and cruel, it is evident that the more absolute any despotism becomes, the more cruel will the persons become who administer it. And the most absolute form of despotism known among men, is that of human chattelhood in the United States of America, as its code proves.

The unnatural and monstrous "legal relation" of slave ownership, unhumanizing human beings, insures cruelties that human language cannot describe, nor human imagination conceive! No pencil can portray them; no statistics exhibit the sum total. The slave code is sufficiently horrible, but every syllable of it can be written, printed, and measured by pages. The practical illustration has no limits; its horrors swell into infinity!

"No people were ever yet found who were better than their" [living and recognized] "laws, though many have been known to be worse."

CHAPTER XVIII.

FUGITIVES FROM SLAVERY.

The Slave, being Property, may be hampered or confined to prevent his escapemay be pursued and reclaimed-must not be aided, or concealed from his Owner-and when too wild or refractory to be USED by his Owner, may be KILLED by him with impunity.

THIS topic is closely connected with those of several of the preceding chapters, and is, in some of its aspects, a branch of them. The laws on this subject are too verbose and various to be transcribed at large, which would swell the volume and weary the reader. We shall present only an abstract of what is characteristic and most important, connected with the usages under them. One design of these laws and usages is to prevent escapes; another, to facilitate recaptures; another, to punish the fugitives and deter others; another, to punish slaves, free colored people, or whites who may entice or aid the fugitives.

Prevention of escapes is sometimes sought by the use of iron collars, chains, handcuffs, locks, &c., as before mentioned, whenever the "owner" or his agent thinks proper; and the law, as has already

been seen, authorizes this, and punishes any one who may cut or break them.

Another frequent precaution is the locking up of the slaves at night, and this, too, is within the lawful power of the master, at his own discretion.

In cities, corporate towns, &c., there are regulations forbidding the slaves or free people of color to be in the streets after a specified hour in the evening. At Wilmington, (N. C.,) we knew a case (1821) in which the holding of a Methodist meeting (under charge of white persons) a few minutes too late, occasioned the locking up of one half the worshipping assembly in the watch-house, men, women, and children, till eight or nine o'clock the next morning, church members and all, when the legal forms were gone through with, to effect their release; in which it appeared that a "class-leader" at the meeting had "taken up” five members of his own "class," and all in obedience to "the law!"

A general rule on plantations is, that slaves must not be absent from "quarters" in the evening, nor leave the plantation at any time without a written "pass." In at least some of the States, there are laws strictly enforcing this rule. Then, there are "patrols" established in city and country, regulated by law, and clothed with ample powers to arrest whom they please, and see that the existing laws and usages are enforced.

An Act of Maryland, (1715,) chap. 44, sect. 6, "for the better discovery of runaways, &c., requires that any person or persons whatsoever," travelling beyond

the limits of the county wherein they reside, shall have "a pass under the seal of said county;" otherwise, "if apprehended, not being sufficiently known, nor able to give a good account of themselves," the magistrate, at his discretion, may deal with them as with runaways. (Stroud, p. 83.) This is particularly remarkable as being without distinction of color, and so applicable to the class of low whites. These, however, were to be released after six months, in distinction from "negroes and mulattoes."

To facilitate recaptures, sect. 7 of the same Act"for the better encouragement of all persons to seize and take up all runaways travelling without pass, as aforesaid"-provides a bounty, in tobacco, (commuted for six dollars,) "to be paid by the owner" of said runaway; "and if such suspected runaways be not servants, and refuse to pay the same, he, she, or they shall MAKE SATISFACTION BY SERVITUDE OR OTHERWISE, &c." In 1719, an additional provision authorized the sheriff, in case of nonpayment of costs, &c., by these wronged and innocent free negroes and mulattoes, to sell them to the highest bidder!!! This monstrous provision was afterwards expunged from the Code of Maryland, but not till after the cession of the Federal District, which therefore remains under the old law. And this furnishes the foundation of those laws of the Corporation of Washington City by which, at the present day, FREE NEGROES OF MULATTOES arrested as fugitive slaves, and not being claimed by any one, are held liable for their jail fees, and, in default of payment, sold

into slavery. (Vide Jay's Inquiry, p. 154; and Jay's View, p. 33, &c., where it is shown that such cases frequently occur.)

It is made the official duty of sheriffs and constables to arrest suspected fugitives, and of jailers to commit them to prison. By law of Maryland, (1723,) ch. 15, sect. 2, &c., it is made the duty of the constables to repair monthly to all suspected places, and whip every negro he finds there without a license!* Owners of plantations, by the same Act, are required to send home to their masters any "strange negroes" on their premises; they are authorized to whip them, &c.; and forbidden to harbor or encourage them, on penalty of fine, &c. Same law in Federal District. (Snethen's Dist. Col., p. 13.)

"In Georgia, any person may inflict twenty lashes on the bare back of a slave found without license on the plantation, or without the limits of the town to which he belongs. So also in Mississippi, Virginia, and Kentucky, at the discretion of the justice." (Jay's Inquiry, p. 134.)

"In South Carolina and Georgia, any person finding more than seven slaves together in the highway without a white person, may give each one twenty

* In this aspect, the slave is neither treated as a man nor as a brute, but worse than either man or beast is treated! A man has the right of locomotion and social intercourse. And when a brute animal leaps his fence in quest of food or company, or to roam at large, no one thinks of treating him as a criminal, of subjecting him to punishment. The power of the State is not in requisition, to send sheriffs and constables after him.