1741, c. 24, § 45.—"Which proclamation shall be published on a Sabbath day at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such, at the place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by the parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service; and if any slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued, stay out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by such way or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same."
It is well known that slavery makes labor disreputable in the slave states. Laboring men of the north, hear how contemptibly slaveholders speak of you.
Mr. Robert Wickliffe of Kentucky, in a speech published in the Louisville Advertiser, in opposition to those who were averse to the importation of slaves from the states, thus discourseth:
"Gentlemen wanted to drive out the black population that they may obtainWHITE NEGROESin their place.White negroeshave this advantage over black negroes, they can be converted into voters; and the men who live upon the sweat of their brow, and pay them but a dependent and scanty subsistence, can, if able to keep ten thousand of them in employment, come up to the polls and change the destiny of the country.
"How improved will be our condition when we have such white negroes as perform the servile labors of Europe, of old England, and he would add now ofNew England, when our body servants and our cart drivers, and our street sweepers, arewhite negroesinstead of black. Where will be the independence, the proud spirit, and chivalry of the Kentuckians then?"
"We believe the servitude which prevails in the south far preferable to that of thenorth, or in Europe. Slavery will exist in all communities. There is a class which may be nominally free, but they will be virtuallyslaves."—Mississippian, July 6th, 1838.
"Those who depend on their daily labor for their daily subsistence can never enter into political affairs, they never do, never will, never can."—B. W. Leigh in Virginia Convention, 1829.
"All society settles down into a classification of capitalists and laborers. The former willownthe latter, either collectively through the government, or individually in a state of domestic servitude as exists in the southern states of this confederacy. IfLABORERSever obtain the political power of a country, it is in fact in a state ofREVOLUTION. The capitalists north of Mason and Dixon's line have precisely the same interest in the labor of the country that the capitalists of England have in their labor. Hence it is, that they must have a strong federal government (!)to controlthe labor of the nation. But it is precisely the reverse with us. We have already not only a right to the proceeds of our laborers, but weOWNaclass of laborersthemselves. But let me say to gentlemen who represent the great class of capitalists in the north, beware that you do not drive us into a separate system, for if you do, as certain as the decrees of heaven, you will be compelled toappeal to the sword to maintain yourselves at home. It may not come in your day; but your children's children will be covered with the blood of domestic factions, anda plundering mob contending for power and conquest."—Mr. Pickens, of South Carolina, in Congress, 21st Jan., 1836.
"In the very nature of things there must be classes of persons to discharge all the different offices of society from the highest to the lowest. Some of these offices are regarded asdegraded, although they must and will be performed.Hence those manifest forms of dependent servitude which produce a sense of superiority in the masters or employers, and of inferiority on the part of the servants. Where these offices are performed bymembers of the political community, aDANGEROUS ELEMENTis obviously introduced into the body politic. Hence the alarming tendency to violate the rights of property by agrarian legislation which is beginning to be manifest in the older states whereUNIVERSAL SUFFRAGEprevails withoutDOMESTIC SLAVERY.
"In a word, the institution of domestic slavery supersedes thenecessityofAN ORDER OF NOBILITY AND ALL THE OTHER APPENDAGES OF A HEREDITARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT."—Gov. M'Duffie's Message to the South Carolina Legislature, 1836.
"We of the south have cause now, and shall soon have greater, to congratulate ourselves on the existence of a population among us which excludes thePOPULACEwhich in effect rules some of our northern neighbors, and is rapidly gaining strength wherever slavery does not exist—a populace made up of the dregs of Europe, and the most worthless portion of the native population."—Richmond Whig, 1837.
"Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox by giving him a cultivated understanding, a fine feeling! So far as theMERE LABORERhas the pride, the knowledge or the aspiration of a freeman, he is unfitted for his situation. If there are sordid, servile,laboriousoffices to be performed, is it not better that there should be sordid, servile, laborious beings to perform them?
"Odium has been cast upon our legislation on account of its forbidding the elements of education being communicated to slaves. But in truth what injury is done them by this?He who works during the day with his hands, does not read in the intervals of leisure for his amusement or the improvement of his mind, or the exception is so very rare as scarcely to needthe being provided for."—Chancellor Harper, of South Carolina.—Southern Lit. Messenger.
"Our slave population is decidedly preferable, as an orderly and laboring class, to a northern laboring class, that have just learning enough to make them wondrous wise, and make them the most dangerous class to well regulated liberty under the sun."—Richmond (Virginia) Enquirer.
FOOTNOTES:[1]In accordance with this doctrine, an act of Maryland, 1798, enumerates among articles of property, "slaves, working beasts, animals of any kind, stock, furniture, plate, and so forth."—Ib.23.[2]A slave is not admonished for incontinence, punished for adultery, nor prosecuted for bigamy.—Attorney General of Maryland, Md. Rep. Vol. I.561.[3]The legal meaning of assault is toofferto do personal violence.[4]A court for the trial of slaves consists of one justice of the peace, and three freeholders, and the justice and one freeholder, i. e.,one half the court, may convict, though the other two are for acquittal.—Martin's Dig., I.646.[5]A slave may be out-lawed when he runs away, conceals himself, and, to sustain life, kills a hog, or any animal of the cattle kind.—Haywood's Manual, p. 521.[6]In South Carolina,anyperson may seize such freed man and keep him as his property.[7]By the operation of this provision, twelve slaveholding states, whose white population only equals that of New York and Ohio, send to congress 24 senators and 102 representatives, while these two states only send 4 senators and 59 representatives.[8]Thus it may be seen that amanmay be doomed to slavery by an authority not considered sufficient to settle a claim oftwenty dollars.[9]The prisons of the district, built with the money of the nation, are used as store-houses of the slaveholder's human merchandize. "From the statement of the keeper of a jail at Washington, it appears that in five years, upwards of 450 colored persons were committed to the national prison in that city, for safekeeping, i. e., until they could be disposed of in the course of theslave trade, besides nearly 300 who had been taken up as runaways."—Miner's Speech in H. Rep., 1829.
[1]In accordance with this doctrine, an act of Maryland, 1798, enumerates among articles of property, "slaves, working beasts, animals of any kind, stock, furniture, plate, and so forth."—Ib.23.
[1]In accordance with this doctrine, an act of Maryland, 1798, enumerates among articles of property, "slaves, working beasts, animals of any kind, stock, furniture, plate, and so forth."—Ib.23.
[2]A slave is not admonished for incontinence, punished for adultery, nor prosecuted for bigamy.—Attorney General of Maryland, Md. Rep. Vol. I.561.
[2]A slave is not admonished for incontinence, punished for adultery, nor prosecuted for bigamy.—Attorney General of Maryland, Md. Rep. Vol. I.561.
[3]The legal meaning of assault is toofferto do personal violence.
[3]The legal meaning of assault is toofferto do personal violence.
[4]A court for the trial of slaves consists of one justice of the peace, and three freeholders, and the justice and one freeholder, i. e.,one half the court, may convict, though the other two are for acquittal.—Martin's Dig., I.646.
[4]A court for the trial of slaves consists of one justice of the peace, and three freeholders, and the justice and one freeholder, i. e.,one half the court, may convict, though the other two are for acquittal.—Martin's Dig., I.646.
[5]A slave may be out-lawed when he runs away, conceals himself, and, to sustain life, kills a hog, or any animal of the cattle kind.—Haywood's Manual, p. 521.
[5]A slave may be out-lawed when he runs away, conceals himself, and, to sustain life, kills a hog, or any animal of the cattle kind.—Haywood's Manual, p. 521.
[6]In South Carolina,anyperson may seize such freed man and keep him as his property.
[6]In South Carolina,anyperson may seize such freed man and keep him as his property.
[7]By the operation of this provision, twelve slaveholding states, whose white population only equals that of New York and Ohio, send to congress 24 senators and 102 representatives, while these two states only send 4 senators and 59 representatives.
[7]By the operation of this provision, twelve slaveholding states, whose white population only equals that of New York and Ohio, send to congress 24 senators and 102 representatives, while these two states only send 4 senators and 59 representatives.
[8]Thus it may be seen that amanmay be doomed to slavery by an authority not considered sufficient to settle a claim oftwenty dollars.
[8]Thus it may be seen that amanmay be doomed to slavery by an authority not considered sufficient to settle a claim oftwenty dollars.
[9]The prisons of the district, built with the money of the nation, are used as store-houses of the slaveholder's human merchandize. "From the statement of the keeper of a jail at Washington, it appears that in five years, upwards of 450 colored persons were committed to the national prison in that city, for safekeeping, i. e., until they could be disposed of in the course of theslave trade, besides nearly 300 who had been taken up as runaways."—Miner's Speech in H. Rep., 1829.
[9]The prisons of the district, built with the money of the nation, are used as store-houses of the slaveholder's human merchandize. "From the statement of the keeper of a jail at Washington, it appears that in five years, upwards of 450 colored persons were committed to the national prison in that city, for safekeeping, i. e., until they could be disposed of in the course of theslave trade, besides nearly 300 who had been taken up as runaways."—Miner's Speech in H. Rep., 1829.