What may have been mechanically and heartlessly done by the overseer, is now done with a will.

The man who now wields the lash is irresponsible.
He may, if he pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of consequences; except in so far as it may concern profit or loss.

To a man of violent temper--as my old master was--this was but a very slender and inefficient restraint.

I have seen him in a tempest of passion, such as I have just described--a passion into which entered all the bitter ingredients of pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the thrist( sic) for revenge.
The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave rise to this fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor{66} isolated in slave life, but are common in every slaveholding community in which I have lived.

They are incidental to the relation of master and slave, and exist in all sections of slave-holding countries.
The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of the slaves who lived with my old master, _Esther_ is mentioned.