HistoryPorn

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

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.

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.