Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/77

Rh Since tlie slave is a thing, he is not allowed his oath; sometimes he may give legal evidence for or against another slave, though without any form of solemn affirmation. There are laws in all the slave States designed to restrain the master from excessive cruelty, still they afford but incomplete protection to the slave; he cannot bring an action against the oppressor in his own name—for, as a thing, he has no rights. No slave, free negro, or mulatto to the fourth degree of descent is allowed to testify against a white man; as if this were not enough in South Carolina and Louisiana, if a slave is injured or killed when only one white person is present—and the presumption of guilt fall on the one white man, he is allowed by statute "to clear or exculpate himself by his own oath." This law is worse than the code of the Romans, "whose history was written in the blood of vanquished nations."

The slave has no legal right of self-defence against his master's assault and battery; the female none against brutal violation. The law of Georgia directs that "if any slave shall presume to strike any white man, such slave shall, for the first offence, suffer such punishment as the justice or justices shall see fit, not extending to life or limb; and, for the second offence, suffer death." In South Carolina, on his owner’s account, he is allowed to strike even a white man, and the offence is capital only when twice repeated. In Kentucky, the penalty is less severe, but applied to freemen of colour as well as slaves. A slave cannot be party to a civil suit. Indeed, when his condition is doubtful, he may apply to a court, and the court authorize some man to act as "guardian," and bring an action in the slave's behalf, and have investigation made of his servitude. But the burthen of proof remains on the slave's shoulders—to show that he is free. The presumption that he is a slav —presumptio malce partis—prevails in all the South except North Carolina,—where the slave-code is perhaps more humane than elsewhere,—and is thus declared by statute in South Carolina and Georgia: "It shall always be presumed that every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo is a slave." No adverse possession of himself, however long, makes a negro free, or his offspring born while he is in that state. In Mississippi, every negro or mulatto, not able to prove that he is