Viewing page 59 of 260

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

receive the lash oftener & more severely now, than they did when they were slaves. Then the men were prohibited from whipping their wives, but now they feel at liberty to whip them when they please; the civil law to the contrary notwithstanding. I have always deprecated that kind of punishment called whipping-strapping etc. & never done or suffered any of it on my place. I have also rigidly forbidden the too frequent custom in this country of suffering negroes to use vulgar, insulting obscene or blasphemous language in hearing of the family.                                           custom in this country of suffering negroes to use vulgar, insulting obscene or blasphemous.
 
Hence I would take it as a special favour, to be informed whether I would be sustained in making such conditions in a contract, as would either prevent them from quarrelling & fighting - using insulting, obscene, or blasphemous language in hearing of the family, by a reasonable forfeiture for the first offence; or authorize me, as a repetition, to eject them from my premises.

I would by no means desire to trouble you for information, solely for the benefit of my own isolated case; but information to me would also benefit many others & would to some extent be probono publico.

Trusting that you will correctly appreciate my motives, & that you will not consider this an intrusion,
I am General,
most respetfly
Your obt.Servt.
Joel Mathews