his allowance, and applies for more. His master is
enraged at him; but, not willing to send him off without food, gives him
more than is necessary, and compels him to eat it within a given time.
Then, if he complains that he cannot eat it, he is said to be satisfied
neither full nor fasting, and is whipped for being hard to please! I
have an abundance of such illustrations of the same principle, drawn
from my own observation, but think the cases I have cited sufficient.
The practice is a very common one.

On the first of January, 1834, I left Mr. Covey, and went to live with
Mr. William Freeland, who lived about three miles from St. Michael's. I
soon found Mr. Freeland a very different man from Mr. Covey. Though not
rich, he was what would be called an educated southern gentleman.
Mr. Covey, as I have shown, was a well-trained negro-breaker and
slave-driver. The former (slaveholder though he was) seemed to possess
some regard for honor, some reverence for justice, and some respect for
humanity. The latter seemed totally insensible to all such sentiments.
Mr. Freeland had many of the faults peculiar to slaveholders, such as
being very passionate and fretful; but I must do him the justice to say,
that he was exceedingly free from those degrading vices to which Mr.
Covey was constantly addicted. The one was open and frank, and we always
knew where to find him. The other was a most artful deceiver, and
could be understood only by such as were skilful enough to detect his
cunningly-devised frauds. Another advantage I gained in my new master
was, he made no pretensions to, or profession of, religion; and this, in
my opinion, was truly a great advantage. I assert most unhesitatingly,
that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid
crimes,--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of
the most hateful frauds,--and a dark shelter under, which the darkest,
foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the
strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of
slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a
religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all
slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the
worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and
cowardly, of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to a
religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of