See quotation 1843.
1834. He laid sticks across the large logs that were too heavy to move, and niggered them off with fire.—Seba Smith (‘Major Downing’), ‘My Thirty Years Out of the Senate,’ (1860), p. 18. (Italics in the original.)
1843. During the day, this winter, I took lessons in axecraft; for, in addition to the “niggering-off,” it became necessary as the cold increased, to chop off logs, especially as our fire-place devoured wood at the rate of half-a-cord per diem.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ i. 188.
1843. This is the niggering-off. It is thus performed. A small space is hacked into the upper side of the trunk, and in that for awhile is maintained a fire fed with dry chips and brush; then at right angles, with the prostrate timber is laid in the fire a stick of some green wood, dry fuel being added at intervals, till the incumbent stick, sinking deeper and deeper into the burning spot, in no very long time, if properly attended, divides or niggers the trunk asunder.—Id., i. 240.
