Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South CarolinaAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
African Americans -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Pereira, Manuel -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
prejudices, we have been careful to preserve a conservative moderation
toward the slave. But, to my remarks.”
The party had now arrived opposite to what was formerly known as Jones's
Hotel, where the Colonel made a halt to relate the singular case that
had pained his feelings, though he held very tenaciously to the law as
it was, because he believed strongly in the wisdom of the South Carolina
judiciary.
“Our first and great object is to prevent the interchange of sentiment
between our domestic niggers, whether bond or free, and niggers who
reside abroad or have left our State; To do this, it became imperative
to establish a law prohibiting free negroes from coming into the State,
and those in the State from going out, under penalty of imprisonment and
fine, if they returned. The penalty amounted to sale upon a peon form;
and subjected the offender to the slave system in a manner that he
seldom retrieved himself. You will observe, Captain, the penalty is not
desired by our people, the object being to prevent them from returning,
and as such it must be taken in the spirit of its origin. Another very
wise provision was made by our legislators, and which has prevented a
great deal of suffering on the part of the slave. A few years ago, our
wise legislature made a law to revert the power of emancipation from the
board of magistrates where it had been very much abused, to the House
itself. And such is the law at the present day, that no master can give
his slaves their freedom, except by special act of the legislature, and
that with such a multiplicity of provisions and conditions that few even
attempt it. But I'm about to refer to cases in which some modification
might be said to have been necessary, because in them are embodied the
worst germs for abolition speculation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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