By the law of Georgia, South Carolina, and all the States of the
South, the negro had no right to the custody and control of his
person. He belonged to his master. If he was disobedient, the
master had the right to use correction. If the negro didn't like
the correction, and attempted to run away, the master had a right
to use coercion to bring him back. By the law of every State in
this Union to-day, North as well as South, the married woman has
no right to the custody and control of her person. The wife
belongs to her husband; and if she refuses obedience to his will,
he may use moderate correction, and if she doesn't like his
moderate correction, and attempts to leave his "bed and board,"
the husband may use moderate coercion to bring her back. The
little word "moderate," you see, is the saving clause for the
wife, and would doubtless be overstepped should her offended
husband administer his correction with the "cat-o'-nine-tails,"
or accomplish his coercion with blood-hounds.

Again, the slave had no right to the earnings of his hands, they
belonged to his master; no right to the custody of his children,
they belonged to his master; no right to sue or be sued, or
testify in the courts. If he committed a crime, it was the master
who must sue or be sued. In many of the States there has been
special legislation, giving to married women the right to
property inherited, or received by bequest, or earned by the
pursuit of any avocation outside of the home; also, giving her
the right to sue and be sued in matters pertaining to such
separate property; but _not a single State of this Union has ever
secured the wife in the enjoyment of her right to the joint
ownership of the joint earnings of the marriage copartnership_.
And since, in the nature of things, the vast majority of married
women never earn a dollar by work outside of their families, nor
inherit a dollar from their fathers, it follows that from the day
of their marriage to the day of the death of their husbands, not
one of them ever has a dollar, except it shall please her
husband to let her have it. In some of the States, also, there
have been laws passed giving to the mother a joint right with the
father in the guardianship of the children. But twenty years ago,
when our woman'