taken by the mother country, treated with the utmost contumely.* "That in these times, when we perceive a party which has fanaticism and revolution as its guides possessing such an ascendancy over some of the members of the British cabinet, it is our duty to watch with a careful eye over our birth rights, and not allow ourselves to be lulled into repose with the false idea that the danger is passed. Such will never pass until the leaders of the British cabinet possess, and dare to show they possess, an independence of those creatures styled by the name of Saints, from which dangerous party it is to be hoped the respectable part of the British public will soon withdraw its countenance. "That it is but too evident the Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the British cabinet, and leader of the house of commons (the intimate friend of our arch enemy,) is himself, as far as he dare, an advocate for the abolition of existing circumstances in the American Archipelago; he, and by his own acknowledgment, was the chief cause that a neighbouring island (Trinidad) was refused the blessings of a British constitution, which refusal has exposed it to its present misery and oppression. "That we have been treated with contempt, scandalized, and defamed. We have also been threatened. It is our duty, therefore, to show, that he who does not fear death fears not threats. It is our duty to show, that although we can make up our minds to live without wealth, yet we cannot make up our minds to live without honour; which we should, did we not choose to risk all in man. fully defending our rights, like men worthy of them, rather than to have them crumble from us ignominiously, owing to pusillanimous and indetermined measures. "That it is with feelings of gratitude and respect we praise the house of assembly (which has the sole right of altering and amending our code,) for its energetic conduct during last session in so firmly protecting our constitution, our properties, and our rights; and we rely on its wisdom The legislatures of some of the islands, it is true, proceeded to enact laws for the melioration of the condition of their slaves and people of colour, but the provisions, or if we please, improvements, adopted, furnish a sombre picture of the happy condition of these degraded people. A few of these will be selected as specimens. I begin with the Bahamas. In those islands, as I have formerly observed, the soil is less productive than most of the others, and the culture of sugar less attended to, and hence the labour exacted from the slaves, is less oppressive, and their situation more comfortable. Their numbers have been progressively advancing, while those of the islands generally are on the decline. A certain indication of better treatment. In the beginning of 1824, the legislature proceeded with the work of meliorating the condition of the coloured race. Previously to that time, free blacks and persons of colour were not permitted to give testimony in courts of justice, against whites; but by the improvements of that year, they were admitted to give their testimony in all civil or criminal cases, affecting white persons. But none are admitted to the full enjoyment of this privilege, who were not born free, and who are not natives of the West Indies, and who have not resided five years in the Bahamas. This provision, of course, excludes all persons of colour, born in any other country than the West Indies, (England, or the United States,) from giving evidence in any case, affecting the population of the islands. that, during the approaching session, it will adhere to the same upright and laudable principles."-Resolutions of the Freeholders of St. Elizabeth. But all creole negroes or mulattoes, who, though not born free, have been manumitted, and have actually enjoyed their freedom for five years,* and who profess the christian religion, are admitted to the privileges of those persons of colour who were born free, except that they are not allowed to give evidence of treason, felony, &c., committed before they became free. But from these rights and privileges, all negroes, mulattoes, and other persons of colour, being natives of Africa, or the contiguous islands, are absolutely excluded. All manumissions of slaves, incapable of labour, are declared void, and the master is bound, under a penalty, to provide for such slaves. Hence those slaves who, according to Barclay and others, are in possession of absolute wealth, unless capable of labour, must remain slaves, and entail their hapless condition upon their posterity. Marriages of slaves, or those between slaves and free coloured persons, are not allowed to be celebrated without the written consent of the owner; which the owner may grant or refuse at pleasure. These marriages, when celebrated according to law, are declared valid, provided that the marital power and authority to be thus acquired by the husband over the wife, shall in no such case impugn, diminish, or interfere with Does not this extraordinary provision, expose the manumitted slaves to every injury that the whites may choose to inflict, until five years after their manumission, and thus render their situation during that interval, ⚫ more precarious than while they were under the protection of their masters? the rights or authority of the owner, in any manner whatever. No slave shall receive more than twenty lashes at any one time, or for any one offence, unless the owner, or employer, or the supervisor of the workhouse or keeper of the jail, be present; and neither of these persons are to inflict more than thirtynine lashes at one time, and for one offence; nor is any female slave above twelve years of age, to be punished otherwise than in private.* The practice of fixing iron collars, with projecting bars or hooks, round the necks of slaves, or loading them with chains, or weights, beyond what is necessary for securing their persons, is prohibited. Any slave, having concealed in his house, or possession, any fire arms, gunpowder, slugs or ball, and convicted before two justices, may be *This appears to be an actual improvement in the law, as I find the master's power of correction was not previously limited. It is, however, if we are to credit the assertions of Barclay, a sorry specimen of colonial reform. We are told, that at no distant day, when savage Africans were pouring into Jamaica, the masters power of punishing his slaves, was little restrained by law, and was exercised to great extent by the subordinate white people and drivers. (See page 217, of this Journal.) Yet the laws of Jamaica, as early as 1792, sixteen years before savage Africans had ceased to pour into the island, had placed the same limitations upon a master's authority, which our author has given as a modern improvement, and even curtailed the power of the subordinate agent to half the extent, which the Bahama legislature has thought expedient. Except in the case of females, the Bahamas are not yet as far advanced with their meliorating laws, as Jamaica was when the master's power was but little restrained. punished with whipping, at discre tion. Slaves stealing or killing cattle, sheep, horse, &c. are punishable with death. Upon the transmission of this specimen of improved legislation to England, Lord Bathurst pointed out a number of its provisions to which important objections occurred, and various omissions which he thought needful to have supplied. Express A slave aiding a slave to depart from the Bahama islands, shall suffer transportation, or any other punish-ing an assurance, that the local au ment, not extending to life or limb. A free negro or person of colour, doing so, shall suffer transportation, and, if afterwards found at large, put to death without benefit of clergy. A white person, for a like act, is liable to a fine of 1007, and imprisonment of not more than one year. An important difference to be founded on colour alone. ' Slaves receiving sentence of death or transportation, are to be valued. But if it shall appear that the owner of such slave had treated him with inhumanity, and that necessity or hard usage might have driven him to the commission of the offence, the owner shall receive no allowance from the public. It is to be hoped, that some provision exists, either by executive interference, or otherwise, to rescue the slave from death, when necessity has driven him to the commission of the crime. To punish the slave with death, and the cruel master, the real criminal in the supposed case, with the loss of his slave, is too outrageous a mockery of justice, to be tolerated in a christian community: yet such is apparently the improved statute law of the Bahamas. And still their numbers there, are increasing upwards of 2 per cent. per annum; while in Jamaica, the Elysium of slaves, they are constantly decreasing.* *This will be shown conclusively in the next number. thorities would willingly correct what was so obviously faulty. On receiving his observations, the legislature transmitted a long message to the governor, complaining grievously of the wish expressed by Lord Bathurst, and denouncing the provisions suggested, as unjust and injurious. Arguing, that it is infinitely better for all parties, that the negro should be left to the voluntary kindness of his master, than to be protected by law. For, say they, protect him by law, in the enjoyment of his property for example, and from that moment that property, instead of a bond of union between him and his master, would become a barrier of inextinguishable hate. In short, a strong sense of the great impolicy and absolute danger of making any further innovation at present in the slave system of the colony, and a decided conviction of the correctness of the principles on which they are acting, compel them to refuse to alter their legisla tion. Yet the governor asserts, in his communication to Lord Bathurst, that this law improves the condition of the slaves very considerably. IMPORTANT REMARK. Mr. Pitt declared, that it was impossible to increase the happiness or enlarge the freedom of the slave, without in an equal degree, adding to the security of the colonies and of all the inhabitants. Buxton's speech in II. Commons, 1823, REVIEW Of a sketch of the laws relating to Slavery, in the several states of the United States of America. By George M. Stroud. Philadelphia, published by Kimber and Sharpless. pp. 180. The public have been several years in possession of an elaborate work, by James Stephen, Esq. of London, on the slavery of the British West can literature. The author has adopted the arrangement, rather than the plan, of his English predecessor, and in one respect, at least, has a decided advantage over him. The work of the former is diffuse, and the information relative to the laws of the colonies, is mingled with matter somewhat irrelevant to the subject, though entirely in unison with the under review, is devoted to the ob observations of the author seem to illustrate the legal rather than the moral character of the provisions which are brought under notice. He does not quit his road in search of decorations, nor abandon his province of a reporter and expositor of the laws, to indulge in reflections on the cruelty and injustice of slavery; yet he has managed to render both sufficiently glaring by his expositions. The sting is rendered more severe from being pointed with truth. The style is chaste and correct, equally removed from barrenness and verbosity. Indies, as existing in law, portray-design of the author. The volume ing with a master's hand, the oppressive character of West Indian legis-ject indicated by the title, and the lation, and the general inefficacy of the provisions which have been made for the protection of the servile class; but hitherto nothing has been presented to the American public, by which the laws of the several states, either as they relate to the protection, or the government of slaves, could be satisfactorily determined. Some attempts to supply this defect, have, within a few years, been made, but those who have undertaken the task, have been wanting, either in the requisite means, or the industry indispensable to its accomplishment.* The student or philanthropist, who desired to understand the laws which relate to slavery, in these republican states, had no means of gratifying his desire, but by wading through a number of volumes of statutes and reports, which were often difficult to procure, and always tedious to examine. The volume before us, has at length effected what had been long regarded as a desideratum in Ameri Though the legal intelligence is generally too much condensed to be used as authority in the management of a cause in which the rights of a slave are in question, yet as reference is continually made to the original authorities, the work, besides supplying the wants of the general reader, may serve as a valuable index to the numerous volumes from which that intelligence was extracted. The volume, exclusive of the appendix, is divided into four chapters. The first chapter, the shortest of the four, relates to the persons who may be held as slaves, and the authority upon which they are so held. The object in this chapter is not to trace, with the hand of an historian, the origin of slavery in these then British colonies; but to exhibit its first assumption of a legal character. And it is observable, that we no where find a law authorizing the enslavement, except in a single case, to be noted hereafter, of any part of the native population, or the importation of slaves from abroad, to which we can refer, as the origin of American slavery, but the earliest enactment on the subject, recognizes slavery as an existing institution, which it was judged expedient to limit or define. Though Virginia† was, un * *The Maryland act of 1717, declaring that a free negro or mulatto, intermarrying with a white woman, shall become a slave for life, does originate slavery in its proper sense, as the offspring of such marriage must be free. The first importation of African slaves into these American colonies, appears to have been in 1620. The trade to Virginia, was in that year, thrown open, having been previously monopolized by a company, and a Dutch ship from the coast of Guinea, sailed up the James river, and sold twenty negroes to the planters as slaves. (Robertson's History of America, book 9—Marshall's Life of Washington, introd.) The use of tobacco had recently obtained a place among the fashionable circles of Europe, and the climate and soil of Virginia, being congenial to its production, its culture became about that time, the most prominent part of the planter's occupation. Had the peo ple of Europe in general, participated with the monarch, then on the English throne, in his aversion for that artificial luxury, it appears probable, that the present inhabitants of these states, would have escaped the burden of a population, which it appears difficult to dispose of, or retain. According to Adam Smith, it was by the possession of a lucrative staple, questionably the first of the angloAmerican colonies, into which the natives of Africa were transported as slaves; yet the earliest enactment on the subject, which our author has quoted, is to be found among the statutes of Maryland. It is dated in 1663, more than 40 years after slaves were first imported into the sister colony. This act recognizes the exist ence of negro slavery, and legalizes the traffic in slaves, which, from the terms of the law, may be supposed to have been a part of the established commerce of the province. It is, however, remarkable, that in settling the character of hereditary slavery, this act recognizes the common law doctrine, or that which prevailed in England, during the existence of villa. nage, that the child should follow the condition of the father. And here it may be remarked, that as the system of villanage was the only part of the institutions of the mother country, which could afford any shadow of authority for the establishment of negro slavery, it is cause of serious regret that this feature of it was not preserved. It is true, that the issue of white women, who married negro slaves, for a time, followed the condition of the father; yet had this principle been maintained, other evils of much greater magnitude must have been mitigated, if not excluded. A more numerous class of mulattoes, must have been free; and our brethren of the south, would have escaped the odium, as well as the guilt, of holding their own offspring as slaves. This law, also, established a slavery of an anomalous character, that the southern planters were enabled to support the expense of slave cultivation. |