Torture of slaves in the United States was fairly common, as part of what many slavers claimed was necessary discipline. As one historian put it, "Stinted allowance, imprisonment, and whipping were th
"Said the wife of an ex-negro trader in Virginia to a freedmen who was skinning a live catfish, 'How can you be so cruel!'—'Why,' said the intelligent contraband, 'Dis is de way dey used to do me, and I'se gwine to get even wid somebody.'" (Waynesboro Record, Waynesboro, Penn., March 9, 1866)
This Thomas Nast illustration depicts the cat-o-nine-tails lash in use.
"Whipping with the paddle as witnessed by the author" (Narrative of Henry Watson, a Fugitive Slave, 1848)
Detail of the "hot paddle" from the Wilson Chinn photos taken during the American Civil War
Slaves in the United States were often subjected to sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like whippings. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usu
Torture of slaves in the United States
…Slave jails in the United States Treatment of slaves in the United States Glossary of American slavery…
Scars of Peter, a whipped Louisiana slave, photographed in April 1863 and later distributed by abolitionists
Bill of sale for the auction of the "Negro Boy Jacob" for "Eighty Dollars and a half" (equivalent to $1,770 in 2025) to satisfy a money judgment against the "property" of his enslaver, Prettyman Boyce. October 10, 1807. Click on the photo for complete transcription.
Abolitionist drawing showing enslaved people being tortured
Plantation slave cabins, South Carolina Low Country