“It has been almost four years since I came to the south-west; and although I have been told, from month to month, that I should soon wear off my northern prejudices, and probably have slaves of my own, yet my judgment in regard to oppression, or my prejudices, if they are pleased so to call them, remain with me still.  I judge still from those principles which were fixed in my mind at the north; and a residence at the south has not enabled me so to pervert truth, as to make injustice appear justice.

“I have studied the state of things here, now for years, coolly and deliberately, with the eye of an uninterested looker on; and hence I may not be altogether unprepared to state to you some facts, and to draw conclusions from them.

“Permit me then to relate what I have seen; and do not imagine that these are all exceptions to the general treatment, but rather believe that thousands of cruelties are practised in this Christian land, every year, which no eye that ever shed a tear of pity could look upon.

“Soon after my arrival I made an excursion into the country, to the distance of some twenty miles.  And as I was passing by a cotton field, where about fifty negroes were at work, I was inclined to stop by the road side to view a scene which was then new to me.  While I was, in my mind, comparing this mode of labor with that of my own native place, I heard the driver, with a rough oath, order one that was near him, who seemed to be laboring to the extent of his power, to “lie down.”  In a moment he was obeyed; and he commenced whipping the offender upon his naked back, and continued, to the amount of about twenty lashes, with a heavy raw-hide whip, the crack of which might have been heard more than half a mile.  Nor did the females escape; for although I stopped scarcely fifteen minutes, no less than three were whipped in the same manner, and that so severely, I was strongly inclined to interfere.

“You may be assured, sir, that I remained not unmoved:  I could no longer look on such cruelty, but turned away and rode on, while the echoes of the lash were reverberating in the woods around me.  Such scenes have long since become familiar to me.  But then the full effect was not lost; and I shall never forget, to my latest day, the mingled feelings of pity, horror, and indignation that took possession of my mind.  I involuntarily exclaimed, O God of my fathers, how dost thou permit such things to defile our land!  Be merciful to us! and visit us not in justice, for all our iniquities and the iniquities of our fathers!

“As I passed on I soon found that I had escaped from one horrible scene only to witness another.  A planter with whom I was well acquainted, had caught a negro without a pass.  And at the moment I was passing by, he was in the act of fastening his feet and hands to the trees, having previously made him take off all his clothing except his trowsers.  When he had sufficiently secured this poor creature,