This instrument erases the skin, and cuts out small portions of the flesh at almost every stroke; and is so frequently applied, that the smack of it is all day long in the ears of those, who are in the vicinity of the plantations.

This severity of masters, or managers, to their slaves, which is considered only as common discipline, is attended with bad effects.

It enables them to behold instances of cruelty without commiseration, and to be guilty of them without remorse.

Hence those many acts of deliberate mutilation, that have taken place on the slightest occasions: hence those many acts of inferiour, though shocking, barbarity, that have taken place without any occasion at all: the very slitting[065] of ears has been considered as an operation, so perfectly devoid of pain, as to have been performed for no other reason than that for which a brand is set upon cattle, _as a mark of property_.
But this is not the only effect, which this severity produces: for while it hardens their hearts, and makes them insensible of the misery of their fellow-creatures, it begets a turn for wanton cruelty.

As a proof of this, we shall mention one, among the many instances that occur, where ingenuity has been exerted in contriving modes of torture.
"An iron coffin, with holes in it, was kept by a certain colonist, as an auxiliary to the lash.