er case, other
offenders would be equally deprived of it. But wherever the benefit of
clergy is allowed to a slave, the court, besides burning him in the hand
(the usual punishment inflicted on free persons) may inflict such
further corporal punishment as they may think fit [1794. c. 103.]; this
also seems to be the law in the case of free Negroes and mulattoes. By
the act of 1723, c. 4, it was enacted, that when _any Negroe_ or
_mulattoe_ shall be found, upon due proof made, or _pregnant
circumstances_, to have given false testimony, every such offender
shall, _without further trial_, have his ears successively nailed to the
pillory for the space of an hour, and then cut off, and moreover receive
thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, or such other punishment as the
court shall think proper, not extending to life or limb. This act, with
the exception of the words _pregnant circumstances_, was re-enacted in
1792. The punishment of perjury, in a _white_ person, is only a fine and
imprisonment. A slave convicted of hog-stealing, shall, for the first
offence, receive thirty-nine lashes: any other person twenty-five: but
the latter is also subject to a fine of thirty dollars, besides paying
eight dollars to the owner of the hog. The punishment for the second and
third offence, of this kind, is the same in the case of a free person,
as of a slave; namely, by the pillory and loss of ears, for the second
offence; the third is declared felony, to which clergy is, however,
allowed. The preceding are the only positive distinctions which now
remain between the punishment of a slave, and a white person, in those
cases, where the latter is liable to a determinate corporal punishment.
But we must not forget, that many actions, which are either not
punishable at all, when perpetrated by a white person, or at most, by
fine and imprisonment, only, are liable to severe corporal punishment,
when done by a slave; nay, even to death itself, in some cases. To go
abroad without a written permission; to keep or carry a gun, or other
weapon; to utter any seditious speech; to be present at any unlawful
assembly of slaves; to lift the hand in opposition to a white person,
unless wantonly assaulted, are all offences punishable by whipping
[1794. c. 103.]. To attempt the chastity of a white woman, forcibly, is
punishable by dismemberment: such an attempt would be a high misdemeanor
in a white free man, but the punishment would be far short of that of a