“Having occasion to pass a plantation very early one foggy morning, in a boat we heard the sound of the whip, before we could see, but as we drew up in front of the plantation, we could see the negroes at work in the field.  The overseer was going from one to the other causing them to lay down their hoe, strip off their garment, hold up their hands and receive their number of lashes.  Thus he went on from one to the other until we were out of sight.  In the course of the winter a family came where I was, on a visit from a neighboring island; of course, in a boat with negroes to row them—­one of these a barber, told me that he ran away about two years before, and joined a company of negroes who had fled to the swamps.  He said they suffered a great deal—­were at last discovered by a party of hunters, who fired among them, and caused them to scatter.  Himself and one more fled to the coast, took a boat and put off to sea, a storm came on and swamped or upset them, and his partner was drowned, he was taken up by a passing vessel and returned to his master.

RICHARD MACY.

Hudson, 12 mo. 29th, 1838.”

TESTIMONY OF MR. ELEAZAR POWELL

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. WILLIAM SCOTT, a highly respectable citizen of Beaver co.  Pennsylvania, dated Jan 7, 1839.

Chippeca Township, Beaver co.  Pa.  Jan. 7, 1839.

“I send you the statement of Mr. Eleazar Powell, who was born, and has mostly resided in this township from his birth.  His character for sobriety and truth stands above impeachment.

“With sentiments of esteem,
I am your friend,
WILLIAM SCOTT.

“In the month of December, 1836, I went to the State of Mississippi to work at my trade, (masonry and bricklaying,) and continued to work in the counties of Adams and Jefferson, between four and five months.  In following my business I had an opportunity of seeing the treatment of slaves in several places.

“In Adams county I built a chimney for a man named Joseph Gwatney; he had forty-five field hands of both sexes.  The field in which they worked at that time, lay about two miles from the house; the hands had to cook and eat their breakfast, prepare their dinner, and be in the field at daylight, and continue there till dark.  In the evening the cotton they had picked was weighed, and if they fell short of their task they were whipped.  One night I attended the weighing—­two women fell short of their task, and the master ordered the black driver to take them to the quarters and flog them; one of them was to receive twenty-five lashes and pick a peck of cotton seed.  I have been with the overseer several times through the negro quarters.  The huts are generally built of split timber, some larger than rails, twelve and a half feet wide and fourteen feet long—­some with and some without chimneys, and generally without floors; they were generally