Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/81

Rh without a warrant. The same penalty, adjudged and executed in the same way, falls upon any slave, or free colored person, who attends such preaching; and any slave who listens to any white preacher, in the night time, receives the same punishment. The same law prevails in Georgia, and Mississippi. A master may permit a slave to preach on his plantation, to none but his slaves.

There is a naïveté in the following preamble to a law passed by North Carolina, in 1831, which would be amusing, if the subject were not too serious for mirth: "Whereas teaching slaves to read and write has a tendency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion," therefore it is enacted that teaching a slave to read or write, or giving or selling to a slave any book, or pamphlet, shall be punished with thirtynine lashes, if the offender be a free black, or with imprisonment at the discretion of the court; if a slave, the offence is punishable with thirtynine lashes, on his or her bare back, on conviction before a justice of the peace.

In Georgia, any slave, or free person of color, is for a similar offence, fined or whipped, or fined and whipped at the discretion of the court.

In Louisiana, twelve months' imprisonment is the penalty for teaching a slave to read or write.

For publishing, or circulating, in the state of North Carolina, any pamphlet or paper having an evident tendency to excite slaves, or free persons of color, to insurrection or resistance, imprisonment not less than one year, and standing in the pillory, and whipping, at the discretion of the court for the first offence; and death for the second. The same offence punished with death in Georgia, without any reservation. In Mississippi, the same as in Georgia. In Louisiana, the same offence punished either with imprisonment for life, or death, at the discretion of the court. In Virginia, the first offence of this sort is punished with thirtynine lashes, the second with death.

With regard to publications having a tendency to promote discontent among slaves, their masters are so very jealous, that it would be difficult to find any book, that