Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 35
24.03.2006
and did not shew fear of a white man, as the other negroes did. Stevens
therefore made up his mind to tame him down, and used him all the more
cruelly. Now this Doctor Woods had a son named Elisha, who owned a negro
girl of the name of Annikie. He sold this girl to Stevens. Primus had married
Annikie, and was very fond of her. It used to cut him to the heart to see her
flogged, which Stevens often used to do. He treated them both so cruelly,
indeed, that at last Primus made up his mind to have done with it. One day he
tied a brace round his arm, and cut a vein, then ran home to kill Annikie, hoping
they might both die together. But he bled too much, and Uncle Billy having
seen him, loosed the cord, and saved his life. He hallooed after Primus as he
was running home, and he was caught, and taken to the home-house.
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Weak as he was from loss of blood, he was picketed, and turned loose.
It seems that Primus took a dislike to Uncle Billy from that time, because Billy
had told upon him. He threatened to be revenged some day, and soon after
Stevens heard of it. He got Tom and Elijah Wilson, neighbouring planters, to
come in and help punish him; so they came one day and laid hold of him,
Stevens assisting them. They stretched him, face downwards, on a carpenter's
bench, his hands being tied underneath, as tightly as the cords could be drawn.
They then cut his clothes off his back, and Stevens took a cobbing paddle and
laid on to him as long as he could stand. This paddle was a piece of wood from
eighteen inches to two feet long, having a handle about eight inches in length. It
was made of oak, one end being broad and flat, and between five and six inches
in width, with eight holes drilled through it. Before being used, it was wetted
and rubbed in sand. When Stevens got tired, he handed the instrument over to
John Wilson. During the infliction of this punishment, all of us slaves were
made to stand by. Every blow they struck raised eight blisters, the blood starting
underneath them, quite black. They
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paddled him in this way, five minutes at a time, each of them, for about an hour;
long before which, Primus was befooled. Then Stevens took a raw cow-hide and
flogged him across the blisters till they burst, the blood flying out all over him,
and round about the bench on to the ground. When he had flogged him till the
poor fellow's back and loins were like a jelly, they rubbed the parts with red
pepper and salt and water, and sent him to quarters. It was a horrible scene; the