Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/355

Rh the floor to which they are secured when they are laid down. I looked at the strip of cow-hide, “the paddle,” with which they are flogged, and remarked, “blows from this could not however do very much harm.”

“Oh, yes, yes, but,”—replied the keeper, grinning with a very significent glance, “it can cause as much torture as any other instrument, and even more, because one can give a many blows with this strip of hide, without its leaving any outward sign; it does not cut into the flesh.”

The slaves may remain many months in this prison before they are sold.

The Southern States are said to be remarkable for their strict attention to religious observances; they go regularly to church; they send out missionaries to China and to Africa. But they leave the innocent captive slave in their own prisons, without instruction or consolation.

Yet once more—what might not women, what ought not women, to do in this case!

I have heard young beautiful girls, declare themselves proud to be Americans, and above everything else, proud to be Virginians! I should like to have taken them to these jails, and have seen whether in the face of all this injustice, they could have been proud of being Virginians, proud of the institutions of Virginia.

July 5th.—Here also, as everywhere on my pilgrimage, have I become acquainted with good and thoughtful people, who form a perfect counterbalance to the unthinking and the bad, and who attach me to the place and the community where I am. Foremost among the good, stands the family in which I am now a guest, yes, these are ladies so tender-hearted, especially towards the negroes, that I find myself standing upon the moderate and less liberal side, whilst I nevertheless inwardly enjoy the sight of warm hearts who only err through an excess of kindness to an oppressed people. Such a sight is very rare in a Slave State. Agreeable and clever women, courteous and