S6
know
which speaks so powerfully to and that in all ages and countries, numbers, when gathered in communities and States, have sanctioned acts from which the individual And yet I know no surer way of judging a peojile revolts. than by its laws, especially where those laws have been long continued and openly maintained. Whatever may be the eminence of individual virtue and I would not so far disparage humanity as to suppose that the offenses which may be general where Slavery exists are univerwell I
that the conscience
the solitary soul,
is
often silent in the corporate body,
—
sal
—
it is
not reasonable or logical to infer that the masses of Law of Slavery. And since
Slave-masters are better than the the
Law
him
itself
degrades the slave to be a chattel, and submits with power to bind and to
to their irresponsible control
scourge
body
—
to usurp the fruits of another's labor
and
—
to outrage all ties of family,
to pollute the
making marriage im-
we must conclude that such enormities are sanctioned by Slave-masters while the exclusion of testimony, and proby supplementary law hibition of instruction complete the possible
—
—
evidence of their complicity. unquestioned, just so long as
And this conclusion must the Law of Slavery exists
stand unre-
humanity of Slave-masters. Tell me not of the lenity with which this cruel Code is tempered to its unhappy subjects. Tell me not of the sympathy which overflows from the mansion of the master to the cabin of the In vain you assert such " happy accidents." In vain slave. you show that there are individuals who do not exert the wickedness of the law. The Barbarism still endures, solemnly, legislatively, judicially attested in the very Slave Code, and proCease, then, to blazon the
pealed.
claims constantly the character of first
its
authors.
And
this is the
article in the evidence against Slave-masters.
am
next brought to Slave-masters in their relations irith is founded upon facts, and upon
presumptions irresistible as facts. Only lately has inquiry burst (2.)
I
Slaves
and here the argument
gloomy world of bondage, and disclosed its secrets. But enough is already known to arouse the indignant condemnation of mankind. For instance, here is a simple advertisefrom the Georgia Messenger : one of thousands ment
into that
—
"Run Away
—
— My man Fountain
has holes in his
ears,
a scar on the right side
