The Slave Slander

The Volunteer declares it can “prove its statement true to the letter.” that ---there is a man in the borough of Carlisle who witnessed Gen. Taylor torturing one of his slaves, by hanging the poor black devil by the two thumbs to the limb of a tree, when the (Gen. Taylor) with his own hands whipped him with a cow hide, every ten minutes for two hours, and laughed at the fun.”

It will be seen that the “poor black devil” could hardly have been put through such a brutal process of punishment as this without the losing his life, and yet we are told that it was the act of Gen. T. himself, who laughed at the fun”!! This story the Volunteer declares its ability to prove. We deny it, and again venture to denounce the story as false, and infamously slanderous. If there is any man who pretends to have witnessed such a scene, we caution him to look carefully at the statement made by the Volunteer, before he ventures to swear that Gen. Taylor committed a deed which could scarcely fail of resulting in cold-blooded murder. His affidavit must tell a story very much modified from the above, or it will sink to infamy his own character instead of injuring Gen. Taylor. The humanity, kindness of heart and benevolence of Gen. Taylor are matters of history, which have shed a luster upon his name as imperishable as have his great deeds upon the field. That he may not in the course of his life have properly punished a slave for misconduct, we are not of course prepared to deny, but that he ever perpetrated such an atrocious act of cruelty as the above, no reckless affidavit maker can make us or a respectable community believe.