Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/182

164 protection of slaves. The manager endeavoured to justify himself, admitting, however, that he had flogged him, but only to the extent of thirty-nine lashes, and had confined him to the stocks every night for a week. And what was the redress which the suffering negro obtained? and what was the punishment inflicted on the overseer? Simply, that the latter was reprimanded for punishing a negro on such slight grounds!

A domestic female slave was charged both with theft and negligence, (but let the reader remember these charges might, or might not, be well founded. The masters and mistresses of slaves were under no obligation to prove the crime for which they inflicted punishment.) She was confined in the stocks seventeen days. The stocks were so constructed that she could not sit up or lie down at pleasure, and she was confined to them night and day. During this period she was flogged five or six times, and red pepper was rubbed in her eyes to prevent her sleeping. Tasks were given her which she was incapable of performing, sometimes because they were beyond her powers, and at other times because she could not see to do them, on account of the pepper in her eyes; she was then flogged for failing to accomplish those tasks. An epidemic fever was prevalent during her confinement in the stocks, by which she was affected, and, of course, weakened. When taken out of the stocks she appeared to be cramped, and was then again flogged. The very day of her release she was sent to field-labour, although before accustomed to work in the house. On the evening of the third day she was brought to her owners as being ill and refusing to work. She then complained of having fever. Her