Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/55

Rh upon it shall be the duty of the attorney, or solicitor general, to prosecute said owners, who, on conviction shall be sentenced to pay a fine, or be imprisoned, or both, at the discretion of the court."

The negro act of South Carolina contains the following language: "Whereas many owners of slaves, and others, who have the care, management, and overseeing of slaves, do confine them so closely to hard labor, that they have not sufficient time for natural rest; be it therefore enacted, that if any owner of slaves, or others having the care, &c., shall put such slaves to labor more than fifteen hours in twentyfour, from the twentyfifth of March to the twentyfifth of September; or more than fourteen hours in twentyfour hours from the twentyfifth of September to the twentyfifth of March, any such person shall forfeit a sum of money not exceeding twenty pounds, nor under five pounds, current money, for every time, he, she, or they, shall offend therein, at the discretion of the justice before whom complaint shall be made."

In Louisiana it is enacted, that "the slaves shall be allowed half an hour for breakfast, during the whole year; from the first of May to the first of November they shall be allowed two hours for dinner; and from the first of November to the first of May, one hour and a half for dinner: provided, however, that the owners, who will themselves take the trouble of having the meals of their slaves prepared, be, and they are hereby authorized to abridge, by half an hour a day, the time fixed for their rest."

All these laws, apparently for the protection of the slave, are rendered perfectly null and void, by the fact, that the testimony of a negro or mulatto is never taken against a white man. If a slave be found toiling in the field on the Sabbath, who can prove that his master commanded him to do it?

The law of Louisiana stipulates that a slave shall have one linen shirt, and a pair of pantaloons for the summer, and one linen shirt and a woollen great coat and