UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

"
what
we
70
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
hold the legalrelationstill, onlybecause not
yet clear with regard to the best way of
changingit șo as to better the condition of
the statements of Judge Stroud with regard
to statute-law, and to follow them up with
some inquiry into the decisions of courts.
The result has been an increasing conviction
on
her part that the impressions firstderived
correct; and
from JudgeStroud'swork were
the author now can onlygivethe words of
St. Clare,as the best possible expression of
the sentiments and opinion which this course
of reading has awakened in her mind.
This cursed business,accursed of God and man,
is it1 Strip it of all its ornament, run it of his person, his industry and his labor ; he
down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and
can do nothing, possessnothing, nor
what is it? Why, because my brother Quashy is
ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and
anything,
Alt-35-
his master." South Carolina says
because I know how, and can do it,"
strong,"
therefore I may steal all he has,keepit,and give
him, onlysuch and so much as suits my fancy !
disagreeable
Whatever is too hard, too dirty, too
for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I
don't like work, Quashy shall work. Because the
sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in the sun.
Quashy shall earn the money, and I will spend it.
* In this connection it may be well to state that the
work of Judge Stroud is now out of print,but that a work
of the same character is in course of preparationby William
I. Bowditch, Esq.,of Boston,which will bring the
subjectout, by the assistance of the latest editions of
Statutes, aud the most recent decisions of courts.
Quashy shall lie down in every puddle,that 1
may walk over dryshod. Quashy shall do my
will,and not his,all the days of his mortal life,
and have such a chance of gettingto heaven at
those held. Such are most earnest advocates
last as I find convenient. This I take to be about
for state emancipation, and are friends what slavery is. I defyanybodyon earth to read
our
of anything, written in a rightspirit, which slave-code, as it stands in our law-books,and
make
tends in that direction. From such anythingelse of it. Talk of the abuses of
the
slavery
author ever receivescriticismswith pleasure.
! Humbug ! The thingitself is the essence
of all abuse. And the only
She has endeavored to lay reason why the land
before the don't sink under it,like Sodom and Gomorrah,is
world,in the fullest manner, allthatcan be because it is used in a
way infinitely better than
objected to her it is. For
work,that both aides pity'sake,for shame's sake,because
may
we are men born of women, and
have an opportunity of impartial hearing.
not savage beasts,
many of us do not, and dare
"
not, would
When writing " Uncle Tom's Cabin," scorn to use the full power which our
thoughentirely unaware and savage laws
unexpectantput into our hands. And he who goes the furthest,
of the importance which
and does the
would be attached
worst, onlyuses within limits the
power
to itsstatements and opinions, the author of
that the law gives him !
The author stillholds to the opinion that
that work was anxious,from love of consistency,
slavery
to have some understanding of the
in itself, as legally defined in lawbooks
laws of the slave system. She had on hand
and expressed in the recordsof courts,
is the SUM AND ESSENCE OF ALL ABUSE;
for reference, while Avriting, the Code Noir
and she stillclings to the hopethat there are
of Louisiana, and a sketch of the laws relating
to slavery in the different many
men at the South infinitely better
states,by
JudgeStroud,of Philadelphia. This than their laAys ; and after the reader has
work,
professing to have been compiled with read allthe extracts which she has to make,
great for the sake of a common humanitythey
care from the latest editionsof the will
statutebooks
of the severalstatesțhe author the same. The author must state,with
hope
supposed
to be a sufficientguide for the regard
writing
to some passages which she must
quote,
of a work of fiction.* As the accuracy of
that the languageof certain enactments
was so incrediblethat she would not
those statements which relate to the slavelaws
has been particularly contested,
of any compilation
take it on the authority
a
whatever,
more especial inquiry has been made in this
but copied it with her own hand
from the latest editionof the statute-book
direction. Under the guidanceand with
the assistance of legalgentlemen of where it stood and stillstands.
high
standing, the writer has proceeded to examine
CHAPTER
II.
WHAT IS SLAVERY 1
The author willnow enter into a consideration
it stands revealed in
slave law.
What
law-books and
of slaveryas
is it,according
of legalinterpreters? "A
slave," says the law of Louisiana, "is one
to the definitionof
who is in the power of a master, to whom he
belongs Ṭhe master may sellhim, dispose
acquire
but what must belong to C;vil Code,
"
slavesshallbe deemed șoldțaken,reputed
and adjudgedin law,to be chattelspersonal
in the hands of their owners and possessors,
and their executors,administrators, and
assigns ȚO
"
ALL INTENTS, CON-
" 7
2 Brev. Dig.
STRUCTIONS AND PURPOSES WHAT- 229. Prince's
soever." The law of Georgia is Digest' 446"
similar.
Let the reader reflecton the extent of
the meaning in this last clause. Judge