Before continuing the narrative of the subsequent journey, which conducted us from the bosom of the most advanced civilization, into the centre of still savage tribes, the aboriginal children of America, I shall make some observations on the state of Georgia.
This state, situated between the 30th and 35th degrees of north latitude, and the 3d and 9th of longitude west from Washington, is bounded on the north by the state of Tennessee, to the north-east by South Carolina, to the south-east by the Atlantic ocean, to the south by Florida, and to the west by the state of Alabama. Its surface is 58,000 square miles, and its population 340,989 inhabitants, of which nearly 150,000 are slaves; a proportion truly alarming, and which will, some day, bring Georgia into an embarrassing situation, if its government does not adopt some measure to diminish the evil. Here, as in all the slave states, the blacks are goods and chattels, which are sold like any other property, and which may be inherited; but their introduction into the state as an object of commerce is severely prohibited. According to existing laws, a person who brings into the state a slave, which he sells or exposes to sale within the year immediately succeeding his introduction, is subjected to a penalty of one thousand dollars, and an imprisonment of five years in the state prison. The prejudices against the coloured race is very strong among the Georgians, and I have not remarked that they have made any great efforts for the abolition of slavery; the laws even interpose a barrier to gradual emancipation, for a proprietor cannot give liberty to his slave without the authority of the legislature. The ancient code of slavery introduced by the English, and which was a code of blood, is fallen into disuse, and has been supplied by some laws protective of the slaves. Thus, for example, whoever now designedly deprives a slave of life or limb, is condemned to the same punishment as if the crime had been committed on a white man, except in a case of insurrection; but we feel that this law is to be administered by judges who are themselves slave-holders, and under the influence of the same prejudices as their fellow citizens; thus may one say with truth, that if the slaves of Georgia do not perish under the whip of their master, as too often happens in the French colonies, it is owing solely to the naturally mild and humane dispositions of the Georgians, and not to the efficacy of the laws, which admit that a slave _may accidentally die on receiving moderate correction_, without the author of the infliction being guilty of murder.