(SLAVERY) Letter describing an enslaved woman getting 100 la

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(SLAVERY.) Letter describing an enslaved woman getting 100 lashes for resisting rape. Autograph Letter Signed from Stephen Gale to brother-in-law(?) Ezra Worthen of Amesbury, MA. 3 pages, 13 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet, with free-franked address panel on final blank; minimal wear. Milton, FL, 13 August 1840

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This letter was written by a relocated Yankee living on the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola. Much of the letter discusses financial woes and politics in Florida Territory, but one long passage describes the harrowing abuse of an enslaved woman:

"I had to witness a most disgraceful scene this morning. . . . A certain person here keeps tavern. He has a Negro woman hired to him. He is noted for his low rascality & not respected by any who know him. This is the second attempt he has made to have connexion with her, and she refused him. The old brute has a wife and family. I hapen'd to rise as usual about daylight & went on the race course, saw the horses run through (practising for a race). On my return found that this Negro woman had maltreated the man & wounded him & cut him on the head & face for his base attempt, but the good people owning Negroes said it was a bad example to be set to the other slaves, and she must be whip'd. They tied her on a waggon body and made him give her about 100 lashes, all for an example to others."