I went into the work house next morning, and saw the cowhide still wet with blood, and the boards all covered with gore.  The poor man lived, and continued to quarrel with his wife.  A few months afterwards Dr. Flint handed them both over to a slave-trader.  The guilty man put their value into his pocket, and had the satisfaction of knowing that they were out of sight and hearing.  When the mother was delivered into the trader’s hands, she said.  “You promised to treat me well.”  To which he replied, “You have let your tongue run too far; damn you!” She had forgotten that it was a crime for a slave to tell who was the father of her child.

From others than the master persecution also comes in such cases.  I once saw a young slave girl dying soon after the birth of a child nearly white.  In her agony she cried out, “O Lord, come and take me!” Her mistress stood by, and mocked at her like an incarnate fiend.  “You suffer, do you?” she exclaimed.  “I am glad of it.  You deserve it all, and more too.”

The girl’s mother said, “The baby is dead, thank God; and I hope my poor child will soon be in heaven, too.”

“Heaven!” retorted the mistress.  “There is no such place for the like of her and her bastard.”

The poor mother turned away, sobbing.  Her dying daughter called her, feebly, and as she bent over her, I heard her say, “Don’t grieve so, mother; God knows all about it; and HE will have mercy upon me.”

Her sufferings, afterwards, became so intense, that her mistress felt unable to stay; but when she left the room, the scornful smile was still on her lips.  Seven children called her mother.  The poor black woman had but the one child, whose eyes she saw closing in death, while she thanked God for taking her away from the greater bitterness of life.

III.  The Slaves’ New Year’s Day.

Dr. Flint owned a fine residence in town, several farms, and about fifty slaves, besides hiring a number by the year.

Hiring-day at the south takes place on the 1st of January.  On the 2d, the slaves are expected to go to their new masters.  On a farm, they work until the corn and cotton are laid.  They then have two holidays.  Some masters give them a good dinner under the trees.  This over, they work until Christmas eve.  If no heavy charges are meantime brought against them, they are given four or five holidays, whichever the master or overseer may think proper.  Then comes New Year’s eve; and they gather together their little alls, or more properly speaking, their little nothings, and wait anxiously for the dawning of day.  At the appointed hour the grounds are thronged with men, women, and children, waiting, like criminals, to hear their doom pronounced.  The slave is sure to know who is the most humane, or cruel master, within forty miles of him.

It is easy to find out, on that day, who clothes and feeds his slaves well; for he is surrounded by a crowd, begging, “Please, massa, hire me this year.  I will work very hard, massa.”