Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/117

( 83 ) overseers are often turned away for severe whippings, but he is the only one of the evidences who says so, and it appears that there must be frequently great obstacles to this; for it is observed by Davison, Fitzmaurice, and Cook, that some attornies live thirty, forty, or fifty miles from the estate, and of course that the slaves cannot go to complain, and that the same three gentlemen, together with Coor, J. Terry, and Duncan, state that on some estates one person holds the office of attorney and overseer at the same time, where his power is of course under no controul [sic].

As to such of the extraordinary punishments before mentioned as did not terminate in death, such as picketing, dropping hot sealing-wax on the flesh, cutting off ears and the like, it appears that slaves had no redress whatever, for that these actions also on the part of the masters were not deemed within the reach of the law. In the instance cited of the Doctor clipping off the ears of a female slave, no more notice was taken of it, says Coor, than if a dog's ears had been cut off, though it must have been known to the magistrates. In the dreadful instance also cited of a planter's breaking his slave's leg by an iron bar, to induce the surgeon to cut it off, as a punishment, Mr. Dalrymple observes that it was not the publick opinion, that any punishment was due to him, on that account, for though it was generally known, he was equally well received in society afterwards as before; and in the case also mentioned of the owner torturing his female slave by the application of a lighted torch to her body, Mr. H. Ross states, only that this owner was not a man of character: with respect to his suffering by the law, he observes that he was never brought to any trial for it; and he did not know that the law then extended to the punishment of whites for such acts as these.

With respect to such of the punishments as have terminated in death, the reader will be able to collect, L 2