or of the
cabin. It once contained several apartments, vestiges of which still
remained, but the partitions had been torn away to fit it for its
present uses. What those uses were, a moment's observation showed me.

In the middle of the floor, a space about fifteen feet square was
covered with thick pine planking, strongly nailed to the beams. In the
centre of this planking, an oaken block was firmly bolted, and to it was
fastened a strong iron staple that held a log-chain, to which was
attached a pair of shackles. Above this, was a queer frame-work of oak,
somewhat resembling the contrivance for drying fruit I have seen in
Yankee farmhouses. Attached to the rafters by stout pieces of timber,
were two hickory poles, placed horizontally, and about four feet apart,
the lower one rather more than eight feet from the floor. This was the
whipping-rack, and hanging to it were several stout whips with short
hickory handles, and long triple lashes. I took one down for closer
inspection, and found burned into the wood, in large letters, the words
"Moral Suasion." I questioned the appropriateness of the label, but the
Colonel insisted with great gravity, that the whip is the only "moral
suasion" a darky is capable of understanding.

When punishment is inflicted on one of the Colonel's negroes, his feet
are confined in the shackles, his arms tied above his head, and drawn by
a stout cord up to one of the horizontal poles; then, his back bared to
the waist, and standing on tip-toe, with every muscle stretched to its
utmost tension, he takes "de lashes."

A more severe but more unusual punishment is the "thumb-screw." In this
a noose is passed around the negro's thumb and fore-finger, while the
cord is thrown over the upper cross-pole, and the culprit is drawn up
till his toes barely touch the ground. In this position the whole weight
of the body rests on the thumb and fore-finger. The torture is
excruciating, and strong, able-bodied men can endure it but a few
moments. The Colonel naively told me that he had discontinued its
practice, as several of his _women_ had nearly lost the use of their
hands, and been incapacitated for field labor, by its too frequent
repetition. "My ---- drivers,"[G] he added, "have no discretion, and no
humanity; if they have a pique against a nigger, they show him no
mercy."

The old shanty I have described was now the place of the overseer's
confinement. Open as it was at top, bottom, and sides, it s