“Pursuing my assumed right of driving souls, I went to the Southern part of Virginia for the purpose of trafficking in slaves.  In that part of the state, the cruelties practised upon the slaves, are far greater than where I lived.  The punishments there often resulted in death to the slave.  There was no law for the negro, but that of the overseer’s whip.  In that part of the country, the slaves receive nothing for food, but corn in the ear, which has to be prepared for baking after working hours, by grinding it with a hand-mill.  This they take to the fields with them, and prepare it for eating, by holding it on their hoes, over a fire made by a stump.  Among the gangs, are often young women, who bring their children to the fields, and lay them in a fence corner, while they are at work, only being permitted to nurse them at the option of the overseer.  When a child is three weeks old, a woman is considered in working order.  I have seen a woman, with her young child strapped to her back, laboring the whole day, beside a man, perhaps the father of the child, and he not being permitted to give her any assistance, himself being under the whip.  The uncommon humanity of the driver allowing her the comfort of doing so.  I was then selling a drove of slaves, which I had brought by water from Baltimore, my conscience not allowing me to drive, as was generally the case uniting the slaves by collars and chains, and thus driving them under the whip.  About that time an unaccountable something, which I now know was an interposition of Providence, prevented me from prosecuting any farther this unholy traffic; but though I had quitted it, I still continued to live in a slave state, witnessing every day its evil effects upon my fellow beings.  Among which was a heart-rending scene that took place in my father’s house, which led me to lease a slave state, as well as all the imaginary comforts arising from slavery.  On preparing for my removal to the state of Pennsylvania, it became necessary for me to go to Louisville, in Kentucky, where, if possible, I became more horrified with the impositions practiced upon the negro than before.  There a slave was sold to go farther south, and was hand-cuffed for the purpose of keeping him secure.  But choosing death rather than slavery, he jumped overboard and was drowned.  When I returned four weeks afterwards his body, that had floated three miles below, was yet unburied.  One fact; it is impossible for a person to pass through a slave state, if he has eyes open, without beholding every day cruelties repugnant to humanity.

Respectfully Yours,

LEMUEL SAPINGTON.

TESTIMONY OF MRS. NANCY LOWRY, A NATIVE OF KENTUCKY.

Mrs. Lory, is a member of the non-conformist church in Osnaburg, Stark County, Ohio, she is a native of Kentucky.  We have received from her the following testimony.