Letter from Placide, Philadelphia, [Pa.], to William Lloyd Garrison, July 21st 1849

Writing under the nom de plume of "Placide", the author addresses William Lloyd Garrison to present a "candid statement" on the "late insurrection" in the Charleston Work House, as well as to highlight the "doings of the sons of chivalry in the Sunny South". Placide labels the Charleston Work House one of "Blood, of Cruelties, & of Murder", designed for the "imprisonment & corporeal punishment of the poor dejected slave", and describes the physical and psychological tortures that are therein applied to "correct" slaves. Placide details a lengthy list of religious authorities in Charleston who make use of the city organ in question, and laments the hypocrisy. Placide recounts to Garrison the account of an "insurrection" by a slave named Nicholas, who could not bear that he should be separated from his to-be-sold-sister save for by death, and his subsequent execution.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library