Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/76

62 christian name—the jailer may not spell it aright; but no matter—"it is the jailer's duty to interrogate and whip, as aforesaid."

The last authorized edition of the laws of Maryland, comprises the following: "If any slave be convicted of any petit treason, or murder, or wilfully burning of dwelling houses, it may be lawful for the justices to give judgment against such slave to have the right hand cut off, to be hanged in the usual manner, the head severed from the body, the body divided into four quarters, and the head and quarters set up in the most public places of the county," &c.

The laws of Tennessee and Missouri are comparatively mild; yet in Missouri it is death to prepare or administer medicine without the master's consent, unless it can be proved that there was no evil intention. The law in Virginia is similar; it requires proof that there was no evil intention, and that the medicine produced no bad consequences.

To estimate fully the cruel injustice of these laws, it must be remembered that the poor slave is without religious instruction, unable to read, too ignorant to comprehend legislation, and holding so little communication with any person better informed than himself, that the chance is, he does not even know the existence of half the laws by which he suffers. This is worthy of Nero, who caused his edicts to be placed so high that they could not be read, and then beheaded his subjects for disobeying them.

. 14.—The laws operate oppressively on free colored people.

Free people of color, like the slaves, are excluded by law from all means of obtaining the common elements of education.

The free colored man may at any time be taken up on suspicion, and be condemned and imprisoned as a runaway slave, unless he can prove the contrary; and be it remembered, none but white evidence, or written documents, avail him. The common law supposes a man to be innocent, until he is proved guilty; but slave law turns this upside down. Every colored man is presumed