being considered a personal chattel, may be sold, or
pledged, or leased, at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for
marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts, or taxes,
either of a living, or a deceased master. Sold at auction, "either
individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser," he may remain with his
family, or be separated from them for ever._

4. _Slaves can make no contracts, and have no legal right to any
property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings, and the legacies
of friends belong, in point of law, to their masters._

5. _Neither a slave, nor free colored person, can be a witness against
any white or free man, in a court of justice, however atrocious may have
been the crimes they have seen him commit: but they may give testimony
against a fellow-slave, or free colored man, even in cases affecting
life._

6. _The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without
trial--without any means of legal redress,--whether his offence be real,
or imaginary: and the master can transfer the same despotic power to any
person, or persons, he may choose to appoint._

7. _The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under any
circumstances: his only safety consists in the fact that his owner may
bring suit, and recover, the price of his body, in case his life is
taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor._

8. _Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters,
though cruel treatment may have rendered such a change necessary for
their personal safety._

9. _The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations._

10. _The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where the
master is willing to enfranchise them._

11. _The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious
instruction and consolation._

12. _The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state of
the lowest ignorance._

13. _There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right.
What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly criminal
in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few dollars
only, are punished in the negro with death._

14. _The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color._

PROPOSITION 1.--_Slavery hereditary and perpetual._

In Maryland the following act was passed in 1715, and is still in force:
"All negroes and other slaves, already imported, or hereafter to be
imported