Steuart in his Negroe Somerset, but of every subject of Great Britain in his Negroe or Negroes, either in the colonies or elsewhere, is a right and property founded in him by the law of this land; that the royal grants, letters patent, and charters, for and of the African trade and company, confirmed and established by acts of Parliament, are the foundation whereupon all the laws of the colonies, respecting their Negroes, are built; and that, without such sanction, those laws could never have been made. For, my Lord, it is evident that the colonies could not have had power of themselves to institute this trade to Africa; neither have they the means to support it. Without this trade then to Africa, no Negroes could have been imported to them; and if they had had no Negroes among them, they had needed no laws appertaining to Negroes[7]. But, my Lord, it may be urged, that although the laws of England may make property of Negroes, they do not make slaves of them. I should imagine that, although an individual, I might answer individually for every American subject of the King, that they do not desire any greater interest in their Negroes than that of property. It is self-sufficient to answer all their purposes, and to produce all that great good which this nation experiences therefrom. It is a supposition of inhumanity, I hope, inapplicable to these people, that they should wish to make slaves of their Negroes, merely for the sake of slavery; and if it should appear, that there is no such law existing in America, as the law of slavery, considered as such, I should infer that the contrary presumption was fittest to be entertained and received. The law respecting Negroes there, my Lord, is the law of property, consentaneous to the law of England. By this law they are made real estate, for the purpose of descent, and goods and chattels _quoad_ the payment of debts. This is the original and fundamental law concerning Negroes. I do not remember ever to have seen the word Slavery made use of, in any law, of any colony, in America. I admit that Negroes are there termed slaves: but I will tell your Lordship why. In the criminal law, where they become necessarily the objects of punishment, it is essential that they should have some descriptive name or title given to them. It is for this reason, therefore, that they are there, and there only so called. As they had been already defined to be property, as Negroes, it could not be said that, if property should strike his master, property shall be punished; but it is said, that if a slave should strike his master, this slave shall be punished accordingly. Now in the antient law of England, my Lord, when slavery was part of the constitution, your Lordship knows, that not only the villein was described, but the law of villenage or bondage was also known and laid down. In the laws of America, the slave is made mention of, for the reason assigned; but the law of slavery, however impliedly, is no