Mr. Lay had an old slave woman we called Aunt Hannah whipped, and
gagged with that new gag, and left her all night in her cabin; and
when I opened her door her tongue was swollen out of her mouth and
looked so awful, I wouldn't have known her if she hadn't been in her
own cabin. I told 'em she groaned so, I reckoned she was dying, and
they sent for the doctor to come and cut the barbs out, and he told
Mr. Lay she would have died in an hour longer. It was a long time
before she recovered from it. But as near as she was to dying, the
overseer left Ben all night with that kind of a gag; and they found
him dead in the morning. You of the North have no idea of the perfect
hell upon earth we've had down here. Mr. Lay brought Alice from
Kentucky, and she'd been a kitchen-maid, and never worked in the
cotton-field till she came here. The overseer was a mighty hard man,
and he drew that long whip of his over her shoulders so often because
she couldn't keep up with the other hands, that she ran away in the
bush and was gone two days before they caught her. Then they whipped
her awfully, and in two or three days they drove her out in the field.
Within a week she ran away again, and was gone about two weeks. They
caught her with the help of bloodhounds; and when she was brought in,
her arms were torn by the dogs, and I trembled for the poor girl, for
I knew they'd nearly kill her. Sure enough, the first I knew my
husband had her at his shop, to iron her with a full set. There was a
knee-stiffener, an iron collar with a bell, and a pair of handcuffs,
with a chain between to allow her to use the hoe. When I saw the heavy
irons I went to the shop and begged Mr. Crosly not to iron Alice like
that, for it would kill her, as she was badly torn by the dogs. But he
swore at me, and told me to go back into the house, were I belonged;
this was his business. I went back and cried over it till it appeared
I couldn't live; and I went out again and begged him not to put on all
these irons; for he knew they were heavier than the law allowed, and