CHAPTER I.

AMERICAN SLAVERY.

By American Slavery is meant the condition of those Americans who are claimed, held and treated, in these United States, as property.

A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing, but what must belong to his masterLouisiana Code. }

The same codé, speaking of the legal nature of slave property, says :

Slaves, though moveable by their nature, are considered immoveable by the operation of law. And again :

Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate; shall be, as such, subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law; and they shall be levied and sold as real estate.

"Goods they are," says the civil code, "and goods they shall be esteemed."-Taylor's Elements, p. 429.

"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, and reputed to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, their executors, adminis. trators, and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever."-Laws of South Carolina, i Stroud, p. 22-3.

"This dominion of the master is as unlimited as

that which is tolerated by the laws of any civilized community in relation to brute animals-to 'quadrupeds,' to use the words of the civil law."Stroud, p. 24.)

Hence it appears, that the distinguishing principle of American Slavery is this: slaves are not to be ranked among rational beings, but they are to be CLAIMED, HELD and TREATED as things, as articles of property," to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever."

Consequently it does not allow to the slave the rights of his own reason and conscience.

It annihilates the family state; prevents the parents from obeying the command of God with regard to their children; it prohibits, or nullifies, the marriage rites, and prevents husbands and wives from obeying the commands of God with regard to each other.

It enjoins, or sanctions, promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, without the rites of marriage.

It holds all the religious privileges of the slave at the mere mercy of his master, whether that master be infidel, papist, or protestant.

It prevents the slave from obeying that command of God, which makes it the duty, of all men to "search the Scriptures.

Its direct tendency is to crush the minds of God's intelligent creatures, by forbidding and preventing all schools for "mental instruction."

It withholds the hire of the laborer.

It sanctions and covers the breach of the 8th commandment. It justifies the very same thing which our laws and the laws of nations punish as

piracy, if committed on the coast of Africa, or on the high seas. It originates and justifies what the Bible calls "manstealing.'

It denies to the slave that protection for his character, his health and life, which is enjoyed by the white man.

Here it must be observed, that what we have stated above, forms no part of what is generally called the "evils of slavery," or, in other words, the "abuses of the system;" but the above facts make up the very system itself, the very thing which

we say is a sin against God.

CHAPTER II.

NO COLOR EXEMPT FROM SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

A law of South Carolina reads as follows:"All negroes, Indians, (free Indians in amity with this government, and negroes, mulattoes, and mestizos, who are now free, excepted,) mulattoes, or mestizos, who are now or shall hereafter be in this province, and all their issue and offspring born, or to be born, shall be, and they are hereby de.. clared to be and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother."

Similar laws are now in force in Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, and Louisiana.

Hence it will be perceived, 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 whites, it is well known, increase the colored population, but the colored, cannot increase the whites.

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL CONDITION OF THE ENSLAVED.

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.

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