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Show 34 NOTES ON Be that, however, as it may, t1w extracts arc to my pur~ pose, as much ns though their provisions were, each and all of them, to be found in the code of every slave State. For I am not undertaking, be it observed, to defend every provision of the slave-code in every State: the nature all(! design of the work I am sifting does not require it of me. ~'he object of Mrs. Stowe in writing·Unelc Tom's Cabin was not to bring about the melioration of the slave-code, by showing that several of itS provisions, some in one State, and some in another, bore unnecessarily hard upon the slave, and ought therefore to be repealed or modified. Had that been her object, many of her allegations against the slavecode would have been in point, and I, certainly, should not have controverted her application of them. nut her object was quite a different one. It was, as is clear from her declaration of it iu the prciiuce, and from the whole tenor of the narrative, to strike at the system of slavery, by showing its necessary cruelty and injustice, and therefore no provision of the slave-code, however "cruel" and "unjust," lhat is not inseparable from the system, in other words, that is not found on the statute-book of eve~·y slave State, has any business in U nclc ~rom's Cabin. Now, leave out all these unnecessary provisions, which, if they prove anything, prove, not that the systern is wrong, but that in the code Of Kentucky, for instance, as also in that of several of the other States, ihcrc is room for improvement, which, I presume, no Kentuckian would dcny,-I say, leave out all these unnecessary provisions, and the parts of the story founclecl upon them,-lcave out, also, all those provisions which, though Qecessary, are not peculiar to the slave system, being found, substantially, on the statute books of the free States,-leave out, further, all those portions of the book that are inconsistent with themselves, and with each other,-finally, leave out all the falso UNC L E i'Ol\l'S CAD I N. 35 premises, anU all the inconsequent conclusions, all the sequences turned into consequences, and the rhetoric turned in1:o logic, with all, in the story, that is built upon them, and what would be left of Uncle Tom's Cabin might be put in a nutshell, "ay, and leave room for the kernel." So much by way of general observation; I now proceed to take up each point in detail. The figures ·in parenthesis refer to the same figures on pages 27 to 30. ~'he first charge of our uuthor ngainst the slave-code is, that it makes the slave a thiNg and not a person. This seems to be a ftwourite accusation with~er, to judge from the frequency with which she in tro(luces it, for it is found, either express or implied, in (1,) (2,) (3,) (8,) (10,) and (13.) And yet, if the reader will turn to Appendix, E. 1, and tho passages in italics in E. 2, he will sec that tho charge has no foundation in fact, but is tho crea-ture of the author's teeming f<>ncy. Undoubtedly tho slave is a chattel for ce>·tain 1YUJ'}J08es; but as undoubtedly, for certain other purposes, he is not a chattel. A chattel is a thing which its owner ma.y usc as he pleases, so he do not injure his neighbour, or society, in the using of it. A fa.rmer's sheep, for instance, arc chattel!:!, and he may shea,r them when he pleases, and as often ns 110 pleases; and when he has done shearing them, Ito ma,y kill them, and cut them up for mlttton. But ca.n the planter serve his slave "such scurvy sauce?" 1\'hen he can, ancl shall, with tllC sanction of the Ia.w, then ~frs. Stowe shall be welcome to call the slave a mere chattel, for a chattel, then, he will indeed be, with a venge::mce. Such a chattel he was in ancient Rome, prior to the civil law; such a chattel he is in modern Africa. ; his negro mastct· may work him when he pleases, and kill :tnd cat him when he pleases; and he does it, too. (Sec Appendix, B.) ~'he old Homan did not directly cat his slave, but he fed his lampreys on him, and ate them, and so ate him at second hand. Dut, as Judge |