The following was told me by an intimate friend; it took place on a plantation containing about one hundred slaves.  One day the owner ordered the women into the barn, he then went in among them, whip in hand, and told them he meant to flog them all to death; they began immediately to cry out “What have I done Massa?  What have I done Massa?” He replied; “D—­n you, I will let you know what you have done, you don’t breed, I haven’t had a young one from one of you for several months.”  They told him they could not breed while they had to work in the rice ditches. (The rice grounds are low and marshy, and have to be drained, and while digging or clearing the ditches, the women had to work in mud and water from one to two feet in depth; they were obliged to draw up and secure their frocks about their waist, to keep them out of the water, in this manner they frequently had to work from daylight in the morning till it was so dark they could see no longer.) After swearing and threatening for some time, he told them to tell the overseer’s wife, when they got in that way, and he would put them upon the land to work.

This same planter had a female slave who was a member of the Methodist Church; for a slave she was intelligent and conscientious.  He proposed a criminal intercourse with her.  She would not comply.  He left her and sent for the overseer, and told him to have her flogged.  It was done.  Not long after, he renewed his proposal.  She again refused.  She was again whipped.  He then told her why she had been twice flogged, and told her he intended to whip her till she should yield.  The girl, seeing that her case was hopeless, her back smarting with the scourging she had received, and dreading a repetition, gave herself up to be the victim of his brutal lusts.

One of the slaves on another plantation, gave birth to a child which lived but two or three weeks.  After its death the planter called the woman to him, and asked her how she came to let the child die; said it was all owing to her carelessness, and that he meant to flog her for it.  She told, him with all the feeling of a mother, the circumstances of its death.  But her story availed her nothing against the savage brutality of her master.  She was severely whipped.  A healthy child four months old was then considered worth $100 in North Carolina.

The foregoing facts were related to me by white persons of character and respectability.  The following fact was related to me on a plantation where I have spent considerable time and where the punishment was inflicted.  I have no doubt of its truth.  A slave ran away from his master, and got as far as Newbern.  He took provisions that lasted him a week; but having eaten all, he went to a house to get something to satisfy his hunger.  A white man suspecting him to be a runaway, demanded his pass; as he had none he was seized and put in Newbern jail.  He was there advertised, his description given, &c.  His master saw the advertisement and sent for him;