Mr. Marshall Jett, Farrowsville, Fauquier Co. Virginia, in the "National Intelligencer," May 30, 1837.
"Ranaway, negro man Ephraim, has a _mark_ over one of his eyes, occasioned by a _blow_."
S.B. Turton, jailer Adams Co. Miss. in the "Natches Courier," Oct. 12, 1838.
"Was committed a negro, calls himself Jacob, has been _crippled_ in his right leg."
John Ford, sheriff of Mobile County, in the "Mississippian," Jackson Mi. Dec. 28, 1838.
"Committed to jail, a negro man Cary, a _large scar on his forehead_."
E.W. Morris, sheriff of Warren County, in the "Vicksburg [Mi.]
Register," March 28, 1838.
"Committed as a runaway, a negro man Jack, he has _several scars_ on his face."
Mr. John P. Holcombe, In the "Charleston Mercury," April 17, 1828.
"Absented himself, his negro man Ben, _has scars_ on his throat, occasioned by the _cut of a knife_."
Mr. Geo. Kinlock, in the "Charleston, S.C. Courier," May 1, 1839.
"Ranaway, negro boy Kitt, 15 or 16 years old, _has a piece taken out of one of his ears_."
Wm. Magee, sheriff, Mobile Co. in the "Mobile Register," Dec. 27, 1837.
"Committed to jail, a runaway slave, Alexander, a _scar_ on his left check."
Mr. Henry M. McGregor, Prince George County, Maryland, in the "Alexandria [D.C.] Gazette," Feb. 6, 1838.
"Ranaway, negro Phil, _scar through the right eye brow_ part of the _middle toe_ right foot _cut off_."
Green B Jourdan, Baldwin County Ga. in the "Georgia Journal," April 18, 1837.
"Ranaway, John, has a _scar_ on one of his hands extending from the wrist joint to the little finger, also a _scar_ on one of his legs."
Messrs. Daniel and Goodman, New Orleans, in the "N.O. Bee," Feb. 2, 1838.
"Absconded, mulatto slave Alick, has a _large scar over_ one of his cheeks."
Jeremiah Woodward, Gonchland, Co. Va. in the "Richmond Va. Whig," Jan.
30, 1838.
"200 DOLLARS REWARD for Nelson, has a _scar_ on his forehead occasioned by a _burn_, and one on his lower lip and one about the knee."
Samuel Rawlins, Gwinet Co. Ga. in the "Columbus Sentinel," Nov. 29, 1838.
"Ranaway, a negro man and his wife, named Nat and Priscilla, he has a small _scar_ on his left cheek, _two stiff fingers_ on his right hand with a _running sore_ on them; his wife has a _scar_ on her left arm, and one _upper tooth out_."
The reader perceives that we have under this head, as under previous ones, given to the testimony of the slaveholders themselves, under their own names, a precedence over that of all other witnesses. We now ask the reader's attention to the testimonies which follow. They are endorsed by responsible names--men who 'speak what they know, and testify what they have seen'--testimonies which show, that the slaveholders who wrote the preceding advertisements, describing the work of their own hands, in branding with hot irons, maiming, mutilating, cropping, shooting, knocking out the teeth and eyes of their slaves, breaking their bones, &c., have manifested, _as far as they have gone_ in the description, a commendable fidelity to truth.
It is probable that some of the scars and maimings in the preceding advertisements were the result of accidents; and some _may be_ the result of violence inflicted by the slaves upon each other. Without arguing that point, we say, these are the _facts_; whoever reads and ponders them, will need no argument to convince him, that the proposition which they have been employed to sustain, _cannot be shaken_. That any considerable portion of them were _accidental_, is totally improbable, from the nature of the case; and is in most instances disproved by the advertisements themselves. That they have not been produced by assaults of the slaves upon each other, is manifest from the fact, that injuries of that character inflicted by the slaves upon each other, are, as all who are familiar with the habits and condition of slaves well know, exceedingly rare; and of necessity must be so, from the constant action upon them of the strongest dissuasives from such acts that can operate on human nature.
Advertisements similar to the preceding may at any time be gathered by scores from the daily and weekly newspapers of the slave states.
Before presenting the reader with further testimony in proof of the proposition at the head of this part of our subject, we remark, that some of the tortures enumerated under this and the preceding heads, are not in all cases inflicted by slaveholders as _punishments_, but sometimes merely as preventives of escape, for the greater security of their 'property'. Iron collars, chains, &c. are put upon slaves when they are driven or transported from one part of the country to another, in order to keep them from running away. Similar measures are often resorted to upon plantations. When the master or owner suspects a slave of plotting an escape, an iron collar with long 'horns,' or a bar of iron, or a ball and chain, are often fastened upon him, for the double purpose of retarding his flight, should he attempt it, and of serving as an easy means of detection.
Another inhuman method of _marking_ slaves, so that they may be easily described and detected when they escape, is called _cropping_. In the preceding advertisements, the reader will perceive a number of cases, in which the runaway is described as '_cropt_,' or a '_notch cut_ in the ear, or a part or the whole of the ear _cut off_,' &c.
Two years and a half since, the writer of this saw a letter, then just received by Mr. Lewis Tappan, of New York, containing a negro's ear cut off close to the head. The writer of the letter, who signed himself Thomas Oglethorpe, Montgomery, Alabama, sent it to Mr. Tappan as 'a specimen of a negro's ears,' and desired him to add it to his 'collection.'
Another method of _marking_ slaves, is by drawing out or breaking off one or two _front teeth_--commonly the upper ones, as the mark would in that case be the more obvious. An instance of this kind the reader will recall in the testimony of Sarah M. Grimke, page 30, and of which she had _personal_ knowledge; being well acquainted both with the inhuman master, (a distinguished citizen of South Carolina,) by whose order the brutal deed was done, and with the poor young girl whose mouth was thus barbarously mutilated, to furnish a convenient mark by which to describe her in case of her elopement, as she had frequently run away.
The case stated by Miss G. serves to unravel what, to one uninitiated, seems quite a mystery: i.e. the frequency with which, in the advertisements of runaway slaves published in southern papers, they are described as having _one or two front teeth out_. Scores of such advertisements are in southern papers now on our table. We will furnish the reader with a dozen or two.
Jesse Debruhl, sheriff, Richland District, "Columbia (S.C.) Telescope," Feb. 24, 1839.
"Committed to jail, Ned, about 25 years of age, has lost his _two upper front teeth_."
Mr. John Hunt, Black Water Bay, "Pensacola (Ga.) Gazette," October 14, 1837.
"100 DOLLARS REWARD, for Perry, _one under front tooth_ missing, aged 23 years."
Mr. John Frederick, Branchville, Orangeburgh District, S.C.
"Charleston (S.C.) Courier," June 12, 1837.
"10 DOLLARS REWARD, for Mary, _one or two upper teeth_ out, about 25 years old."
Mr. Egbert A. Raworth, eight miles west of Nashville on the Charlotte road "Daily Republican Banner," Nashville, Tennessee, April 30, 1938.
"Ranaway, Myal, 23 years old, one of his _fore teeth out_."