I entered this
building, where I found a bench of magistrates, the mayor of the city
being amongst them, adjudicating on the cases brought before them. These
consisted chiefly of negroes apprehended in the streets after nine
o'clock the previous night; they were in all cases, except where their
owners paid the fine, sentenced to receive from ten to twenty lashes,
which were administered at once by the city gaoler, in a yard at the
rear of a building, near which officers were in attendance for the
purpose. I must mention, in explanation, that one of the laws passed
directly after the insurrection, was to prohibit negroes, on any
pretence, to be out after nine, p.m. At that hour, the city guard, armed
with muskets and bayonets, patrolled the streets, and apprehended every
negro, male or female, they found abroad. It was a stirring scene, when
the drums beat at the guard-house in the public square I have before
described, preparatory to the rounds of the soldiers, to witness the
negroes scouring the streets in all directions, to get to their places
of abode, many of them in great trepidation, uttering ejaculations of
terror as they ran.
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