On one occasion, I heard the overseer charge the hands to be at a certain place the next morning at sun-rise.  I was present in the morning, in company with my brother, when the hands arrived.  Joe, the slave already spoken of, came running, all out of breath, about five minutes behind the time, when, without asking any questions, the overseer told him to take off his jacket.  Joe took off his jacket.  He had on a piece of a shirt; he told him to take it off:  Joe took it off:  he then whipped him with a heavy cowhide full six feet long.  At every stroke Joe would spring from the ground, and scream, “O my God!  Do, Massa Galloway!” My brother was so exasperated; that he turned to me and said, “If I were Joe, I would kill the overseer if I knew I should be shot the next minute.”

In the winter the horn blew at about four in the morning, and all the threshers were required to be at the threshing floor in fifteen minutes after.  They had to go about a quarter of a mile from their quarters.  Galloway would stand near the entrance, and all who did not come in time would get a blow over the back or head as heavy as he could strike.  I have seen him, at such times, follow after them, striking furiously a number of blows, and every one followed by their screams.  I have seen the women go to their work after such a flogging, crying and taking on most piteously.

It is almost impossible to believe that human nature can endure such hardships and sufferings as the slaves have to go through:  I have seen them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate, when they had to break the ice, and there stand in the water among the ice until it was bailed out.  I have often known the hands to be taken from the field, sent down the river in flats or boats to Wilmington, absent from twenty-four to thirty hours, without any thing to eat, no provision being made for these occasions.

Galloway kept medicine on hand, that in case any of the slaves were sick, he could give it to them without sending for the physician; but he always kept a good look out that they did not sham sickness.  When any of them excited his suspicions, he would make them take the medicine in his presence, and would give them a rap on the top of the head, to make them swallow it.  A man once came to him, of whom he said he was suspicious:  he gave him two potions of salts, and fastened him in the stocks for the night.  His medicine soon began to operate; and there he lay in all his filth till he was taken out the next day.

One day, Mr. Swan beat a slave severely, for alleged carelessness in letting a boat get adrift.  The slave was told to secure the boat:  whether he took sufficient means for this purpose I do not know; he was not allowed to make any defence.  Mr. Swan called him up, and asked why he did not secure the boat:  he pulled off his hat and began to tell his story.  Swan told him he was a damned liar, and commenced beating him over the head with a hickory cane, and the slave retreated backwards; Swan followed him about two rods, threshing him over the head with the hickory as he went.