Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1860-07-05
THR BARBlRITIES OF SLAVERY.
SPEECH
HON. CHARLES SUMNER
In the l.. S. Senate, June ffh, 1850.
(CoNTINUED.1

tokens BY which a slavemaster pro-
poses to identify his slave. And here
is another advertisement revealing
slave-masters in different light. 1t
is from The National Intelligencer,
here in the capital; and / confess the
pain with which | cite such an indecen-
cy in a journal of such respectability.
OF course it appeared without the
knowledge of the editors; but it is
none the less an Illustrative example:
"FoR SALE-An accomplished and
handsome lady's maid. She is just
sixteen years of age; was raised in a
genteel family in Maryland, and is
now proposed to be sold, not for any
fault but because the owner has no
further use for her. y note directed
to G. ID. Gadsby's Hotel will receive
prompt attention"
y sated libertine, in land where
vice is legalized, could not expose his
victim with apter words These two
instances will illustrate a class. In the
recent work of Mr.. Olmstead, a close
observer and traveller in the slave
states, which abounds in pictures Of
slavery, expressed with caution and
evident regard to truth will be found
still another, where a slave master thus
frankly conlesses his experience.
81 can tell you how you can break
nigger of running away certain" said
LII.
fellow l used to know in Georgia that
always cured his so. If niggcr ran
away. when he caught him ne would
tosad his knee over log and fasteD
him so he couldn't stir; then he'd take
a pair of pincers and pull enc Of his
toe nails opt by the roots; and tell
him if he ever ran away again he
would pull out two of them; and if he
run away again after that he told him
he'd pull out four of them. and so on,
doubling each time. He never had to
do it more than twice: it always cured
them.'-[ Oms ads Texas Journey, l05.
Like this story, which is from
, the lips of a slave master, is another,
where the master, angry because his
slave had sought to regain his God
given liberty, delibe ately cut the ten
dons of his heel, thus horribly MAIN
ing him for life. 1t is in vain that
, these instances are denied. Their ac-
cumulating number, authenticated in
every possible manner. by the press,
, by cloud of witnesses. and by the
confession of slave masters, stares us
constantly in the face.
And here we are brought again to the
+ slave-code, under the shelter of which
worse things may be done with com
plete impunity. Listen to the remark
able words of Chief Justice Rullin, OF
North Carolina, who in solemn de
cision, thus portrays, affirms and de-
plores, this terrible latitude:
The obedience of the slave, he says
: is the consequence onlyof uncontrolled
!. authority over the body. = *The
power of the master must beabsolute to
render the submission of the slave per
feet. j must freely confess my sense
IS Of the harshness of this proposition
| feel as deeply as any man can
l. And as principle of moral right
every person in his retirement mus,
repudiate it. But in the actual condl
tion of things, it must be so Their,
is no remedy. This discipline belongs
to the state of Slavery 1t is inherent
:. in the relation of master and slave
The state agt. Mann, 2.Dev v'aux292.
And this same terrible latitude ha;
). been thus expounded in recent judi
cial decision of Virginia:
"It is the policy of the law in re
spect to the relation of master ant
slave. and for the sake of securing
proper subordination and Obedience
on the part of the slave. to protec
the master from prosecution, even i
the whipping and punishment be ma
d licious cruel and excessive. ."-Santhe
agt. Cwelt. { I Grattan. 612
Can barbarism further go? Here i
an irresponsible power, rendered mor'
irresponsible still by the seclusion o
- the plantation, and absolutely fortilie,
by the supplementary law excluding
he the testimony of slates. That unde
it's shelter enormiiies should occur
stranger than fiction, terrible for i'm
agination. and surprising any individ
ual experience-is simply accordin;
to the course of history. The vista
c. tion of the Abbeys in England dis
- closed vice and disorder in startlin,
forms, cloaked by the irresponsible
privacy of monastic life. a simila
visitation of plantations would dis
:. close more fearful results. cloaked b
irresponsible privacy of slavery
Every slave-master on his plantatio
is Bashaw, with all the prerogative
), of Turk. According to Hobbies, h
is "petty king" This is true; an
i, every plantation is Of itself petit
w. kingdom, with more than the inmun
ties of an Abbey. Sixty thousan
skulls of infants are said to have bee
taken from a single fish pond near
nunnery. to the dismay of Pop
Gregory. Under the law of SLAYER,
infants. the offsprings of master
"who dream of freedom in slave
embrace" are not thrown into fisl
pond, but something worse is dom
they are sold. But this is only
single glimpse. Slavery. in i
.;r recesses. is another Bastilc. who
We horrors will never be known antil il a
all is razed to the ground. it is the dismI
'm castle of the Giant Despair. whicl
,r. when captured by the Pilgrims. exc
ted their wonder. as they saw "tl
dead bodies that lay there in the ca
tie yard. and how full Of dead men
bones the dungeon was. The record,