Note 29 — Chapter XXVII · DELIGHT AND DUTY.
Reading edition
Among the foul records the Rebellion has unearthed is one, found at Alexandria, La., being a stray leaf from the diary of an overseer in that vicinity, in the year 1847. It chronicles the whippings of slaves from April 20 to May 21. Of thirty-nine whippings during that period, nineteen were of females. We give a few extracts from this precious and authentic document:—
“April 20. Whipped Adam for cutting cotton too wide. Nat, for thinning cotton.—21. Adaline and Clem, for being behind.—24. Esther, for leaving child out in yard to let it cry.—27. Adaline, for being slow getting out of quarters.—28. Daniel, for not having cobs taken out of horse-trough.—May 1. Anna, Jo, Hannah, Sarah, Jim, and Jane, for not thinning corn right. Clem, for being too long thinning one row of corn. Esther, for not being out of quarters quick enough.—10. Adaline, for being last one out with row.—15. Esther, for leaving grass in cotton.—17. Peggy, for not hoeing as much cane as she ought to last week.—18. Polly, for not hoeing faster.—20. Martha. Esther, and Sarah, for jawing about row, while I was gone.—21. Polly, for not handling her hoe faster.”
A United States officer from Cambridge, Mass., sent home this stray leaf, and it was originally published in the Cambridge Chronicle.