Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/89

Rh When the slave owners talk of their gentleness and compassion, they are witnesses in their own favor, and have strong motives for showing the fairest side. But what do the laws themselves imply? Are enactments ever made against exigencies which do not exist? If negroes have never been scalded, burned, mutilated, &c. why are such crimes forbidden by an express law, with the marvellous proviso, except said slave die of "moderate punishment"? If a law sanctioning whipping to any extent, incarceration at the discretion of the master, and the body loaded with irons, is called a restraining law, let me ask what crimes must have been committed, to require prohibition, where so much is allowed? The law, which declares that slaves shall be compelled to labor only fourteen or fifteen hours a day, has the following preamble: "Whereas many owners of slaves, managers, &c. do confine them so closely to hard labor that they have not sufficient time for natural rest," &c. Mr Pinckney, in a public argument, speaking of slaves murdered by severe treatment, says: "The frequency of the crime is no doubt owing to the nature of the punishment." The reader will observe that I carefully refrain from quoting the representations of party spirit, and refer to facts only for evidence.

Where the laws are made by the people, a majority of course approve them; else they would soon be changed. It must therefore in candor be admitted, that the laws of a State speak the prevailing sentiments of the inhabitants.

Judging by this rule, what inference must be drawn from the facts stated above? "At Sparta, the freeman is the freest of all men, and the slave is the greatest of slaves."

Our republic is a perfect Pandora's box to the negro, only there is no hope at the bottom. The wretchedness of his fate is not a little increased by being a constant witness of the unbounded freedom enjoyed by others: the slave's labor must necessarily be like the labor of Sisiphus; and here the torments of Tantalus are added.

Slavery is so inconsistent with free institutions, and the spirit of liberty is so contagious under such