An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called AfricansChild, Lydia Maria
History
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Child, Lydia Maria
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
a sudden shock of earthquake threw down the heavy wall, composed of rock
and clay, extinguished the fire, and covered the remains of George. The
negroes were allowed to disperse, with charges to keep the secret, under
the penalty of like punishment. When his wife asked the cause of the
dreadful screams she had heard, he said that he had never enjoyed
himself so well at a ball as he had enjoyed himself that evening.
Next morning, he ordered the wall to be rebuilt, and he himself
superintended, picking up the remains of the boy, and placing them
within the new wall, thus hoping to conceal the matter. But some of the
negroes whispered the horrid deed; the neighbors tore down the wall,
and finding the remains, they testified against him. He was bound over
to await the sitting of the court; but before that period arrived, he
committed suicide."
"N. B. This happened in 1811; if I be correct, it was on the 16th of
December. It was on the Sabbath."
Mr. Rankin adds, there was little probability that Mr. Lewis would have
fallen under the sentence of the law. Notwithstanding the peculiar
enormity of his offence, there were individuals who combined to let him
out of prison, in order to screen him from justice.
Another instance of summary punishment inflicted on a runaway slave,
is told by a respectable gentleman from South Carolina, with whom I am
acquainted. He was young, when the circumstance occurred, in the
neighborhood of his home; and it filled him with horror. A slave being
missing, several planters united in a negro hunt, as it is called. They
set out with dogs, guns, and horses, as they would to chase a tiger.
The poor fellow, being discovered, took refuge in a tree; where he was
deliberately shot by his pursuers.
In some of the West Indies, blood-hounds are employed to hunt negroes;
and this fact is the foundation of one of the most painfully interesting
scenes in Miss Martineau's Demerara. A writer by the name of Dallas
has the hardihood to assert that it is mere sophistry to censure the
practice of training dogs to devour men. He asks, "Did not the Asiatics
employ elephants in war? If a man were bitten by a mad dog, would he
hesitate to cut off the wounded part in order to save his life?"
It is said that when the first pack of blood-hounds arrived in St.
Domingo, the white planters delivered to them the first negro they
found, merely by way of experiment: and when they saw him immediately
torn in pieces, they were highly delighted to find the dogs so well
trained to their business.
Some authentic records of female cruelty would seem perfectly
incredible, were it not an established law of our nature that tyranny
becomes a habit, and scenes of suffering, often repeated, render the
heart callous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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