It will be seen from this, that in the enlightened State of Virginia, it is a crime for one portion of human beings to worship their Maker! Comment is unnecessary. Those men, whose moral sense was so blunted, so destroyed, that they could pass such a law as that, could not be expected to find much difficulty in enacting one subjecting to fine and imprisonment any one who taught negro children their letters. The old law, for which this is a substitute, was exceedingly explicit in this respect, but had become a dead letter. The new one is very loose in its language. It will be seen that the expressions “he” and “him” are used, allowing the Judge and jury the opportunity of a strict construction of the law, in case a lady should be concerned. Since my trial and conviction, I have been advised by one of the most eminent counsel in Virginia, that the Norfolk Court exceeded its powers, and violated the law by not construing the act literally in my case. It is possible that I may yet hold all the parties concerned responsible for their unlawful course. At any rate, it utterly demolishes the nice theory of Judge Baker, that he was bound to sustain the law, and leaves him without an excuse for his unnecessary severity towards me. I now approach a subject vitally connected with the interests of the South and the welfare of humanity. In doing so, I have no rancor or malice to serve, but boldly speak my mind, and tell my Southern sisters a truth which, however they may have learned it by sad experience, has probably never been thus presented to them before. _In this truth is to be found the grand secret of the opposition to the instruction of the colored race._ It therefore becomes important in connection with my narrative. In this truth also lies the grand secret of the discontent and rebellion among the slaves. Knowing this, it is easy to perceive why such strenuous efforts are made to keep the colored population in darkness and ignorance. As it is, nature herself often rebels against what instinct teaches even the most degraded negro to be inhuman and devilish, and if to this were added the light of intelligence afforded by even the commonest instruction, wo to the darling system of this offspring of the institution of slavery. This subject demands the attention, not only of the religious population, but of statesmen and law-makers. It is the one great evil hanging over the Southern slave States, destroying domestic happiness and the peace of thousands. It is summed up in the single word--_amalgamation_. This, and this only, causes the vast extent of ignorance, degradation, and crime that lies like a black cloud over the whole South. And the practice is more general than even Southerners are willing to allow. While even the Northern libertine usually revolts from the intimate society of those in whose veins courses a drop of black blood, the Southern _gentleman_ takes them to his very bosom and revels in their fancied charms, until