t was
ascertained that the offense for which this girl was thus hurried out of
the world, was this: she had been set that night, and several preceding
nights, to mind Mrs. Hicks's baby, and having fallen into a sound sleep,
the baby cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. Hicks,
becoming infuriated at the girl's tardiness, after calling several
times, jumped from her bed and seized a piece of fire-wood from the
fireplace; and then, as she lay fast asleep, she deliberately pounded in
her skull and breast-bone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that
this most horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It _did_
produce a sensation; but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the
community was blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery
horrors, to bring the murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued
for her arrest, but, for some reason or other, that warrant was never
served. Thus did Mrs. Hicks not only escape condign punishment, but even
the pain and mortification of being arraigned before a court of justice.

Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my stay
on Col. Lloyd's plantation, I will briefly narrate another dark
transaction, which occurred about the same time as the murder of Denby
by Mr. Gore.

On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd's, there lived
a Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the direction{99} of his
land, and near the shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground,
and to this, some of the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in
their little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of
their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could easily
get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into his head to regard as a
trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. Lloyd was engaged in
catching a few of the many millions of oysters that lined the bottom of
that creek, to satisfy his hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying in
ambush, without the slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his
musket into the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune
would have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley came over,
the next day, to see Col. Lloyd--whether to pay him for his property,
or to justify himself for what he had done, I know not; but this I _can_
say, the cruel and dastardly transaction was speedily hushed up; there
was very little said about it at all