A human being in a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles.
This vivid imagery illustrates the brutal reality of physical punishment inflicted on enslaved individuals.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.