William Theodore Weld on 'American Slavery as it is' Page 129, Northern Visitors Testify that Slaves are not Cruelly Treated

In the following testimony, given in August of 1837, the Hon. Daniel M. Durell, of Dover, formerly Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for that state, and a member of Congress, was charging the abolitionist, in presence of several gentlemen of the bar, at their boarding house with exaggerations and misrepresentations of slave treatment at the south.

The following conversation occurred between the Judge mentioned above and N.P. Rogers, Esq. of Concord N.H.:

Judge: Oh, they misrepresent and lie about this treatment of niggers, ' he continued "I'm going through all the states I visited, I do not now remember a single instance of cruel treatment. Indeed, I remember of seeing but one nigger struck, during my whole journey. there was one instance. We were riding in the stage, pretty early one morning, and we met a black fellow, driving a span of horses, and a load (I think he said) of hay. The fellow turned out before we got to him, clean down into the ditch, as far as he could get. He knew you see, what to depend on, if he did not give the road. Our driver as we passed the fellow, fetched him a smart crack with this whip across the chops. He did not make any noise, though, I guess it hurt him some- he grinned. -Oh, no! These fellow exaggerate. The niggers, as a general thing, are kindly treated. There may be exceptions, but I saw nothing of it.' (By the way, the judge did not know there were any abolitionist present). 'What did you do to the driver, Judge' said I, 'for striking that man?' 'Do?" said he, 'I did nothing to him to be sure.' 'What did you say to him, sir?' said I, 'Nothing.' He replied: ' I said nothing to him.' 'What did the other passengers do?' said I. ' Nothing.' he replied: 'They said nothing to him.' 'What did the other passengers do?' said I. 'Nothing, sir' said the Judge. 'The fellow turned out the white of his eye, but he did not make any noise.' 'Did the driver say any thing, Judge, when he struck the man?' 'Nothing,' said the Judge, 'only he damned him and told him he'd learn him to keep out of the reach of his whip.' 'Sir' said I, 'If George Thompson had told this story, in the warmth of an anti-slavery speech, I should scarcely have credited it. I have attended many anti-slavery meetings, and I never heard an instance of such cold-blooded, wanton, insolent, diabolical cruelty as this: and, sir, if I live to attend another meeting, I shall related this, and give Judge Durell's name as the witness of it.' An infliction of the most insolent character, entirely unprovoked, on a perfect stranger, who had showed the utmost civility, in giving all the road and only could not get beyond the long reach of the drivers whip --and he a stage driver, a class generous next to the sailor, in the sober hour of morning--and borne in silence--and told to show that the colored man of the south was kindly treated-- all evincing, to an unutterable extent, that the temper of the south toward the slave is merciless, even to diabolism--and that the north regards him with, if possible, a more fiendish indifference still!"