W. Smith, had
quoted some instances out of the evidence to the contrary. He also would
quote one or two others. A slave under hard usage had run away. To
prevent a repetition of the offence his owner sent for his surgeon, and
desired him to cut off the man's leg. The surgeon refused. The owner, to
render it a matter of duty in the surgeon, broke it. "Now," says he,
"you must cut it off; or the man will die." We might console ourselves,
perhaps, that this happened in a French island; but he would select
another instance, which had happened in one of our own. Mr. Ross heard
the shrieks of a female issuing from an out-house; and so piercing, that
he determined to me what was going on. On looking in he perceived a
young female tied up to a beam by her wrists, entirely naked, and in the
act of involuntary writhing and swinging; while the author of her
torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in his hand, which
he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him. What crime
this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not; but the human mind
could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment.
He was glad to see that these tales affected the House. Would they then
sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder? Let
them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear.
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