I feel a necessity upon me, and “a woe unto me,” if I withhold my testimony, I give it with a heavy heart.  My flesh crieth out, “if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;” but, “Father, thy will be done,” is, I trust, the breathing of my spirit.  Oh, the slain of the daughter of my people! they lie in all the ways; their tears fall as the rain, and are their meat day and night; their blood runneth down like water; their plundered hearths are desolate; they weep for their husbands and children, because they are not; and the proud waves do continually go over them, while no eye pitieth, and no man careth for their souls.

But it is not alone for the sake of my poor brothers and sisters in bonds, or for the cause of truth, and righteousness, and humanity, that I testify; the deep yearnings of affection for the mother that bore me, who is still a slaveholder, both in fact and in heart; for my brothers and sisters, (a large family circle,) and for my numerous other slaveholding kindred in South Carolina, constrain me to speak:  for even were slavery no curse to its victims, the exercise of arbitrary power works such fearful ruin upon the hearts of slaveholders, that I should feel impelled to labor and pray for its overthrow with my last energies and latest breath.

I think it important to premise, that I have seen almost nothing of slavery on plantations.  My testimony will have respect exclusively to the treatment of “house-servants,” and chiefly those belonging to the first families in the city of Charleston, both in the religious and in the fashionable world.  And here let me say, that the treatment of plantation slaves cannot be fully known, except by the poor sufferers themselves, and their drivers and overseers.  In a multitude of instances, even the master can know very little of the actual condition of his own field-slaves, and his wife and daughters far less.  A few facts concerning my own family will show this.  Our permanent residence was in Charleston; our country-seat (Bellemont,) was 200 miles distant, in the north-western part of the state; where, for some years, our family spent a few months annually.  Our plantation was three miles from this family mansion.  There, all the field-slaves lived and worked.  Occasionally, once a month, perhaps, some of the family would ride over to the plantation, but I never visited the fields where the slaves were at work, and knew almost nothing of their condition; but this I do know, that the overseers who had charge of them, were generally unprincipled and intemperate men.  But I rejoice to know, that the general treatment of slaves in that region of country, was far milder than on the plantations in the lower country.