University of Virginia Library

1. [From] CHAPTER I.
THE RETURN HOME.

[pp. 7-17 omitted.]

"Why, my dear husband, have you any law in Virginia to punish a master for cruelty to his slave?"

"Certainly, my dear; a man is not allowed to be cruel to his beasts; but as slaves are the only persons generally present, and as their testimony is not admissible against a white man, the law is rarely enforced against a cruel master."

"I have always thought it a shocking thing to prevent slaves from giving testimony against a white man; in our state the testimony of a black man is thought as good as that of a white."

"Well, my dear, as I have brought you to Virginia full of notions and prejudices against this peculiar institution of ours, it is my duty, and it is indispensable to your comfort here, that I should remove those prejudices as soon as possible. My first effort will be to reconcile

you to what you call a shocking thing in our laws, and to show you how very shocking it would be (on the other hand), if slaves were allowed to give testimony against the whites.

"I must allow that there are evils inseparable from a state of slavery, such (for instance) as a depressed and lowered standard of morals; a general feeling of antagonism on the part of the slave towards the white man; which latter feeling, operating upon the low moral standard, which rejects the proper appreciation of an oath, would not only tend to insecurity of the life and property of the white man, but would injure the slave himself, if he were by law placed in a situation where there was constant temptation to perjury.

"Moreover, there is always, in every community, a class of whites whose moral standard is as low as that of the slave, but who, on account of their freedom, are more connected than the slave with the property transactions of life; and if, in contests between the whites relative to those transactions, the slave was admitted to bear testimony, what an advantage would the villain litigant have over the conscientious one, when there was so wide a field open for suborning slaves to perjury! A master's influence, too, over his slave might be made to bear very beneficially upon his own interest, and defeat the purposes of justice, if the slave could testify in his behalf; or he might be liable to injury from the testimony of a slave given under feelings of exasperation.

"It is entirely unsuited to the nature of slavery, to admit slaves as witnesses, for or against those who are

connected with property transactions. If the slave were liable to be called to a court-house as a witness, where he might be kept for many days, what would become of the master's interest at home? What temptations also to vice would not be offered the idle slave at a public court-house; and above all, what chance would not occasional respite from labour at a public place give of success to the efforts of abolitionists to entice him for ever from servitude! We will dismiss the subject for the present; and if tomorrow is a good day, we will take a walk and see the condition of our servants."