Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-01-13
VOL. IX.-NO. 20.
SCENE IN a SLAVE PRISON.

SCENE IN A SLAVE PRISON.
The following letter from DIR. S. G. Howe,
to Charles Sumner, Esq. appears in the Lib
erty Bell We are informed by a note
from the editor, that the letter was written.
in the course Of friendly correspondence,
without the remotest idea of its being ever
published, and when the scene, which it des-
crlbes, was fresh in the mind ofthe writer:A
] have passed ten days in New Orleans
not Improbable, | trust-in examining the
public institutions, the schools, asylums, hos
pitfalls, prisons,& &c. With the exception of
the first, there is little hope Of amelioration.
! know not how much merit there NAV be in
their system, but | do know that in the adj
minlstration of the penal code. there are
denominations which should bring down the
fate Of Sodom upon that city.
A man suspected Of a crime, and await
ing his trial, is thrust into a pandemonium
filled with c%onvicts and outlaws, where, herd
ing and sleeping in common with hardened
wretches, he brea,hes an atmosphere whose
least evil is its physical impurity and which
is loaded with blasphemies, obscenities, and
the sound of hellish orgies, interminoled with
'hN SlhihhhH VI NnC CudlUS VI TIE more 1uTl-
Gus demons, who are not Gagged, but who
crawl about in the crowd with fettered legs
and hands.
If Howard or Mrs. Fry ever discovered SO
; il-adninis!ered a den Of thieves as the New
Orleans prison, they never described il. In
5 the negroes apartment | saw that which
made me blush that was a white man, and
! which for a moment stirred up an evil spirit
! IN my animal nature. Entering a large pa
we'd courtyard, around which ran galleries.
hlled with slaves Of all ages, sexes and coIors,
, | heard the snap of a whip, every stroke of
, which sounded like the sharp crack Of pis-
7! tol. | turned my head, and behold a sight
which absolutely chilled me TO the marrow
of my bones, and gave me, for the first time
5 n my life, a sensation of my hair stifening
at the roots. There lay a black girl, Hat
upon her face on a board, her two thumbs
, tied aud fastened to one end, her feet tied
5 and drawn tightly to the other end. while a
2 strap passed over the small Of her back. and
E fastened around the board, confined her
closely to it. Below the strap she was en-
5 tirely naked; by her side, and six feet of.
I stood a huge negro, with a long whip, which
r he applied with dreadful power and wonder
ful precision. Every stroke brought away q
I strip ofskin, which clung 10 The lash, or fell
t quiverIng on the pavement, while the blood
T followed after it. The poor creature with
ed and shrieked, and in a voice which show
C ed alike her fear of death and her dreadful
| agony, screamed 10 her master. who stood at
her head oh spare my life-don't cut
I out my soulP But still fell the horrid lash:
d still, strip after strip pealcd offfrom the skin
c cash after cash was cut in her living flesh.
until ii became a liyid and bloody mass Of
!" raw and quivering muscle.
II 1t was with the greatest difficulty that I
RETAINED from springing upon the %torturer,
and arresting his lash but alas what conld
II do, but turn aside to hide my tears for the
sufferer, and my bushes for humanity?
d This was in a public and regularly organ
ized prison the punishment was one recoo-
nlzed and authorized by the law. But think
ID you the poor wretch had committed a hei-
nous offence, and being convicted thereof,
and sentenced TO the lash1 Not at ALL
&c She was brought by her master to be whip
ed by the common execuiioner, without
g trial, Judge or jury, just at his beck and nod,
b. for some real or supposed offence. or TO graf
ity his own whim or malice. Aud he NAV
bring her day after day, without cause as
signed, and iniict any number of lashes he
pleases, short of twenty five, provided only
m he pays the fee. Or if he choose, he NAV
re have a private whipping-board on his own
,e premises and brutalize himself there.
A shocking part ofthis horrid punishment
k was its publicity :. as l have said, it was in
of a courtyard, surrounded by galleries which
or were filled with colored persons of all sexes Z;
runaway slaves committed for some crime.
or slaves up for sale. You would naturally
suppose they crowded forward, and gazed.
- horror-stricken at the brutal spectacle below.
- But they did not many of them hardly no
tlced ii, and many were entirely Indifferent
to 1t. They went on in their childish pur-
n suits, and some were laughing outright in the
distant part of the galleries! SO low can
man, created in Gods image, be sunk in
'e brutality! So much is he the creature of
~ circumstances, that by a degrading and brn-
talizing system of slavery, every distinguish
'e ing trait of humanity may be effaced, and he
{ be made happy as the stalled OK while a
80 Christian and civilized people can be found,
who, from mere love of lucre, will fasten
I'd their system upon him, and urge in their de-
fence that he is as happy as a brute, and is
incapable of any higher enjoyment.
Family Jars.-A gentleman accompanied
his better and more amiable half into a Chi
ma warehouse, in Camp street, lately. They