its infliction. Even women were
stripped naked on the sides of the streets, and their backs lacerated
with the whip. It was a common practice, when a slave offended a white
man, for the master to send for a public whipper, and order him to take
the slave before the door of the person offended, and flog him till the
latter was satisfied. White females would order their male slaves to be
stripped naked in their presence and flogged, while they would look on
to see that their orders were faithfully executed. Mr. Prescod mentioned
an instance which he himself witnessed near Bridgetown. He had seen an
aged female slave, stripped and whipped by her own son, a child of
twelve, at the command of the mistress. As the boy was small, the mother
was obliged to get down upon her hands and knees, so that the child
could inflict the blows on her naked person with a rod. This was done on
the public highway, before the mistress's door. Mr. T. well remembered
when it was lawful for any man to shoot down his slave, under no greater
penalty than twenty-five pounds currency; and he knew of cases in which
this had been done. Just after the insurrection in 1816, white men made
a regular sport of shooting negroes. Mr. T. mentioned one case. A young
man had sworn that he would kill ten negroes before a certain time. When
he had shot nine he went to take breakfast with a neighbor, and carried
his gun along. The first slave he met on the estate, he accused of being
concerned in the rebellion. The negro protested that he was innocent,
and begged for mercy. The man told him to be gone, and as he turned to
go away, he shot him dead. Having fulfilled his bloody pledge, the young
knight ate his breakfast with a relish. Mr. H. said that a planter once,
in a time of perfect peace, went to his door and called one of his
slaves. The negro made some reply which the master construed into
insolence, and in a great rage he swore if he did not come to him
immediately he would shoot him. The man replied he hoped massa wan't in
earnest. 'I'll show you whether I am in earnest,' said the master, and
with that he levelled his rifle, took deliberate aim, and shot the negro
on the spot. He died immediately. Though great efforts were made by a
few colored men to bring the murderer to punishment, they were all
ineffectual. The evidence against him was clear enough, but the
influence in his favor was so strong that he finally escaped.

Dungeons were built on all the esta