“A negro was tied up, and flogged until the blood ran down and filled his shoes, so that when he raised either foot and set it down again, the blood would run over their tops.  I could not look on any longer, but turned away in horror; the whipping was continued to the number of 500 lashes, as I understood; a quart of spirits of turpentine was then applied to his lacerated body.  The same negro came down to my boat, to get some apples, and was so weak from his wounds and loss of blood, that he could not get up the bank, but fell to the ground.  The crime for which the negro was whipped, was that of telling the other negroes, that the overseer had lain with his wife."

Mr. Hall adds:—­

“The following statement is made by a young man from Western Virginia.  He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a student in Marietta College.  All that prevents the introduction of his name, is the peril to his life, which would probably be the consequence, on his return to Virginia.  His character for integrity and veracity is above suspicion.

“On the night of the great meteoric shower, in Nov. 1833.  I was at Remley’s tavern, 12 miles west of Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co., Virginia.  A drove of 50 or 60 negroes stopped at the same place that night.  They usually ‘camp out,’ but as it was excessively muddy, they were permitted to come into the house.  So far as my knowledge extends, ‘droves,’ on their way to the south, eat but twice a day, early in the morning and at night.  Their supper was a compound of ’potatoes and meal,’ and was, without exception, the dirtiest, blackest looking mess I ever saw. I remarked at the time that the food was not as clean, in appearance, as that which was given to a drove of hogs, at the same place the night previous.  Such as it was, however, a black woman brought it on her head, in a tray or trough two and a half feet long, where the men and women were promiscuously herded.  The slaves rushed up and seized it from the trough in handfulls, before the woman could take it off her head.  They jumped at it as if half-famished.

“They slept on the floor of the room which they were permitted to occupy, lying in every form imaginable, males and females, promiscuously.  They were so thick on the floor, that in passing through the room it was necessary to step over them.

“There were three drivers, one of whom staid in the room to watch the drove, and the other two slept in an adjoining room.  Each of the latter took a female from the drove to lodge with him, as is the common practice of the drivers generally.  There is no doubt about this particular instance, for they were seen together.  The mud was so thick on the floor where this drove slept, that it was necessary to take a shovel, the next morning, and clear it out.  Six or eight in this drove were chained; all were for the south.