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Show Mrs. Mafon & Mrs. Child. blue eyes, and clear complexion." This could not be, unless t 11 e·u · f:a tl1 ers, gt·c"~' ndf:athers ' and great-grandfathers had been w 1u ·t e men. But 'a s their mothers were slave , the .l aw pro-nounce t!1l em sl"·~' ves ' subJi cct to be sold on the auctiOn-block whenever the necessities or convenience of their rna ters or · ·cqu1 • 1·c 1mistresses 't Tl1e sale of one's own children, brothers, 1 • or st·s t crs, h a s ar1 uror ly aspect to those who are unaccustomed c: • to "t. d obviously it cannot have a good moral mflucnce 1 , an , ' that law and custom should render licentiousness a profit-able vice. Throurrhout the Slave States, the testimony of no colored per on, b~nd or free, can be received against a white man. You have some bws which, on the face of them, would seem to restrain inhuman men from murdering or mutilating slaves; but they are rendered nearly null by the law I hm,:c cited. Any drunken master, overseer, or patrol, may go 1~to the nerrro cabins and commit what outrages he pleases, With perfee~ impunity, if no 'vhite person is pre. cnt who choo es to witness against him. North Carolina and Georgia leave a large loophole for c cape, even if white persons are pre cnt, when murder is committed. A law to puni ~h persons for "maliciously killing a slave" has this remarkable qualification: "Always provided that this act hall not extend to any slave dying of moderate correction." 'Ve, at the North, find it difficult to understand how nwde1·ate punishment can cause death. I have read several of your law books attentively, and I find no ca~cs of puni hmcnt for the murder of a slave, except by fines paid to the owner, to indemnify him for the l~ss of his property: the same as if his horse or cow had been killed. In the South Carolina Reports is a ca e where the State indicted Guy Raines for the murder of a slave named Isaac. It was proved that lVilliam Gray, the owner of Isaac, had given him a thousand lashes. The poor creature made hi8 escape, but was oaqght, ~nd delive11ed to the custody of Raines, to be carried to the COl.lnty jail. Because he refused to go, Raines gave Mrs. Mafon & Mrs. Child. 339 him fiyc hundred lashes, and he died ~oon aftet-. The counsel for Raine~ propo · d that he should be allowed to acquit him~ clf by hi own oatlt. The court dcci<.led against it, becau ~e white witnesses had testifierl; but the Court of Appeal af'terwan1 decided that he ought to have been ex culpated by his own oath, and he was acquitted. Small indeed i~ tLe clwnce for justice to a slave, when his own color arc not allowed to testify, if they sec him maimed or his children murdered; wh •n lJC has slaveholders for Judges and Jurors; when the murderer can exculpate himself by his own oath; and when the law provide that it is no murder to kill a slave by " moderate correction " ! Your laws uniformly declare that" a . lave shall he deemed a chattel per onal in the hands of hi. owner, to all intents, con tructions, and purposes whatsoever." This, of course, involves the right to sell hi., children, as if they were pigs ; al o, to take his wife from him "for any intent or purpose whatsoever." Your laws also make it death for him to resi t a white man, however brutally he may be treated, or however much his family may be outraged before his eye. . If }1e attempts to run awny, your laws allow any man to shoot him. By your law , all a slave's earnings belong to his rna tcr. He can neither receive donation::; nor tran mit property. If his master allows him some hours to work for himself, and by g,.cat energy and perseverance he earns enough to buy his own bones and sinews, his master may make him pay two or three times over, and he has no redress. Three such cases have come within my own knowledge. l~vcn a written promi ·c fi·om his ma ter has no legal value, because a slave can make no contracts. Your laws also systematically aim at keeping the minds of the colored people in the most abject state of ignorance. If white people attempt to teach them to read or write, they are puni.;;hed by imprisonment, or fines; if they attempt to teach <>a9h other, they are punished with from twenty to thirty-niue |