as both pious and cruel after the real Covey pattern. Mr. Weeden was
a local preacher of the Protestant Methodist persuasion, and a most
zealous supporter of the ordinances of religion, generally. This
Weeden owned a woman called "Ceal," who was a standing proof of his
mercilessness. Poor Ceal's back, always scantily clothed, was kept
literally raw, by the lash of this religious man and gospel minister.
The most notoriously wicked man--so called in distinction from church
members--could hire hands more easily than this brute. When sent out to
find a home, a slave would never enter the gates of the preacher Weeden,
while a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be{200} have ill, or behave well,
it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty of a master to use
the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this was essential
to remind a slave of his condition, and of his master's authority. The
good slave must be whipped, to be _kept_ good, and the bad slave must be
whipped, to be _made_ good. Such was Weeden's theory, and such was his
practice. The back of his slave-woman will, in the judgment, be the
swiftest witness against him.

While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize another
of my neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him in print.
He did not think that a "chiel" was near, "taking notes," and will,
doubtless, feel quite angry at having his character touched off in the
ragged style of a slave's pen. I beg to introduce the reader to REV.
RIGBY HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins resides between Easton and St. Michael's,
in Talbot county, Maryland. The severity of this man made him a perfect
terror to the slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar feature of his
government, was, his system of whipping slaves, as he said, _in advance_
of deserving it. He always managed to have one or two slaves to whip
on Monday morning, so as to start his hands to their work, under the
inspiration of a new assurance on Monday, that his preaching about
kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the like, on Sunday, did not
interfere with, or prevent him from establishing his authority, by the
cowskin. He seemed to wish to assure them, that his tears over poor,
lost and ruined sinners, and his pity for them, did not reach to the
blacks who tilled his fields. This saintly Hopkins used to boast, that
he was the best hand to manage a Negro in the county. He whipped for the
smallest offenses, by way of preventing the commission o