“A man of my acquaintance in South Carolina, and of considerable wealth, had an only son, whom he educated for the bar; but not succeeding in his profession, he soon returned home.  His father having a small plantation three or four miles off; placed his son on it as an overseer.  Following the example of his father, as I have good reason to believe, he took the wife of one of the negro men.  The poor slave felt himself greatly injured, and expostulated with him.  The wretch took his gun, and deliberately shot him.  Providentially he only wounded him badly.  When the father came, and undertook to remonstrate with his son about his conduct, he threatened to shoot him also! and finally, took the negro woman, and went to Alabama, where he still resided when I left the south.

“An elder in the Presbyterian church related to me the following.—­’A speculator with his drove of negroes was passing my house, and I bought a little girl, nine or ten years old.  After a few months, I concluded that I would rather have a plough-boy.  Another speculator was passing, and I sold the girl.  She was much distressed, and was very unwilling to leave.’—­She had been with him long enough to become attached to his own and his negro children, and he concluded by saying, that in view of the little girl’s tears and cries, he had determined never to do the like again.  I would not trust him, for I know him to be a very avaricious man.

“While traveling in Anson county, North Carolina, I put up for a night at a private house.  The man of the house was not at home when I stopped, but came in the course of the evening, and was noisy and profane, and nearly drunk.  I retired to rest, but not to sleep; his cursing and swearing were enough to keep a regiment awake.  About midnight he went to his kitchen, and called out his two slaves, a man and woman.  His object, he said, was to whip them.  They both begged and promised, but to no purpose.  The whipping began, and continued for some time.  Their cries might have been heard at a distance.

“I was acquainted with a very wealthy planter, on the Pedee river, in South Carolina, who has since died in consequence of intemperance.  It was said that he had occasioned the death of twelve of his slaves, by compelling them to work in water, opening a ditch in the midst of winter.  The disease with which they died was a pleurisy.

“In crossing Pedee river, at Cashway Ferry, I observed that the ferryman had no hair on either side of his head, I asked him the cause.  He informed me that it was caused by his master’s cane.  I said, you have a very bad master.  ‘Yes, a very bad master.’  I understood that he was once a number of Congress from South Carolina.