CHAPTER XIII.

A GLIMPSE AT SLAVERY-THE MOBILE BOOKSELLERS.

What Mr. Patten saw in Missouri-A Blacksmith called in to Beat a Slave Woman-Frightful Chastisement-Her Husband Attempts to Rescue Her-A Mob Gathers to See What Shall be Done-Condemned to One Thousand Lashes-His Flesh Riddled in Presence of Three Physicians-Whipped Day after Day, According to His Endurance-Brutality Unparalleled-The Mobile Booksellers-Extract from the Mobile Tribune-Wm, Strickland and Edwin Upson-Driven from Mobile-Mr. Strickland Returns and is Again Expelled-He States His Offense-Sells two copies of Fred Douglass "My Bondage and Freedom”—“Attention Lunenburgers"— Mr. Upson's Statement--Extraordinary Persecution and Injustice -Shall the Country Pass into the Control of Such People?

The various crimes and outrages thus far examined were committed in the name of slavery and for its benefit. It would therefore seem proper, though it is not necessary, to discover more exactly in what slavery consisted.

The unutterable barbarities to which the slaves were perpetually subjected in order to keep them in more perfect subjugation and fear, can barely be referred to here, though they were all-powerful elements in giving life and form to the Republican party.

The writer has seen scores of broken limbs and lacerated bodies, and heard from the lips of the victims themselves such stories, sealed and attested by indelible scars, as would chill any heart but that of a person educated and hardened amidst the cruelties of slave-holding. But only one or two instances will be mentioned. A resident of Cleveland, Ohio, described a scene witnessed by himself, as follows:

CLEVELAND, Saturday, Aug. 9, 1856.

During the past winter and summer I have been traveling through Western Missouri and Kansas, and on the 21st of February, 1856, I was in Lexington, Mo., which I think may be regarded as the great hot-bed of those who pride themselves in that appropriate and significant name, "Border Ruffians." On the morning of that day I was, for the first time in my life, a spectator of the sale of slaves.

Two young men and a girl about eighteen years of age, were placed upon the block, surrounded by forty or fifty slave-holders. The first put up was a nigger" of great beauty and fine form. The auctioneer commenced by exhorting the farmers to remember that the hemp was all down -hands were scarce-"niggers" had taken a rise; and told them that there stood one of the best-looking "niggers" in the State; that he was a slave for life, and had no wife to trouble him-was sound-had good teeth and eyes. In short, was an "excellent nigger!" The bidding proceeded until $1,250 was reached, and the hammer fell upon the "nigger," who was led away by the highest bidder. During the sale the auctioneer, and others, indulged in witticisms and puns upon the boy, which set the crowd to laughing; but the slave did not laugh. Not a smile did I notice during the whole time. His expression was that of deep despondency.

Being called away, I did not see the other two sold. Several others were sold in that place during the same week at sheriff's sale. One gentleman told me that he would almost as soon sell one of his own children as one of his "niggers," but he would be compelled to do it, for if he did not the sheriff would.

On the afternoon of that same day a large meeting was held in the court-house for the purpose of forming an "Emigrant Aid Society." A constitution was presented by a committee previously appointed. The necessity of the movement was enforced by an address from the Rev. Prof. Akers, who is now one of the Fillmore electors. He argued that if Kansas was made a free State, Missouri, being surrounded on three sides by free States, must sooner or later give up her cherished "institution." The North would have the majority in Congress, and would admit no more slave States into the Union. They would abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and then it would be hemmed in and confined within its own narrow limits, and would smother out and die.

But oh! with what holy horror that pious man of God raised his hands and his voice against such a terrible result! He urged his friends, in the most passionate strains, to do all they could to make Kansas a slave State, and if they failed they would at least have the satisfaction of having done their duty. His was a telling speech, for immediately after its delivery about $9,000 was subscribed to send pro-slavery men to Kansas.

On the succeeding Friday a scene was presented in that same court-house which almost beggars description.

Sheriff Withers, having a "nigger woman," who on the previous day had been neglectful of her taskwork, sent for a blacksmith to come and chastise her. He came, bolted the door, tied the woman's hands together, and lashed them over her head to the ceiling, and commenced whipping. The screams of the woman brought her husband to the rescue. He broke open the door, and with a butcher-knife in his hand rushed forward to cut his wife loose. The slave and blacksmith encountered each other, and in the affray the latter got his arm cut. The slave finally surrendered and was led away to jail, while the woman received a double whipping. These are the facts in the case.

News of this "horrible outrage" was soon circulated, and the excitement became intense. One leading man was heard say: "God d-n me if I don't sink my soul to hell if I don't put a stop to this slave rebellion, if I can only get three men to join with me.” When asked how he would do it, he said, "I will take this slave and that other one that is in jail, and hang them both upon the same tree, and let them hang there a week." Three men came forward to assist him, and the hour of 4 o'clock that afternoon was agreed upon for the execution. The excitement grew, waxing wilder and fiercer every hour, until such a storm of passion raged as was fearful to behold. At 4 o'clock, the mob, numbering two or three hundred, moved toward the court-house. The "boy," a quadroon about forty years of age, was brought into the building and placed within the bar. Colonel Reed was called to preside, and Colonel Walton explained the object of the meeting.

Ile said: "A great crime has been committed-an outrage upon one of our citizens by a nigger. We have come together not to imbrue our hands in the blood of innocence, but rebellion of slaves is becoming common. Something must be done to put a stop to it, to protect our wives, our children, and our sacred homes."

A member of the legislature earnestly remonstrated against mob law, and recommended that a day be appointed to whip the boy, and have all the slaves of the county present. He was not heard through, for the speech did not suit the mob. A committee of twelve was appointed to decide immediately what punishment the boy should receive. That committee retired, but soon returned, with Colonel Reed at their head, who read the following announcement:

"Your committee have decided that the boy shall receive ONE THOUSAND lashes on his bare back, two hundred to be administered this evening (if he can bear it) and the remaining eight hundred from time to time, as in the judgment of the committee his physical nature can bear up under it. Also, we advise that a committee of three physicians be appointed to superintend the operation, and three citizens be chosen to whip him Also, that the person whose arm was cut by the slave have the privilege of giving him the last two hundred lashes."

The report was almost unanimously adopted; those voting nay being in favor of hanging him. The slave was ordered to remove his clothing, and one article after another was taken off until he stood with nothing to cover his nakedness. He was then ordered to kneel down in front of Colonel Reed, while his hands, extending over the top of a bench, were tied to the floor.

Let the reader now imagine Colonel Reed upon the bench, cigar in mouth, three honored physicians on the right, and three burly slave-holders, (whips in hand) on the left, of a poor slave who was kneeling before them, with his whole person bared to the chilling atmosphere, the themometer marking zero. Outside the bar are two or three hundred Border Ruffians, all eager for blood. Such was the scene presented in the court-house at Lexington, in the State of Missouri, on the last Friday of February, 1856.

The whipping commenced. Colonel Reed sprang to his feet with curiosity; more than a hundred heads were peering in to get a sight of their miserable victim. But before a dozen lashes had been administered, the slave fell to the floor bleeding and writhing in agony. The slave-holder struck the harder, and ordered him to get up. The physicians interfered and felt his pulse, and declared that he could never stand such lashes.

Some one cried out: "988 yet to come," and the whipping was resumed. Lash upon lash was inflicted, until one hundred had been given, when his whole back, from the top

of his shoulders down to his very feet, was a mass of blood and mangled flesh.

The whipping was continued without cessation amid the most piteous and beseeching wails and cries, such as: "O gen'lemen, O, gen'lemen, have mercy!" "O Lord!" "O Lord come down in mercy!" "O gen'lemen!" "O Lord!" "O Lord!” growing fainter and fainter and finally dying entirely away upon the ear.

When they commenced giving him the second hundred, I left the room in anguish of spirit, exclaiming to myself: "Oh that I were a dog, that I might not call man my brother!"

He was not permitted to rise until the 200 were given. He was taken out the next day, but it was decided he was too sore to whip. On the third day he was taken out and whipped again in the presence of a large crowd, but when they had given him twenty, his strength completely failed him.

Whether the whole of the thousand lashes were administered, or whether he gave out before receiving the complete penalty, I have no means of knowing; but I do know that some of the leading slave-holders pledged themselves to each other to carry it through, despite the indignation of a portion of the community and of the entreaties of his master, although at first the master had given him up to the mob heartily, and was even willing they should hang him. He also acquiesced in the judgment of the committee.

On the next evening (Saturday) after the 200 lashes had been inflicted upon the slave, Governor Shannon arrived en route for the Territory of Kansas. A grand reception supper, costing some $300, was prepared for him. The Governor was largely toasted, and replied in a speech, boasting of the power he had received from the President, and how he would compel submission to the laws. He largely complimented the Missourians and urged them to come and settle in the territory, and said that with such citizens as they were, "Kansas, in two years' time, would be one of the loyal States of this Union."

Colonel Reed, who on the previous evening had presided over the naked "nigger" and the mob, presided over this table, with Governor Shannon on his right.

Look upon this picture, and then on that!

It must be clear that this revolting outrage, with thousands and thousands of others like it, was not committed as a mere matter of punishing a single individual. It was an