The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-05-11

related to me in all the simplicity of honest and
|conscious truth. JOHN TRUAIR
| NARRATIVE OF ]. C. HODGE.
In the year A, D., 1886, left Tully for the
South, in company and iii the employ of plant
er from Alabama We went from this directly to
the state of Delaware, where | began to see the
operation of buying and selling slaves, and the
separation offamilies in the most uneeling manner.
For this planter and at his command, took two
children which he had previously purchased, from
their parents, and the mothers heart appeared as
lf broken, for she said she should never see them
again. After this he went on to Maryland, where
saw man sold from his wife and Children
| When they went after him, he said he would ra-
Their die than to leave his family but they
put him in chains, and took him away leaving his
family in loud and bitter wailings, without any to
comfort or care for them. From the town of Sal
isbury in Maryland, was sent the next morning
after this man was brought in, about fifteen mil es
after female slave who had a child about three
months old; but her former mistress wanted the
child, and my employer sold her the child for for
ty dollars, and took it from her. When | went to
take the child back to the MISTRESS and had pas
sed about four miles from Salisbury, | met the
husband of this woman, who was going to make
an effort to go to the South with his wife. He
had gotten a pass from his master, to see if our
planter would not buy him, that he might 60 with
his wife but he would not give his masters price
for him, so that he was obliged to go back with
his child, while his wife, and its mother, was
driven off to Alabama.
One night while was in Maryland, went to
a meeting of the slaves; and while one of them
was at prayer one of the pa:roles came round, and
hearing something which he did not like in the
slaves prayer, he took him out of the meeting,
and whipped him most numerically. | thought
within myself if this is slavery, God in mercy
deliver me from it. When our planter had made
out his complement of slaves, and was ready to
start for the South, these negroes, big and little,
were put into one drove, and driven off to the
South, like a drove of swine. In the course of
my tour, had the opportunity of seeing the cru
city Of the planters in Delaware, in Maryland,-
Virginia. North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor-
gia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. | tar
rled in Alabama seven months. | had every OPP
portunity during that time to see the operations of
working and whipping on their plantations. The
slaves had to go out to work in the morning at day
break, males and females together, and work till it
was dark. After they had done work at night,
each one had to cook his own provision for the
next day, and take it with him when he was cal
led out in the morning. One peck of meal, and
three and half pounds of meat, was the allow
ance for an individual for one week. and each
might cook it at night as he liked it best.
For failure in doing the task allotted to the
slave, and indeed, for almost every offence, real
or imagined, the whip is used and will mention
some of the different modes of whipping which |
have seen. Sometimes they will tie the slaves to
a tree making their feet FAST and bring their hands
round the tree as far as they can reach, and hav-
ing made them FAST they put on with heavy cow
skin without mercy, the poor creatures begging,
crying and promising but all to no purpose
Sometimes they select large log, and tie their
feet fast on one side, and draw them over the 9TH
err side, then making them fast with their back
and breach naked. They then sometimes use the
whip, and sometimes the battle, laid on to their
naked flesh without mercy The battle or paddle,
is made out of half inch board, with thirty holes
bored in it with large gimblet or a small auger
and every time they strike with this instrument of
torture, which is generally used upon the back, it
will make blister for each hole which comes fair
ly upon the flesh; and the next stroke will break
these bisters and raise new ones, and so on; and
often, after this application, they will use the whip
till they are cut in gashes from head to foot, and
with salt and vinegar they would wash them off
And sometimes they will tie their hands together,
and then with rope draw them over pole, while
with one hand they hold the rope, and put on the
whip WIFI lHe OlneT.
After they have done their work at night, and
have left the field or the cotton house for their lodg
ings, it is not unfrequent for the overseer, some
of his cronies, or both, to take of the females
and stop them by the way for their own accommo-
daton. Many men of my acquaintance at the
South are in the habit of buying themselves
wife, or house girl, as they call them and when
they get tired of them, they will sell them and get
another And some will take the first one they
can come at on the plantation and use them as
wife.
tits not unfrequent for the slaves to run away
and when they do, the hounds are put upon their
track, and they often taken, brought back, and
whipped and battled in the most shocking manner.
Sometimes they have chains and clogs fastened to
them, to keep them from running away again.
Some are almost torn in pieces by the hounds
while others are not much hurt by them. These
things have often seen with my own eyes, and
know them to be the truth, and nothing but the
truth. j. G., HODGE,
UNION ANTI-SLAvERY SOCIETY OF PHILADEL-
PHlA.-This Society was formed, about a year ago,
for the express, purpose of promoting greater
union among the members Of the different church
es and religious societies, in forwarding the Anti
Slavery cause in their reSpectiva connections