Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-10-22
IS cLEARFIELD, PA, WEDNESDAY,. OCTOBER %. 1862

not allowed his oath. No slave, free negro.
or mu!ato, to the fourth degree of descent,
is allowed to testify against white man; and, !,
as II this were not enough, in South Carolina
and Louisiana, if slave is injured killed
when only one white person is present, and
the presumption of guilt fall on this person,
he is allowed to clear himself by his own OATH
The slave has no right of defence against his
masters assault. The laws Of Georgia direct
that, it any slave shall presume to strike any
white man, such slave shall for the rst offence
be punishsd as the justices see fit, not exten-
ding to the taking of his life, or the destruc-
tion of his limbs for the second offence he
shall suffer death. In South Carolina, slave
may strike white man on his owner s account !;
but even in this the offence is capital,
the same person. The same law obtains in
in Kentucky, extended to free men of color as
we'll as slaves :, the penalty, however, is less
severe. s +rre .s ess s
A black man c0nnot be party to a civil
suit. Indeed, if his condition is doubted and
the law recognizes that it shall be, he must ap-
ply to court to authorize guardian to bring
proof remains on the black man to show that
he is not slave, but free. This is the rule in
every Slave State, except North Carolina
where the slave code is more humane than
elsewhere in the American Slave States and
by statue in South Carolina, this rule is thus
declared, SIT shall always be presumed that
every negro, Indian, mulatto and me ztzo is
n aSla
lengthy, may make slave OF his offspring
born while possessed of himself free. In Ken
lucky. have known men born in Free States
taken up, lodged in Jail, advertised, and but
for the intercession Of some whit, man inter-
ested in such persons, they wou Id have been
sold as slaves, in consequence OF being unpro-
vided with means Of proving their birth. /
conld give names and dates, if necessary, of
such instances. In Mississippi and Alabama,
every negro or mulatto not able to prove that
he is free, may be sold by order of.the court
as a slave. Nor in the matter of emancipa-i
tion are the laws less severe. The Roman
code, as well as the laws of England and Ger
many, favored emancipating slaves two thou
sand years ago. But in this the nineteenth
America, the laws are made to throw obsta-
ces in the way of emancipation. In South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi,
no man can emancipate his slaves, except by
authority of special enactment of the Legis-
lature for that purpose. In Georgia., Will
setting free slave is null and void and any
person attempting to execute it shall be fined
tb,.y at,ao fb In
Missouri and Maryland, no man is permitted
to emancipate his slaves if he has not iuIiv
paid his debts. and provided for his widows
dover. No bargain made between master
and slave is valid or recognizable toy law. no
more than it would be if made between owner
and animal, horse and man.
Take III the slave laws of this nation togeth-
er, consider the race of human beings who
have made them, their religion, the political
ideas OF their government, and the era in
which they exist, and they form the most re-
voting work of legislation to be found in the
annals of any pacific or civilized people. The
codes of the barbarIans, the Goths, the Van
dals. and the Huns. who sat amid the ruins
which they had wrought at the Roman En-
pire,--the Burgundians, the Bavarians, the
AIlemamic, with the Visigoths and their north
ern Kin, have left enactments certainly more
terrible. But the darkness of that period,
shrouding as it did all legislation in gener-
al and homogeneous gloom, must plead for
them. While here, with us, it is ssthe freest
and most enlightened people in the world - as
we call ourselves. who keep, extend and in
tensify these dreadful laws which, making
men and women THINGS, buy and sell them as
the beasts that per ish. ~ s9s