See him in all, his holy name revere,
Upright your actions, and your hearts sincere,
Till, having sailed through life's tempestuous sea,
And from its rocks and boisterous billows free,
Yourselves, safe landed on the blissful shore,
Shall join your happy child to part no more.
DENMARK VESEY.
No class of persons in the world, who have the
name of being free, are more sorely oppressed than
the free colored people of the Southern States. Each
state has its code of black laws, which are rigorously
enforced, and the victim made to feel his degradation
at all times and in all places. An undeveloped discontent
pervades the entire black population, bond
and free, in all the slave states. Human bondage is
ever fruitful of insurrection, wherever it exists, and
under whatever circumstances it may be found. Every
community the other side of "Dixon's Line" feels
that it lives upon a volcano that is liable to burst out at
any moment; and all are watchful, and fearfully in
earnest, in looking after the colored man's affairs, and
inventing sterner enactments to keep him in subjection.
The most oppressive of all the states is South
Carolina. In Charleston, free colored ladies are not
allowed to wear veils about their faces in the streets,
or in any public places. A violation of this law is
visited with "thirty-nine lashes upon the bare back."
The same is inflicted upon any free colored man who
shall be seen upon the streets with a cigar in his mouth,