MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver (Italics)

[s~Z]

>>>Likewise, even if all of Dixon's italics indicate that he is shaking the
whip or even lashing,  there is nothing in the text to suggest that Dixon is
not simply shaking the whip in the air, failing to inflict injury on the
Driver.<<<

There is nothing in the text to definitively state. If you put together
Dixon's words, the reactions of the onlookers, the broken tooth, the bodily
position of the slavedriver, there is much to suggest the possibility of a
whipped slavedriver.

>>>But, if we can find other examples where P uses italics in this way<<<

The way in which they are used includes multiple repetitions of the same
word or variant thereof, and parallel structure of usage by two characters
in response to one another.