IN CASE YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN I-STORY
SLAVE PUNISHMENTS
(taken from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASpunishments.htm)
James Ramsay, a doctor working for several sugar plantations in St Kitts, was shocked by the way the slaves were treated by the overseers. Ramsay later recalled in his book, Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (1784): "The ordinary punishments of slaves, for the common crimes of neglect, absence from work, eating the sugar cane, theft, are cart whipping, beating with a stick, sometimes to the breaking of bones, the chain, an iron crook about the neck... a ring about the ankle, and confinement in the dungeon. There have been instances of slitting of ears, breaking of limbs, so as to make amputation necessary, beating out of eyes, and castration... In short, in the place of decency, sympathy, morality,and religion; slavery produces cruelty and oppression. It is true, that the unfeeling application of the ordinary punishments ruins the constitution, and shortens the life of many a poor wretch."
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 punishments used against slaves judged to be under-performing included the use of the whip. Sometimes slave-owners resorted to mutilating and branding their slaves.
William Box Brown, a slave in Richmond, later wrote about an overseer on his tobacco plantation. "Stephen Bennett, who had a wooden leg; and who used to creep up behind the slaves to hear what they had to talk about in his absence; but his wooden leg generally betrayed him by coming into contact with something which would make a noise, and that would call the attention of the slaves to what he was about. He was a very mean man in all his ways, and was very much disliked by the slaves. He used to whip them, often, in a shameful manner. On one occasion I saw him take a slave, whose name was Pinkney, and make him take him off his shirt; he then tied his hands and gave him one hundred lashes on his bare back; and all this, because he lacked three pounds of his task, which was valued at six cents."
Thomas Johnson with
slave whip and chains
Olaudah Equiano blamed brutal overseers for the worst treatment of slaves: "Another negro man was half hanged, and then burnt, for attempting to poison a cruel overseer. Thus, by repeated cruelties, are the wretched first urged to despair, and then murdered, because they still retain so much of human nature about them as to wish to put an end to their misery, and retaliate on their tyrants. These overseers are indeed for the most part persons of the worst character of any denomination of men in the West Indies. Unfortunately, many humane gentlemen, but not residing on their estates, are obliged to leave the management of them in the hands of these human butchers, who cut and mangle the slaves in a shocking manner on the most trifling occasions, and altogether treat them in every respect like brutes."
Some punishments were associated with certain areas. William Wells Brown argues that slaveowners in Virginia smoked slaves. "In his fits of anger, he would take up a chair, and throw it at a servant; and in his more rational moments, when he wished to chastise one, he would tie them up in the smoke-house, and whip them; after which, he would cause a fire to be made of tobacco stems, and smoke them." Moses Roper claimed that in South Carolina they used to "drive nails into a hogshead so as to leave the point of the nail just protruding in the inside of the cask. Into this he used to put his slaves for punishment, and roll them down a very long and steep hill."
Harriet Jacobs, a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, explained in her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861): "There was a planter in the country, not far from us, who had six hundred slaves, many of whom he did not know by sight. His extensive plantation was managed by well-paid overseers. There was a jail and a whipping post on his grounds; and whatever cruelties were perpetrated there, they passed without comment. He was so effectively screened by his great wealth that he was called to no account for his crimes, not even for murder. Various were the punishments resorted to. A favorite one was to tie a rope round a man's body, and suspend him from the ground. A fire was kindled over him, from which was suspended a piece of fat pork. As this cooked, the scalding drops of fat continually fell on the bare flesh."
Lewis Clarke, a house slave in Kentucky, described in his autobiography the different methods used by his mistress: "Instruments of torture were ordinarily the raw hide, or a bunch of hickory-sprouts seasoned in the fire and tied together. But if these were not at hand, nothing came amiss. She could relish a beating with a chair, the broom, tongs, shovel, shears, knife-handle, the heavy heel of her slipper, and an oak club, a foot and a half in length and an inch and a half square. With this delicate weapon she would beat us upon the hands and upon the feet until they were blistered."
States with large numbers of slaves introduced their own slave codes. The main idea behind these codes was to keep the slaves under the tight control of their owners. The death-penalty was introduced for a whole range of offenses. Slaves could be executed for murder, rape, burglary, arson and assault upon a white person. Plantation owners believed that this severe discipline would make the slaves too scared to rebel.
*******************************************ANTEBELLUM SLAVE CONTROL
( http://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/slavery/antebellum_slavery/punishment.htm )
PUNISHMENT
Jessica Valdes
Pain and fear, that is what white slave owners instilled into the minds of their slaves. Disobey and you will be punished, and you will be severely punished, maybe death. In the ante-bellum South, most slave owners were ruthless and selfish. If a slave were to miss his or her appointed workload, they would face a whipping, or another similar punishment. In the slave owner’s mind a slave was nothing more that an animal the can walk upright, and talk, something not deserving of human kindness. Instead they were doomed to live life like animals. Work or punishment where the only choices they knew. Life for the salves consisted of nothing but work, pain and fear.
The reasons for being punished were many, "A mere look, or motion, -- a mistake, accident, or want of power, -- are all matters for which a slave must be whipped at any time.
* Does a slave look dissatisfied? It is said, he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out.
* Does he speak loudly when spoken to by his master? Then he is getting high-minded, and should be taken a buttonhole lower.
* Does he forget to pull off his hat at the approach of a white person? That he is wanting reverences, and should be whipped for it.
* Does he ever venture to vindicate his conduct, when censured for it? Then he is guilty of imprudence, --one of the greatest crimes of which a slave can be guilty
* Does he ever venture to suggest a different mode of doing things from that pointed out by his master? He is indeed presumptuous, and getting above himself…" (Douglass)
The reasons for punishment were many by the forms of punishment, which the masters used, were far more numbered and creative than the causes for punishment. William Wells Brown remembers a punishment that his master used to call " Virginia Play". This consisted of tying up the slave in the smokehouse, and whipping them. After that was done he would cause a fire to be made of tobacco stems, and smoke them. Other punishments consisted of fasting their already malnutritioned slaves for excessive amounts of time. Making them work continuously for days without food or rest. Another form of torture used was to strip the slave naked hang them and have each male member of the family whip the slave fifty times. As if this sort of humiliation and excruciating pain wasn’t enough, the punishments became worse.
Another reason for punishment, if not the worst, is attempting to run away.
John Brown explains how he had been punished
" Stevens fixed bells and horns on my head. This is not by any means an uncommon punishment. A circle of iron, having a hinge behind, with a staple and a padlock before, which hang under the chin, is fastened around the neck. Another circle of iron fits quite close round the crown of the head. The two are held together in this position by three rods of iron, which are fixed in each circle. These rod, or horns, stick out three feet above the head, and have a bell attached to each. The bell and horns do not weigh less that twelve to fourteen pounds. When Stevens had fixed this ornament on my head, he turned me loose, and told me I might run off now if I liked". Brown goes on to explain how he wore the bell and horns day and night for three months. The weight of the mask made it almost impossible and very painful to stoop and work. The horns prevented him from stretching himself, or even curl himself up, which obligated him to sleep crouching. (Brown)
Another example of the severity of punishments was Moses Roper’s experiences after his many attempts of running away. Among the instruments used to torture he describes one…
" This is a machine used for packing and pressing cotton. By it he hung me up by the hands, a horse, and at times, a man moving round the screw and carrying it up and down, and pressing the block into a box into which cotton is put. At this time he hung me up for a quarter of an hour. I was carried up ten feet from the ground…" (Roper)
As if this was not enough Moses tried to escape again and the punishment that followed was far worse and left more mark in which to be remembered.
"… When he came back, the first thing he did was pour tar upon my head, the rubbed it all over my face, took a torch with pitch on, and set it on fire: he put it out before it did me very great injury, but the pain which I endured was the most excruciating, nearly all my hair been burnt off." (Roper)
All the pain caused by the slave owners still was not enough. The more the masters would punish the slaves the more willing they were to endure more just for a chance to escape. According to the slave owners, the slaves were the ignorant ones, but in reality the slave owners were the ignorant ones because they could have had better working slaves and actually ended up being less of an expense, if they would have keep somewhat happy and healthy slave.
Ras Jahaziel
