Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/99

( 65 ) to him, from the convulsions it occasioned, more cruel than the whipping, but it was done to prevent mortification. He has known many after such whipping sent to the field under a guard and worked all day, with no food but what their friends might give them, out of their own poor pittance. He has known them returned to the stocks at night, and worked next day, successively. This cruel whipping, hard working, and starving has, to his knowledge, made many commit suicide. He remembers fourteen slaves, who, from bad treatment, rebelled on a Sunday, ran into the woods, and all cut their throats together.

In speaking of the punishments of the slaves by means of the whip and cowskin, it is impossible to pass over the frequency and severity of them as described in the evidence, as well as the lengths to which some of their owners go, upon these occasions.

Frequency and severity of these Punishments.

On the frequency of these punishments something may be deduced from the different expressions which the different evidences adopt according to their different opportunities of observation. Many of the field slaves are said by Duncan, Dalrymple, Fitzmaurice, and Rees, to be marked with the whip. A great proportion of them is the term used by Captain Wilson. That they are marked commonly or generally, or that the generality of them are marked, are the expressions agreed in [sic] by the Dean of Middleham, Lieutenant Simpson, Captain Ross, Captain Hall (navy) Captain Giles, Captain Smith, and Lieutenant Davison. The greater part of them, says Jeffreys, most of them, say Coor and Woolrich, bear the marks of the whip. These marks again, says Giles, you will find on almost all the weaker part of the gang; and Falconbridge, General Tottenham, and Towne, agree in saying, either that they hardly ever saw any, or that very few were to be seen without scars or other marks of the whip.

With respect to the severity of these punishments, it may be shewn by describing the nature of the