The
law provided slaves with virtually no protection from their masters.
On large plantations this power was delegated to overseers.
These men were under considerable pressure from the plantation
owners to maximize profits. They did this by bullying the slaves
into increasing productivity.
The main method used to control the behaviour of slaves was the threat
of having them whipped. The number of lashes depended on the seriousness
of the offence. Austin Steward wrote
that on his plantation 39 was the number for most offences. Francis
Fredric ran away and was free for nine weeks. After he was captured
he was given 107 lashes. Moses Roper,
received 200 lashes and this was only brought to an end when the master's
wife pleaded for his life to be spared.
As they knew that as blacks were unable to give testimony against
white people in court, overseers knew that they were fairly safe in
handing out these whippings. In September, 1844, the St.
Louis Republican
reported that a eight year old black girl had been whipped to death.
However, the master of the girl was acquitted.
Women as well as men were whipped. This was one of the reasons why
slaves preferred to marry women from other plantations. Moses
Grandy argued that: "no colored man wishes to live at the
house where his wife lives, for he has to endure the continual misery
of seeing her flogged and abused without daring to say a word in her
defence." Henry Bibb agreed pointing
out: "If my wife must be exposed to the insults and licentious
passions of wicked slave-drivers and overseers. Heaven forbid that
I should be compelled to witness the sight."
In her autobiography Elizabeth
Keckley
reported how she enjoyed a good relationship with her master who was
a church minister. However, he arranged for her to be whipped in order
to subdue what he called her "stubborn pride".
A whipped slave
in the 1860s.
(1)
St. Louis Republican (15th September, 1844)
On Friday last the coroner held an inquest at the house of Judge Dunica,
a few miles south of the city, over the body of a negro girl, about
8 years of age, belonging to Mr. Cordell. The body exhibited evidence
of the most cruel whipping and beating we have ever heard of. The
flesh on the back and limbs was beaten to a jelly -- one shoulder-bone
was laid bare -- there were several cuts, apparently from a club,
on the head -- and around the neck was the indentation of a cord,
by which it is supposed she had been confined to a tree. She had been
hired by a man by the name of Tanner, residing in the neighborhood,
and was sent home in this condition. After coming home, her constant
request, until her death, was for bread, by which it would seem that
she had been starved as well as unmercifully whipped. The jury returned
a verdict that she came to her death by the blows inflicted by some
persons unknown whilst she was in the employ of Mr. Tanner. Mrs. Tanner
has been tried and acquitted.
(2)
New York Herald (19th October, 1844)
I yesterday visited the cell of Cornelia, the slave charged with being
the accomplice of Mrs. Ann Tanner (recently acquitted) in the murder
of a little negro girl, by whipping and starvation. She admits her
participancy, but says she was compelled to take the part she did
in the affair. On one occasion she says the child was tied to a tree
from Monday morning till Friday night, exposed by day to the scorching
rays of the sun, and by night to the stinging of myriads of mosquitoes;
and that during all this time the child had nothing to eat, but was
whipped daily. The child told the same story to Dr. McDowell.
(3)
Austin
Steward, Twenty-Two Years a Slave (1857)
The usual mode of
punishing the poor slaves was, to make them take off their clothes
to the bare back, and then tie their hands before them with a rope,
pass the end of the rope over a beam, and draw them up till they stood
on the tips of their toes. Sometimes they tied their legs together
and placed a rail between. Thus prepared, the overseer proceeded to
punish the poor, helpless victim. Thirty-nine was the number of lashes
ordinarily inflicted for the most trifling offence. Who can imagine
a position more painful? Oh, who, with feelings of common humanity,
could look quietly on such torture? Who could remain unmoved, to see
a fellow-creature thus tied, unable to move or to raise a hand in
his own defence; scourged on his bare back, with a cowhide, until
the blood flows in streams from his quivering flesh? And for what?
Often for the most trifling fault; and, as sometimes occurs, because
a mere whim or caprice of his brutal overseer demands it. Pale with
passion, his eyes flashing and his stalwart frame trembling with rage,
like some volcano, just ready to belch forth its fiery contents, and,
in all its might and fury, spread death and destruction all around,
he continues to wield the bloody lash on the broken flesh of the poor,
pleading slave, until his arm grows weary, or he sinks down, utterly
exhausted, on the very spot where already stand the pools of blood
which his cruelty has drawn from the mangled body of his helpless
victim.
Nor is this cruel punishment inflicted on the bare backs of the male
portion of slaves only. Oh no! The slave husband must submit without
a murmur, to see the form of his cherished, but wretched wife, not
only exposed to the rude gaze of a beastly tyrant, but he must unresistingly
see the heavy cowhide descend upon her shrinking flesh, and her manacled
limbs writhe in inexpressible torture, while her piteous cries for
help ring through his ears unanswered. The wild throbbing of his heart
must be suppressed, and his righteous indignation find no voice, in
the presence of the human monster who holds dominion over him.
(4)
Isaac
Mason, Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave (1893)
One Friday morning, after being there
about four weeks, I well remember the day, I was busy at work on my
hand-irons. My mistress came out and wanted to know what I had been
doing all the morning. I turned round and looked at her, and saw that
her face was awfully red; there was something wrong but I could not
divine it. She hurriedly went out of the room where I was, into the
back room, and got her cowhide; without the least ceremony she lit
on me - the same as a hungry hawk on an innocent chicken. Her descent
upon me was so sudden that I did not know what to do. I begged, I
entreated her to stop; but she grew worse and worse. The blows came
faster and faster, and every one brought the blood streaming from
my head and back till I was covered from head to foot. Being a large,
fleshy woman, she at last became fatigued and exhausted, and had to
quit her inhuman chastisement. I was so unmercifully beaten that I
was unfit for work that day.
Next morning I could not stand up I was so weak and exhausted from
loss of blood. My eyes and head were completely swollen, and for a
few days I had to remain a poor sufferer - the victim of a woman's
spite and hatred for a poor despised race. What I had done to deserve
all this treatment I knew not. Here I was, no one to care for me,
no one to console me.
Whenever I did anything that was considered wrong after that I had
to go to the cellar, where I was stripped naked, my hands tied to
a beam over head, and my feet to a post, and then I was whipped by
master till the blood ran down to my heels. This he continued to do
every week, for my mistress would always find something to complain
of, and he had to be the servant of her will and passion for human
blood. At last he became disgusted with himself and ceased the cruel
treatment. I heard him tell her one day - after he had got through
inflicting the corporal punishment - that he would not do it any more
to gratify her.
(5)
Elizabeth
Keckley, Thirty Years a Slave (1868)
When I was about fourteen years old I went to
live with my master's eldest son, a Presbyterian minister. His salary
was small, and he was burdened with a helpless wife, a girl that he
had married in the humble walks of life. She was morbidly sensitive,
and imagined that I regarded her with contemptuous feelings because
she was of poor parentage. I was their only servant, and a gracious
loan at that. They were not able to buy me, so my old master sought
render them assistance by allowing them the benefit of my services.
From the very first I did the work of three servants, and yet I was
scolded and regarded with distrust.
The years passed slowly, and I continued to serve them, and at the
same time grew into strong, healthy womanhood. I was nearly eighteen
when we removed from Virginia to Hillsboro', North Carolina, where
young Mr. Burwell took charge of a church. The salary was small, and
we still had to practise the closest economy. Mr. Bingham, a hard,
cruel man, the village schoolmaster, was a member of my young master's
church, and he was a frequent visitor to the parsonage. She whom I
called mistress seemed to be desirous to wreak vengeance on me for
something, and Bingham became her ready tool.
During this time my master was unusually kind to me; he was naturally
a good-hearted man, but was influenced by his wife. It was Saturday
evening, and while I was bending over the bed, watching the baby that
I had just hushed into slumber, Mr. Bingham came to the door and asked
me to go with him to his study. Wondering what he meant by his strange
request, I followed him, and when we had entered the study he closed
the door, and in his blunt way remarked: "Lizzie, I am going
to flog you." I was thunderstruck, and tried to think if I had
been remiss in anything. I could not recollect of doing anything to
deserve punishment, and with surprise exclaimed: "Whip me, Mr.
Bingham! what for?"
"No matter," he replied, "I am going to whip you, so
take down your dress this instant."
Recollect, I was eighteen years of age, was a woman fully developed,
and yet this man coolly bade me take down my dress. I drew myself
up proudly, firmly, and said: "No, Mr. Bingham, I shall not take
down my dress before you. Moreover, you shall not whip me unless you
prove the stronger. Nobody has a right to whip me but my own master,
and nobody shall do so if I can prevent it."
My words seemed to exasperate him. He seized
a rope, caught me roughly, and tried to tie me. I resisted with all
my strength, but he was the stronger of the two, and after a hard
struggle succeeded in binding my hands and tearing my dress from my
back. Then he picked up a rawhide, and began to ply it freely over
my shoulders. With steady hand and practised eye he would raise the
instrument of torture, nerve himself for a blow, and with fearful
force the rawhide descended upon the quivering flesh. It cut the skin,
raised great welts, and the warm blood trickled down my back. Oh God!
I can feel the torture now--the terrible, excruciating agony of those
moments. I did not scream; I was too proud to let my tormentor know
what I was suffering. I closed my lips firmly, that not even a groan
might escape from them, and I stood like a statue while the keen lash
cut deep into my flesh.
As soon as I was released, stunned with pain, bruised and bleeding,
I went home and rushed into the presence of the pastor and his wife,
wildly exclaiming: "Master Robert, why did you let Mr. Bingham
flog me? What have I done that I should be so punished?"
"Go away," he gruffly answered, "do not bother me."
I would not be put off thus. "What have I done? I will know why
I have been flogged."
I saw his cheeks flush with anger, but I did not move. He rose to
his feet, and on my refusing to go without an explanation, seized
a chair, struck me, and felled me to the floor. I rose, bewildered,
almost dead with pain, crept to my room, dressed my bruised arms and
back as best I could, and then lay down, but not to sleep. No, I could
not sleep, for I was suffering mental as well as bodily torture. My
spirit rebelled against the unjustness that had been inflicted upon
me, and though I tried to smother my anger and to forgive those who
had been so cruel to me, it was impossible. It seems that Mr. Bingham
had pledged himself to Mrs. Burwell to subdue what he called my "stubborn
pride."
(6)
Francis
Fredric, ran away after being whipped for attending a prayer-meeting.
He was away for nine weeks before being caught. He recorded what happened
in his book, Fifty Years of Slavery (1863)
At the end of about a month my master, one morning,
came into the kitchen; he had a rope and a cow-hide whip in his hands.
"Francis!" he said. "Yers, massa," I answered.
"Come this way, I will now settle with you; you have been away
nine weeks, and I will now reckon with you." I dropped on my
knees, and begged hard for mercy. But all in vain. He produced a revolver,
and said, "Look here, if you attempt to run away, I will shoot
you as sure as you are alive. Strip instantly." I took my clothes
off, and he fastened me to an apple-tree behind the house, and flogged
me until he was tired. I could not cry any more. The slaves who were
watching me told me afterwards that I had received 107 Lashes. He
untied me, I could scarcely walk. For one cent he swore he would shoot
me. He threatened, if ever I attempted to do so again, he would certainly
do for me. I crawled into the kitchen. I thought I should die.
In the evening my mistress came into the kitchen, and said, "Francis,
you have had a very severe flogging. I could not prevent it. I hope
you will never attempt to run away again. I thought your master would
have killed you (she had been watching the flogging from a window);
you must not be sullen or sulky to him in any way, or he will flog
you again. I shall send you something into the kitchen to rub your
back with," and after some more advice and cautions she went
away.
(7)
Moses Roper made several attempts trying
to escape from his master. He wrote about the punishment he received
in Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper (1838)
Having reached Mr. Gooch's, he proceeded
to punish me. This he did by first tying my wrists together, and placing
them over the knees ; he then put a stick through, under my knees
and over my arms, and having thus secured my arms, he proceeded to
flog me, and gave me five hundred lashes on my bare back. This may
appear incredible, but the marks which they left at present remain
on my body, a standing testimony to the truth of this statement of
his severity. He then chained me down in a log-pen with a 40 lb. chain,
and made me lie on the damp earth all night. In the morning after
his breakfast he came to me, and without giving me any breakfast,
tied me to a large heavy barrow, which is usually drawn by a horse,
and made me drag it to the cotton field for the horse to use in the
field. Thus, the reader will see, that it was of no possible use to
my master to make me drag it to the field, and not through it; his
cruelty went so far as actually to make me the slave of his horse,
and thus to degrade me.
(8)
In his autobiography, Josiah Henson described
how as a child he saw his father punished for attempting to protect
his wife against the plantation overseer.
The day for the execution of the penalty was appointed. The Negroes
from the neighbouring plantations were summoned to witness the scene.
A powerful blacksmith named Hewes laid on the stripes. Fifty were
given, during which the cries of my father might be heard a mile away,
and then a pause ensured. True, he had struck a white man, but as
valuable property he must not be damaged. Judicious men felt his pulse.
Oh! he could stand the whole. Again and again the throng fell on his
lacerated back. His cries grew fainter and fainter, till a feeble
groan was the only response to the final blows. His head was then
thrust against the post, and his right ear fastened to it with a tack;
a swift pass of a knife, and the bleeding member was left sticking
to the place. Then came a hurrah from the degraded crowd, and the
exclamation, "That's what he's got for striking a white man."
Previous to this affair, my father, from all I can learn, had been
a good-humoured and light-hearted man. His banjo was the life of the
farm. But from this hour he became utterly changed. Sullen, morose,
and dogged, nothing could be done with him. He brooded over his wrongs.
No fear or threats of being sold to the far south - the greatest of
all terrors to the Maryland slave - would render him tractable. So
off he was sent to Alabama. What was his fate neither my mother nor
I have learned.
(9)
Mary
Prince, The History of Mary Prince,
A West Indian Slave (1831)
The next morning my mistress set about instructing me in my tasks.
She taught me to do all sorts of household work; to wash and bake,
pick cotton and wool, and wash floors, and cook. And she taught me
(how can I ever forget it!) more things than these; she caused me
to know the exact difference between the smart of the rope, the cart-whip,
and the cow-skin, when applied to my naked body by her own cruel hand.
And there was scarcely any punishment more dreadful than the blows
received on my face and head from her hard heavy fist. She was a fearful
woman, and a savage mistress to her slaves.
There were two little
slave boys in the house, on whom she vented her bad temper in a special
manner. One of these children was a mulatto, called Cyrus, who had
been bought while an infant in his mother's arms; the other, Jack,
was an African from the coast of Guinea, whom a sailor had given or
sold to my master. Seldom a day passed without these boys receiving
the most severe treatment, and often for no fault at all. Both my
master and mistress seemed to think that they had a right to ill -
use them at their pleasure; and very often accompanied their commands
with blows, whether the children were behaving well or ill. I have
seen their flesh ragged and raw with licks. They were never secure
one moment from a blow, and their lives were passed in continual fear.
My mistress was not contented with using the whip, but often pinched
their cheeks and arms in the most cruel manner. My pity for these
poor boys was soon transferred to myself; for I was licked, and flogged,
and pinched by her pitiless fingers in the neck and arms, exactly
as they were. To strip me naked - to hang me up by the wrists and
lay my flesh open with the cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for
even a slight offence. My mistress often robbed me too of the hours
that belong to sleep. She used to sit up very late, frequently even
until morning; and I had then to stand at a bench and wash during
the greater part of the night, or pick wool and cotton; and often
I have dropped down overcome by sleep and fatigue, till roused from
a state of stupor by the whip, and forced to start up to my tasks.
(10)
Report
on the work of the Freemen's Bureau
that was signed by General Oliver Howard
and Salmon P. Chase (August, 1867)
The abolition of slavery and the
establishment of freedom are not the one and the same thing. The
emancipated negroes were not yet really freemen. Their chains had
indeed been sundered by the sword, but the broken links still hung
upon their limbs. The question, "What shall be done with the
negro? agitated the whole country. Some were in favour of an immediate
recognition of their equal and political rights, and of conceding
to them at once all the prerogatives of citizenship. But only a
few advocated a policy so radical, and, at the same time, generally
considered revolutionary, while many, even of those who really wished
well to the negro, doubted his capacity for citizenship, his willingness
to labour for his own support, and the possibility of his forming,
as a freeman, an integral part of the Republic.
The idea of admitting the freedmen to an equal participation in
civil and political rights was not entertained in any part of the
South. In most of the States they were not allowed to sit on juries,
or even to testify in any case in which white men were parties.
They were forbidden to own or bear firearms, and thus were rendered
defenceless against assault. Vagrant laws were passed, often relating
only to the negro, or, where applicable in terms of both white and
black, seldom or never enforced except against the latter.
In some States any court - that is, any local Justice of the Peace
- could bind out to a white person any negro under age, without
his own consent or that of his parents? The freedmen were subjected
to the punishments formerly inflicted upon slaves. Whipping especially,
when in some States disfranchised the party subjected to it, and
rendered him for ever infamous before the law, was made the penalty
for the most trifling misdemeanor.
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