LETTEES FROM ALABAMA. 
251 
it IS drawn and used too, on the slightest provoca- 
tion. Duels are fought with this horrible weapon, 
in which the combatants are almost chopped to 
pieces ; or with the no less fatal, but less shocking 
rifle, perhaps within pistol-distance. 
Slavery, doubtless, helps to brutalize the cha- 
racter, by familiarizing the mind with the infliction 
of human suffering. If an English butcher is popu- 
larly reputed unfit to serve on a jury, an American 
slave-owner is not less incompetent to appreciate 
what is due to man. I had intended to give you 
some particulars of the working of the domestic 
institution,” for I have witnessed some of its hor- 
rors ; but I will not allow my pen to trace much of 
this, especially as you may learn it from other 
sources. I am obliged to be very cautious, not only 
in expressing any sympathy with the slaves, but 
even in manifesting anything like curiosity to know 
their condition, for there is a very stern jealousy of 
a stranger’s interference on these points. 
Still, facts will ooze out : in confidential conver- 
sation I have heard things not generally known, 
even here, w^hich are truly dreadful. Instruments 
of torture, devised with diabolical ingenuity, are 
said to be secretly used by planters of the highest 
standing, for the punishment of refractory negroes ; 
devices which I dare not describe by letter. It is 
but right, however, to say, that these practices 
were told me with expressions of reprobation. 
Floggings of fifty, or a hundred lashes, with 
a stout cow-hide whip, are frequent, especially at 
this season of cotton-picking— the most trying time 
of the year for the negroes. The work is severe, 
and the quantity demanded as the day^s task often 
proves short when weighed at night, in which case 
