yet on all these and
innumerable other minutiae must depend the protection of the slaves,
their comforts, and the probability of their increase. It was
universally allowed, that the Code Noir had been utterly neglected in
the French islands, though there was an officer appointed by the crown
to see it enforced. The provisions of the Directorio had been but of
little more avail in the Portuguese settlements, or the institution of a
Protector of the Indians, in those of the Spaniards. But what degree or
protection the slaves would enjoy might be inferred from the admission
of a gentleman, by whom this very plan of regulation had been
recommended, and who was himself no ordinary person, but a man of
discernment and legal resources. He had proposed a limitation of the
number of lashes to be given by the master or overseer for one offence.
But, after all, he candidly confessed, that his proposal was not likely
to be useful, while the evidence of slaves continued inadmissible
against their masters. But he could even bring testimony to the
inefficacy of such regulations. A wretch in Barbados had chained a Negro
girl to the floor, and flogged her till she was nearly expiring. Captain
Cook and Major Fitch, hearing her cries, broke open the door and found
her. The wretch retreated from their resentment, but cried out
exultingly, "that he had only given her thirty-nine lashes (the number
limited by law) at any one time; and that he had only inflicted this
number three times since the beginning of the night," adding, "that he
would prosecute them for breaking open his door; and that he would flog
her to death for all any one, if he pleased; and that he would give her
the fourth thirty-nine before morning."

But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe. He
entered his protest against the fatal consequences which might result
from it. The Negroes were creatures like ourselves; but they were
uninformed, and their moral character was debased. Hence they were unfit
for civil rights. To use these properly they must be gradually restored
to that level, from which they had been so unjustly degraded. To allow
them an appeal to the laws, would be to awaken in them a sense of the
dignity of their nature. The first return of life, after a swoon, was
commonly a convulsion, dangerous at once to the party himself and to all
around him. You should first prepare them for the situation, and not
bring the situation to them. To