s, however, a delusive hope, for he continued to lay on
the whip until he was exhausted.

The girl was now on the floor of the room, moaning piteously, and a
stream of blood was flowing from her lacerated person, which soaked the
matting that covered the floor. Her dress was hanging in tatters, and
the blood trickling down her cheeks had a horrifying effect. As soon as
the ruffian was tired, he bid the woman get down stairs and wash
herself. The miserable creature arose with difficulty, and picking up
her apron and turban, which were in different parts of the room, she
hobbled out crying bitterly. As soon as she was gone, the major pointed
to the blood, and said, "If we did not see that sometimes, there would
be no living with the brutes;" to which I replied in terms he could not
misunderstand, and at once left the house, determined never again to
enter it--a resolution I religiously kept. I afterwards heard that this
miserable creature was pregnant at the time, a circumstance that would
have induced at least some regard to leniency in any man not utterly
debased.

Those who are acquainted with southern scenes will see nothing
extraordinary in this recital, for they are every-day occurrences, and
scarcely elicit a remark, unless the perpetrator should happen to be a
slave-holding Wesleyan or Whitfieldite, when, perhaps, he would be
called to some account--his own version of the affair being of course
admitted _in limine_. Many of the slave-holders are an incorrigibly
degraded set of men. It is by no means uncommon for them to inflict
chastisement on negresses with whom they are in habitual illicit
intercourse, and I was credibly informed that this cruelty was often
resorted to, to disabuse the mind of a deceived and injured wife who
suspects unfair treatment. This attested fact, disgraceful as it is, can
scarcely be wondered at in men who mercilessly subject defenceless women
to the lash without a spark of human feeling, or compunction of
conscience. It is little to the credit of United States senators that
they have not at least made laws to protect women from the barbarous
usage of flogging. One would imagine that men, who, perhaps, above all
others in the world, pay homage to the sex, would have established a
distinction in this respect; but I apprehend the truth to be, that they
are so far influenced by their wives, who are notoriously jealous of
their sable rivals, that they have succumbed to their sentiments and