arts of detraction and slander, are rights to which every man is entitled by reason and natural justice; since without these it is impossible to have the perfect enjoyment of any other advantage or right. (See Blackstone, book i, pp. 129-134.)

The laws of slavery have little regard to the security of life, the members of the body, health, and reputation of the slave, that he may enjoy them; and hence these, in reference to the ownership of them by the slave, are held in low esteem by slave laws, and, therefore, are slightly secured to their rightful owner, or, rather, they are not thus secured at all. The principal security for the life, body, health, and reputation of the slave is for the benefit of the master, either to enrich him, or accommodate him, or minister to his passions.

CHAPTER II.

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS-EDUCATION.

1. THE benefits of education are withheld from the slave. This is done by express statutary laws, making it penal to teach him to read or write, or aid in doing it, or causing it to be done, as no provisions are made for the instruction of the slave. Or where no express laws forbid instruction, custom governs, and the custom is to let the slaves grow up without any instruction from books. Hence, the general sentiment in the slave states, whether produced by law or usage, or both, well comports with what Sir William Berkley, Governor of Virginia in 1671, said: "I thank God that there are no free schools nor printingpresses, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years."

In no country is education more highly valued, or its benefits more generally diffused, than in the United States. The constitutions of nearly all the states provide for seminaries and schools, adequate to the wants of all. And the common schools of the free states are truly the colleges of the people.

2. A different policy grew up with the growth of the slave states. In none of these is there any provision made by law, for the education of persons of color, whether slaves or freemen. On the contrary, the benefits of education are withheld from the slave, and, of consequence, from the free colored man.

South Carolina was first in legislation to continue the ignorance of the slaves. As early as 1740, this state, by statute, enacted that slaves should not be taught to read or write, or employed as scribes in any manner of writing, under the penalty of £100 fine. (Stroud, p. 88.)

In 1800 South Carolina enacted, that it would be an

"unlawful assembly" for any slaves or free negroes, either by themselves or with white persons, "to meet together for the purpose of mental instruction," under a penalty of "twenty lashes upon such slaves," etc. (Stroud, p. 89.)

But the law of South Carolina, which took effect April, 1834, and passed the previous winter, entitled "an act to amend the laws in relation to slaves and free persons of color," seems to be a union of all the former laws of South Carolina in this matter. We make the following extracts from this barbarous act:

Section 1. Be it by the honorable the senate, and the house of representatives, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same be it enacted: If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read or write, or shall aid or assist in teaching any slave to read or write, such person, if a free white person, upon conviction thereof, shall, for each and every offense against this act, be fined not exceeding $100, and imprisoned not more than six months; or, if a free person of color, shall be whipped not exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceeding $50, at the discretion of the court of magistrates and freeholders before which such free person is tried; and if a slave, shall be whipped at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty lashes; the informer to be entitled to one-half of the fine,

and to be a competent witness. And if any free person of color or slave shall keep any school or other place of instruction, for teaching any slave or free person of color to read or write, such free person of color or slave shall. be liable to the same fine, imprisonment, and corporeal punishment, as are by this section imposed and inflicted on free persons of color and slaves for teaching slaves to read or write.

"Sec. 2. If any person shall employ or keep as a clerk, any slave or free person of color, or shall permit any slave or free person of color to act as a clerk or salesman in or

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about any shop, store, or house used for trading, such person shall be liable to be indicted therefor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined, for each and every offense, not exceeding one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding six months; the informer to be a competent witness, and to be entitled to one-half of the fine."

The things intended to be prevented by this act are, that no colored person, whether free or a slave, shall learn to read or write, or be clerks or salesmen.

The acts punishable according to the act are, "to teach, or aid or assist in teaching colored persons to read or write, or to employ them as clerks or salesmen."

The penalties inflicted on whites for transgressing this law are a fine of $100, and six months' imprisonment. The penalty on a free colored person is whipping, not to exceed fifty lashes, and fine, not to exceed fifty dollars; and on a slave, fifty lashes.

An act was passed in Georgia in 1770 similar to that passed in South Carolina in 1740, with the difference that the fine in Georgia was £20, in the place of £100.

Virginia, in her revised code of 1819, reiterates former laws, as follows: "That all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting-house, or houses, or any other place, etc., in the night, or at any school or schools for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed an unlawful assembly." (Stroud, p. 88.) This practically amounts to the same with the laws of South Carolina and Georgia.

And in those states where laws may not be as stringent as those in South Carolina and Georgia, custom has become the law, and this is universally against the instruction of the negro.

Besides, the life of the slave is entirely devoted to the service of his master, so that his time and attention are

constantly devoted to his service. Laws make not only no provision for the instruction of the slave, but, on the contrary, forbid it. The slave has neither books, instructor, nor encouragement to learn to read. Hence, he is doomed to remain forever ignorant of the benefits of education.

3. The result of this treatment, as might be expected, is, that the slaves grow up in ignorance.

In the eighth annual report for 1842, of the Association for the religious instruction of the negroes in Liberty county, Georgia, we find the following statements from the slaveholders themselves: "The ignorance of those who have not been brought up in the Sunday schools-and of such we have a large number-is astonishingly great, and my spirit sinks within me when I behold it, and see how little is done to remove it," (p. 6.) "They [the negroes] are exceedingly ignorant, as a people, and consequently whatever there may be in outward appearance to strike the eye, is calculated to produce more impression upon them than the most palpable fact in the abstract," (p. 14.)

The synod of Kentucky, in 1835, held, in their address, the following language in reference to the education of slaves in Kentucky: "The present state of instruction among this race answers exactly to what we might thus naturally anticipate. Throughout our whole land, so far as we can learn, there is but one school in which, during the week, slaves can be taught. The light of three or four Sabbath schools is seen, glimmering through the darkness that covers the black population of a whole state. Here and there a family is found, where humanity and religion impel the mas ter, mistress, or children, to the laborious task of private instruction. But, after all, what is the utmost amount of instruction given to slaves? Those who enjoy the most of it are fed with but the crumbs of knowledge which fall from their master's table-they are clothed with the mere shreds and tatters of learning." (Pp. 7, 8.)