned.

“I have seen a woman, a mother, compelled, in the presence of her master and mistress, to hold up her clothes, and endure the whip of the driver on the naked body for more than twenty minutes, and while her cries would have rent the heart of any one, who had not hardened himself to human suffering.  Her master and mistress were conversing with apparent indifference.  What was her crime?  She had a task given her of sewing which she must finish that day.  Late at night she finished it; but the stitches were too long, and she must be whipped.  The same was repeated three or four nights for the same offence. I have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive 305 blows with the paddle[14] on the fleshy parts of the body.  Two others received the same kind of punishment at the time, though I did not count the blows.  One received 230 lashes.  Their crime was stealing mutton.  I have frequently heard the shrieks of the slaves, male and female, accompanied by the strokes of the paddle or whip, when I have not gone near the scene of horror.  I knew not their crimes, excepting of one woman, which was stealing four potatoes to eat with her bread!  The more