over life and liberty, it will not be wielded with destructive sway!
Skeptics of this character abound in society. In some few instances,
their incredulity arises from a want of reflection; but, generally, it
indicates a hatred of the light, a desire to shield slavery from the
assaults of its foes, a contempt of the colored race, whether bond or
free. Such will try to discredit the shocking tales of slaveholding
cruelty which are recorded in this truthful Narrative; but they will
labor in vain. Mr. DOUGLASS has frankly disclosed the place of his
birth, the names of those who claimed ownership in his body and soul,
and the names also of those who committed the crimes which he has
alleged against them. His statements, therefore, may easily be
disproved, if they are untrue.

In the course of his Narrative, he relates two instances of murderous
cruelty,--in one of which a planter deliberately shot a slave belonging
to a neighboring plantation, who had unintentionally gotten within his
lordly domain in quest of fish; and in the other, an overseer blew out
the brains of a slave who had fled to a stream of water to escape a
bloody scourging. Mr. DOUGLASS states that in neither of these instances
was any thing done by way of legal arrest or judicial investigation.
The Baltimore American, of March 17, 1845, relates a similar case of
atrocity, perpetrated with similar impunity--as follows:--"_Shooting a
slave._--We learn, upon the authority of a letter from Charles county,
Maryland, received by a gentleman of this city, that a young man,
named Matthews, a nephew of General Matthews, and whose father, it is
believed, holds an office at Washington, killed one of the slaves upon
his father's farm by shooting him. The letter states that young Matthews
had been left in charge of the farm; that he gave an order to the
servant, which was disobeyed, when he proceeded to the house, _obtained
a gun, and, returning, shot the servant._ He immediately, the letter