It may also be further stated concerning the disabilities of the slave, 1. That he cannot be a witness against a white person, either in a civil or criminal cause. 2. He cannot be a party to a civil suit. 3. Submission is required of the slave, not to the will of his master only, but to that of all other white persons. 4. The penal codes of the slave holding states bear much more severely upon the slaves than upon the white persons,--taking the life of the slave, where a slight punishment only is inflicted upon the whites. 5. Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal accusations, in many of the states, without a jury. The condition of the slave, as regards emancipation, is peculiarly distressing. The state of society in the slave holding states, and legislative enactments, have rendered it nearly impossible for any master to emancipate his slave. In Virginia and Mississippi, an emancipated slave may be taken in execution to satisfy any debt, contracted by the person emancipating him, previous to such emancipation. In Kentucky, the Act which authorises emancipation, contains a reservation of the rights of creditors. In Louisiana, any enfranchisement made in _fraud of creditors_, &c. is null and void. In South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, it is only by authority of the Legislature, specially granted, that a valid emancipation can be made. In North Carolina it was enacted in 1777, that no negro or mulatto slave shall be hereafter set free, except for _meritorious service to be adjudged of and allowed by the County Court_, and license first had and obtained thereupon. The laws of Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia and Maryland, afford greater facility to emancipation than the other slave holding states. In Virginia, however, there is a provision by which every emancipated negro, over twenty one years of age, who shall continue within the state more than twelve months after his right to freedom shall have accrued, may be again reduced to slavery. In order to secure the slave holding states in the use and possession of their property in the persons of slaves, and to prevent all escape of slaves from their masters, the constitution of the United States provides, “That no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, _escaping_ into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” III. _Intellectual and Moral Condition of the Slaves._ The benefits of education are withheld from the slave. No provisions are made in any of the slave states for the education of the slaves, and in many they have absolutely prohibited instruction of any kind.