Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/80

66 tempt avarice by the allurements of an insatiable market, is irreconcilable and absurd.

To my great surprise, I find that the free States of Ohio and Indiana disgrace themselves by admitting the same maxim of law, which prevents any black or mulatto from being witness against a white man!

It is naturally supposed that free negroes will sympathize with their enslaved brethren, and that, notwithstanding all exertions to the contrary, they will become a little more intelligent; this excites a peculiar jealousy and hatred in the white population, of which it is impossible to enumerate all the hardships. Even in the laws, slaves are always mentioned before free people of color; so desirous are they to degrade the latter class below the level of the former. To complete the wrong, this unhappy class are despised in consequence of the very evils we ourselves have induced—for as slavery inevitably makes its victims servile and vicious, and as none but negroes are allowed to be slaves, we, from our very childhood, associate everything that is degraded with the mere color; though in fact the object of our contempt may be both exemplary and intelligent. In this way the Africans are doubly the victims of our injustice; and thus does prejudice "make the meat it feeds on."

I have repeatedly said that our slave laws are continually increasing in severity: as a proof of this I will give a brief view of some of the most striking, which have been passed since Stroud published his compendium of slave laws, in 1827. In the first class are contained those enactments directly oppressive to people of color; in the second are those which injure them indirectly, by the penalties or disabilities imposed upon the whites, who instruct, assist, or employ them, or endeavor, in any way, to influence public opinion in their favor.

Class First.—The Legislature of Virginia passed a law in 1831, by which any free colored person who undertakes to preach, or conduct any religious meeting, by day or night, may be whipped not exceeding thirtynine lashes, at the discretion of any justice of the peace; and anybody may apprehend any such free colored