Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-09-04

century, most Of them many years ago; and
no doubt large proportion of them perpe-
trated by foreigners. With a few rare ex-
ceptions, the emgrant Scotch and English
are the worst masters among us, and next
to them our northern fellow-citizens-
Shareholders born and bred here are always
more humane to slaves, and those who
have grown up to large inheritance Of them,
the most so of any-showng clearly that
the effect of the system is to foster kindly
feelings. | do not mean much to i'm
pute innate inhumanity to foreigners, as to
show that they come here with false notions
slaves, and that newl acquired power here,
as every where else, is apt to be abused.
cannot enter into detailed examination of
the cases stated by the abolitionists. 1t
would be disgusting and Of little avail. I
know nothing of them. have seen nothing
like them, though born and bred here, and
have rarely heard of any thing at all to be
compared with them. Permit me to say
that think most of your facts must have
been drawn from the West Indies, where
undoubtedly slaves were treated much more
harshly than with us. This was owing to
a variety of causes, which might, if neces-
sary, be stated. One was, that they had al
first to deal more extensively with barbara
ans fresh from the wilds of Africa ; another,
and leading one, the absenteeism of pro-
prietors. Agents are always more unfeel-
ing than owners, whether placed over West
India or American slaves, or Irish tenantry.
We feel this evil greatly even here. You
describe the use of thumb screUs as one
mode OF punishment among US. | doubt if
a thumb screw can be found in America. !
never saw or heard of one in this country.
Stocks are rarely used by private individu-
ais, and confinement still more seldom, tho
both are common punishments for whites
all over the world. think they should be
more frequently resorted to with slaves, as
substitutes for fogging, which consider
the most injurious and least efticacious
mode Of furnishing them for serious often
ces. 1t is not degrading, and unless excess
sive occasions little pain. Y OH may be lit
tie astonisheG, after all the fourishes that
have been made about "cart whips" &C.,
when | say that fogging is not the most
degrading punishment in the world. 1t may
be so to a white man in most countries,
but how is it to the white boy? That ne
cessary coadutor to the school-master the
'birch" is never thought to have rendered
infamous the unfortunate victim of peda-
gogue ire; nor did Solomon in his wisdom
dream that he was counseling parents to
debase their offspring, when he eXhorted
them not to spoil the child by sparing the
rod. Pardon me for recurring to the now
exploded elhecs of the Bible. Custom,
which you will perhaps agree, makes most
things in this world good or evil, has re-
moved all nfamy from the punishment of
the lash to the slave. Your blood boils at
the recital of stripes inflicted on a man =; and
you think you should be frenzied to see
your own child fogged. Yet see how
completely this is ideal, arising from the
fashions Of society. You doubtless sub
United to the rod yourself, in other years,
when the smart was perhaps as severe as
it would be now; and you have never been
guilty Of the folly of revengng yourself on
the preceptor who in the plenitude of his
power" thought proper to
chastise your son. So it is with the negro,
and the negro father
AS to chains and irons, they are rarely
used; never believe except in cases OF
running away. You must admit that If we
pretend to own slaves they must not be
permitted to abscond whenever they see fit;
and that if nothing else will prevent it these
means must be resorted to. See the lnhu-
manity necessarily arising from slavery,
YOU Will exclaim. Are such restraints I'M
posed on no other class of people giving
no more offence? Look to your army and
navy. II your seamen, impressed from their
peaceful occupations, and your soldiers, re-
cruied at the gin shops-both of them as
much kidnapped as the most unsuspecting
victim of the slave trade, and doomed to
far more wretched fate-if these men man.
fest a propensity to desert, the heaviest
manacIes are their mIdest punishment. 1t
is most commonly death, after summary
trial. But armies and navles you say are
indispensable, and must be kept up at every
sacrifice. answer that they are no more
than slavery is to us-and to
you; for you have enough of it III your
country, though the form and name differ
from ours. Depend upon it that many
things, and in regard to our slaves most
things which appear revolving at distance,
and to slight reflection would, on a nearer
view and impartial comparison with the GUS
toms and conduct of the rest of mankind,
strike you in a very different light. Re-
member that Oh our estates we dispense