Treatment of Slaves: Punishment

                 According to abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld, Samuel Ellison was a Quaker who had lived in Southampton County before moving to Marlborough, Ohio.

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                 While a resident of Southampton county, Virginia, I knew two men, after having been severely treated, endeavor to make their escape. In this they failed—were taken, tied to trees, and whipped to death by their overseer. I lived a mile from the negro quarters, and, at that distance, could frequently hear the screams of the poor creatures when beaten, and could also hear the blows given by the overseer with some heavy instrument.

From Theodore Dwight Weld, American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (New York: American Antislavery Society, 1839), 64.