control over, and therefore, to the precise extent needed to make it available, he has absolute control over the person of the negro. The ignorant abolition writer says, “the slave is put upon the auction-block, examined and handled precisely as the horse, or other animal, and knocked off to the highest bidder; he follows his master home, to be dealt with just as any other animal.” It is true, there is a seeming resemblance, but if we follow them home and observe what follows, then it will be seen that there is no resemblance at all. The master takes care of his horse, for such is his interest; he may even have a liking, a kind of affection for him; but if sick or worn out, or if he falls and breaks a leg, he blows his brains out, and after taking off his skin, leaves the carcass to be devoured by the dogs or vultures. In the case of the negro he also takes care of him and treats him well, for it is his highest interest to do so, and often feels an affection, and a very strong one, for him. If ill, he sends for a surgeon and treats him as men usually treat their children. He is a part of the household, belongs to the family, and is usually strongly attached to the master and the master’s children. His own wants are all attended to. He has his cabin, his patch of garden, his poultry, etc., very often his bale of cotton. He is permitted to choose his own wife, to enjoy all the domestic happiness that his nature is capable of, and if he fulfils his duty industriously, promptly, and honestly, then the master may be said to have no more control over him; but should he reach old age, break his leg, or in any way become disabled and useless, if the master should blow his brains out he would be hanged as a murderer. There is surely no resemblance in these things, none whatever; indeed it may be said that the one essential fact accomplished, the “service” duly rendered, the master’s absolute control ceases. He must still care for and protect the negro and provide for him in sickness and old age, but his absolute rule is always within well-defined limits, and beyond them the master may not go. He may enforce service, and if the negro disobeys, punish him, or if he resists the reasonable will of the master, compel obedience—absolute, unquestioning obedience. But the laws of every Southern State protect the “slave” from the caprices and cruelties of the master just as in the Northern States they protect the child from a sometimes passionate and brutal father.