UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
declares
PART
II
men.
as
CHAPTER I.
She has done it [hesays]by attaching to them
slaveholders, in the eyes of the world,the guilt
of the ahuses of an institution of which they are
is so devised as
absolutely guiltless Ḥer story
to presentslaveryin three dark aspects first,
:
the
cruel treatment of the slaves ; second țhe separation
offamilies;and,thirdțheir want
instruction.
To show the first,
she causes a reward to be
offered for the recovery of a
runaway slave, " dead
"
"
or alive,"when no reward with such an alternative
"
Be itfurtherenactedȚhat if or
was ever heard of,or dreamed of,south of
persons shall sell the mother of
any
any
person
slave child
Mason and Dixon's line,and it has been decided or children under the age of ten years, separate
over and over againin Southern courts that "a from said child or children, shallțhe mother
slave who is merelyflying away cannot be killed." living șell any slave child or children of ten years
She puts such languageas this into the mouth of of age, or under,separatefrom said mother,said
one of her speakers "The master who goes person or persons shall be fined not less than
furthest and does the worst only uses within one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars,
limits the power that the law gives him ;" when, and be imprisoned in the publicjailfor a period
in factțhe civilcode of the very state where it is of not less than six months nor more than one
representedthe language was uttered Louisiana year."
that
The privation religious instruction, as represented
"
The slave is entirely subjec to the will of his
by Mrs. Stowe, is utterly in fact.
master,who may correct and chastise him,though The largest in the Union consist entirely
not with unusual rigor,nor so as to maim or mutilate
of slaves. The firstAfrican church in Louisville,
him, or to expose him to the dangerof loss of which numbers fifteen hundred persons, and the
life, or to cause his death.'"
firstAfrican church in Augusta, which numbers
And provides compulsory sale
thirteen hundred, are specimens. On multitudes
"
When the master shall be convicted of cruel of the largeplantations in the different parts of
treatment of his slaves,and the judgeshall deem the South the ordinances of the gospel are as regularly
proper to pronounce, besides the penaltyestablished
maintained,by competentministers,as in
for such cases, that the slave be sold at any other communities,north or south. A larger
publicauction,in order to placehim out of the proportion population are in communion
reach of the power which the master has abused."
with some Christian church țhan of the white
"
If any person whatsoever shall wilfully population any part of the
his slave,or the slave of another person, the said
country. A very
person, beingconvicte.fithereof, shall be triedand
condemned agreeablyto the laws."
last year,
in
In the General Court of Virginia,
the case of Souther v. the Commonwealth, it was
held that the killing of a slave by his master and
owner, by wilful and excessivewhipping,is murder
in the firstdegreețhoughit may not have been
the
TnE New York Courier and Enquirer purpose of the master and owner to kill the
slave ! And it is not six months since Governor
of November 5th contained an articlewhich
has been quite valuable to the Johnston, of Virginia,pardoned a slave who
author,as killed his master, who was beatinghim with
summing up, in a clear, concise and intelligible
brutal severity.
And
form,the principal objections which yet, in the face of such laws and decisions
may be as these,Mrs. Stowe winds
urgedto Uncle Tom's Cabin. It
up a longseries of
is here quoted in cruelties upon her other black personages, by
full,as the foundation of causing her faultless hero,Tom, to be literally
the remarks in the following pages.
whipped to death in Louisiana,by his master,
The author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin,"that Legree; and these acts, which the laws make
writer criminal,and
states,has committed false-witness
punish as such, she sets forth in
the most repulsive colorsțo illustratethe institution
against thousands and millions of her fellow-
of slavery!
So, too, in reference to the separationof children
from their parents. A considerable part of
the plot is made to hinge upon the selling,
Louisiana,of the child Eliza, " eightor nine
its inventor looked in the statute-book of Louis-
language
years old,"away from her mother; when, had
iana,
she would have found the following
:
"
ofreligious Everyperson is expresslyprohibited from
sellingseparately from their mothers the children
who shall not have attained the fullage of ten
years.'''
considerable portion of every southern congrega
tion,either in city or country, is sure to consist
of blacks ; whereas,of our northern churches,not
a colored person is to be seen in one out of fifty.
The
peculiarfalsity
impossible
in makingexceptional or
of this whole book consists
cases the rep-