On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    372 OF THOSE WHO ARE THE PROPERTY OF OTH...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    There Is No Doubt That In The Gig-Antic ...

    1834 tliat slavery was abolished in our colonies . The English _, reformed Parliament may well be proud of that vote of twenty

    millions as compensation to the slave-owners . This act will be prominent for ever in the history of our country . France did not

    emancipate her slaves until the Provisional Government of the Hepublic in 1848 .

    Of the state of those who are the property of others in America , we can judge by considering the laws . In old countries the laws

    do not give us the habits of the people in the same manner as in the American Kepublic , where the laws are all modern and made

    hy the people themselves , we may say as the result of their yesterday ' s experience and practice . In all the Slave States , slaves

    are absolutely the property of their masters , and everything they have belongs to their masters . In no State can a slave make a

    marriage which is legally indissoluble . The children always belong to the master of the female slave . A slave can be leased

    or mortgaged at the will of his owner . He can be seized by creditors or legatees . His master may determine absolutely the

    quantity of labour he shall be subjected to , and what food he may have , and may inflict any punishment he thinks proper . There

    is no way in which a slave may redeem himself , or institute any action against his masterno matter how atrocious his master ' s

    conduct may have been . These , laws are in many respects much harder than any slave" laws which the world has ever seen . In

    Mohammedan countries the children of slave women do not follow the condition of the mother , and thus some of the worst and most

    cruel consequences of slavery are avoided . Considering the slave as a member of civil society , ( the expression seems like a joke , ) we

    find he cannot bear witness against a white person , or be a party in a suit ; all means of education are withheld from him ; sub _^

    mission is enforced from the slave , not only to his master , but to all white _peoxDle . The penal laws are harder on him than on the

    whites , and in - most of the States even the trial of slaves on criminal accusations is different from the trial of whites .

    Emancipation is not encouraged as in the ancient world , but is hedged round by all sorts of . difficultiesand those who have emancipated

    them-, selves are not often allowed to remain in the Slave States . Thus you havein a few wordsthe spirit of the laws of the States

    , , concerning * slaves . A very little reflection will convince any one that with such laws . the condition of the slave and his happiness must

    depend on his master ' s disposition , and it is evident the position of the master , with such laws to back the devil in him , must increase

    any natural inclination towards cruelty and oppression . The most atrocious cruelty is possibleand it is enough to say that nothing

    in " Uncle _Tom" is overdrawn , , though the cases as bad as Legree are rare . The laws are as bad as Legreeand we will give a few

    instances to show what the laws can do . In , these cases no violent

    passions need have been roused , and all was done in cold blood .

    372 Of Those Who Are The Property Of Oth...

    372 OF THOSE WHO ARE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 2, 1863, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02021863/page/12/