“In 1819, while employed as an instructor at Second Creek, near Natchez, Mississippi, I resided on a plantation where I witnessed the following circumstance.  One of the slaves was in the habit of running away.  He had been repeatedly taken, and repeatedly whipped, with great severity, but to no purpose.  He would still seize the first opportunity to escape from the plantation.  At last his owner declared, I’ll fix him, I’ll put a stop to his running away.  He accordingly took him to a blacksmith, and had an iron head-frame made for him, which may be called lock-jaw, from the use that was made of it.  It had a lock and key, and was so constructed, that when on the head and locked, the slave could not open his mouth to take food, and the design was to prevent his running away.  But the device proved unavailing.  He was soon missing, and whether by his own desperate effort, or the aid of others, contrived to sustain himself with food; but he was at last taken, and if my memory serves me, his life was soon terminated by the cruel treatment to which he was subjected.”

The Western Luminary, a religious paper published at Lexington, Kentucky, in an editorial article, in the summer of 1833, says: 

“A few weeks since we gave an account of a company of men, women and children, part of whom were manacled, passing through our streets.  Last week, a number of slaves were driven through the main street of our city, among whom were a number manacled together, two abreast, all connected by, and supporting a heavy iron chain, which extended the whole length of the line.”

TESTIMONY OF A VIRGINIAN.

The name of this witness cannot be published, as it would put him in peril; but his credibility is vouched for by the Rev. Ezra Fisher, pastor of the Baptist Church, Quincy, Illinois, and Dr. Richard Eels, of the same place.  These gentlemen say of him, “We have great confidence in his integrity, discretion, and strict Christian principle.”  He says—­

“About five years ago, I remember to have passed, in a single day, four droves of slaves for the south west; the largest drove had 350 slaves in it, and the smallest upwards of 200.  I counted 68 or 70 in a single coffle.  The ‘coffle chain’ is a chain fastened at one end to the centre of the bar of a pair of hand cuffs, which are fastened to the right wrist of one, and the left wrist of another slave, they standing abreast, and the chain between them.  These are the head of the coffle.  The other end is passed through a ring in the bolt of the next handcuffs, and the slaves being manacled thus, two and two together, walk up, and the coffle chain is passed, and they go up towards the head of the coffle.  Of course they are closer or wider apart in the coffle, according to the number to be coffled, and to the length of the chain. I have seen HUNDREDS of droves and chain-coffles of this description, and every coffle was a scene of misery and wo, of tears and brokenness of heart.”