The author still holds to the opinion that slavery in itself, as legally defined in law-books and expressed in the records of courts, _is_ the SUM AND ESSENCE OF ALL ABUSE; and she still clings to the hope that there are _many_ men at the South _infinitely_ better than their laws; and after the reader has read all the extracts which she has to make, for the sake of a common humanity they will hope the same. The author must state, with regard to some passages which she must quote, that the language of certain enactments was so incredible that she would not take it on the authority of any compilation whatever, but copied it with her own hand from the latest edition of the statute-book where it stood and still stands. ----- Footnote 3: In this connection it may be well to state that the work of Judge Stroud is now out of print, but that a work of the same character is in course of preparation by William I. Bowditch, Esq., of Boston, which will bring the subject out, by the assistance of the latest editions of statutes, and the most recent decisions of courts. CHAPTER II. WHAT IS SLAVERY? The author will now enter into a consideration of slavery as it stands revealed in slave law. [Sidenote: Civil Code, Art. 35.] [Sidenote: 2 Brev. Dig. 229. Prince’s Digest, 446.] What is it, according to the definition of law-books and of legal interpreters? “A slave,” says the law of Louisiana, “is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master.” South Carolina says “slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, TO ALL INTENTS, CONSTRUCTIONS AND PURPOSES WHATSOEVER.” The law of Georgia is similar. [Sidenote: Wheeler’s Law of Slavery, 246. State _v._ Mann.] Let the reader reflect on the extent of the meaning in this last clause. Judge Ruffin, pronouncing the opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, says, a slave is “one doomed in his own person, and his posterity, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that another may reap the fruits.”