All the States which have pronounced an anathema against books and alphabets, have likewise forbidden that any colored man shall be employed in a printing-office, under the penalty of ten dollars for every offence.
In Mississippi, any white who employs, or receives a free colored person, without a certificate of freedom, written on parchment, forfeits _one thousand dollars_.
If any master, in that State, allows his slaves to sell any wares or merchandise out of the incorporated towns, he is liable to a fine of from fifty to five hundred dollars.
In Virginia, any person who buys of a slave any article belonging to his master, forfeits from ten to fifty dollars; if the purchase be made on Sunday, ten dollars more are added to the fine for each article.
This enactment is evidently made to prevent a slave from obtaining any money, or holding communication with freemen; a particular proviso is made against Sunday, because the slave has usually more leisure on that day. It is to be remembered that all a slave has belongs to his master.
To carry a slave out of North Carolina, or conceal him with intent to carry him out, is punished with death.
If a runaway slave die in prison, before he or she can be sold, _the county pays the sheriff and jailer_; formerly these officers depended on the life and marketableness of their prisoners for security; but even this poor motive for kindness is now taken away. If ninety-nine out of a hundred die in prison, they will be heard of only in the _jailer's bill_. I never heard or read of an _inquest_ upon the body of a slave found dead. Under the term "runaway slaves" are included many free colored persons taken up unjustly.
Well might Jefferson say, "I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just!"
In travelling over this dreary desert, it is pleasant to arrive at one little oasis: Louisiana _has_ enacted that slaves brought into that State for sale, shall forthwith be set free; but they must be sent out of the State.
It is worthy of remark that England pursues a totally different course with regard to allowing slaves to communicate with free people. Their recent laws are all calculated to make it easy for the slave to obtain a fair hearing from people who have no interest to suppress his complaints. He may go upon any plantation, and communicate with any person; and whoever tries to prevent his going to a magistrate is guilty of a misdemeanor.