"It is by no means wonderful that the laws designed to protect the slave, should be little respected by the generality of such masters. I have seen some masters pay those unfortunate people the miserable overcoat which is their due; but others give them nothing at all, and do not even leave them the hours and Sundays granted to them by law. I have seen some of those barbarous masters leave them, during the winter, in a state of revolting nudity, even contrary to their own true interests, for they thus weaken and shorten the lives upon which repose the whole of their own fortunes. I have seen some of those negroes obliged to conceal their nakedness with the long moss of the country. The sad melancholy of these wretches, depicted upon their countenances, the flight of some, and the death of others, do not reclaim their masters; they wreak upon those who remain, the vengeance which they can no longer exercise upon the others." WHITMAN MEAD, Esq. of New York, in his journal, published nearly a quarter of a century ago, under date of "SAVANNAH, January 28, 1817. "To one not accustomed to such scenes as slavery presents, the condition of the slaves is _impressively shocking._ In the course of my walks, I was every where witness to their wretchedness. Like the brute creatures of the north, they are driven about at the pleasure of all who meet them: _half naked and half starved_, they drag out a pitiful existence, apparently almost unconscious of what they suffer. A threat accompanies every command, and a bastinado is the usual reward of disobedience." TESTIMONY OF REV. JOHN RANKIN, _A native of Tennessee, educated there, and for a number of years a preacher in slave states--now pastor of a church in Ripley, Ohio._ "Many poor slaves are stripped naked, stretched and tied across barrels, or large bags, _and tortured with the lash during hours, and even whole days, until their flesh is mangled to the very bones_. Others are stripped and hung up by the arms, their feet are tied together, and the end of a heavy piece of timber is put between their legs in order to stretch their bodies, and so prepare them for the torturing lash--and in this situation they are often whipped until their bodies are covered _with blood and mangled flesh_--and in order to add the greatest keenness to their sufferings, their wounds are washed with _liquid salt_! And some of the miserable creatures are permitted to hang in that position until they actually _expire_; some die under the lash, others linger about for a time, and at length die of their wounds, and many survive, and endure again similar torture. These bloody scenes are _constantly exhibiting in every slave holding country--thousands of whips are every day stained in African blood_! Even the poor _females_ are not permitted to escape these shocking cruelties."--_Rankin's Letters._ These letters were published fifteen years ago.--They were addressed to a brother in Virginia, who was a slaveholder.