and better treated than many others. Judge Bullock was formerly from
the North, and married in the South, and his wife inherited the
slaves. Their cook was a mulatto, of more than ordinary intelligence,
and she told me of the most terrible scenes of barbarity that she had
witnessed.

The marks of cruelty were in that camp so frequently seen--men with
broken shoulders and limbs--that it was heart-sickening to listen to
the recital of their wrongs.

One man I saw with a shred of an ear, and I inquired how his ear
became torn like that. He hesitated to tell me, but one of his fellow-
slaves said it was done by order of their master; that he was stripped
and fastened by a large nail driven through his ear to a tree, and the
overseer was directed to whip him on his naked body until his
writhings tore his ear out, and that only ended the punishment. One
man by the name of Matthew Lasley, living within two miles of this
city, owned one hundred slaves, and was his own overseer. He worked
his slaves early and late, and was proverbial for cruelty to them.
They were not half fed or clothed. A few days after he had sold the
wife and child of his slave Jack, they were burning log heaps and
clearing off a few acres of new ground. They had worked until about
midnight, and were preparing to "turn in." Jack had split an armful of
kindling-wood, and was now ready to go to his lonely hut. Then his
utter desolation rolled in upon his mind. When his master stooped over
to light his cigar, the thought came to him like a flash to kill him,
and then he too would die, and so would end his bitter days. No sooner
was the thought conceived than the act was done. The ax was buried in
Lasley's head; and he sank, a dead man, without uttering a word. Jack
came immediately to the city, tapped on the window of Dr. Smith's