while others, in a mad fit of
passion, would say to them, "I want you to bring my runaway nigger home,
dead or alive."

All of the slave hunters used to practice cruelty upon the runaway
slaves; more especially upon those whose masters would say to hunters
"bring them dead or alive." But among all the slave hunters in the part
of South Carolina where the author of this work lived, Mr. Black was the
most cruel.

It was rumored that many of the runaway slaves that were never heard of
afterward, were captured and killed in the woods by Mr. Black, but no
special clue to this could be found. Finally Mr. Black was hired to
capture a runaway slave in Barnwell County, S.C. This slave was with
another, who was thought well of by his master, but hated by the
overseer. In the chase, the two runaways separated, and the dogs
followed the second instead of the one whom Mr. Black had been hired to
hunt. Mr. Black had another hunter with him by the name of Motley. The
negro killed several of the dogs, and gave Messrs. Black and Motley a
hard fight. After the negro had been captured, they killed him, cut him
up and gave his remains to the living dogs.

The companion of the murdered slave was not caught. A few days after the
chase, while wandering around in the wood in a somewhat excited state,
he came to a spot where the bushes and leaves seemed to have been in a
stirred-up condition, as though there had been tussling by two parties.
On looking around in this disordered spot, he found pieces of clothing
here and there in rags, looking just like the suit worn by his
companion, who was then a victim of a most cruel death from the hands of
the hunters. On closer examination, he saw spots of blood here and there
upon the leaves, which awakened his suspicion; on looking a little way
from this spot, he saw some leaves which looked as though they had been
moved by hands and put there, and on removing the leaves, he found that
the earth had been freshly dug and filled in again. Digging down in the
spot, he soon discovered pieces of the person of a dead man, whom he
could not identify, but was satisfied that it was the remains of his
companion, from whom he had been compelled to separate a few days
before. This sight frightened the runaway negro so, that he left the
woods, went home to his master and told the story; but as a negro's
word was not to be taken against a white man's in the days of slavery,
no special notice was taken of what he