In this transcript Peter mentions "salt brine, which Overseer put in my back."[8] This practice, sometimes called salting, was attested in many accounts of slave torture reported over many decades.[16] Other substances, including turpentine, hot-pepper juice, and dripping candle wax, were also used

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 63 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Jesus fuck. And we let those white supremacist slave torturing fucks walk free.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 44 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Reconstruction was too soft and ended too soon.

[–] divineslayer@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Andrew Johnson is top three worst presidents

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 7 points 10 months ago

Let's also not let Lincoln get away from this discussion. He absolutely did huge harm to the radical reconstruction movement, although Johnson turned that to 11. He also has an awful record in regards to indigenous peoples. (As has every president)

[–] teh_bishop@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Yes his name should be repurposed to be defined as rancid rat shit injected in a forehead of a shitty president.

[–] nbafantest@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Sherman could only do so much, unfortunately

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Five or six months after the scourging...the frightful laceration was partially healed, and only scars remained. But what must the whipping have been to leave such scars! The back looks like a plate of iron, eaten by acids and corroded by rust; or like a walnut-table honey-combed by worms... Bits as big as the hand seem to have been cut out of the flesh. No wonder that, at this distance of time, the man looks thin and ghastly, though he was a strong man, and must be a man of fine physique and presence....This card-photograph should be multiplied by the hundred thousand, and scattered over the states. It tells the story in a way that even Mrs. Stowe cannot approach; because it tells the story to the eye. If seeing is believing—and it is in the immense majority of cases—seeing this card would be equivalent to believing things of the slave states which Northern men and women would move heaven and earth to abolish.

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@aussie.zone 1 points 10 months ago

Morbidly fascinating.

I had thought the salt brine was a crude antiseptic, I hadn't realised it was intended to hurt. Perhaps both?

Note that the overseer who did the whipping in this case was terminated by the slaves owner, so while I'm sure this wasn't that uncommon, it wasn't the case for every slave.