Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/85

Rh In Georgia, a similar offence is fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court. Knowledge seems to be peculiarly pokerish in Georgia.

In North Carolina, if a white person teach a slave to read or write, or give or sell him any book, &c., he is fined from one to two hundred dollars.

In Louisiana, any white person, who teaches a slave to read or write, is imprisoned one year. And if any person shall use any language from the bar, bench, stage, pulpit, or any other place,—or hold any conversation having a tendency to promote discontent among free colored people, or insubordination among slaves, he may be imprisoned at hard labor, not less than three, nor more than twentyone years; or he may suffer death—at the discretion of the court.

In Mississippi, a white man, who prints or circulates doctrines, sentiments, advice, or innuendoes, likely to produce discontent among the colored class, is fined from one hundred to a thousand dollars, and imprisoned from three to twelve months.

All the States which have pronounced an anathema against books and alphabets, have likewise forbidden that any colored man shall be employed in a printing office, under the penalty of ten dollars for every offence.

In Mississippi, any white who employs, or receives a free colored person, without a certificate of freedom, written on parchment, forfeits one thousand dollars.

If any master, in that State, allows his slaves to sell any wares or merchandise out of the incorporated towns, he is liable to a fine of from fifty to five hundred dollars.

In Virginia, any person who buys of a slave any article belonging to his master, forfeits from ten to fifty dollars; if the purchase be made on Sunday, ten dollars more are added to the fine for each article.

This enactment is evidently made to prevent a slave from obtaining any money, or holding communication with freemen; a particular proviso is made against Sunday, because the slave has usually more leisure on that day. It is to be remembered that all a slave has belongs to his master.