order such slave to be punished, by _cutting off one of
the feet of such slave_, or inflict such other corporal punishment as
they _shall think fit_." Now that I may inform my readers, what corporal
punishments are sometimes thought fit to be inflicted, I will refer to
the testimony of Sir Hans Sloane, (see voyage to the islands of Madeira,
Barbadoes, &c. and Jamaica, with the natural history of the last of
these islands, &c. London 1707. Introduction, p. 56, and 57.) "The
punishment for crimes of slaves (says he) are usually, for _rebellions_,
burning them, by nailing them down to the ground with crooked sticks on
every limb, and then applying the fire, by degrees, from the feet and
hands, and burning them gradually up to the head, whereby _the pains are
extravagant_; for crimes of a lesser nature, _gelding_, or _chopping off
half the foot_ with an axe. These punishments are suffered by them with
great constancy.--For negligence, they are usually whipped by the
overseers with lance-wood switches, till they be bloody, and several of
the switches broken, being first tied up by their hands in the mill
houses.--After they are whipped till they are raw, some put on their
skins pepper and salt, to make them smart; at other times, their masters
will drop melted wax on their skins, and use several _very exquisite
torments_." Sir Hans adds, "These punishments are sometimes merited by
the Blacks, who are a very perverse generation of people; and though
they appear very harsh, yet are scarce equal to some of their crimes,
and inferior to what punishments other European nations inflict on their
slaves in the East-Indies, as may be seen by Moquet, and other
travellers." Thus Sir Hans Sloane endeavours to excuse those shocking
cruelties, but certainly in vain, because no crimes whatsoever can merit
such severe punishments, unless I except the crimes of those who devise
and inflict them. Sir Hans Sloane, indeed, mentions _rebellion_ as the
principal crime; and certainly it is very justly esteemed a most heinous
crime, in a land of liberty, where government is limited by equitable
and just laws, if the same are tolerably well observed; but in countries
where arbitrary power is exercised with such intolerable cruelty as is
before described, if resistance be a crime, it is certainly the most
natural of all others.

But the 19th clause of the 38th act, would indeed, on a slight perusal,
induce us to conceive, that the punishment for rebel