being a slave, shall follow the state and condition of the mother, and be esteemed, reputed, taken, and adjudged slaves to all intents and purposes whatsoever."

In 1788 an act was passed, prohibiting the importation of slaves from foreign countries, under the penalty of £100 sterling; and the same law prohibited the importation of slaves from other states. Again, in the year 1815, it was enacted, that

"No person held as a slave shall be imported, introduced, or brought into this, on any pretence whatever, except in the cases hereinafter specified, &c.

"The preceding section shall not be deemed to discharge from service any person held in slavery in any of the United States, under and by the laws thereof, who shall escape into this state."

A similar law to the above was enacted in 1817; and full faith and credit were directed to be given to the fugitive slave law of Congress, passed in 1793. In 1810, a very rigid law was enacted, prohibiting the taking of slaves out of the state, in order to sell them in other states. As the emancipation laws had been passed, many of the people were taking their slaves to the southern states; and, to prevent an evasion of the statutes, the exportation of slaves was prohibited under severe penalties.

We have not been able to find any laws enacted by the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, against people of those states engaging in the foreign slave-trade; though it is well known that the importation of slaves was not permitted by their statutes or constitutions. There was no market for the slaves in those states; and hence there was but little necessity for the enactment of prohibitory laws for their own protection: but they might have passed more

stringent statutes, and prevented the fitting-out of ships for the carrying on of the traffic. So long, however, as the southern states remained permissive slave-markets, there were northern shippers ever ready to speculate upon the sale of the kidnapped African. These proceedings ultimately became offensive to the humane sentiment of the whole southern people; and hence the repeated enactment of laws to prevent the landing of slaves in those states. The anti-slavery societies discountenanced the slave traffic; and, after the revolution, Dr. Franklin wrote an appeal to the governor of New Hampshire, as follows:

"The Society (Anti-Slavery) have heard, with great regret, that a considerable part of the slaves who have been sold in the southern states since the establishment of peace (1783), have been imported in vessels fitted out in the state over which your excellency presides. From your excellency's station, they hope your influence will be exerted, hereafter, to prevent a practice which is so evidently repugnant to the political principles and form of government lately adopted by the citizens of the United States."

CHAPTER XVI.

Education and Assembling of Slaves; their Food and Raiment; Hours of Labour; Slave-Trade between the States; SlaveMarket, and the Separation of Families; their Marriage; Right of Speech in Slaveholding States; Constitutional Protection of Slaves; they cannot hold Property; Life among the Slaves; Social Habits, and early Slave-life in Mississippi.

EDUCATION AND ASSEMBLING OF SLAVES.

IN nearly all the slaveholding states there are laws forbidding the education of slaves.

right to engage in whatever

They have a permissive religious worship they

may prefer. The master can restrict their attendance at meetings; but when that right is exercised in the nature of a prohibition, public opinion justifies its denunciation in the pulpit, as it does with every species of hardship in the case of the slave. In 1740, the colony of South Carolina passed a law, which was approved by the crown, enacting—

“That all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe, in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money."

This most stringent law was passed in 1740, in South Carolina; and, in the same year, we have an account of the trial and conviction of a slave by three justices

and a jury of five persons, under the laws of New York; who was sentenced, and burnt to death.

In 1821, an insurrection of the slaves was attempted; and the city council of Charleston, South Carolina, passed the following; viz.—

66

Resolved, That the marshal be instructed to inform the ministers of the gospel and others, who keep night and Sunday schools for slaves, that the education of such persons is prohibited by law, and that the city council feel imperiously bound to enforce the penalty against those who may hereafter forfeit the same."

From this proclamation, it would seem that, notwithstanding the law of 1740, the slaves were being educated in 1821. After the cessation of the excitement, or suspicion, the slaves were again tanght as they had been before.

In 1800, another act was passed, declaring

"That assemblies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, and a portion of white persons, met together for the purpose of mental instruction in a confined and secret place, are declared to be an unlawful meeting; and the magistrates are required to enter such confined and secret places, to break open the doors, if their entrance be resisted, and to disperse the said persons; and they may inflict such corporal punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes, upon such slaves, free negroes, white persons, &c., as they may judge necessary for deterring them from such unlawful assemblage in future." It was further enacted, that "slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes, even in the presence of white persons, are forbidden to meet together for the purpose of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun, or after the going down of the same."

In Virginia, the revised code of 1819 declares

"That all meetings of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing with the slaves, at any meeting-house in the night, or at any school for teaching them to read or write, either in the day or night, under whatever pretext, shall be deemed an unlawful assembly; and any justice of the peace may issue his warrant,

directed to any sworn officer, authorising him to disperse the said assembly, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not to exceed twenty lashes."

By revised statutes of 1849, it was declared—

"If a free person write, print, or cause to be written or printed, any book or other writing, with intent to advise or incite negroes in this state to rebel or make insurrection, or inculcating resistance to the right of property of masters in their slaves; or if he shall aid the purposes of any such book or writing, or knowingly circulate the same, he shall be confined in the penitentiary, not less than one, nor more than five years."

In North Carolina, to teach a slave to read or write, or sell to him books of an incendiary character, is punished with thirty-nine lashes, or imprisonment, if the offender be a free negro; and if a white man, then with a fine of 200 dollars. In Georgia, to teach a free negro or slave is punished by a fine of 500 dollars, and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. If the teacher be a coloured man, bond or free, he may be fined or whipped, at the discretion of the court. In Louisiana, it is felony to teach slaves to read and write; and the penalty is one year's imprisonment; and if any one use incendiary language in the pulpit, at the bar, on the stage, or elsewhere, with the view to incite the slaves to discontent and insurrection, they are guilty of felony, and may be punished by imprisonment or death, at the discretion of the court. If the offender has caused an insurrection, he will be sure to suffer death. If his teachings shall only have produced mischief, such as insubordination, without intent of insurrection, the penalty will be imprisonment. In Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and a few other states, there are no laws