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SECRETS OF THE
PRISON-HOUSE
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A CORRESPONDENT of the Lowell
Courier writes from Charleston, South Carolina, as
follows: -
"Since I have
been here, I have visited what is called the workhouse,
but, more properly speaking, slave-prison. Here
are deposited for safe keeping those that are brought to
market for sale; also, those that have run away and are
brought here to be punished - some are put to breaking
stones, others on the tread-mill. When I was in,
there were three men and one woman on the wheel, and a
driver standing by, with whip in hand; this wheel is
attached to mill-stones, and in this way they grind
their hominy. In a room in the building is the
whipping apparatus - while I was examining this, there
was a boy brought in by his master to be whipped.
It appears to be the custom here when slaves are to be
punished, to bring them to this place, for which they
pay one dollar. The boy was stripped naked,
his feet fastened to the floor, his hands placed in a
rope overhead, and then drawn straight by means of
blocks, then a cap drawn over his head and face.
The boy, I should think, was not over 13 years of age.
He was whipped very hard - the skin flying at every
blow. After he was let down and had gone out,
I asked his master what he had been doing? He said
he had run away the day before, and gone to the races.
I thought it rather severe, considering how popular
races are here. I was told that quite a number had
been brought there that day, to be punished for the same
offence."
"We were
taken from Vicksburgh to New Orleans, where we were to
be sold at any rate. We were taken to a trader's
yard, in a slave prison in the corner of St. Joseph
Street. This was a common resort for
slave-traders, and planters who wanted to buy slaves;
and all classes of slaves were kept there for sale, to
be sold in private or public-young or old, males or
females, children or parents, husbands or wives.
"Every day, at two o'clock, they were exposed for sale.
They had to be in time for showing themselves to the
public for sale. Every one's head had to be
combed, and their faces washed; and those who were
inclined to look dark and rough, were compelled to wash
in greasy dish-water, to make them looks sleek and
lively.
"When spectators would come into the yard, the slaves
were ordered out to form a line. They were made to
stand up straight, and look as sprightly as they could;
and when they were asked a question, they had to answer
it as promptly as they could, and try to induce the
spectators to buy them. If they failed to do this,
they were severely paddled after the spectators were
gone. The object for using the paddle in the place
of the lash, was to conceal the marks which would be
made by the flogging. And the object for flogging
under such circumstances is to make the slaves anxious
to be sold." - Narrative of Henry Bibb, published at
New York, 1849.
It is difficult for any one who feels and reasons
rightly, to dwell on the peculiar enormities of American
slavery, without the utmost indignation being excited,
that such horrible indignities should be perpetrated.
Slavery in the nineteenth century - in the bosom of a
Christian country - in the full blaze of constitutional
theory, historic tradition, and republican light, is an
anomaly, an a horror which has no precedent in the
universe, and to which nothing can reconcile a thinking
and a feeling man.
Man held as a thing, and sold with as little concern,
and often in the same lot as a Berkshire sow, or a
Sussex boar! This is the indignity put upon our
kind - an outrage committed on the world's liberty,
which no sophistry can disguise, no expediency can
palliate, and no language can hold up to sufficient
execration.
Leeds Anti-slavery
Series. No. 24.
Sold by W. and F. G. CASH, 5,
Bishopsgate Street, London; and by JANE JOWETT, Friends'
Meeting Yard, Leeds, at 1s. 2. per 100.
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