ement--to
set race against race, and to make the free blacks familiar with
military duty, while the whites are growing up in ignorance of it. In
point of civil privileges, the free blacks are the equals of the whites.
In courts of law, as witnesses or parties, no difference is known; and
they have the same rights as to the holding of lands and other
property. As to their social position, I have not the means of speaking.
I should think it quite as good as it is in New England, if not better.

So far as to the position of the blacks, when free. The laws also
directly favor emancipation. Every slave has a right to go to a
magistrate and have himself valued, and on paying the valuation, to
receive his free papers. The valuation is made by three assessors, of
whom the master nominates one and the magistrate the other two. The
slave is not obliged to pay the entire valuation at once; but may pay it
in installments, of not less than fifty dollars each. These payments are
not made as mere advances of money, on the security of the master's
receipt, but are part purchases. Each payment makes the slave an owner
of such a portion of himself, _pro parte indivisa_, or as the common law
would say, in tenancy-in-common, with his master. If the valuation be
one thousand dollars, and he pays one hundred dollars, he is owned,
one-tenth by himself and nine-tenths by his master. It has been said, in
nearly all the American books on Cuba, that, on paying a share, he
becomes entitled to a corresponding share of his time and labor; but,
from the best information I can get, I think this is a mistake. The
payment affects the proprietary title, but not the usufruct. Until all
is paid, the master's dominion over the slave is not reduced, as
respects either discipline, or labor, or right of transfer; but if the
slave is sold, or goes by operation of law to heirs or legatees or
creditors, they take only the interest not paid for, subject to the
right of future payment under the valuation.

There is another provision, which, at first sight, may not appear very
important, but which is, I am inclined to think, the best practical
protection the slave has against ill-treatment by his master: that is,
the right to a compulsory sale. A slave may, on the same process of
valuation compel his master to transfer him to any person who will pay
the money. For this purpose, he need establish no cause of complaint. It
is enough if he desires to be transferred, a