t
even in the island of Jamaica, where the laws have given a most shocking
license to cruelty,--even in Jamaica, the slave is compelled to work but
_ten_ hours a day, beside having many holidays allowed him. In Maryland,
Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey, the _convicts_
condemned to hard labor in the penitentiaries, are required by law to
toil only from _eight_ to _ten_ hours a day, according to the season of
the year; yet the law providing that the innocent slave should labor but
_fourteen_ or _fifteen_ hours a day, professes to have been made as a
merciful amelioration of his lot!--In Rome, the slaves had a yearly
festival called the Saturnalia, during which they were released from
toil, changed places with their masters, and indulged in unbounded
merriment; at first it lasted but one day; but its duration afterwards
extended to two, three, four, and five days in succession. We have no
Saturnalia here--unless we choose thus to designate a coffle of slaves,
on the fourth of July, rattling their chains to the sound of a violin,
and carrying the banner of freedom in hands loaded with irons.

[Footnote L: See Western Review, No. 2, on the Agriculture of
Louisiana.]

In Georgia, "The inferior courts of the several counties on _receiving
information on oath_ of any _infirm_ slave or slaves, being in a
suffering condition, from the neglect of the owner or owners, can make
_particular inquiries_ into the situation of such slaves, and render
such relief as they think proper. And the said courts may sue for and
recover from the owner of such slaves the amount appropriated for their
relief." The information must, in the first place, be given by a _white
man_ upon oath; and of whom must the "particular inquiries" be made?
Not of the slave, nor of his companions,--for their evidence goes for
nothing; and would a master, capable of starving an aged slave, be
likely to confess the whole truth about it? The judges of the inferior
courts, if from defect of evidence, or any other cause, they are unable
to _prove_ that relief was absolutely needed, must pay all the expenses
from their own private purses. Are there many, think you, so desperately
enamored of justice, as to take all this trouble, and incur all this
risk, for a starving slave?

PROP. 3.--_Slaves considered personal chattels, liable to be sold,
pledged, &c._

The advertisements in the Southern papers furnish a continued proof
of this; it is, therefore,