me naked--to hang me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with the
cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for even a slight offence. My
mistress often robbed me too of the hours that belong to sleep. She used
to sit up very late, frequently even until morning; and I had then to
stand at a bench and wash during the greater part of the night, or pick
wool and cotton; and often I have dropped down overcome by sleep and
fatigue, till roused from a state of stupor by the whip, and forced to
start up to my tasks.

Poor Hetty, my fellow slave, was very kind to me, and I used to call her
my Aunt; but she led a most miserable life, and her death was hastened (at
least the slaves all believed and said so,) by the dreadful chastisement
she received from my master during her pregnancy. It happened as follows.
One of the cows had dragged the rope away from the stake to which Hetty
had fastened it, and got loose. My master flew into a terrible passion,
and ordered the poor creature to be stripped quite naked, notwithstanding
her pregnancy, and to be tied up to a tree in the yard. He then flogged
her as hard as he could lick, both with the whip and cow-skin, till she
was all over streaming with blood. He rested, and then beat her again and
again. Her shrieks were terrible. The consequence was that poor Hetty was
brought to bed before her time, and was delivered after severe labour of a
dead child. She appeared to recover after her confinement, so far that she
was repeatedly flogged by both master and mistress afterwards; but her
former strength never returned to her. Ere long her body and limbs swelled
to a great size; and she lay on a mat in the kitchen, till the water burst
out of her body and she died. All the slaves said that death was a good
thing for poor Hetty; but I cried very much for her death. The manner of
it filled me with horror. I could not bear to think about it; yet it was
always present to my mind for many a day.