The exposed condition of slaves, on account of incapacity to testify, was recognized in the early legislation of South Carolina. The preamble to Section 39 of the Act of 1740 begins as follows: “And whereas, by reason of the extent and distance of plantations in this Province, the inhabitants are far removed from each other, _and many cruelties may be committed on slaves, because no white person may be present to give evidence of the same_.”[67] Thus, even out of the mouth of South Carolina, before this State had learned to sacrifice everything to Slavery, we learn that “many cruelties may be committed on slaves” under operation of this rule. But no such confession was needed. The truth is apparent to the most superficial observer. Had South Carolina, at that early day, followed the suggestion of her own statute, she would have begun a career of civilization under which Slavery itself must have disappeared. The exposed condition of slaves on this account is curiously attested by other statutes of the Slave States, showing that plantations far removed from cities, and at considerable distance from each other, are committed to the direction of _a single white overseer_, who, from the circumstance that he is the only white person present, is placed beyond all restraint or correction. Thus, in South Carolina,[68] in Florida,[69] in Georgia,[70] and in Louisiana,[71] the statutes exact the continued residence of _one white person_ on every plantation, with a specified number of working slaves. These statutes had their origin in no sentiment of justice or humanity, but, as appears in early declarations, in a desire to prevent the harboring of fugitive slaves, who might find asylum among those exclusively of their own color. If, however, it was thought necessary for any purpose to require by penalties the continued residence of _even one white person_ on a slave plantation, it is reasonable to infer that there must be many plantations where there is only one white person. And to one white person thus situated, and thus removed from all check or observation, the law commits the government and guardianship of slaves on a plantation, and promises him in advance the most complete impunity for all that he does, even to the extent of cold-blooded murder, provided only that he is careful to let no white person see the deed. This proscription is not confined to slaves. Free colored persons, under operation of this rule, are exposed to the same fearful wrongs. A white person may treat them as he treats a slave, and they are absolutely without remedy. It would be difficult to point out any law, the spawn of cruelty or tyranny, in ancient or modern times, exceeding in atrocity that by which a free population is thus despoiled of protection on account of color. It was one of the boasts of Magna Charta that justice should be denied to no person,--“_Nulli negabimus justitiam_”; but under this rule it is denied to a whole race.