The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-10-21

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the laws and usages of the society in which
they live. His wife, amiable, kind-hearted,
conscientious, but submissive, tries to make the
best of bad system. St Clair neither demon
nor angel, is invested with attributes which
compel our love, despite his failings, and divert
the reproach, at first designed for him, against
the Institution in which he is entangled His
father and brother are fair specimens of North
ern business men, retaining in Southern lat-
tude the rigor of their Northern cline, saga
! cious cold, stern. not cruel or wanton, but
never suffering themselves to be diverted from
the pursuit of their interest, by gentle impulses
or dreams of philanthropy. And Eva!-if there
be an angel in the book, it is Eva, brightest
and lOyeliest of the creations of Fiction.
In a word, the criticism of the Courier is a
gross piece of misrepresentation.
But all this has nothing to do with our main
purpose, which is, to review the opinions and
statements of the editor of the Courier and En-
qn,rer in relation to Slavery
First as to his statements, which are intend
Ou W uiSOiCuiS VIC icpIcoculdlions vi pldNcIy III
Uncle Toms Cabin.
Mrs Stowe ''causes a reward to be offered
for runaway slave, dead or alive" She does
not pretend, and no reader would infer, that
such advertisements are common. They are
exceptions and her object is to show to what
the system of Slavery may lead, what spirit it
may engender, what enormities it may allow.
The Courier and Enquirer takes issue with
her, and fatty asserts that no such alterna-
tive was ever heard of or dreamed of south of
Mason and Dixon's line, and it has been de-
cided, over and over again, by Southern courts
that a slave who is merely flying away can
not be killed. We must confess our reuc-
lance to dsproye this assertion; it is painful for
us to be obliged to deal with examples of saw
age barbarty but the truth must be told.
In book, entitled American Slavery as it
is" the spirit of which we do not always like;
but whose statements of facts are sustained by
overwhelming evidence, we find six advertise
ments of this kind, in which rewards are offered
for the runaways " dead or alive the terms
used at times being so shocking that we dislike
to reprint them here. We give the papers
containing these advertisements, with the dates
80 that if there be any error it may be exposed
Wilmington ~ c. advertiser, July 10,
lS3S-advertised a certain negro man, named
Alfred same reward offered = if satisfactory
evidence is given of his having been killed"
data Nv
Richard -" dead or alive
Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Nay o. "The
negro man Ransom -" dead or alive n-ad-
vertised in Crawford county, Georgia, by Bry-
ant Johnson.
Newbern (N c. Spectator, June 5th, 1888
"Negro man. named Samson advertised in
Jones county, N c, by Enoch Fay.
Charleston IS. c. Courier, Feb 20, 1885,
Billy twenty-five years old" $50 for head," if
he resist
NewJern a. c. Spectator Dec ., 1885,
500 each for two runaways, Rgdon, and
Ben Fox" Or for the killing of them, so that
| can see them signed W. D. Cobb
In the same number of the Spectator is the
following advertisement, for the same negroes,
by two Justices of the Peace:
"And we do hereby by virtue of an act
Oh Assembly ct this State, concerning servants
and slaves, intimate and declare. If the said
slaves do not surrender themselves and return
to their masters Immediately after the publica-
ton of these presents, that any persons NAV
Kill and destroy said slaves, by such means MS
he or they think fit, without accusation or inn
parchment OF any crime or offence for so doing,
or without mourning any penalty or forfeiture
thereby. b. COLEMAN j. p, Seal
JAMES JONES J. p, Seal +
This is enough, and too much We cannot
bear to dwell upon such atrocities; but when
Northern men undertake to dogmatize about
Slavery, they should first make themselves &C
quainted with the facts
The last advertisement proceeds under
statute of North Carolina, which is certainly in
the face of the judicial decision quoted by the
Courier and Enquirer. That decision must
have been rendered in another State 1t is
found in Wheoler's Law of Slavery, page 2O3 :;
but the compiler, writing we suppose for law
yers alone gives us no information of the State
in which the opinion was delivered The
Courier and Enquirer enormously assumes, it
will be seen, that the Slave Code is the same
in oil the States
In regard to the power given by Slavery over
the slave, Mrs. Stowe puts the following Ian
guage in the mouth of one of her characters
ST. Clare, we believe: the master who goes
turthest and does the worst, only uses within
limits the power that the law gives him" The
Courier and Enquirer takes exception to this,
and quotes in refutation Of it, certain provisions
| from the Civil Code of Louisiana, and deci-
sion of the General Court of Virginia We
know that there are laws in the slaveholding
States designed to prevent cruelty in masters
and to guard the life of the slaves; but unfor-
tundtely, they evidence rather the will than
the power to restrain the terrible prerogatiyes
of the master What do they amount to Z! The
slave by the essential nature of the relation
which binds him to his master, is entirely
subject to his will The law forbids cruelty,
but whO is to prove the fact of illegal treat
ment. On the isolated plantation, inbuman-
ty may be habitually practiced punishment
may be carried to the extent of manning. or
loss of life, and hou is the criminal to be con-
vietedt Does not the Courier know that the
testimony Of n thousand colored men, though
they be eye-witnesses to the same atrocity,
could not be admitted in evidence! The uni
versa incapacity of slaves in all the States of
the South, to bear testimony in any case where
a white person is concerned, is enough to rem
der almost null and void all laws designed for
their protection Take the case, for example,