The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-02

ent as remedy TOT Ceflaln eNlStlI'S abuses. Speaking of the frequent sale of slaves, he saysi
 This continual change of the relation of master and slave, with the oonse- quent rending of family ties among them has induced me to think that, if by law they were annexed to the tree- holds of their owners and when sold for partition among distributes, tenants in common, joint tenants, and copart- ners, they should be sold with the free~ hold and not otherwise, it might be q wise and wholesome change of the law. Some provision, too, might be made which would prevent in great degree, sales for debts. A debtors lands and slaves instead of being sold might be sequestered until like vivum vadium, they would pay all debts in execution by the annual profits. If this should be impossible on account of the indebted ness, then either court, law or equity, might be empowered to order the sale of the plantation and slaves together or separately; the slaves to be sold in families
 This suggestion, however, was never acted upon, and slaves continued to be held as chattels personal to be aliena- ted from land or families indiscrimi- nately until, by the fortunes of war, they ceased to be property in any sense, and became part of the state. Occa- sionally man would so draw his will that they would for a time be practical ly attached to the soil, but this, of course, did not change their status as chattel property.
 A minor phase of slavery of which little is said in the general discussion of the subject is that of the employ ment of negro slaves in the defense of the colony against foreign enemies The practice of employing them as pio- neer corps was common at all times, and they were frequently used for this purpose during the civil war; but their employment as actual combatants seems to have been confined to the ear ly days of the colony. The first off, cial action by the authorities seems to have been in the year 1704, when the colony was engaged in very serious war with the Spaniards of Florida
 This war, which is rarely mentioned in history. was a most serious event i'll the history of the southern colonies. The colony of Georgia was not at that time founded, and Carolina was on the Spanish frontier. The hostilities were properly part of the war of the Span ish succession. which at this time was convulsing Europe. The Spaniards constantly harassed Carolina on the southwest, and their French allies at New Orleans were so bold in their az gressions as to send a fleet to lombard Charleston. An improvised naval force under the command of dashing colo mist, Colonel William Rhett, drove the French fleet back into the Gulf, and chastised them so thoroughly that they did not again dare to show a sail in Carolina waters. But the Spaniards. fighting under the cover of frontier swamps, were not so easy of conquest, and their attacks finally grew so con : stant that the colony had to take prompt steps to punish them. It was on the first of November of this year that a bill was passed by the Colonial parliament for the enlistment of slaves to be employed in frontier protection. We are not informed as to what service they rendered, but from the fact that in later years the same course was again adopted, we surmise that they did acceptable service Those sent against the Spaniards must have been picked men who could be thoroughly trusted, as one Of the favorite expedi- ents of the enemy to annoy the colony was to incite the slaves to mischief if not insurrection, and to entice them by large promises to escape to St. Augus- tine
 The next notice of the employment uf negroes in this capacity occurs during the period of the Indian wars in 1715, when it was ordered that q sufficient number of Iances be made to arm the negroes. Just how the negroes began to be used in the Indian war is not re- corded, so far as I can find. But on February 29, 1716, the Commons House of the Parliament of the colony sent 0
 message to the governor and his coun
 ell, which constituted the upper house suggesting that one hundred white men
 be sent to the garrison at the Cherokee settlement on the frontier and that the negro soldiers there be sent home. At the same time a message was sent to the governor asking that these negro soldiers be immediately discharged from the service, and that their arms be secured for the public use A later mention is found of a company of ne-
 groes in the Indian war being com | manded by one Captain Charlesworth Glover, who was voted twenty pounds for his services.
 For many years, beginning soon after the Indian wars were concluded, which
 was about TIT, the Carolina records are full of notices of threatened negro uprisings, which seemed to have culmi-
 mated in 1739 and 174O in a series of in- surrections which threw the colony into a panic It is somewhat surprising, | therefore that we find in the spring of l TAO the colony of South Carolina offer | ing the new colony of Georgia eight hundred negroes to act as pioneers on
 an expedition General Oglethorpe pro- | posed to lead against St. Augustine. | During the same troubles, at a later date. is found a notice of seventy three l negroes being enlisted on what seems
 to have been a naval expedition in aid of Georgia This surprise is modified,
 however, when we read in the parlia- mentary records of many cases where slaves during this period of insurrec- l tion proved most loyal to their masters, | and in some instances fought with
 great bravery against the attacking bands of insurgents. In the latter | coco. tho erovarnr,an+ 111IrchaSP6 the