Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/114

( 80 ) ''your finger in some of the wheals. He could not sit down, owing to his breech being in a state of mortification, and it was impossible for him to lie down, from the projection of the prongs''. The boy came to the General and asked relief. He was shocked at his appearance, and asked him what he had done to suffer such a punishment, and who inflicted it. He said it was his master, who lived about two miles from town, and that as he could not work, he would give him nothing to eat.

If it be possible to view human depravity in a worse light than it has already appeared in on the subject of the treatment of the slaves when disabled from labour, it may be done by referring to the evidence of Capt. Lloyd, who was told by a person of veracity, when in the West Indies, but whom he did not wish to name in his evidence, that it was the practice of a certain planter to frame pretences for the execution of his old worn out slaves, in order get the island allowance. And it was supposed that he dealt largely in that way.

Have little or no redress against ill usage of any sort.

Having now cited both the ordinary and extraordinary punishments inflicted upon the slaves, it may be presumed that some one will ask here, whether, under these various acts of cruelty, they are wholly without redress? To this the following answer may be given—That, with respect to the ordinary punishments, by the whip and cowskin (where they do not terminate in death) the power of the master or overseer is under little or no controul [sic].

First, Because, as we have already seen, they can order or inflict punishment for any, even imaginary, offences.

Secondly, Because the law of thirty-nine lashes (the greatest number allowed to be given to a slave, at any one time) is a mere farce, and never attended to by masters