have been reduced to slavery since the latter period, have been decided by the highest courts in that state to be free. So late as 1797, it was decided by the Supreme Court of New-Jersey, Chief Justice Kinsey, that Indians might be held as slaves.

They(Indians) have been so long recognized as slaves, in our law, that it would be as great a violation of the rights of property to establish a contrary doctrine at the present day, as it would in the case of the Africans; and as useless to investigate the manner in which they ORIGINALLY lost their freedom. The State vs. Waggoner,

1 Halstead's Reports, 374 to 376.

Persons emancipated, but not in the prescribed form of law, are liable to be re-enslaved, thus in South Carolina.

In case any slave shall be emancipated or set free, otherwise than according to the act (of 1800) regulating emancipation, it shall be lawful for any person whosoever to seize and convert to his or her own use, and to keep as his or her property the said slave so illegally emancipated or set free. 2 Brevard's Digest, 256.

And in Virginia, "If any emancipated slave (infants excepted) shall remain within the state more than twelve months after his or her right to freedom shall have accrued, he or she shall forfeit all such right, and may be apprehended and sold by the overseers of the poor, &c., for the benefit of THE LITERARY FUND!! 1 Rev. Code, 436.

Hence it will be perceived, that slavery has no limits. It lays its bloody hands not only on native Americans of African descent, and their children, forever, but on Indians. "Nor is it confined to color," says Mr. Paxton of Virginia.

"The best

blood in Virginia flows in the veins of the slaves." Many who are now held in slavery, in this nation, are as white as the masters by whom they are oppressed.

CHAPTER III.

NUMBER OF AMERICANS ENSLAVED.

The increase of the slave population in these United States, for the fifty years ending in 1830, has been as follows:

Hence, it appears, that, according to the ratio of increase between 1820, and 1830, there must have been in 1835, not less than 2,245,144 slaves in these United States.

The following table will show the increase of the Whites and Blacks, on this ratio, in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolína, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida.

The ratio of increase of the Whites is 29% per cent; and of the Blacks 32 per cent. That the blacks should increase faster than the whites, is easily accounted for, from the fact, that the former class are increased by the latter, but the blacks cannot increase the whites.

If we set down the number of slaves now in the United States, at, say, 2,500,000; and add to these, in Brazil, 2,000,000; in the Spanish possessions, 300,000; in the French, 300,000; in the possessions of Portugal, Denmark, Holland, &c., 200,000. We have before us the appalling number of more than FIVE MILLIONS of human beings prostrate beneath the hoof of a relentless tyranny, for no other crime than the color of their skins!

CHAPTER

IV.

CIVIL CONDITION OF THE ENSLAVED.

Color a Legal Evidence of Slavery.

A white man may enslave any colored one, and, as between himself and the slave, the law does not require him to establish his claim; the slave is compelled to remain so, if he cannot prove his freedom. The South Carolina Act of 1740, permits persons held as slaves and claiming to be free, to petition the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, who if they see cause may allow a guardian to bring an action for freedom against the master. The sequel of this law shows how poor is the encouragement for both the suitor and his guardian.

And if judgment shall be given for the plaintiff, a special entry shall be made, declaring that the ward of the plaintiff is free, and the jury shall assess damages which the

plaintiff's ward hath sustained, and the court shall give judgment and award execution against the defendant for such damages, with full cost of suit; but in case judgment shall be given for the defendant, the said court is hereby fully empowered to inflict SUCH CORPORAL PUNISH MENT, NOT EXTENDING TO LIFE OR LIMB, on the ward of the plaintiff, as they in their discretion shall think fit. Provided, that in any action or suit to be brought in pursuance of the direction of this act, THE BURDEN OF THE PROOF shall lay upon the plaintiff, and it shall be always presumed that every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo, is a slave, unless the contrary be made to appear, (the Indians in amity with this government excepted, in which case, the burden of the proof shall be on the defendant.) 2 Brevard's Digest, 229, 30.

Virginia shows her hostility to the claim for freedom by the following provision of her Revised Code:

For aiding and abetting a slave in a trial for freedom, if the claimant shall fail in his suit, a fine of one hundred dollars is imposed.-1 Rev. Code, 482.

The only known exception to this principle of throwing the burden of proof upon the person claimed as a slave, is in North Carolina, where persons of mixed blood, by a decision of the court, are presumed to be free.

By this cruel presumption, free persons are constantly taken up on suspicion of being runaways, and after being in prison for some months, are sold to pay their JAIL FEES.

Mental Instruction prohibited.

South Carolina may lay claim to the earliest movement in legislation on this subject. In 1740, while yet a province, she enacted this law:

Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences, Be it enacted, That all and

every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money. 2 Brevard's Digest, 243.

Similar in Georgia, by act of 1770, except as to the penalty, which is twenty pounds sterling. Prince's Digest, 455.

In the same state the following additional restraints were enacted in 1800:

That assemblies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes and mestizoes, whether composed of all or any of such description of persons, or of all or any of the same and of a proportion of white persons, met together for the purpose of mental instruction in a confined or secret place, &c. &c., is (are) declared to be an unlawful meeting, and magistrates, &c. &c., are hereby required, &c. to enter into such confined places, &c. &c., to break doors, &c. if resisted, and to disperse such slaves, free negroes, &c. &c., and the officers dispersing such unlawful assemblies, may inflict such corporal punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes, upon such slaves, free negroes, &c. as they may judge necessary, for DETERRING THEM FROM THE LIKE UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLAGE IN FUTURE. Brevard's Digest, 254.

And another section of the same act declares

That it shall not be lawful for any number of free negroes, mulattoes or mestizoes, even of slaves in company with white persons, to meet together for the purpose of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun or after the going down of the same. 2 Brevard's Digest, 254-5.

Virginia passed the following in 1819:

That all meetings or assemblages of slaves or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting house, or houses, or any other