The rule of violence and the rule of force was the only way for the institution of slavery to work. Enslaved people had to endure some insane punishments. For instance, “Tobacco planters forced their slaves to eat tobacco worms when they have been negligent in their tobacco fields, and have not gathered them from amongst the tobacco leaves…” 

The central point of punishing enslaved people was to get them to behave in a way that the slaveholders approved. Punishments showed what enslaved people endured, but, to an even greater extent, it shows how much they refused to be submissive to certain commands or blindly form their behavior to the demands of the slave society. Instead, enslaved people desired to behave in ways they saw fit- mainly because they resisted and refused to accept all realities foisted upon them. Instead, they forced the slaveholder to accept the realities of the enslaved. 

In most instances, the range of punishment reflected the type of actions committed by enslaved people. The whip was always the weapon of choice for punishment. The backs of many enslaved persons bore testament to their slavery. The number of lashes an enslaved received ranged from a few to the hundreds. 

Captured runaways often got a range of punishments. In a runaway slave advertisement, One slaveholder wrote that he preferred Moses, an enslaved person, if caught, be returned to him dead. He noted, “I will give five times the sum to any person who will make due proof of his being killed, and never ask a question to know by whom it was done.” This was the punishment W. Skinner desired for Moses. 

Cropping ears, cutting toes, placing in stockades, nailing ears to a pillory, and branding were frequent modes of punishment. An enslaved person would be executed if the crime was considered bad enough [arson or poisoning]. Depending on the period, in cases where the crimes were considered heinous but the value of the enslaved person was too high to have them killed, the enslaved person was banished from the state. When banished, the enslaved person was whipped and sold out of the state. For an example of banishment, click HERE

Another punishment faced by enslaved persons was jail. Jail as punishment were local, either a plantation jail or town or county jail. However, some slaves, particularly those freedom seekers who were caught out of state or doing other crimes, including running away, could be sent to the Charleston workhouse. 

Jack was an enslaved person whom John Blunt sold to a slaveholder in South Carolina. While in transit, Jack fled, but he was eventually caught. To punish Jack, John had him sent to Charleston workhouse, where many enslaved people worked hard and were tortured by a treadmill device and endured public whippings. Jack was in the Workhouse for 82 days. More on the Charleston Workhouse

Punishment was not always punishment because the enslaved person did something “wrong,” but some enslaved people faced whipping, beatings, and injuries because of the frustrations, unhappiness, sour mood, or intoxication of slaveholders or someone in the slaveholding family.

James Curry recalled a story of young girl beat so bad that her wounds caused her death, years later.

He noted that the beating was over comb, worth 25 to 37 and a half cents. "The Mistress whipped the little enslaved girl 9 or 10 so long that mistress' daughter had to undress her because the mistress body was so tired after afflicting to much torture. She would beat her until her arm was tired, and then then thrash her on the floor, and stamp on her with her foot, and kick her, and choke her to stop her screams. she beat that child from the morning, before sunrise, until 10 o clock that evening."

One punishment that enslaved people despised was having their loved ones witness their punishment. This form of punishment was a lesson to deter other enslaved people from committing similar acts. 

In addition to having one’s loved ones witness the punishment, punishment sometimes consisted of having a loved one perform the task of punishing. Thus, punishments were also a form of restricting slave behavior. Moreover, not all punishment was physical; as historian Wilma Dunaway noted, “verbal reprimands, belittling, and abuse were the most common forms of nonphysical punishment.”

For Slaveholders, overseers, and generally white citizens inflicting some punishments was more satisfying than others. Punishing runaways and maroons were the height of some white fantasies. For example, when a group of runaways participated in some maroon activity in and around Wilmington, including burning houses, theft, and “murder” or self-defense, several were arrested and killed in a “bragable” fashion. 

“It happened that the wife of one of these slaves resided in one of the most respectable families in Wilmington, in the capacity of nurse. Mr. J, the first lawyer in the place, came into the room, where the lady of the house was sitting, with the nurse, who held a child in her arms, and, addressing the nurse, said, Hannah would you know your husband if you should see him. Oh, yes, sure she replied-when he drew beneath his cloak The Head of the slave (her husband), at the sight of which the poor woman immediately fainted. The heads of the others were placed upon poles., in some part of the town, afterward known as “negro head point.” See more HERE

For some enslaved people, punishment reinforced the innate desire for freedom, whereas, for others, the punishment reinforced the anguish of slavery. Many enslaved persons had to deal with very cruel slaveholders who attacked the flesh of the enslaved. These attacks weighed on the mind of the enslaved people and in enough cases, these attacks and the dreadful prospect of the pain were never-ending, resulting in a number of casualties. 

In one instance, a young enslaved girl, who was 14 years old, had had enough of being a slave after being brutally whipped. A few days after the whipping, she fell behind on the walk to the slave quarters. Other enslaved persons thought she stayed behind in woods, where a fire was set, and was close behind and would catch up. Instead, she stayed out in the rain and cold all night and was found “speechless and died in a short time.” 

In many slave narratives, there is a portion dedicated to punishment. Some of them were so severe that they were unimaginable, whereas others were extremely horrific. However, writers often refused to recount the brutality, as “Slavery is not a pleasant story.”