Sassywood

The person who is designated as guilty of the crime of witchcraft is arrested by the soldier king, and condemned to the ordeal of sassy-wood. The bark of the sassy-wood is powerfully narcotic, and a strong decoction of this the person condemned is forced to drink; and after he has drank it, he walks to and fro, exclaiming "Am I a witch," "am I a witch?" while one of his executioners walks behind him replying "You are a witch, you are a witch;" and this continues until he either throws off from his stomach the poison, when he is pronounced innocent, or it operates as a cathartic, when he is declared guilty, and compelled to take more of the decoction, and is subjected to other cruelties, which cause his speedy death. […] This ordeal by sassy-wood is one of the most prevalent and cruel of African superstitions, and is practised among nearly if not all the tribes of Africa.

A man named Prince came into the parlor; he spoke broken English, and told Mrs. Payne that his people were going to give him ‘sasa-wood.’ A man had died among his people, and the men bearing the body to the grave ran against his house: they believe that the body influences them to go against the house of him who bewitched or killed the dead man. He (Prince) had gone to another town, and was trying sasa-wood in small quantities; if it does not injure him, he will go to his own town, and take it before his people.

[…] He wondered what sasswood was—Delah had sworn by sasswood that she was telling the truth when the coaxed those in the shadow village out of hiding. Delah explained that many years ago, before the Americos starting intefering in tribal business, trial by sasswood was a way of determining whether a person accused of a crime was innocent or guilty. The bark of a particular tree was mashed to make a "truth serum." If the accused died after drinking the concoction, he was guilty. Refusal to drink was also an indication of guilt, in which case the accused was executed.

The man dipped a machete in a concoction of water, palm oil and kola nuts, held it in fire for several minutes, and then placed it on the right legs of the four suspects. None of the youths – ages 16 to 26 – appeared to flinch. They were deemed not guilty. This practice known as ‘sassywood’ is banned under national law, but is still regarded as a legitimate form of justice by many Liberians. A suspect is subjected to intense pain and judged on his or her reaction – if the hot metal burns the person’s leg, he or she is found guilty. […] According to a rights activist in Nimba County, the problem is that many people will submit to sassywood because they do not know it has been outlawed. “Sassywood is very common here and most people believe that it is the only means of knowing a guilty person,” said Dualo Lor of the church-based NGO Equip-Liberia in Nimba, 300km from Monrovia. “They are not even aware the practice is outlawed.”

This man, being informed of his sentence, pleaded innocence, and said he himself would drink Sasswood water to prove it. His friends urged him to confess, as his brother, the king, said he had no ill will against him, and did not wish him to drink the Sasswood, unless it was his own pleasure to do so. He still, however, persisted in his wish to make the trial. Four pieces of the Sasswood tree, each about the size of a finger nail, were then prepared for him; […]

The trial by drinking a decoction of sassy-wood and other poisons is one of the worst of the religious rites of that barbarous region. It is imposed at the pleasure of the chiefs, on those accused of crime, with the pretence that it will not injure the innocent; but is managed so as to kill all whom the chiefs wish to destroy.

The bark of the sassy-wood is powerfully narcotic, and a strong decoction of this the person condemned is forced to drink; […]