Your committee are of opinion, that in consequence of what has been written, spoken, and done by the friends of abolition, much light has been diffused through the community even in the slave holding states, and many masters restrained by the force of public opinion, thus enlightened, have abstained from cruelties which they would otherwise have inflicted; yet we cannot but believe, that very much anguish of heart, and exquisite sufferings of body are endured by this unhappy race, even in Maryland: (and we believe they are used as well here, as in any other part of our country.) The multitudes that are annually sold to the southern markets, by which parents and children are violently separated, and all the ties of consanguinity rent asunder, if no other indication of bad treatment were discovered; would itself speak volumes. The treatment of slaves may be estimated with some degree of accuracy by the laws which are in force respecting them. The laws of the land are always understood to be intended for the protection of the subject, but with respect to negro slaves (in the slave states) they have an effect directly the reverse. So far from securing him in the enjoyment of happiness, his very life is placed at the mercy of any white man, (especially of his master or overseer) who may take the opportunity to kill him in the absence of any other free white person. Resistance to the will of the master, may be punished with stripes, and if the resistance amount to striking, may be punished by imprisonment and whipping; and for a third offence the slave may suffer death! It will be perceived that by the operation of those laws, a virtuous female slave, may suffer death for defending her chastity against the ruffian assaults of a debauchee. The manner in which those laws are administered in some of the states, frequently occasions great outrages upon the common charities of our nature. The discretion rested in a court of two or three freeholders, or a single magistrate, over the persons of the accused is often exercised with great severity. In Stroud's Slave Laws, we have an account of the burning to death of a negro woman, under a law of South Carolina, so late as 1820. (See page 124, in the note.) It appears also that the mental improvement of the slave is a thing generally deprecated by the master, and in some cases provided against by law. (See Niles's Register, April 21, 1821.) How deplorable must be the state of that community, which supposed its safety to depend on keeping one half of its members totally ignorant, and not even able to read the Holy Scripture. How contrary to the nature of man? how offensive in the sight of that God who "_has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth_!"