support of the poor of the county, and the other half to the informer. Haywood's Manual, 526.

In Mississippi, the master incurs a fine of fifty dollars by permitting the slave to cultivate cotton for his own use. Rev. Code, 379; also fifty dollars for permitting the slave to go at large and trade as a freeman. Rev. Code, 374.

The civil code of Louisiana lays down the fol. lowing principles :

All that a slave possesses belongs to his master-he possesses nothing of his own, except his peculium, that is to say, the sum of money or movable estate, which his master chooses he should possess. Art, 175, and see 1 Martin's Digest, 616.

Slaves are incapable of inheriting or transmitting property. Civil Code, Art. 945,

Colored Persons cannot be Witnesses against a White Criminal.

In Virginia, and some others of the slave states, and in one of the free, there is the following law :

Any negro or mulatto, bond or free, shall be a good witness in pleas of the commonwealth for or against negroes or mulattoes, bond or free, or in civil pleas where free negroes or mulattoes shall alone be parties, and in no other cases whatever. 1 R. V. C. 422. Similar in Missouri, 2 Missouri Laws, 600. In Mississippi, Mississippi Rev. Code, 372. In Kentucky, 2 Litt. & Swi. 1150. In Alabama, Toulmin's Digest, 627. In Maryland,. Maryland Laws, act of 1717, ch. 13, § 2, & 3, and an act of 1751, ch. 14, § 4. In North Carolina and Tennessee, act of 1777, ch. 2, § 42. And in ОнIO, act of Assembly, of January 25, 1807.

Restraints upon Emancipation.

In South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, emancipation can take place only by special act of the legislature. In North Carolina no negro or mulatto

slave can be set free "except for meritorious services to be adjudged of and allowed by the County Court." In Tennessee the court is authorized to emancipate upon petition, if the measures set forth in the petition, are in the opinion of the court,“ consistent with the interest and policy of the state." In Mississippi the legislature only can emancipate, by special act, and that only upon proof of meritorious services, &c. In Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, and Maryland, emancipation may be effected by deeds registered in court, saving the "rights of creditors," and giving bonds for maintenance if required by the court. In Virginia, however, if the emancipated be over twenty-one, he must leave the state before the expiration of twelve months, or be reduced into slavery. In Louisiana emancipation is regulated as follows:

The master who wishes to emancipate his slave, is bound to make a declaration of his intention to the judge of the parish where he resides; the judge must order notice of it to be published during forty days by advertisment posted at the door of the court house, and if at the expiration of this delay, no opposition be made, he shall authorize the master to pass the act of emancipation. Art. 187. The general powers thus conferred, are subject nevertheless, to these limitations: "No one can emancipate his slave unless the slave has attained the age of thirty years, and has behaved well at least for four years previous to his emancipation; Art. 185, except a slave who has saved the life of his master, his master's wife, or one of his children," for such a one may be emancipated at any age." Art. 186.

Slaves emancipated otherwise than by these formalities are liable to be reduced to slavery, and in probably, all the states except North Carolina they are liable to be sold for the debts of their emancipators contracted before their emancipation. The State of Georgia has the following barbarous enact

ment:

If any person or persons shall, after the passing of this act (1801,) set free any slave or slaves, in any other manner and form than the one prescribed herein, (i. e. by special legislative act,) he shall forfeit for every such offence two hundred dollars, to be recovered by action of debt, or indictment, the one half to be applied to the use of the county in which the offence may have been committed, the other half to the use of the informer, and the said slave or slaves so manumitted and set free, shall be still to all intents and purposes as much in a state of slavery as before they were manumitted and set free by the party or parties so offending. Prince's Digest, 457.

In 1818 this unrighteous edict was fortified by the following:

All and every will and testament, deed, whether by way of trust or otherwise, contract, agreement or stipulation, or other instrument in writing, or by parole, made and executed for the purpose of effecting or endeavoring to effect the manumission of any slave or slaves, either directly by conferring or attempting to confer freedom on such slave or slaves, or indirectly or virtually, by allowing and securing or attempting to allow and secure to such slave or slaves the right or privilege of working for his, her or themselves, free from the control of the master or owner of such slave or slaves, or of enjoying the profits of his, her or their labor or skill, shall be and the same are hereby declared to be utterly null and void; and the person or persons so making, &c. any such deed, &c. &c., and all and every person or persons concerned in giving or attempting to give effect thereto, whether by accepting the trust created or attempted to be created, or in any way or manner whatsoever, shall be severally liable to a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars, to be recovered, &c. &c., and each and every slave or slaves in whose behalf such will or testament, &c. &c., shall have been made, shall be liable to be arrested by warrant under the hand and seal of any magistrate of this state, and being thereof convicted, &c. and shall be liable to be sold as a slave or slaves, by public outcry, and the proceeds of such sales shall be appropriated, &c. &c. Prince's Digest, 466.

From the foregoing and similar laws it appears: 1. The master may determine the kind, and degree, and time of labor, to which the slave shall be subjected.

2. The master may supply the slave with such food and clothing only, both as to quantity and quality, as he may think proper, or find convenient.

3. The master may, at his discretion, inflict any punishment upon the person of his slave.

4. Slaves have no legal right to any property in things real or personal; but whatever they may acquire, belongs in point of law to their masters.

5. The slave, being a personal chattel, is at all times liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged, or leased, at the will of his master.

6. He may also be sold by process of law, for the satisfaction of the debts of a living, or the debts and bequests of a deceased master, at the suit of creditors or legatees.

7. A slave cannot be a party before a judicial tribunal, in any species of action, against his master, no matter how atrocious may have been the injury received from him.

8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, nor obtain a change of masters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such change necessary for their personal safety.

9. Slaves can make no contracts.

10. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual.

11. A slave cannot be a witness against a white person, either in a civil or criminal cause.

12. He cannot be a party in a civil suit.

13. The benefits of education are withheld from the slaves.

14. The means of moral and religious instruction are not granted to the slave; on the contrary, the efforts of the humane and charitable to supply these wants, are discountenanced by law.

15. Submission is required of the slave, not to the will of his master only, but to that of all other white persons.

16. The penal codes of the slaveholding states bear much more severely upon slaves than upon white persons.

17. Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal accusations, in a manner inconsistent with the rights of humanity.-Stroud's Slave Laws.

CHAPTER V.

MORAL CONDITION OF THE ENSLAVED. Testimony of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia.

The following "facts" are stated in a "Report of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom was referred the subject of the Religious Instruction of the colored population, at its late session, in Columbia, S. C. Published by order of the Synod," in the Charleston Observer in March 22, 1834.

Before we attempt to set forth the duty [to evangelize these heathen] it will be proper to show, that the negroes are destitute of the privileges of the gospel, and ever will be, under the present state of things.

From long continued and close observation, say the Synod by their committees, we believe that their (colored population's) moral and religious condition is such, as that they may justly be considered the heathen of this Christian country, and will bear comparison with heathen in any country in the world.

In the vast field extending from an entire state beyond the Potomac to the Sabine river; and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are, to the best of our knowledge, not twelve men exclusively devoted to the religious instruction of the negroes! * * * The number ['two millions of souls, and more'] divided between them, would give to each a charge of near 170,000!!